Intercrural sex
Encyclopedia
Intercrural sex also known as femoral/interfemoral sex/intercourse, is a type of non-penetrative sex
, in which a male places his penis between his partner's thighs (often with lubrication), and thrusts to create friction.
and sexual experimentation of adolescents may feature intercrural sex in the interests of avoiding pregnancy
or preserving virginity
. In 1987 the Shere Hite
report on female sexuality found that some adult women reported being able to achieve orgasm through stimulation of the clitoris by the penis, including via intercrural contact.
A variation on this practice is known in Japan
as sumata
.
, where anal sex
was considered demeaning to the, usually younger, receiving partner. The historian K.J. Dover
wrote about this extensively in his book Greek Homosexuality (1977), from which current theories on the subject of Greek
male-male sexuality
are largely derived. Joan Roughgarden
refers to standing face-to-face intercrural intercourse as the "gay male missionary position
" of ancient Greece in a section of her recent book Evolution's Rainbow that draws heavily on Dover.
Intercrural sex is sometimes known as the "Princeton
First-Year". The term may refer to a system by which upperclassmen helped new students assimilate to university life in exchange for sexual gratification. A similar system was present at Oxford University, hence the synonym "Oxford Style". Students at both Oxford and Princeton may have been imitating homosexual practices in ancient Greece
, depicted by authors such as Plato
and Aristotle
.
Intercrural intercourse has been proposed as an important part of the sexual lives of a handful of notable historical figures known or thought to have been homosexual or bisexual. According to his biographer Richard Ellman, Oscar Wilde
was introduced to intercrural sex by Robert Baldwin Ross
, and it appears to have been his preferred activity, even over oral sex
. Shaka Zulu is speculated to have encouraged intercrural intercourse among his troops to "create intimacy and loyalty". Quotes attributed to the Cynic philosophers regarding Alexander the Great, made both during and after his lifetime, seem to presume intercrural intercourse between Alexander and Hephaestion
. Similarly, comments made by a bed mate about Abraham Lincoln
's thighs led to speculation of intercrural intercourse between the two in C.A. Tripp's recent The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.
Though some modern Christians and Jews have made the argument that intercrural intercourse is not specifically condemned by Leviticus 18
or 20, it has been subject to various historical sodomy laws and religious restrictions. Intercrural intercourse appears to have been common during the medieval era ; a contemporary document titled the "Altercatio Ganimedis et Helene" (The Debate of Helen and Ganymede) depicts Greco-Roman mythical figure Ganymede
describing the "slippery thighs of a boy" as superior to the "stink and gaping looseness of the female cave".
Intercrural sex is still quite common in some communities. A 1997 report on the sexual health needs of MSM
in the Calcutta suburbs found that 73% of men asked engaged in intercrural intercourse, though the frequency varied based on demographic factors: only 54% of sex workers, 50% of lower income men and 40% of Muslims reported intercrural sex; while 82% of Hindus and 88% of middle income men reported engaging in it. A similar study from South Asia reported that intercrural sex was tied with anal sex as the second most preferred sex act of gay men, making it more popular than oral sex and frot
.
Non-penetrative sex
Non-penetrative sex is sexual activity without vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, as opposed to the penetrative aspects of those activities...
, in which a male places his penis between his partner's thighs (often with lubrication), and thrusts to create friction.
Heterosexuality
The sex educationSex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
and sexual experimentation of adolescents may feature intercrural sex in the interests of avoiding pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
or preserving virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
. In 1987 the Shere Hite
Shere Hite
Shere Hite is an American-born German sex educator and feminist. Her sexological work has focused primarily on female sexuality. Hite builds upon biological studies of sex by Masters and Johnson and by Alfred Kinsey...
report on female sexuality found that some adult women reported being able to achieve orgasm through stimulation of the clitoris by the penis, including via intercrural contact.
A variation on this practice is known in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as sumata
Sumata
Sumata is a Japanese term for a non-penetrative sex act popular in Japanese brothels.Sumata is a form of frottage, performed by a female sex worker upon a male client. The sex worker rubs the client's penis with her hands, thighs , and labia majora. The goal is to stimulate ejaculation without...
