# Hot Monkey Sex

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 19, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226 "2006-06-19T00:11:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/21 "2006-06-19T17:46:51Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Eve]  
But it got me wondering: when did cave people go from doing it monkey/doggy style to missionary style?  
[/QUOTE]

Probably about the time that monogamous pair-bonding showed up as a common behavior, which is probably also about the time that we started eating meat. That was long before homo sapiens was on the scene.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/22 "2006-06-19T17:54:46Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=ultrafilter]  
Probably about the time that monogamous pair-bonding showed up as a common behavior,  
[/QUOTE]

Could you elaborate on that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/23 "2006-06-19T18:02:55Z")

</div>

If you want to emulate hot monkey sex, probably best to follow the [bonobo’s example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo#Social_behavior):

> [@Wikipedia](#):
>
> Bonobos are the only non-human apes to have been observed engaging in all of the following sexual activities: face-to-face genital sex (most frequently female-female, then male-female and male-male), tongue kissing, and oral sex.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/24 "2006-06-19T18:04:41Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]  
Could you elaborate on that?  
[/QUOTE]

In short, none of the other great apes form monogamous pairs. It’s yet another way that we humans are pretty different from our closest relatives. Have a look [here](http://human-nature.com/ep/articles/ep01138154.html) for some discussion of this behavior and a theory as to how it may have come about.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/25 "2006-06-19T19:30:29Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]

Patches…the 5 year old chimp that I had an affair with…she didn’t kiss it when I pulled out.._sob_  
[/QUOTE]

5 years old!!! You pervert! The fact that she didn’t kiss it just shows she was too young for a normal adult human/simian realtionship.  
Anyway I have to mention the elimination of the estruse (sp?) cycle as a signifigent factor to the development of face to face (and hotter and more interesting) human sex. The question is when, and more importantly, why.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/26 "2006-06-19T19:50:11Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=betenoir]  
And we’re the only ones who do it for fun.  
[/QUOTE]

I have heard this a number of times and I’m sorry, but I’m just not buying it. If anything, I’d be more inclined to say that we’re the only species who does it for reasons OTHER than just for fun. That is, humans know that sex=babies, and sometimes we have sex just to have babies. I seriously doubt most animals really grasp the connection. I think they have sex because there is a natural drive to do so, and that drive is powered by the “this feels really good” thing (otherwise why WOULD they do it?). So I’d need some pretty hard evidence that animals don’t have sex just because it feels good (at least males–it seems unfortunately common that sex isn’t terribly fun for the female a lot of the time). (Yes, they do it for dominance, too, but I think that more often it’s just for fun.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/27 "2006-06-19T19:50:36Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=betenoir]  
Anyway I have to mention the elimination of the estruse (sp?) cycle as a signifigent factor to the development of face to face (and hotter and more interesting) human sex.  
[/QUOTE]

Humans have a menstrual cycle, not an estrual cycle, and that’s something that [we do share with the other great apes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cycle#Menstruation_in_other_mammals).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/28 "2006-06-20T00:13:45Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=OpalCat]  
I have heard this a number of times and I’m sorry, but I’m just not buying it. If anything, I’d be more inclined to say that we’re the only species who does it for reasons OTHER than just for fun. That is, humans know that sex=babies, and sometimes we have sex just to have babies. I seriously doubt most animals really grasp the connection. I think they have sex because there is a natural drive to do so, and that drive is powered by the “this feels really good” thing (otherwise why WOULD they do it?). So I’d need some pretty hard evidence that animals don’t have sex just because it feels good (at least males–it seems unfortunately common that sex isn’t terribly fun for the female a lot of the time). (Yes, they do it for dominance, too, but I think that more often it’s just for fun.)  
[/QUOTE]

Well…I think it depends on how you frame this argument. Other animals have sex due to hormonal compulsion, at the times when they can reproduce. They may be having fun, I haven’t asked them. But due to the (interesting) lack of estruse cycle humans have sex whenever the fuck they want. Hence “just for fun”. We seem to be the only ones built that way. I’ll give you that we are also the only ones to have sex for other than good old basic lust. But we’re the ones who want to have it when we can’t possibly reproduce.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/29 "2006-06-20T00:20:04Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=ultrafilter]  
Humans have a menstrual cycle, not an estrual cycle, and that’s something that [we do share with the other great apes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cycle#Menstruation_in_other_mammals).  
[/QUOTE]

Yeah but…it seems to me the article (as well as everything else I’ve read) is saying the apes go through “heat” like the rest of the mammals. We’re the only ones who got out of it. Am I wrong?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/30 "2006-06-20T00:31:00Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=betenoir]  
Yeah but…it seems to me the article (as well as everything else I’ve read) is saying the apes go through “heat” like the rest of the mammals. We’re the only ones who got out of it. Am I wrong?  
[/QUOTE]

That’s not how I read it. I think that when they say “other mammalian species”, they mean other than the great apes.

> [@](#):
>
> Well…I think it depends on how you frame this argument. Other animals have sex due to hormonal compulsion, at the times when they can reproduce. They may be having fun, I haven’t asked them. But due to the (interesting) lack of estruse cycle humans have sex whenever the fuck they want. Hence “just for fun”. We seem to be the only ones built that way. I’ll give you that we are also the only ones to have sex for other than good old basic lust. But we’re the ones who want to have it when we can’t possibly reproduce.

I don’t have cites, but I know that bonobos engage in sex all the time, and I’m pretty sure that dolphins don’t mate only when they’re fertile.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/31 "2006-06-20T02:39:57Z")

</div>

[hijack]

The Christian school I attended took the students on a senior trip to Washington D.C. While we were in the National Zoo, two bears started mating. One of the young men in my class came around to the exhibit and gaped at what he saw. "Oh, wow!’’ he exclaimed. “That’s incredible! A two-headed bear!”

Mind you, this guy was turning 19 in just a couple of months.

[/hijack]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/32 "2006-06-20T04:19:28Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=ultrafilter]  
I don’t have cites, but I know that bonobos engage in sex all the time, and I’m pretty sure that dolphins don’t mate only when they’re fertile.  
[/QUOTE]

I’ve read that hedgehogs are also known to have sex outside of fertile periods.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/33 "2006-06-20T20:30:11Z")

</div>

Well, unless my leg has fertile periods I’m not aware of, my dog is known to do the same.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/34 "2006-06-20T21:44:01Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]  
You damn, dirty (non) apes!  
Yeah, chimps aren’t very discerning. They take the human male’s third rule and run with it to an extreme:  
_If there’s a hole, something’s going in it._  
[/QUOTE]

😕 :eek: :o  
What are the first two rules?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226/35 "2006-06-20T23:10:11Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Happy Clam]  
😕 :eek: :o  
What are the first two rules?  
[/QUOTE]

One of them is, “You must, after all, have something to talk with them about afterwards.”

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-monkey-sex/361226.md?page=1)
