Group sex
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Group sex is sexual behaviour involving more than two participants at the same time. The main focus of this page is group sex among humans; however, group sex also exists with other species in the animal kingdom - e.g., bighorn sheep and bonobos.
Any and all sexual behaviour performed by two people can be a part of group sex, as well as a number of behaviors only possible with more than two people. Group sex involving one participant being penetrated by multiple people is sometimes termed a gang bang. In modern parlance an orgy may also refer to an event involving group sex.
Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders.
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[edit] Group sex in contemporary culture
Studies of the history of human sexuality reveal that the "idea that sex is a "private" act is only a couple of centuries old." [1]. While group sex has always been practiced in many cultures across the world, it wasn't until the 1960s that advocates of group sex first brought recreational (as opposed to purely ritual) group sex into the public consciousness of the Western world. Groups such as the Sexual Freedom League, and the Suck Collective introduced many people to large scale, frequently polyamorous group sex. As the experiments and bohemian lifestyles of the 1960s became absorbed by the mainstream, group sex in a variety of forms became tremendously popular in the United States and Europe in the 1970s. [2]
[edit] Types of Group Sex
Group sex may involve three or more people of any gender or sexual orientation. The events themselves may be characterized by sex; for example, a straight group sex session would involve only heterosexual sex. Some venues for group sex may be intended for a particular group or groups of people. Different types of group sex may or may not involve switching partners. Some sex clubs, for example, require entrants to come in pairs and do not typically involve actual physical contact between people in different pairs. Group sex may involve a specific set of sexual activities; for example, some involve BDSM, while "vanilla" group sex does not.
In many cultures, public intercourse is considered taboo and is illegal (see indecent exposure); many groups also frown upon sex that is not monogamous. Group sex often takes place in private or clandestine locations, including homes, hotel rooms, unpopulated areas like forests, abandoned buildings, or private clubs. Sex clubs are often open to members only, while less formal locations (truck stops, wooded areas) may be semi-secret. Group sex also sometimes takes place in nightclubs, bathhouses, massage parlors, or bars, although such places (particularly those frequented by sexual minorities such as gays or lesbians in countries intolerant of homosexuality[citation needed]) are sometimes subject to legal repercussions. Group sex may be a part of other social activities such as parties, although some venues such as gay bathhouses tend to eschew talking.
The possibility for awkwardness among friends, significant others, or strangers at group sex is often cited as a problem with them, particularly in relatively spontaneous incidents of group sex such as drunken group sex among friends. Among heterosexuals, the relative availability of men and women is also a concern for participants, as social stigma or other factors structures the extent to which many men or women feel comfortable being promiscuous.
In spite of (or due to) the stigma against group sex, participation in group sex is a common fantasy, although regular participation in group sex remains uncommon in most cultures.
[edit] Prevalence
Fantasies of group sex are extremely common among both men and women. In major studies, between 54%-88% of people fantasize about watching others have sex, 40%-42% fantasize about being watched by others, and between 39%-72% fantasize about bondage. [3] The practice of group sex is not uncommon - the Janus Report indicated that 14% of men and 8% of women engaged in group sex.[4] Many forms of sexual behavior were reported by Kinsey's subjects, but the official Kinsey Reports web site does not mention threesomes or group sex in the summary of Kinsey's findings.
[edit] Safety
Since the knowledge of the AIDS epidemic, group sex has been widely considered a dangerous activity, precipitating crackdowns on venues where it takes place and a shift away from widespread anonymous group sex and towards sex parties among trusted groups of friends. In response to the threat of sexually transmitted infection, some people have begun to organize safer sex party in order to give people who enjoy group sex a risk-reduced way to participate in it. Such events typically do not involve intercourse or sex without necessary barrier methods such as condoms, focusing on group masturbation, protected oral sex, the use of sex toys, or other activities involving minimal risk of STD transmission. Many venues where group sex often take place provide condoms, dental dams, latex gloves, lubricant, or other tools for safer sex to participants. However, sex involving potential fluid exchange is considered a major risk factor for HIV or other diseases.
Consent can also be an issue for participants of group sex, because individual participants may not want to perform certain acts (for example they may only want non-penetrative sex) and it can be difficult to establish clearly defined boundaries before group sex begins. Most organized forms of group sex impose restrictions or use customs to ensure that all sex involved is consensual; for example, some groups have specific non-verbal cues (eye contact, hand gestures) used to communicate consent or lack thereof. Furthermore, alcohol and other drugs may be seen as risk factors for unwanted sexual contact during group sex. While the term “orgy” is used to refer to consensual group sex, it (and other terms such as "gangbang" or "pulling a train") can also be used to refer to sexual assault committed by a group.
[edit] Sexual positions and combinations possible only in group sex
[edit] Initialism codes
A system of initialisms has evolved to describe the variety of group sex arrangements. These codes can appear in erotic literature and film descriptions, member profiles in online communities, and personal ads. These codes consist of arrangements of the letters M (for male) and F (for female). Adjacent letters explicitly signify sexual contact between the participants represented by those letters, though this does not necessarily mean there is no contact between the other participants. For example, MMF would signify a ménage à trois of two men and one woman in which the center male has sexual contact with the other male and the female, and in which it is not specified whether there is contact between the female and the other male. MFMF (situation pictured in photo to left), on the other hand, implies no same-sex contact.
Variations on this system exist that use case to convey more information. Within the BDSM and D/s subcultures, upper and lower case letters can signify dominant (or top) and submissive (or bottom).
[edit] Daisy chain
A daisy chain refers to sexual relations among three or more people, with each person both performing and receiving oral sex simultaneously.[5] Some sources consider only groups of five or more people to be a daisy chain.[6] Though the practice is thought to be gaining popularity among teenagers, there are doubts about how widespread the phenomenon actually is.
Basic mathematical studies of this phenomena indicate that there must be an even number of participants with an equal division by gender for daisy chaining to remain entirely heterosexual. An odd number of participants would result in one person having to connect "both ways" to complete the chain. [7][8]
[edit] Bukkake
Bukkake is a group sex practice where multiple men ejaculate on a male or female subject. At the end of the process, the subject may drink the semen. Its first filming is credited to adult filmmaker Kazuhiko Matsumoto in 1998. Bukkake originally became a porn trend because of the mandatory porn mosaic in Japan. Since the directors could not show penetration they had to figure out new, visually appealing ways to approach sex acts that would satisfy the audience without violating Japanese law. Some women have gone public regarding their sexual enjoyment of bukkake; one prominent example is Catherine Millet.
[edit] In Fiction
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ A dictionary of slang: D
- ^ The Swinging Life - Vocabulary
- ^ "Are teen sex antics tall tales?". BBC News (28 April 2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
- ^ Nigel Hawkes and Sam Lister (28 April 2005). "Teenage ‘daisy chain’ sex alert". The Times. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
- Partridge, Burgo (1960). A History of Orgies.
- Talese, Gay (1980). Thy Neighbor's Wife.
[edit] External links
- Weinberg, Martin S.; Williams, Colin J. (December, 1975). "Gay Baths and the Social Organization of Impersonal Sex". Social Problems 23 (2): 124-136.
- The Orgy Chapter XI from 'The ecstasies of Eros' by Stefan Beyst (1997).
- World Record: Largest Orgy
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