Sexus animalus: Tutti i gusti sono nella natura

by Emmanuelle Pouydebat, Julie Terrazzoni (Illustrazioni di), Vera Verdiani (Translator)

Peni a grondaia o peni doppi, a cavatappi o a quattro teste, peni sonori e addirittura staccabili! Vagine immagazzinatrici con spermoteche, clitoridi spinosi e quant'altro: la straordinaria varietà delle forme e strutture genitali è tra gli aspetti più sorprendenti dell'evoluzione animale. A che cosa serve un pene? Perché certe specie non ne hanno, mentre altre ne hanno due? Perché tanta diversità? Si può ipotizzare un'origine comune a tutta questa varietà di forme? Qual è lo scopo del pene? Soltanto trasferire lo sperma o anche ottimizzare la riproduzione? Assicurarsi l'esclusività? Sopravvivere? E, in tutto ciò, che posto hanno le vagine, il clitoride e il piacere? Esisterà davvero nel mondo animale? Quest'opera intrigante, illustrata da Julie Terrazzoni, esplora le caratteristiche e le pratiche sessuali di 35 specie animali, dai coccodrilli alle libellule, dagli elefanti alle vipere, ai polpi, ai formichieri, ai ragni... Emmanuelle Pouydebat è etologa e ricercatrice presso il CNRS (il Centro nazionale francese per la ricerca scientifica) e il Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle di Parigi. I suoi studi si concentrano soprattutto sull'intelligenza animale.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Biology, Animals, Sexuality

184 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2020

Reviews

[Matteo Fumagalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Videorecensione: https://youtu.be/59B_-MQBWcc

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Birds do it…you know how the song goes. But have you ever wanted to know exactly how they do it? Well, now you can - this delight of a book will tell you exactly how, one animal penis at a time. Why only penis? Well, because research (like life itself) is sexist and heavily skewed toward male species in all respects. Though whatever there is that’s known about female reproduction and mating quirks is featured here too.
And oh my, is it fun. It’s so weird, so bizarre, so alien…you just can’t put it down. And, the good news is, you don’t have to, the book is slim enough to easily get through in one sitting, it took me maybe 120 minutes. It even had some lovely art, so you know just which creature you’re learning all those terribly intimate things about. And some of the things you’ll learn are terrible – animals are pervs. Just like people, in that respect. But then there are detachable (or prehensile) penises and gender swapping and some profoundly odd genital shapes that are…well, different. Very, very different. But, of course, all perfectly natural, because, you know, it's nature. Literally.
The author, much to her credit, has struck just the right tone here, it’s science but one you just have to marvel at with bewildered bemusement or something like that. It’s disturbing, funny, strange, and, above all, absolutely fascinating. It’s also a pure pleasure to read, this NC-17 rated nature documentary you’ve been secretly searching for. Oodles of fun. Recommended.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sexus Animalis is a fun science book about the strangest genitalia and mating habits in the animal kingdom. Ever wanted to learn how leopard slugs reproduce? Want to know which animal has a four-lobed penis? What about why chimpanzees have penile bones but humans do not? This book is for. you.

Sexus Animalis was originally published in French. The translated version can be easily understood by non-scientists, including high schoolers. It would make a great edition to an 11th or 12th grade biology classroom. Can you think of a better way to get teenagers interested in evolution?

If you're a long-time animal biology trivia nerd, you probably won't learn a lot from this book that you don't already know. If you are known as the guy who likes to throw out gross animal mating facts at parties, Sexus Animalis will at least look appropriate and pretty on your bookshelf. The artwork on the inside of the book is also beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley and MIT Press for an ARC of this book.

[Sherron Wahrheit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previously published in French, this book is now available in English through MIT Press.

When I was a child, the phrase “learning about the birds and bees” meant one thing: the act between sexually dimorphic partners having an “innie” and an “outie.” With today’s gender fluidity, identity, and preferences, nothing is that simple any more, and this book shows that in nature, nothing ever was that simple.

