The birds and the bees
"The birds and the bees" is a colloquial expression referring to a rite of passage in the lives of most children when parents explain human sexuality and sexual intercourse to them.[1]
Meaning
[edit]According to tradition, "the birds and the bees" is a metaphorical story sometimes told to children in an attempt to explain the mechanics and results of sexual intercourse through reference to easily observed natural events. For instance, bees carry and deposit pollen into flowers, a visible and easy-to-explain parallel to fertilization. Female birds laying eggs is a similarly visible and easy-to-explain parallel to ovulation.
Origin and history
[edit]
While the earliest documented use of the expression remains somewhat nebulous, it is generally regarded as having been coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with one scholar noting an earlier reference to "birds and bees" on columns in St. Peter's Basilica from a 1644 entry in the the diary of English writer John Evelyn.[2] Published in 1825, Coleridge's verse in “Work Without Hope”,[3] refers to birds and bees.
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!
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.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ James, Susan (22 September 2011). "Birds and Bees: Tips for Having 'The Talk' With Kids". ABC News. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ Kelleher, Kathleen (September 4, 2000). "Birds Do It, Bees Do It, but Why'd We Say That?". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
- ^ Poets, Academy of American. "Work Without Hope by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Poems | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
- ^ Zimmermann, Kim Ann (April 27, 2023). ""The birds and the bees": Meaning and origin of the phrase". Live Science. Future US Inc. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
Another commonly cited use of the phrase is American naturalist John Burroughs' 1875 set of essays, "Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other Papers." These were attempts to provide children with simple explanations of nature, but there is no attempt at sex education. Dr. Emma Frances Angell Drake described the birds and bees in a section of the publication "The Story of Life," which was widely distributed between 1893 and 1930. In her explanation of reproduction to her young daughters, she used images of blue eggs in the robin's nest, the wind blowing pollen dust from one plant to the other, and bees gathering honey from the flowers.