The natural world is full of gender diversity: female hyenas have pseudo-penises that are used for sex and urination, many species of fish and plants change their sex throughout their lives, and female lions are known to grow a mane and develop a male growl.
These are some of the many examples in a new episode of CBC’s The nature of things titled Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary – a documentary presented by Canadian comedian Mae Martin that puts the gender spectrum displayed by humans in the context of the rest of the living things around us, and discovers that this is actually quite normal.
“Nature teaches us that there is a lot of variation and that generalizations are virtually impossible,” says Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist interviewed in the episode and who wrote a book titled The rainbow of evolution.
Female hyenas have a pseudo-penis and are best described as intersex, according to scientists interviewed in Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary. (Kensington Communications)
Roughgarden says scientists have long avoided examining gender diversity, giving some the mistaken impression that it hasn’t always existed in many types of organisms, including humans.
But seeing the diversity among her own peers at gay pride events made it clear to her that “there’s nothing wrong with the people. There’s something wrong with the science.”
“Nature teaches us that there is a lot of variation and that generalizations are virtually impossible,” says evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden. (Lulu Wei/Kensington Communications)
The show, which airs Thursdays at 9pm ET on CBC and CBC Gem, features numerous examples of gender and sexual diversity in the wild, such as:
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Gamecocks: A type of sandpiper found in the fjords of Norway. The male birds have many different appearances, including some that look the same as the females.
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Bonobos: “I would call bonobos bisexual because they have sex in all combinations,” says primatologist Frans de Waal, who was filmed for the show before his death on March 14 at the age of 75. “It is also very common to see women with masculine characteristics.” He described a woman named Donna whom he observed, who became more masculine in her appearance as she grew older, and became “extremely well accepted” among the men. “She was an individual who crossed the binary line… Perhaps she corresponds to what we would call a trans person in human society.”
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Clownfish – a tropical species made famous by the animated family movie Finding Nemo. Neuroscientist Justin Rhodes explains that “if the female is removed or expelled, the male will change sex and become a female. He explains that many species of fish can change their biological sex – about 500, according to another part of the episode – but most often change from female to male, often within a week. The case of the clownfish is unique in that the physical changes can take years, leaving the fish biologically in an “intermediate phase” as it begins to adopt female behavior. “Donating the gonads I don’t define the gender of these animals… it happens in the brain.”
‘These are not outliers’
“It warms my heart because I see aspects of myself reflected in nature,” says presenter Martin, who is non-binary and notes that science has come to accept widespread natural gender diversity.
“These are not outliers. This is the mainstream view.”
The plant world is also full of gender fluidity, says horticulturist Jon Peter of the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Burlington, Ont.
Peter is seen in the episode discussing the red ginger, a tropical plant that is male in the morning, produces pollen and then switches to female in the afternoon, moving into a state where the egg can be fertilized.
There are also many local examples, Peter noted this week in an interview with CBC Hamilton:
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Moosewood, or elk maple, starts out as male when young but can produce male and female flowers as they mature and then female flowers as they mature and move closer to the canopy. “When they are young and young, they want to settle down and establish themselves. It makes no sense for them to produce fruit.”
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Spruce trees, which “may have female cones higher in the canopy, and the lower branches have male cones” on the same tree.
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Jack-in-the-Pulpit, a woodland plant that starts out as a “non-sexual juvenile,” then matures male and becomes female later in life.
Although ginkgo is not native to Ontario, it is widely grown here, including at RBG. Peter says that although there are separate male and female trees, a branch or an entire tree can turn into female trees if there are no other females around for pollination.
According to the documentary, primates often exhibit gender fluid behavior. (Kensington Communications)
“A lot of this is really new to science. Not much is known about these processes,” he said, proposing that they may have evolved as a way to pass genetics to the next generation.
“As the plant matures and sees its lifespan come to an end, it thinks, ‘I have to produce seed now.'”
‘Gender is a much broader spectrum than the two boxes’
The episode’s editor, Peter Topalovic, says he always learns something on the job, whether it’s editing a baking show or Canada’s Got Talent, but says the episode taught him a lot more than he expected.
Topalovic, who grew up in Hamilton and attended Bishop Ryan Catholic High School, says the show affirms the normality of all forms of gender expression and sexuality.
“If you look at the unbiased scientific findings, as we do in this documentary, you see that fluidity is not unusual at all,” he told CBC Hamilton in an interview.
“Gender is a much broader spectrum than the two boxes we put people in. There is male, female and so much in between.”
Film editor Peter Topalovic, who grew up in Hamilton, says discussing gender expression in The Nature of Things will raise awareness among a wider audience. (Submitted by Peter Topalovic)
He is happy with the wide range of The nature of things will bring up gender issues for some people who may not have given it much thought.
“I know my older, Croatian parents will tune in to learn about a topic they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to,” he said.
“With this documentary I hope that more transgender people feel seen and more cis people feel sorry for them.”