As SOME people say, they “only buy Penthouse for the stories.” Other people like me, will read books from NetGalley for the pictures, and more, and this book has an eyeful! Let’s cut to the chase and just start with those pictures. If my beloved Georgia O’Keeffe’s floral paintings are suggestive of a woman’s most intimate parts, then the artwork in here is suggestive of the weirdest aliens in the wildest science fiction writer’s first contact stories. And I do mean close encounters of the third kind! Some drawings are close up pencil sketches of anatomy, I think. It’s actually hard to imagine some of these images are sex organs much less belonging to animals existing here on planet earth, and even after staring at them, and using my imagination, I cannot understand how some of them work. Other drawings are full-color pencil sketches of animals getting frisky in “the act”—reminiscent of those US court house sketches used in lieu of photographs, except maybe more interesting. Let’s hope they sell this book sealed in plastic to keep these pages pristine!

There are so many stories about size and shape—of penises of course—from the gigantic to nonexistent to hidden to detachable. Some males are equipped with a double dong and some a quad head and others a prehensile wand long enough to scratch the owner’s back after “satisfying his itch.” There are stories about intimacy, cock-blocking, deception, rape, murder, and last and sadly maybe least—pleasure.

Any permutation you can imagine—it has been described here. The writing is fresh, personable, engaging, humorous, thoughtful, and sensitive. I could easily imagine this being a volume to keep on hand in the lavatory to browse during a private moment. I especially liked the scientific aspects and wish there were more.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an eye opening ARC in exchange for my feedback.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ topic: interesting sex practices and reproductive organs of animals
+ rep: hetero, lesbian, gay, and bisexual behavior in the animal kingdom

Cons
- The writing style was informative but unfortunately dry, which made it entirely forgettable.
- As a precaution against the dry writing, the author includes jokes which I found cringey. The jokes personify the animals and are about their sex lives so it just felt weird.
- At the end of each animal's section, the author would mention many other animals who have similar/equally bizarre sex lives/organs which I found confusing and a bit overwhelming. Why not just keep each section for 1 animal and create other sections if needed?
- Each animal has an accompanying genital illustration. It was unneeded. I really wish it had just been of the animals, maybe during sex. But the zoomed-in dick pics really weren't it.

TW: rape

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learnt a whole load of wondrously interesting facts about animal genitalia from this book. Now to find someone suitable to unleash them on 🤔.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great wreaths! I love the one make from pages of books; just lovely! I was surprised to find the directions of German Stars in this book. I made them as child and had long forgotten how to make them. I liked the lavendar wreath and look forward to putting my lavendar to use next year. Directions were clear, easy ro follow. `The variety of wreaths was just amazing. I can;t wait to see the actual book as I am sure the photos in it will look amazing in color!
I recevied a Kindle arc fromNetgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[r o a c h]

I’m gonna be a right fun yin at parties

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers a sampler of the wildly divergent ways and equipments by which animals manage sexual reproduction. From amazingly varied types of penises and vaginas to a variety of mating practices, the author offers very short chapters that each cover a particular species. The chapters are arranged to move through major adaptive themes in the species’ evolution. It was a quick read and definitely kept my attention. I would have enjoyed more depth on the life and habits of the animals, however. I was frequently disappointed that the chapters seemed limited to description with very little discussion about what we can learn about the organism as whole and its evolutionary history from examining its current form.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

No male on earth will ever come out of things well if he starts to think about his mother's attitude to penises. But what about Mother Nature – surely we can consider her approach to using the things? This book does just that, in eye-boggling style and with mind-blowing content, making it the book whose contents you really would never have expected to find yourself reading about.

And that content, even if it really seems a rarefied topic, is wide-ranging. There are birds with penises, but only three per cent of them – despite birds mating in ways that would make them more than useful, ninety-seven per cent of them seem to have evolved to no longer have them, and we can never be sure why. It's hard to know how tubular, inserted sperm deposit machines evolved in the first place, as insemination took place in water before we ever turned into land creatures. There is the female biology side of things as well, although we're told the research is biased in the other favour. This section of our world includes how the dolphin can divert the penis to lessen the chance of impregnation, and many other females choosing discernment as to what gets to be successful.

