Gay Giraffes Help Take Pansexuality Awareness to New Heights
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This Sunday was International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHTB), which passed rather quietly in Beijing, but gained significant traction among Chinese netizens on Weibo under the hashtag #IDAHTB#, using it to share popular videos produced by the UN and other international organizations. One particular video created by the Beijing Queer Chorus drew considerable fanfare – and how could it not with a theme like gay giraffes.
The video, titled “Giraffe, the Sweet,” begins with two shadow-puppet giraffes grazing under a tree, one male and one female, marked by the Venus and Mars gender indicator glyphs. But the female makes a hasty exit and is soon replaced with another male. The pair then fall in love to the sweet harmonies of the chorus. Watch the full video below:Giraffes are not the only animal in nature to engage in homosexual behavior – from penguins to Japanese macaques, gay relations have been observed in a number of species over the decades – but as the video reminds us in its conclusion, up to 90 percent of observed sexual behavior in male giraffes is directed toward other males. Or as Wikipedia so poetically describes their idiosyncratic behavior: "After aggressive 'necking,' it is common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax."
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Yifan, the Beijing Queer Chorus member behind the project, tells the Beijinger that she made the video with the hope of educating the public about sexual diversity. “I do think it can be tricky to directly parallel animal sexuality and human sexuality in too simple a way,” she says, adding, “Rather, it's more important to reflect on how we see sexual diversity in general, and we hope these stories can inspire people to see differences, [and] learn the differences with kindness and openness."
The giraffes’ story is actually part of a long-term project to create a series of songs detailing sexual diversity in animals, but Yifan explains that these long-necked lovers were the perfect choice for the IDAHTB video: "This series will try to cover a spectrum of different sexualities and relationships among animals, as well as various emotions. For IDAHTB, we felt that the story behind "Giraffe, the Sweet" falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, making it a good choice to introduce the theme of sexual diversity to the public."
Going into the project, no one in the chorus had any experience with shadow puppetry, but with many hands lending innumerable talents, the group was able to pull it off with aplomb. For example, the music and lyrics were written by Yifan and two other members of the chorus along with the chorus conductor, Yuan Ye. Once the song and story were complete, a crew of seven singers-cum-puppeteers put their heads together to bring the shadowy animals to life.
The result was a simple and beautiful story, which is mirrored in the few, yet evocative, lyrics. Yifan says that the simplistic approach means that the viewer can focus on the visuals. "We decided to form a narrative for each song's music and visuals, but then simplify the lyrics to only keywords. As you can see, the lyrics are mostly reduced to the words 'long' and 'bent.'"
As of yet, there is no release date for the next video in the series, but the chorus is hoping to perform the entire series in their end-of-year concert. That leaves plenty of time to practice our own particular necking techniques.READ: Throwback Thursday: The Mr. Gay China Pageant That Almost Was
Images courtesy of Beijing Queer Chorus
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