SEXUAL CONFLICT, (DAIBAZAALIAN) GALRA GENITALS AND THE EFFECTS ON GALRA CULTURE.
i’m not a biology expert by any means but ngl i was thinking a lot about genitals of (daibazaalian) galra recently while thinking about hcs for lotor’s dick and so, uh…my weirdass brain came up with this.
so here it is, my friends. an attempt at a biologically sound explanation for an absolutely wild cock and also a deconstruction of the social consequences that such a development would entail.
[TW: Mentions of and then in-depth discussion of rape; mentions of victim blaming and death.]
EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND.
first i should start by giving a definition of sexual conflict. i’m going to use the one on wikipedia:
Sexual conflict or sexual antagonism occurs when the two sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning reproduction, particularly over the mode and frequency of mating, potentially leading to an evolutionary arms race between males and females.
of particular note is the fact that “Sexual conflict may lead to antagonistic co-evolution, in which one sex (usually male) evolves a favorable trait that is offset by a countering trait in the other sex.” if i’m not mistaken, this is what happens with ducks, which is partly where i got the inspiration for sexual conflict determining the evolution of daibazaalian galra genitalia. duck males have incredibly long corkscrew penises, whereas duck females have similarly corkscrewed vaginas--but the thing is, one of them is clockwise whereas the other is counterclockwise. why? because male ducks are VERY aggressive during sex, to the point that one out of every three duck matings are rapes. therefore the corkscrew shape evolved to make mating harder. moreover, the female duck has the final say on which male gets to father her ducklings: sperm from unwanted males is stored in specialized pockets in the vagina and destroyed.
now, galra come from reptomammalian feline ancestors. as you may know, the cats of earth get incredibly zealous during mating--they are loud, they are definitely not monogamous, and sometimes multiple males try to mount a female at once. the galra ancestral feline, a creature known as the desert shade, was no different, a trait that got passed down to their sapient descendants. whereas the cats of earth do not express sexual conflict that is as extreme as the type of conflict displayed in, say, ducks, the genitalia of the desert shade are much different, evolving in a ducklike arms race fashion as a response to the aggression--greater than that of earth cats--that desert shade males exhibited during mating.
ridges evolved because of sexual conflict. both the penis and vagina of galra are ridged; the vagina developed them first to make it harder for the male to penetrate; the ridges would be relaxed and the penis allowed inside without pain if and only if the female desired a mating. however, the penis responded by turning this defense on its head: the ridges of the penis are designed to perfectly lock into those of the vagina, making it almost impossible to remove until the male determines he is ready.
the multiple “fingers” and heads of a galra penis also developed in response to a female’s adaptation. vaginas grew to have four channels, three of which lead to dead ends, and the fourth of which leads to the uterus (known as the uteral channel)--and all of which are closeable via membranes. moreover, the location of the uteral channel is different in every female: they may be all the way to the left, all the way to the right, center-left, or center-right. for a while, desert shade penises only had 2-3 tips--which meant that only if a female closed the dead end channels could the male properly impregnate her. but eventually the penis grew to have four tips, all capable of ejaculation, to match the vagina’s channels so that no matter what, one of them would find the uterus. the branches of these tips, which are long and prehensile in order to fit within the vagina’s twisting pathways (unique to each female), are known as penile fingers. moreover, each penile finger can shift to create a sharp tip that can be used to pierce the membrane that closes off the uteral channel and impregnate the female.
the first and last evolution on the male penis were the penile spines. these developed on the heads of desert shade penises at first to trigger ovulation as the penis exited the female body, but later evolved in order to make it more likely for any particular male to become the father. see, spines not only trigger ovulation but also scrub away competing sperm that the female has stored (like a duck tbh) in the vaginal channels. this especially happens because, as stated before, sometimes multiple males attempt to mate with the same female, and sometimes all at once. this also happens because when females try to destroy the sperm, sometimes it doesn’t work because the sperm--as due to sexual conflict--has adapted to resist the female body’s attempts to destroy it. the spines also help break through the membranes that females use to seal off the uteral channel.
HOW THIS AFFECTS GALRA CULTURE.
the galra woman’s innate capability of preventing unwanted pregnancy means that birth control takes a very different form than it does for humans and alteans. condoms were never needed for birth control at any point in galra history, only pills that helped the body’s natural defenses kill stubborn sperm that wouldn’t go away. moreover, the fact that galra genitalia has changed little over the past millennia reveals that the majority of galra are still polygamous like their feline ancestors. whereas human penises may have lost their penile spines because we became monogamous, galra would not have had this luxury, and so their penile spines (as well as the overall wild cock shape) would remain.
due to a combination of innate birth control and a very high sex drive, sexual promiscuity and open relationships are a lot more common among galra than they are among species for which neither of those traits have developed. this leads to sex being more openly talked about, and not stigmatized as something “improper.” unfortunately, the desert shade shares in common with the ducks that inspired their mating behavior the fact that many times females are raped to death by aggressive males; this is something that still happens frequently among their galra descendants.
as for sexual etiquette? the rule of thumb for galra men is just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. the galra penis is literally designed to force a woman into a situation that she doesn’t want, but because galra are no longer unthinking nonsapient animals, they are expected to behave better. this means that men ought to let women decide which man fathers her children, and choose not to pierce if the woman closes the uteral channel. the woman may sometimes ask a man to rid her of the sperm that she can’t get rid of, or otherwise give him permission to replace another man’s sperm with hers, but the choice is hers alone. if a man uses his penis’ capabilities to violate a woman’s wishes, the sex is then considered rape and the man is subject to the death penalty as a result.
rape is duly punished when it happens between galra of the same military rank, or when one of lower military rank rapes a higher-ranking galra. so a soldier would not be able to get away with raping another soldier, a commander cannot rape another commander, etc. however, galra can still be said to live in a rape culture because rape is often ignored or explained away when the perpetrator is of a higher status than the victim. for example, if a male officer rapes a female soldier by piercing the membrane of her uteral channel and replacing her intended father’s sperm with his own, the justice system will let him get away with it simply because he is higher-ranking. in fact, the officer may even feel offended that the female wants a common soldier to father her kit when he--an officer--is willing to do so himself, and blame her for not picking a proper mate; other officers will back him up on this. the favoritism toward the officer is so extreme that he’ll get away with it even if the female’s intended father was someone she is bonded to, although this only tends to be true for soldiers; among ranked officers, violating a bonded mating isn’t tolerated.
in addition, when male officers force themselves on slaves of other species throughout the empire (as is common), the uniquely weaponized nature of the galra penis makes the act even more painful. due to its size (13-15 inches while erect on average) and adaptations, the galra penis is capable of severely injuring the genitalia of many other species, and even moderately injuring female galra genitalia as well. galra men know this, and often rape slaves to punish them, sharpening their penile fingers to tear up their insides; these injuries then tend to remain untreated, leading to slow and painful deaths from infection. for this reason, across the universe sex with galra (especially the men) is generally associated with rape, pain and death.
