"I'm not sure if you're chastising all penguins...or just the
ones that are ambitious?! And how does the penguin with the
biggest nest act in public? defiant? subdued? How about the
penguin with a huge nest, and also married?! Is the penguin
with no stones in her nest highly sought after as being highly
virtuous? or is she highly sought after for being an immature
slut?!"
You raise some interesting questions, Solon, and have caused me to think more deeply on this subject.
It is now my view that I owe penguins an apology. I was thinking of the penguins who accept nest-building stones behind the backs of their regular mates as sluts, whereas you have made me see that they are merely ambitious. The zoologists whose characterization of them as "prostitutes" influenced me were merely bourgeois fools who failed to understand that a penguin girl must find her fun where she can, and if she can put on an addition to her family's living quarters at the same time, well, more power to her, and anyway, aren't we all prostitutes, really, selling whatever of our attributes the market will most reward? Who is to say that the less educated, advantaged, but physically attractive penguin, for example, is to be condemned for selling her beauty, while the elite, highly educated penguin lass is to be praised for selling some attribute of hers, (ability to play the harpsichord, for example) that she is blessed with only because of her class advantage? For as long as class injustice afflicts penguin society, I shall champion the rights of every penguin on this earth to determine her (or his) own fate by the economic exploitation of whatever asset harsh fate and a cruel class system has dealt her (or him.) This I pledge, Solon.
And now that you have made me think on this matter further, I would like to flame those zoologists who so cynically referred to the extra, post coital stones as "tips." I can see no reason to assume that they were not, in fact, a penguin's way of saying, "I still love you." Which is nice. |
