this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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I'm a big fan of Doctorov , but in this case I would like a citation.
I'm making interested to see how the gender of the ewes was determined. I mean if the indicator of sexual attraction is indistinguishable from normal behavior: standing still how could one prove the sheep to be lesbian.
edit after reading through various research I've come to the conclusion that the researcher, Perkins, just admitted that there's no way to study lesbian behavior in ewes, as the have no visible sexual expression (that the researchers know about)
It's as much a statement of the importance of the researcher as they depend on clear intercourse-like behavior to explain attraction. They can't see that in ewes, as their sexual behavior is passive. 'if they don't hump we can't tell their sexual preference'
Which is a bit weird as they argue that in males sexual preference is hormonal, so that should register in females too. But that isn't studied as there's no interest.
I suppose he should have said "gay ewes would be hobbled" and lesbian sheep would be incapable of coupling up".
His quote shows that people say there's no way of knowing one way or another, like you say, but Doctorow changed the language to be a bit more suggestive of certainty that the phenomenon exists.
Yeah I just added a bit of context after reading a couple of articles on the matter. I don't know if you saw my edit, because I saw your reaction shortly after posting it.
The main takeaway sens to be that the academics aren't really interested in female sexuality behavior and it isn't studied.
Here's a secondary source: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-intriguing-tale-of-the-gay-sheep-430683.html
I have read through a couple of articles that I could relate to the Journal article. Most focus really heavily on the male sexual expression. I could read nothing about female still behavior.
That isn't strange, researchers focus mainly on the male sexual aspect, as that's where the money is for sheep farmers.
I am however still searching for the quote about female sexuality, I can't find it in Perkins, nor Stormshak's work.