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where did "The birds and the bees" come from?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Salt Lake City, UT USA
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I don't know what sparked the thought process, but I'm curious if anyone knows where the term "The Birds and the Bees" came from, and why on earth it's related to sex?
Originally Posted by Bart Simpson
What a day, eh, Milhouse? The sun is out, birds are singing,
bees are trying to have sex with them -- as is my
understanding...
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2008 iMac 3.06 Ghz, 2GB Memory, GeForce 8800, 500GB HD, SuperDrive
8gb iPhone on Tmobile
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Originally Posted by SirCastor
I don't know what sparked the thought process, but I'm curious if anyone knows where the term "The Birds and the Bees" came from, and why on earth it's related to sex?
BIRDS AND BEES - "Perhaps the answer to how this phrase became a euphemism for 'sex' lies in these verses by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
All nature seems at work.The bees are stirring—the birds are on the wing, and I the while, the sole unbusy thing, not honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
In past times, when schools touched on such matters at all - which was seldom - sex was usually handled in classes with titles such as Hygiene or Health. The facts of reproduction of the species were presented by analogy - telling how birds do it and how bees do it and trusting that the youngsters would get the message by indirection."
Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).
FROM HERE> http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_b...sages/948.html
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Join Date: Jul 2005
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I believe they came form the crotches of teenagers...
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I thought it had something to do with how bees help pollinate flowers, and how birds lay eggs. So you could talk about sex without really talking about the nasty stuff.
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Originally Posted by BRussell
I thought it had something to do with how bees help pollinate flowers, and how birds lay eggs. So you could talk about sex without really talking about the nasty stuff.
That's my understanding as well.
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Originally Posted by Salty
I believe they came form the crotches of teenagers...
 If you had those things flying out of your crotch as a teenager...
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"You rise," he said, "like Aurora." 
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by BRussell
I thought it had something to do with how bees help pollinate flowers, and how birds lay eggs. So you could talk about sex without really talking about the nasty stuff.
Likely enough.
From http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bir1.htm
Fumbling attempts to explain the facts of life to children often involved analogies with birds laying eggs and bees pollinating flowers. So it’s easy to see how the expression could have turned into a sarcastic reference to such attempts.
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"You rise," he said, "like Aurora."
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