.
Male homosexuality
Intercrural intercourse (termed diamerizein, "to do it between the thighs") was common in the Ancient Greek system of pederastyPederasty in ancient Greece
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods...
, where anal sex
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...
was considered demeaning to the, usually younger, receiving partner. The historian K.J. Dover
Kenneth Dover
Sir Kenneth James Dover, FRSE, FBA was a distinguished British Classical scholar and academic, who was head of an Oxford college and from 1981 until his retirement in December 2005 was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews....
wrote about this extensively in his book Greek Homosexuality (1977), from which current theories on the subject of Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
male-male sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
are largely derived. Joan Roughgarden
Joan Roughgarden
Joan E. Roughgarden is an American evolutionary biologist.- Biography :...
refers to standing face-to-face intercrural intercourse as the "gay male missionary position
Missionary position
The missionary position is a "man-on-top" sex position usually described as the act in which the woman lies on her back and the partners face each other. Though often acted on and applied by heterosexual pairings, it may also be used by gay and lesbian couples.The missionary position is an example...
" of ancient Greece in a section of her recent book Evolution's Rainbow that draws heavily on Dover.
Intercrural sex is sometimes known as the "Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
First-Year". The term may refer to a system by which upperclassmen helped new students assimilate to university life in exchange for sexual gratification. A similar system was present at Oxford University, hence the synonym "Oxford Style". Students at both Oxford and Princeton may have been imitating homosexual practices in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, depicted by authors such as Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
.
Intercrural intercourse has been proposed as an important part of the sexual lives of a handful of notable historical figures known or thought to have been homosexual or bisexual. According to his biographer Richard Ellman, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
was introduced to intercrural sex by Robert Baldwin Ross
Robert Baldwin Ross
Robert Baldwin "Robbie" Ross was a Canadian journalist and art critic. He is best known as the executor of the estate of Oscar Wilde, to whom he had been a lifelong friend. He was also responsible for bringing together several great literary figures, such as Siegfried Sassoon, and acting as their...
, and it appears to have been his preferred activity, even over oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
. Shaka Zulu is speculated to have encouraged intercrural intercourse among his troops to "create intimacy and loyalty". Quotes attributed to the Cynic philosophers regarding Alexander the Great, made both during and after his lifetime, seem to presume intercrural intercourse between Alexander and Hephaestion
Hephaestion
Hephaestion , son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great...
. Similarly, comments made by a bed mate about Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's thighs led to speculation of intercrural intercourse between the two in C.A. Tripp's recent The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.
Though some modern Christians and Jews have made the argument that intercrural intercourse is not specifically condemned by Leviticus 18
Leviticus 18
Leviticus 18 is a chapter of the Biblical book of Leviticus. It narrates part of the instructions given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. The chapter deals with a number of sexual activities considered 'unclean' or 'abominable'...
or 20, it has been subject to various historical sodomy laws and religious restrictions. Intercrural intercourse appears to have been common during the medieval era ; a contemporary document titled the "Altercatio Ganimedis et Helene" (The Debate of Helen and Ganymede) depicts Greco-Roman mythical figure Ganymede
Ganymede (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Ganymede is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals. In the best-known myth, he is abducted by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. Some interpretations of the myth treat it as an allegory of...
describing the "slippery thighs of a boy" as superior to the "stink and gaping looseness of the female cave".
Intercrural sex is still quite common in some communities. A 1997 report on the sexual health needs of MSM
Men who have sex with men
Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...
in the Calcutta suburbs found that 73% of men asked engaged in intercrural intercourse, though the frequency varied based on demographic factors: only 54% of sex workers, 50% of lower income men and 40% of Muslims reported intercrural sex; while 82% of Hindus and 88% of middle income men reported engaging in it. A similar study from South Asia reported that intercrural sex was tied with anal sex as the second most preferred sex act of gay men, making it more popular than oral sex and frot
Frot
Frot is a slang term derived from frottage describing a form of non-penetrative male/male sex that usually but not always involves direct penis-to-penis contact....
.