AFAIK there’s not a story to it. It’s just using pollination as a metaphor; and now that I think about it, the flower isn’t even mentioned. Typical.
Can someone explain the Birds and the Bees to me? I get its related to sex somehow but was never told the story or where it got started or how come a plant and insect?
Submitted 8 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
human@slrpnk.net 8 hours ago
I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
It’s funny that pollination is a better analogy for human reproduction than what goes on with bees.
Now Susan, one of you will be chosen to make ALL the babies, while the rest of you will be sterile workers that serve the queen, building structures and gathering and storing food for her offspring.
You won’t have much interaction with boys, but a lucky few of them will have their turn with Queen and die immediately after (because their penis gets ripped off in the process). You will have to drive any remaining males out of the hive before it gets cold, they aren’t worth keeping alive over the winter. New ones will be made in spring.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 50 minutes ago
Bees are actually a democracy, the workers don’t serve the queen. Think about when a family is driving home from school and the kids start chanting “I want McDonald’s!” Now imagine the kids are the ones driving the car. That’s bees. They’re getting that McDonald’s. The queen doesn’t get any say.
AA5B@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
The flower shouldn’t be allowed a voice or a vote anyway. The flower should just stay at home and receive the bee’s attention. /s
Fondots@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
It’s probably not the origin of the phrase, but I remember seeing some sitcom where a father sat his daughter’s boyfriend down to give him the “the birds and the bees” talk
The boyfriend said something like “no thanks, I already heard it from my parents”
And the father replied along the lines of “not my version you haven’t, you see, when the bee stings the bird, the bee dies”
Not-so-subtly threatening the boyfriend.
In my head it’s Red Foreman giving that talk, but I’m not 100% on that.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 6 hours ago
Before the 1960’s pretty much any honest discussion of reproduction was considered ‘pornography.’
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 9 minutes ago
The term “porn” has always been a snarl word
fireweed@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
There’s actually a Wikipedia page dedicated to the phrase!
Relevant section:
While the earliest documented use of the expression remains somewhat nebulous, it is generally regarded as having been coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Published in 1825, Coleridge’s first verse in the poem “Work Without Hope” refers to both bees and birds in reference to the coming fecundity of spring:
All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
One scholar notes an earlier reference to “birds and bees” on columns in St. Peter’s Basilica from a 1644 entry in the diary of English writer John Evelyn. By the late 19th century, the phrase was common enough to appear in such works as essays by John Burroughs and publications explaining reproduction to children.
HubertManne@piefed.social 6 hours ago
well birds and bees are actually part of the plants reproductinve cycle so has a bit more to do with sex. The bird/bee visits a flower and gets pollen on it which it then bring to the next flower allowing the possibility of sexual reproduction instead of self fertilization.
FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
This is why it’s so dangerous to let bees near your genitals.
snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 14 minutes ago
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvFv0VMXzq0&list=RDDvFv0V…