A couple of years ago, a colleague asked me what I'd be doing if not biblical scholarship. My answer, without a moment's hesitation: sexuality research. Sex is too damn important to ignore, and you can't deny that it's an absorbing topic.
Aside from watching excellent movies like Trembling Before G-d, about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews, and reading ground-breaking books like Sexual Fluidity, the only "research" I do is observational. And non-human. Two examples:
The first relates to trees. This year was a mast year for ash and black locust. "Mast" is the old English word for nuts; a mast year is a year when the conditions are right for a species of tree to put out an unusually high number of nuts or seeds. In ash and locust, it means that these trees look slightly fuzzy all winter long, because they're covered in tons of seed pods. This is a great reproductive strategy, because it's a relatively low-risk way to propagate a lot of offspring; I say "low-risk" because it means that all that energy is being expended only after a lot of energy has been taken in. But it's not risk-free, as the recent ice-storm showed: all that extra surface area on the ends of branches collected lots of heavy ice and snow, leading to a lot of downed ash and locust trees and branches. Reproduction is always somewhat risky. (It was not a mast year for any trees up where we live, though: too cold in our little microclimate.)
The other relates to ducks. I would invite everyone who thinks homosexuality is "unnatural" to come to our place and observe our ducks. One male duck, Lance, has a grand passion for Dave, another male. During the winter, when the mating impulse is dormant, Lance and Dave fight each other occasionally, just like other male-male pairs. But when breeding season approaches, Lance's obsession for Dave is switched on. Dave, who is very straight, has to be kept separate in the interests of ducky peace. Interestingly, Lance is bisexual, mating somewhat rarely with females. The female ducks, especially the Cayugas (the Rouens are more staid, but then they're so fat as to be almost immobile, and they're also older than the Cayugas), seem to enjoy sex with each other more than with males. This past weekend, Tua and I witnessed a threesome of females, with the top female sliding off intermittently. I really wish we had a webcam on the animals, like our sheep-farming friends do. Ducks and chickens alike are immensely fun to watch!
Note: I think an earthy sense of humor and an appreciation of bodies and what they do is necessary for Hebrew Bible scholars. The Hebrew Bible contains a lot of earthy texts, some explicitly sexual "situations" (as the movie ratings board puts it) , and many of its laws have to do with the body and sex. (Although I do think that biblical scholars of the early 20th century went a little overboard, seeing fertility rituals and temple prostitutes practically everywhere! Dirty old men . . .)
