2009
An actor in a light-blue hood and body suit swims in dark-blue water. She makes the case that a penis in water presents a challenge: it produces drag and might be snagged. She demonstrates how a right whale tucks his penis inside his body until erect. We watch more than one erect male appear around a female, who turns on her back keeping her vagina at bay while the males determine who is strongest. Then, the strongest male, ready to mate, waits until she needs air and turns over.
2008
In a green leotard with tight-fitting green cap, an actor shows us the life of a male mantis: with forelegs held as if praying. She demonstrates how the mantis can move its head almost 180 degrees and change colors to camouflage. The mantis approaches his mate, a cannibal, but that doesn't scare the male, whose sex drive trumps good sense. He approaches, mounts and penetrates: she turns her head and snatches off his head, as he keeps copulating.
Sun, May 4, 2008
An actor tells us about bee life: the queen, fat, doing nothing but laying eggs. We see unfertilized eggs hatch into sons and fertilized eggs hatch into daughters. A sterile daughter does all the work: antenna to hear, foot pads to smell, compound eyes, and a stinger; communicating with her sisters by dancing. Royal jelly is fed to one baby sister to make her fertile and a queen. Then, we see the life of a drone, with many brothers doing nothing, waiting to have sex. A female passes; the drones fight until the strongest wins and can mate in flight. Pulling out, after sex, he leaves his penis behind, like a cork, and bleeds to death. His mate becomes queen.
2008
An actor in a seemingly-see-through flesh-colored leotard tell us about being a snail: first showing its one large slimy foot. She twists her body to fit inside her shell, with the foot the bottom and the anus on top of the head. In a mix of live action and animation, we see the snail withdraw entirely into the shell. The snail has both penis and vagina, and can produce arm-like darts, used to inflict pain on its partner before mating. Two snails approach each other for some sadomasochism and copulation.
2009
An actor is a black body suit stands in the middle of a sea of colorful and unique penises made of paper, each as tall as she. She explains that eggs are precious while sperm are cheap, so a female body is designed to protect eggs, to them in a hole that's hard to reach. In addition, she explains that every penis and vagina pairing is species-specific, a cozy fit like hand in glove. Who wants to be screwed by a bear? she asks coyly.
2009
An actor in a coolie hat represents a young sexless limpet, attached to a rock, its hat visible to other limpets that might float by. After it's been stuck to the rock for awhile, it becomes a female. A sexless limpet attaches itself on top of her and becomes male. More hat-like limpets collect one on top of another into a pile: these limpets are sexless when they arrive, then become male. The female dies; the first male atop her becomes female, and the cycle continues. The chorus of limpets in the stack exclaims, "We're hermaphrodites!"
2009
The mating strategies of two species of barnacle. An actor in a loose, baggy, pale-blue sheet appears and explains that if she were a male semibalanus balanoides, one of 1220 species of barnacle, she would have a shapeless body and be stuck to a rock. To reach and penetrate a nearby female, this male would need a long, long penis. We watch how it works. She shows us another barnacle's method: a male larvae climbs up the side of a sexually mature female, drops himself into her, and degenerates into a sexual organ releasing sperm.
2008
An actor in a black leotard with a loose black cap enacts the life of a male fly, first demonstrating how flies, with their capacity to see movement 200 times better than human eyes, see the impending swat of a newspaper and avoid death, flapping wings 200 times per second. Wearing red goggle eyes, and sporting six legs, the fly demonstrates how he can sit upside down on a ceiling (little Velcro-like hooks) on its paws, which also taste. The actor demonstrates how a fly eats (spitting on the food first, then sucking it up with his proboscis). Then the fly mounts a nearby female and, smiling, explains that he has sex several times a day with any female.