Gay Penguins FTW
Nov. 10th, 2011 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tartysuzI admit it: I can't get enough of the Toronto gay penguin story.
"Story" is the operative word. I suspect most people who are writing and tweeting about that story is well aware that human behaviour can't be mapped onto animal behaviour.
For some reason, humans find penguins to be aesthetically cute. Their human-like social traits (the pair bonding, their ability to establish and return to their home, etc.) makes them cuter.
Anthropomorphizing them is a way to select elements of their behaviour and slot it into a human story. Awareness of the gulf between reality and fiction only makes the story funnier.
In Buddy and Pedro's case, we get to cast them in a twist on the domestic narrative, adding the gay angle. So we get to imagine the penguin version of:
It distorts reality to think of animals as having human stories, but it's irresistible! Plus, the anthropomorphized version of Pedro can, um, animalmorphize humans.
"Story" is the operative word. I suspect most people who are writing and tweeting about that story is well aware that human behaviour can't be mapped onto animal behaviour.
For some reason, humans find penguins to be aesthetically cute. Their human-like social traits (the pair bonding, their ability to establish and return to their home, etc.) makes them cuter.
Anthropomorphizing them is a way to select elements of their behaviour and slot it into a human story. Awareness of the gulf between reality and fiction only makes the story funnier.
In Buddy and Pedro's case, we get to cast them in a twist on the domestic narrative, adding the gay angle. So we get to imagine the penguin version of:
- gay relationships
- surrogate parenting
- nationalist policies on reproduction (the Nazis encouraged German women to have babies to keep the population strong)
- bisexuality and second families (Buddy had kids when he was in a long-term relationship with a female penguin)
- May-December romances (Pedro is half Buddy's age!)
- social media use (yes, they have Twitter accounts! @PedroPenguin and @Buddy Penguin)
- aging (Pedro is a member of the Twitter generation, Buddy is not).
It distorts reality to think of animals as having human stories, but it's irresistible! Plus, the anthropomorphized version of Pedro can, um, animalmorphize humans.
