Baseball metaphors for sex

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The game of baseball is often used as a euphemistic metaphor for physical intimacy in the United States and other places the game is played, especially to describe the level of sexual intimacy achieved in intimate encounters or relationships.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

In the baseball metaphor, sexual activities are described as if they are moves in a game of baseball. In the United States from the end of World War II to present, adolescent boys would sometimes use this competitive analogy to describe, usually to boast about, their successes in "making it" with girls.[2][3].

[edit] List of Sexual Metaphors

Although details vary, the most broadly accepted description of what each base represented is as follows:

Other baseball sexual metaphors:

[edit] Recent changes

This sequence of "running the bases" is often regarded as a script, or pattern, for young people who are experimenting with sexual relationships. The script has changed slightly since the 1960s. Kohl and Francoeur note that with the growing emphasis in the 1990s on safe sex and efforts by the feminist movement to expand sex beyond phallo-vaginal intercourse, the "home run" has taken on the additional dimension of oral-genital sexual intercourse. Richters and Rissel similarly point out that "third base" has since become seen, by some people, to comprise oral sex as part of the accepted pattern of activities, as a pre-cursor to "full" (i.e. phallo-vaginal) sex.[9][10]

Mullaney reports the idea that the introduction of oral sex is in fact a "new teen model", that is replacing the "traditional base system", in part as an "unintended offspring of 'abstinence-only' education". In this new model, sex acts, including many that were not included as part of the traditional "base" system, are classified in a wholly different way. The acts that count as "sex" (i.e. what would in the traditional system have constituted a "home run") are distinguished from those that do not count as "sex" according to whether it is possible to become pregnant, or lose one's virginity, from them. Thus oral sex, anal sex, and "a variety of other acts" are reclassified in the new model as "not a big deal" and "part of the realm of abstinence". Mullaney states that "obviously, not all teens subscribe to this revised model of classification".[11]

Educators have found the baseball metaphor an effective instructional tool when providing sex education to middle school students.[8] Levin and Bell, in their book A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex, make use of it to aid parents in the discussion of puberty with their children, dividing the topics into "first base" ("Changes from the neck up"), "second base" ("Changes from the neck to the waist"), "third base" ("Changes from the waist down"), and "home plate" ("The Big 'It'").[12]