All this then is very measuredly given, with just a tiny bit about the animals, and a larger bit about their, well, tiny bits (although if crocodiles can have a three foot long clitoris, that's only relative – and many creatures here would put the human proportion to shame). Oh, and the illustrations, showing the dirty deed and the organ of concern, have the same vicar's wife-friendly fine art style, making this have the feel of "The Joy of Sex", or similar early sex manuals.

You may have to ask your parents about those. Just nothing else here. You won't need to check with them the qualities of this book, which is very surprising, very intelligently done – and very French. Some irrelevant and repeated illustrations aside, this is nearly perfect – four and a half stars. Well, we can't have the creators getting all cocky...

[SusyG · Rating 5 out of 5]

LIBRO MERAVIGLIOSO!
L'argomento è divertente (perchè chi non vuole sapere che i pipistrelli praticano il sesso orale o altre rocambolesche avventure sessuali del mondo animale?) ma è pure interessante ed istruttivo su un sacco di cose. Si parla anche dell'omosessualità e bisessualità tra gli animali, che è davvero molto più comunque di quanto venga detto. Le illustrazioni poi sono spettacolari!
Davvero consigliato se amate sapere qualcosa di più sugli animali!

[Daniele Monterotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il libro è molto divertente, ti aiuta a capire molto meccanismi della selezione. Fino ad ora non mi ero mai reso conto di quanto anche le ricerche, direttamente e/o indirettamente, fossero così tanto influenzate dall'idea del sesso dominante ecc ecc... È assurdo che si sappia ancora così poco degli apparati riproduttivi femminili

[Sharon Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sexus Animalis: There Is Nothing Unnatural in Nature by Emmanuelle Pouydebat is an illustrated guide to the amazingly multifarious sex lives of animals, from elephants and bonobos to butterflies and bedbugs.It is currently scheduled for release on March 8 2022.

There may be nothing unnatural in nature, but nature still encompasses much that seems fantastically strange—the amazingly multifarious sex lives of animals, for example. Sexus Animalis tells us everything we never dreamed we wanted to know about the reproductive systems, genital organs, and sexual practices of animals, from elephants (who masturbate with their trunks) to fruit flies (who produce spermatozoa twenty times their size). In the animal kingdom we find heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual behavior, as well as monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry, not to mention fellatio and many varieties of erections and orgasms. Emmanuelle Pouydebat, a natural history researcher, tells us about gutter penises, double penises, detachable penises, and corkscrew-shaped penises, as well as vaginas built for storage and clitorises with thorns. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s more data about animal penises than animal vaginas and clitorises.) She explains how the ostrich achieves an erection, describes the courtship of pygmy chameleons, and recounts how the female short-beaked echidna chooses a partner. She reports on sexual assault among animals—there’s evidence that half of female mallards are sexually assaulted—and explains how masturbation helps squirrels avoid sexually transmitted diseases. It seems that animals have been composing their own Kama Sutra throughout the ages. Striking color illustrations accompany the text.

Sexus Animalis is a book that offers exactly what is promises, fascinated information that I never knew I wanted to know about the anatomy and mechanisms of sex for a wide variety of animals and how evolution and natural selection could play their part in all of it. I found the writing style to be accessible with some humor and straight forward information that I never thought about exploring previously. I thought the information included was well researched and organized, and pointed out the gaps in our understanding and how much work there is still to do. I thought the frank and honest explanations were peppered with a nice dose of humor and wit to add another level of interest and entertainment to the read without lessening the credibility of the text. I thought that the illustrations were tasteful and very well done, and helped give readers a more informed awareness of the size and particularities of what is being described in text. I was very interested in the implications of how evolution and other factors have made so many variations on the sex lives of creatures of all shapes and sizes. I never thought much about it, and think there are many people that likewise never considered the complexity and sometimes straight up strangeness of the world around us. This read entertained, informed, and got me thinking a little more about the complexities of the world around us.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a shameful secret: I’m fascinated by the mating habits of animals. It’s hard to understand how not everyone is interested in such a subject so the fact that this book exists, and that there are scientists who research this, made me instantly pick it up. The author writes in an approachable and funny manner, which makes this a delightful read. She includes all kinds of creatures from the whole animal kingdom, and the facts that she discusses are surprising and fascinating. She makes even the most dry biology sound fun. Beginning with why nature evolved in a way that made mating necessary, she explains what’s known about the subject and even includes theories and facts that have not yet been explained. The content leans heavily on male biology, since she explains how the females have not been researched as much, but includes everything, from reproduction to pleasure. It’s a short read and I wish it would have been much longer. This book may not provide normal people with dinner conversation, but I wildly enjoyed it and learned from it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#The MIT Press!

