Non-penetrative sex

Drawing by Franz von Bayros showing an act of fingering

Non-penetrative sex (also known as heavy petting, outercourse, petting, dry sex, and dry humping) is sexual activity without vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, as opposed to penetrative aspects of intercourse, anal sex, or oral sex.[1][2] The terms mutual masturbation and frottage are also used, but with slightly different emphases. NPS and outercourse are rather new terms, which is why such practices are sometimes still called "intercourse."

The term "outercourse" is something of a misnomer, as it contrasts "outer" with "inter" but the "inter" in "intercourse" means "between two people." It does not describe being inside or outside of the body.

It is less likely that bodily fluids will be exchanged, and so outercourse is often considered a practice of safer sex, as well as of birth control.

Contents

Types of non-penetrative sexual activity

Mammary intercourse, a form of non-penetrative sex between a man and a woman

Non-penetrative sex includes but is not limited to the following examples:

Exclusively non-penetrative

Non-exclusive

A number of BDSM activities do not involve penetration. However they are not generally considered under the same heading because they are not considered substitutes for "having sex."

Mutual masturbation

Johann Nepomuk Geiger, watercolor, 1840.

Mutual masturbation is a sexual act where two or more people stimulate themselves or one another sexually, usually with the hands.[5] This may be done in situations where the participants do not feel ready, physically able, it is socially appropriate, or simply do not wish to have full sexual intercourse, but still wish to have a mutual sexual act. It is also done as part of the full repertoire of sexual intercourse, where it may be used as an interlude, a form of foreplay or simply as an alternative activity to penetration. For some, it is the primary sexual activity of choice above all others because it enables the individuals to see face to face and leaves the hands free to caress, as seen in frottage (see below).

Mutual masturbation can be practiced by those of all sexual orientations. If used as an alternative to penile-vaginal penetration, the aim may be to preserve virginity or to prevent pregnancy. Some may choose it because it achieves sexual satisfaction without actual sex, possibly seeing it as an alternative to casual sex.

The techniques of mutual masturbation resemble those of simple masturbation, with the exception that other persons are involved. The range of participation can be as simple as two participants masturbating in the same room at the same time without any physical contact to a group of people all stimulating one another. In the case of two participants, one partner may stimulate the other, each partner may stimulate the other, or one may stimulate both themselves and their partner.

Mutual masturbation might result in one or more of the partners achieving orgasm. If no bodily fluids are exchanged (as is common), mutual masturbation is a form of safer sex, and greatly reduces the risk of transmission of sexual diseases. As such it was encouraged among gay men by some safer sex organizations in the wake of the AIDS outbreak of the 1980s, as an alternative to anal or oral sex.

Partnered manual genital stroking

Partnered manual genital stroking to reach orgasm and expanded orgasm are practices done with a partner. Both people focus on creating and experiencing an orgasm in one person. Typically in this usually safe sex partnered masturbation practice, one person lies down, pantless, while his or her partner sits alongside. The one partner sitting using their hands and fingers (typically with a lubricant) to slowly stroke the clitoris or penis and genitals of the partner. Expanded orgasm as a mutual masturbation technique is said to create orgasm experiences more intense and extensive than what can be described as, or included in the definition of, a regular orgasm.[6] It includes a range of sensations that include orgasms that are full-bodied, and orgasms that last from a few minutes to many hours.[7] The term was coined in 1995 by Dr. Patricia Taylor. However, this technique is not without risk of contracting STD's, in particular HIV. A person using his or her finger with a small wound used to stimulate a woman's genitals can be infected with HIV found in her vagina's fluids; likewise regarding a man's semen containing HIV which could infect a partner who has a small exposed wound on his or her skin.

