I saw something in the park today that has decidedly sidetracked my planned discussion on the new MOMA and a new favorite artist I saw therein.

Of course what distracted me was perverse, and I saw it in the park while taking a stroll with my pal. What I saw was this: two male mallards humping. Serious. My friend didn’t believe they were both male, but I spent some time once taking care of a flock of ducks and I know the difference between the sexes and I know what duck humping looks like because it is seriously rape-ish. I spent a lot of time with those ducks not only feeding them and collecting their eggs and tucking them into their pen at night but also shooing away the males from the females because I could not bear the sight.

Coincidentally, I am already familiar with the case study by Kees Moeliker on non-consensual homosexual necrophilic sex in male mallards. Serious.

Above is an image of Leda and the Swan by Michaelangelo. I’ve read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but it still did not steel me against all the graphic images depicting the sexual encounters between women and animals (i.e. transmogrified Greek gods) that I saw at the Bargello in Florence. You never know what will make for interesting subject matter. It could be some lofty and metaphysical dilemma, inaccessible save for the elevated artistic mind and soul, or it could be some smutty bestiality myths. Call me a philistine, but I’d prefer the latter.

Um, below is Kees Moeliker’s photo, helpfully labeled A. (before necrophiliac homosexual copulation), and B. (during necrophiliac homosexual non-consensual copulation).

P.S. While I was google searching for the ducks, I found another deviant opportunistic animal here.

Images VIA The National Gallery, and ??? can’t find it again.