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a varied and plainly explained listing of all the different ways that the members of the animal kingdom have evolved over time to procreate and enjoy (for the most part) the experience.
Pouydebat does a great job of throwing all the very sciency terms at readers without getting too complicated for us poor fools who struggled through middle-school biology. I sometimes ran into terms and words that might as well have been random letters, but everything around them was easy to understand and in the plainest terms possible. It made for an enjoyable read full of fascinating facts.
I also appreciate the author taking every possible opportunity to express dismay at the fact that so much is known and has been studied about male appendages while the females keep getting the short end of the stick. And they're right. Science knows the measurement and peculiarities of even the smallest male but barely knows anything about the females of the same species. You can't know everything if you ignore half the population you're studying.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and The MIT Press for the educational read!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Author Emmanuelle Pouydebat explains anatomy and evolution very clearly, with a conversational tone, and with a copious amount of humor. However, at times I did think that the humor was somewhat juvenile. Julie Terrazzoni provided great illustrations, which were a high point of the book for me. Kudos also to Erik Butler for the great translation including the use of idiomatic language. Thank you to Netgalley and MIT Press for the advance reader copy.

[g-na · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book! It's an easy-to-read text for non-scientists that introduces readers to both the wide variety of genders, orientations, mating styles, and types of penises. And yes, it does include drawings of most of the weird phalluses that are discussed in the book.

Tl;dr: There is nothing "unnatural" about sex or gender in the animal kingdom.

[Brynn Yurenka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate ducks now…

Pretty interesting and nice artwork (strange, but has accurate depictions of all the different species). I wish they could have dumbed it down a little bit more since I don’t know all the terminology for certain parts of the animal and what purpose they serve but very informative, especially for someone like me going into an animal science field of study.

[Cienna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly woke book about various penises in nature. It highlights the fact that science knows nearly nothing about vaginas and the clitoris while science obsesses over the penis. The watercolors are also very well done and the charcoal illustrations are "scientifically accurate".

[Charles Bookman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeously illustrated book about animal sex, or at least animal genitals. The book abounds with illustrations, examples, anecdotes and explanations of the diversity of our common animal biology. Read more at bookmanreader.blogspot.com

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview, touched on a few of my favorites, acknowledge the bias towards penises in animal sex studies, great illustrations. A little bit too anthropomorphic for me though I know that's to help people relate to the content better.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun and entertaining book about the variety of sexual organs and sex behavior in the animal world.

[bookventures_of_a_wildflower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you for the publisher and Netgalley for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read. As a former bio/eco major I enjoy reading about animals and the secrets of their behaviour.
I've found that even though I spent many years behind a schooldesk studying the flora and fauna of the world, this book still had a couple of interesting infos I didn't know or forgot about.

I read the book throughout a couple of weeks. I can confirm that it is a good read for commute, because you can read it a chapter at a time and even if you don't pick it up for a couple of days you'll still be able to enjoy and continue it.

I also quite liked the art in it, but they felt kind of random. The choices on what they depict and the selection on which animals to highlight as well.
I also felt that the book itself was a bit like that too, I didn't really feel that there was a conscious structure or thought that followed through in each chapter.