Frot (rubbing penises together) is a form of non-penetrative sex between two men

Frottage

Frottage, more commonly known as dry humping, is the act of achieving sexual pleasure with a partner or partners, whether naked or clothed, without penetration.[8] This can include using almost every part of the body, including the buttocks, the breasts, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands, legs, and sexual organs. Frottage can include mutual genital rubbing, sometimes called genito-genital or GG rubbing and most of the other forms of non-penetrative sex.[8]

There are many reasons a couple may choose frottage. The most common reasons are as a form of foreplay before intercourse or as a method to achieve sexual gratification without the more sexually explicit (and in some circumstances, forbidden) oral, vaginal or anal sexual intercourse. Often young people will use frottage as an earlier stage of sexual intimacy before more explicit contact is desired, or as a substitute to intercourse to maintain a higher degree of chastity. Also, frottage can be done without getting undressed. Panties, bras, pantyhose, socks, or stockings can aid in sexual arousal and stimulation.

Lap dances often involve clothed frottage. A modern dancing style which involves partners rubbing their clothed bodies on one another is called "grinding," "freaking," or "Sandwich dancing" . This is sometimes referred to in Spanish as "perrear" ("dogging"), a term that came from Puerto Rico and later became the famous dance for reggaeton.

The term frottage derives from the French verb frotter, "to rub."

Distinctions in terminology

Three distinct terms derive from the French verb frotter, "to rub," that are not to be confused:

Part of the reason for the confusion is that consensual frottage may have once been considered a perversion and lumped in with non-consensual frotteurism. This view is no longer widely held. The 1995 book Eccentric and Bizarre Behaviors by Louis R. Franzini and Jon Squires declares frottage, in the appropriate context, to be a perfectly normal sexual behavior for anyone "male or female, homosexual or heterosexual."

Colloquialisms

Pregnancy risk

Interfemoral intercourse and genital rubbing, although notionally forms of outercourse, can carry a risk of pregnancy through transfer of the sperm-bearing fluids to the sex organs.

The risk of pregnancy with oral sex is only through contact between sperm-bearing fluids such as semen or Cowper's fluid and female sex organs, though the sex organs aren't usually in close contact with oral sex.

See also

  • Eroto-comatose lucidity           
  • List of sexology topics
  • List of sex positions
  • Orgasm control
  • Physical intimacy
  • Safe(r) sex party
  • Sex magic
  • 69
  • Venus Butterfly

References

Notes

  1. Kate Havelin (1999). Dating: "What Is a Healthy Relationship?". Capstone Press. pp. 64. ISBN 0736802924. 
  2. Isadora Alman (2001). Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex. Conari. pp. 280. ISBN 1573245208. 
  3. Morton, Mark Steven (2003). The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex. Insomniac Press. pp. Page 186. ISBN 1894663519. http://books.google.com/books?id=tnwAlLgWEhAC&pg=PA186&dq=%22Axillary+intercourse%22&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U1skBx7qYy9CdwqQBjbieKtTlSLpQ. 
  4. axillary intercourse - Dictionary of sexual terms
  5. Fulbright, Yvonne K. (2010). The Better Sex Guide to Extraordinary Lovemaking. Quiver. pp. 141. ISBN 9781592333523. http://books.google.com/books?id=mPVEEWaKK1UC&pg=PA141. 
  6. The ESO Ecstasy Program: Better, Safer Sexual Intimacy and Extended Orgasmic Response, Alan Brauer & Donna Brauer, Warner Books (1991), Page 24–25, Masters in Johnson … described female orgasm as "a brief episode of physical release" characterized by either "a series of rapidly recurrent orgasmic experiences between which no recordable plateau-phase intervals can be demonstrated or by a single, long-continued orgasmic episode… status orgasmus is may last from 20 to more than 60 seconds".
  7. Patricia Taylor, PhD thesis (2000), In her PhD research study, the average time spent in an EO session was 54 minutes.
  8. 8.0 8.1 M., Hodge; Evelyn Blackwood, Jeffrey M. Dickemann, Doug Jones, Frank Muscarella, Paul L. Vasey, Walter L. Williams (2000). "The Evolution of Human Homosexual Behavior". Current Anthropology: 385. ISBN 1-0768-88-1. 
  9. ""Queer Slang in the Gay 90's" accessed 13/04/07". http://www.gaymart.com/6fun/slang.html#p. 
  10. g0ys.org -GUys into gUys - not gAys
  11. Matt & Andrej Koymasky - Gay Slang - G

Further reading

External links