[edit] In popular culture

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  • In Rush Hour 3 James Carter (played by Chris Tucker) becomes intimate with Genviève (Noémie Lenoir) before discovering she is Shy Shen, afterwards at George's house when she removes the wig - Carter exclaims: "Holy Mother of Jesus! She's a man! I went to second base with a damn Frenchman!
  • David Letterman once had a Top Ten List of "baseball euphemisms for sex."[13]
  • Woody Allen, in his 1972 feature film Play It Again, Sam, has just awakened in bed with Diane Keaton, and the following dialog ensues:[citation needed]
    She: What were you thinking about while we were doing it?
    He: Willie Mays.
    She: I wondered why you kept yelling, "Slide!"
  • This was a follow-up to an early standup bit in which Allen talked about the later stages of a date, who turned out to be his second wife:[citation needed]
    "That was two o'clock in the morning, and I get my date back to her apartment, and the two of us are alone, and we're going pretty good. I have to explain this very delicately, 'cause it's really tentative. As I... as I am an inordinately...passionate...man. Volatile. Sensual. In general, a stud. When making love...when making love...in an effort...to prolong...the moment of ecstasy...I think of baseball players. All right, now you know. The two of us are making love violently, she's digging it, I figure I better start thinking of ballplayers quickly. So I figure it's one out, the ninth, the Giants are up. Mays lines a single to right, he takes second on a wild pitch. Now she is digging her nails into my neck. I decided to pinch-hit for McCovey. Alou pops out. Haller singles, Mays holds third. Now I got a first-and-third situation. Two out, the Giants are behind one run. I don't know whether to squeeze or steal. She's been in the shower for ten minutes, already. This is too...I can't tell you anymore, this is too personal. The Giants won."
  • The metaphor was highlighted again by Meat Loaf's song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" on the 1977 album Bat out of Hell.[14]
    ...He continues to push the matter, and makes some progress, mirrored by New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto broadcasting a portion of a baseball game that serves as a metaphor at his attempts.: "Things are looking up, and it appears the boy is going to 'score': "Here he comes, squeeze play/ It's gonna be close/ Here's the throw, here's the play at the plate/ Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it...!" when suddenly Ellen Foley bursts to life telling him to "Stop right there!"
  • In the 1999 movie American Pie, third base was described as feeling like a warm apple pie, referring to digital penetration. A character in the movie has sex with a freshly made apple pie to test this theory.
  • In an episode of "Drawn Together", Spanky Ham claims to have let Captain Hero get to a fictitious "seventh base" with him, presumably referring to his stoma.
  • In the sitcom That '70s Show, the teenagers, mainly Fez, refer to their sexual endeavors with baseball metaphors. In particular, after Big Rhonda dumps Fez, he later laments, "No more baseball for Fez. Now it's back to handball."
  • On the show "The Office (U.S. TV series)", Kelly Kapoor asks Jan Levinson what it means when Michael Scott, the boss, is said to have rounded second base with Jan.
  • On the show "Robot Chicken," during a Harry Potter parody, Draco Malfoy has rigged the Sorting Hat to say how sexually experienced the wearer is. For Harry the hat spouts "VIRGIN!" and when put on Hermione Granger the hat shouts "SECOND BASE!" to the shock of everyone in the Great Hall.
  • In "The Simpsons Movie", When Homer dares Bart to skateboard naked from 742 Evergreen Terrace to Krusty Burger and back, Bart replies "How naked?" Homer then replies "Fourth Base".
  • In the 1988 version of Hairspray, while outside Motormouth Maybelle's All Soul Review, Penny urges Seaweed to "Go to second, go to second!"
  • In an episode of "Scrubs", Kim says to JD "At least I got to third base with you" referring to her having to treat JD's genital area after bareback horseriding.
  • In Blades of Glory (film), Chazz (Will Ferrell) yells to Jimmy (Jon Heder) as well as a full skating arena, "I didn't have sex with Katie! We didn't even make it to second base!"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Steven L. Hellermann and Andrei S. Markovits (2001). Offside: soccer and American exceptionalism. Princeton University Press, 66. ISBN 069107447X. 
  2. ^ Suzanne Romaine (1999). Communicating Gender. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 210. ISBN 0805829261. 
  3. ^ Marty Jezer (1982). The Dark Ages, Life in the United States, 1945–1960. South End Press, 248. ISBN 0896081273. 
  4. ^ a b c Ava L. Siegler (1997). The Essential Guide to the New Adolescence: How to Raise an Emotionally Healthy Teenager. Dutton, 27. ISBN 0525939709. 
  5. ^ a b c teenwire.com Editors (2001-01-06). Ask the Experts: What do people mean by going to first base, second base, third base, and hitting a homerun?. teenwire.com.
  6. ^ Eye Weekly
  7. ^ Houston - News - Podnography
  8. ^ a b c d Alvin L. Hall and Thomas L. Altherr (2002). "Eros at the Bat: American Baseball and Sexuality in Historical Context", The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture 1998. McFarland & Company, 157–182. ISBN 0786409541. 
  9. ^ Juliet Richters and Chris Rissel (2005). Doing it Down Under: The Sexual Lives of Australians. Allen & Unwin, 32. ISBN 1741143268. 
  10. ^ James V. Kohl and Robert T. Francoeur (2002). The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality. iUniverse, 153–154. ISBN 059523383X. 
  11. ^ Jamie L. Mullaney (2005). Everyone Is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity. University of Chicago, 153–154. ISBN 0226547566. 
  12. ^ Kevin Leman and Kathy Flores Bell (2004). A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex: A Healthy Look at Sexuality for. Zondervan. ISBN 031025096X. 
  13. ^ Letterman, David. Top Ten Baseball Euphemisms for Sex. Late Show with David Letterman; cbs.com. 20 September 2001.
  14. ^ James F. Harris (1993). Philosophy at 33 1/3 Rpm: Themes of Classic Rock Music. Open Court Publishing, 116–118. ISBN 0812692411. 

[edit] External links