All in all the absence of cohesion was a bit of a let down for me, but otherwise I would recommend this read for non bio and bio background ppl as well.
Rating:
3.5 stars

[Shantell Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sexus Animalis is a beautifully illustrated and easy-to-read overview of sex in the animal kingdom. It was originally written in French by Emmanuelle Pouydebat, a permanent researcher employed by the French National Centre for Scientific Research at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Julie Terrazzoni’s illustrations are frame-worthy, and I’d gladly hang them in my house, although upon a double take visitors may wonder why I have a gay dolphin orgy on my wall.

I was raised with a repressive religious background where anything that was not cisgender, heterosexual monogamy was considered an abomination. However, I was also raised on the land around all sorts of animals, which made me wonder why cishet monogamists are outnumbered by “unnatural” sexual practices taking place in the natural world. This book provides a fascinating selection of how cishet sexual interactions are just one small facet of what is actually natural.

While there is nothing unnatural happening in nature, there sure are all sorts of things that some humans may find fantastically strange or kinky. Within the animal kingdom, there are all sorts of sex organs and ways they fit together. Polyandrous, polygamous, monogamous, and self-impregnating creatures abound. So do bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual, and interspecies relations. Masturbation is common to many species, and some creatures spontaneously change sex (the basis for Jurassic Park is real).

Penises come in all shapes, sizes, and abilities. Some are detachable. Some are spiked. Some are doubled-up. Some have four heads, and some are prehensile, which comes in handy for scratching itchy bellies. But while there are reams of papers written on penises, there is a woeful dearth of literature on clitorises and vaginas. It seems misogyny in scientific research has spread outside the study of humans. This is a big hole in our knowledge, and for what? The author invites researchers to rectify this oversight. Other sex organs are equally as amazing as penises.

The book is well designed. The typeface is easy to read and has ample margins. I find that many books cram the text too close to the middle of the book, which means you have to spread the pages so far you risk cracking the spine. This is not the case here, and to top it off, the paper is also of high quality.

Although this book is written with an adult audience in mind, it is the sort of book I would have loved as a child. Scientific terminology is used, but the book does not shy away from common slang or puns, which makes me wonder what slang and puns are in the original French version. Kudos to translator Erik Butler for making sure the English version of Sexus Animalis is easy to understand and fun to read. I tore through this book at record speed and enjoyed sharing the illustrations with my housemates. You’ll have all sorts of wild trivia to share after reading this one, and a whole new way of looking at the birds and the bees.

Thank you to MIT Press for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

(Review originally published at https://www.cloudlakeliterary.ca/blog... )

[Muriel (The Purple Bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

More accurate rating: 7/10.

Un livre fort intéressant qui aurait cependant bénéficié de certaines précisions. Je ne m'attendais pas non plus à ce que la focalisation du contenu soit plutôt du côté de la morphologie pénienne, plutôt que celui de l'éthologie sexuelle (ce qui m'intéresse d'avantage).

J'ai par contre apprécié le fait que l'autrice fournisse autant d'informations concernant l'anatomie sexuelle femelle (comprenant par ailleurs le clitoris chez un nombre tellement plus élevé d'espèces que je ne le pensais), lorsque l'on sait que la recherche a encore beaucoup de progrès à faire dans ce domaine. Lié à cela, j'ai également apprécié les quelques remarques de l'autrice concernant les biais sexistes et homophobes qui ont longtemps bloqué certaines observations et hypothèses concernant la diversité sexuelle animale. D'un point de vue plus positif cela dit, cela veut aussi dire qu'il y a encore beaucoup de découvertes à faire!

Les illustrations quant à elles étaient, pour la plupart, assez charmantes.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful primer on variety of morphologies in the natural world. It's written in such a way, that laypeople as well as scientists can learn a tremendous amount. The author's tone is one of good humor, respect, and wonder, and her students are lucky to have her as a teacher. Thanks to #Netgalley for the arc.

[Giulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disegni splendidi...per non parlare delle diversità nel comportamento sessuale e nella morfologia dei genitali che esiste in natura! Questo libro è un richiamo all'umiltà dell'uomo, che non è progressista nella sessualità, un richiamo alla protezione della Natura. BELLISSIMO

[Lucrèce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolument passionnant !

[Mattia Biologicamente91 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semplicemente fantastico.