Talk:Prostitution among animals

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A fact from Prostitution among animals appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 April 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that various studies show prostitution exists among animals such as Adélie Penguins (pictured), chimpanzees, and crab-eating macaques?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/April. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Prostitution among animals.

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Title change[edit]

I do not agree with the name change to "Prostitution". If the sources don't use quotation marks, which they don't, then neither should our title. Silver seren^C 02:39, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The reputable sources that I looked at don't use the world "Prostitution". The world protitution is generally used for humans, and when it is generally a monetary transfer for sexual services. <blush, blush>. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:12, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

BBC is not reputable? --SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 04:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This source does, as do the news sources, but I assume they don't live up to what you consider reputable. Prostitution is the exchange of goods or services for sex, in short, having sex with someone to obtain something from them. This is, as far as can be told with animals, what these listed species appear to be doing. Silver seren^C 04:29, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

On the scale of rating sources a tabloid is not as reputable as the BBC which is not as reputable as a scientific journal article. As an encyclopaedia we should be pedantic and to call prostitution anything other than the exchange of sexual services for money is sloppy usage of the word. Hence the need for scare quotes. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:45, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We should place a higher reliance on scientific publications (in this instance) rather than on news sources. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:46, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The exchange of goods for sex among humans is commonly not called prostitution, it's an accepted part of dating and marriage. Only when there is a contract to perform a sex act for a defined amount of money is it called prostitution. Animals don't have money, so the comparison doesn't hold. For good reason there isn't an article about "Marriage among animals" either.--92.77.217.64 (talk) 21:17, 23 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move[edit]

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Consensus is against moving to either of the proposed titles. (non-admin closure) Jenks24 (talk) 06:37, 15 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

~~Prostitution among animals → "Prostitution" among animals – My move was reverted. See comments in the previous section. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:49, 5 April 2012 (UTC)~~ Prostitution among animals → Sexual favours amongst animals See prev section and due to the WP:TITLEFORMAT issue that has been pointed out. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 18:38, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose The term prostitution, without quotes, is used by all the news sources. Furthermore, this source also uses it. Prostitution, unlike other things based around emotions or other human-specific activities, is defined as just being the exchange of sex for either goods or services. It is quite clear in these cases, as noted by the sources, that the activities of these animals fall under the definition of prostitution. Therefore, it is the accurate term to use to describe the activities and shouldn't be in quotes. Silver seren^C 04:51, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose new title as well You should really start a new RM, not change it mid discussion. And what I said previously still stands, the sources use prostitution, that's the word that should be used. Silver seren^C 19:17, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose As noted by Silver seren, prostitution, in this context, refers to exchange of sex for services. This term is used by reputable news sources, as well as by the National Wildlife Federation. --SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 04:57, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose new title The term prostitution is used by the aforementioned sources. --SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 04:08, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose WP:TITLEFORMAT 70.24.244.198 (talk) 05:42, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per WP:TITLEFORMAT.--ukexpat (talk) 16:36, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

comment the second suggested title seems to use BritEnglish, but the article uses US english (mostly)... isn't this an WP:ENGVAR issue? And is the original dialect British, Canadian, Australian, or some other dialect? 65.92.183.144 (talk)

After proposal changed[edit]

Comment -- I had considerable reservations about the title when I first saw that this article existed. To me "prostitution" means sex for money, which is inappropriate to animals, but I do not see an obvious solution. Peterkingiron (talk) 11:04, 7 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Prostitution often has to do with money, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing the term means. Prostitution means trading sex for items or services. See survival sex for a type of prostitution that often has nothing to do with money in exchange. Silver seren^C 06:13, 8 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. Granted, prostitution has pejorative connotations, but absent a preferred term from WP:RSs, a move is unwarranted. ENeville (talk) 20:05, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Is a pebble a stone?[edit]

Why are penguins taking both a "pebble" and a "stone" from other nests? I like to saw logs! (talk) 08:45, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Capuchin Economics[edit]

So after teaching capuchin monkeys to use silver discs as currency to study monkey economics, he finds them trading discs for sex. However, he tried to "prevent further" incidents? How is he studying their economics by altering what they are doing almost immediately? That's not a study, that's just playing . Thesamshannon (talk) 17:06, 22 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]