My two cents:
The birds and the bees is in reference to the symbiotic relationship between trees/plants and birds, between flowers and bees, and even between
educated fleas and their hosts. Birds and bees have ways of "doing it" that allow the passing of genes from one generation to the next (See Charles Darwin's
On the Origin Of Species (1859)).
Is it about sex? Hmm. I doubt it. Most birds have no intromittent organ. Instead, sperm are transferred when the male touches his swollen cloaca briefly to that of a receptive female--a lightning-fast process known somewhat indelicately as the "cloacal kiss." As for plants, reproduction in many plant species is a sexual process analogous to that of animals. Pollen (equivalent to sperm) must find its way to the stigma (equivalent to the vagina). Flower visitors, principally bees, are essential in the transfer of pollen within and between flowers. Floral nectars and aromas attract bees and thus ensure adequate pollination and the reproductive success of the plant.
Source
Is it about propagating the species? I believe so. Birds disperse seeds to sites suitable for germination and establishment. Both the bird and the plant benefited from this relationship. We know the relationship is mutually beneficial for both species. If production is poor, birds may not breed the following spring. Many birds that eat seeds and berries include grouse, mourning doves, bluebirds, evening grosbeaks, robins, and pigeons.
Source. The same symbiotic relatoionship holds for bees and flowers.
One
source suggests that using 'non-mammalian reproduction and floral pollination' to explain sexual reproduction was the scientific way of handling what was considered in Victorian times to be an unmentionable subject:
writersblock.ca said:
You don't have to sit the kids down and explain what those two dogs are doing on your front lawn, or why those people in the movie are so excited and seem to be having fun. Rather, you explain how a bee moves from flower to flower, taking pollen stuck to its furry body between them, allowing the flowers to produce seed. Not much fun in that. Birds? Well, isn't it comforting in our patriarchal society to explain how mom lays the egg, sits on it, and feeds the baby, while dad is out singing and showing off his more colourful plumage? It's reproduction without reference to genitalia, sex, or fun. Besides that, any expression that uses an alliteration tends to hang around. Alas, the expression's origins are overlooked, and surprisingly it doesn't appear in many dictionaries of idioms. Sounds Victorian, doesn't it?
So 'the birds and the bees', or the phrase's origin at least, is not about "sex" per se. It's about passing on one's genes, propagating the species. Come to think of it, the species of bird that tends to be used to depict 'the birds' is usually a hummingbird, especially one drawing nectar from the flower so as to highlight the symbiotic relationship.
Is the phrase 'the birds and the bees' really about anatomy?? I doubt it.
humorist Dave Barry from the Miami Herald said:
I am an observant person who has spent many hours outdoors, and I have never once seen a bird OR a bee have sex. I don't believe that, organ-wise, birds or bees have any equipment they can have sex WITH.
It seems to me that if we're going to use animals to explain human sexuality to youngsters, we should pick a species whose anatomy and behavior at least vaguely resembles ours. So when your child - let's say his name is Billy - reached a certain age, instead of "the birds and the bees," you'd have a little talk with him about, say, "the dogs." You'd say: "Billy, the male dog wants to have sex pretty much all the time with pretty much every female dog on the entire planet, or, if no female is available, with another male dog, or the nearest human shin, or any low-lying furniture. Whereas the female dog... Billy? Come back here!" But Billy is gone, because he already knows all about human sexuality from watching cable television.
Symbiotic relationship, that's the key.
Honey bees and their life history and products were topics of study for early philosophers, such as Aristotle, Pliny, and Virgil. The view at that time: bees do not copulate; the way in which they "do it", propagate, is different from "sex".
Aristotle, who wrote the first scientific study of the honeybee,
History of Animals. 350 AD , states, 'Ants copulate', bees don't.
Source.
Virgil tells us that bees do not reproduce sexually but gather their offspring from leaves; on the other hand, the bees' gathering of honey is portrayed as a 'substitute for sexual activity'.
Natural History, Book 11, 4-23 Source.
In Medieval times, bees symbolized human souls and their drawing nectar from flowers represented taking mourishment from God (i.e., another symbiotic relationship!) The Latin phrase DAT ROSA MEL APIBUS translates as "The Rose gives honey to the bees." The souls are taking nourishment from the rosy-cross.
Source.
On an interesting note,
Apes and
apes, the Latin term for bees meaning born without feet (
a- without, -
pes feet) are homographs.
"Romantic sponges do it . . . lazy jellyfish do it . . . even goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it . . ." but none of them "do it" (i.e., propagate the species) quite the way we humans "do it".
