![]() ![]() She sets the tone in the introduction by quoting French philosopher Ruwen Ogien: “I am not offering an original definition of love. In writing “Love and Sexual Behaviour in France”, Mossuz-Lavau sought to make her book as human as possible, forgoing scientific references for cultural ones drawn from popular literature, music and film. It’s very common, but we never hear anything about it,” said Mossuz-Lavau. “It’s what I call the ‘last taboo’ in my book: couples who have been together for a long time, who may even spend their lives together – young and old – who stop having sex. Yet if there’s one thing people still aren’t comfortable talking about, it’s the absence of sex in a relationship. “With everything that’s happened since October 2017 with #MeToo and #Balancetonporc ('Squeal on your pig,' the French version of the movement), I’m really not surprised. But now people bring things up freely,” she said.įor Mossuz-Lavau – who conducted her study between January and November 2017 – this newfound freedom of expression is, in part, linked to the global #MeToo movement, which sparked widespread debate over sexual behaviour by encouraging victims of abuse to speak out. ![]() Seventeen years ago, I had to ask specific questions. French people are much more open to discussing. “There’s also a big shift in how people talk about. She attributed this to the fact that people are more comfortable discussing the subject than they were before. Mossuz-Lavau said acts that were previously frowned upon in France, such as fellatio, have been largely normalised. But yes, it would appear they are more liberated in their behaviour,” she said. I can’t be 100 percent certain, because even if I’ve spent hours talking with my subjects, I’m not in their bedrooms. “I wanted to see how things had evolved in the last 17 years,” she told FRANCE 24.Īlready reputed to be one of the most sexually liberated countries in the world, Mossuz-Lavau found that behaviour in France is now less inhibited than it was nearly two decades ago. It is a follow-up to Mossuz-Lavau’s first book on the subject, which was based on a similar study back in 2000. “Finding a social partner, whatever its sex, could be a priority.” Having a mate could help a bird to find food or repel predators.Įlie also told BBC News, “relationships in animals can be more complicated than just a male and a female who meet and reproduce, even in birds.” Or in humans.A new book entitled “Love and Sexual Behaviour in France” ( La Vie Sexuelle en France) by Janine Mossuz-Lavau, an emeritus research director with the National Centre for Scientific Research, illustrates how attitudes have shifted in France by interviewing 65 men and women of various ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and sexual tendencies from across the country. “A pair-bond in socially monogamous species represents a cooperative partnership that may give advantages for survival,” lead author Julie Elie, of the University of California Berkeley, told BBC News. A few birds were tempted by the ladies, but when the females were removed, the male-male couples reformed. The scientists then tested the bonds in the male-male couples by introducing some females to the party. These are all characteristics found in heterosexual finch couples. And they weren’t aggressive to each other as they were to other birds in the group. They interacted frequently and often preened their partners. Researchers raised groups of zebra finches in same-sex groups, all male and all female, and in each group the majority of birds paired up. ![]() They nestle together and greet each other by nuzzling beaks. The males sing to their partners, and the two share a nest and clean each other’s feathers. Zebra finches, which live in grasslands and forests of Australia and Indonesia, form pairs that last a lifetime. And now a study of zebra finches, published in Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, has found that the bonds between same-sex couples can be just as strong as those in heterosexual birds. (And then there are bonobos.) Birds often pair off this way, too. There are hundreds of species, from bison to bunnies to beetles, that pair off in same-sex couples. I’m sure this pains the people who take offense at the true-life tale And Tango Makes Three, but heterosexuality is not the rule in the animal world. ![]()
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