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The earliest example of intercrural sex in an artwork; it, according to the author of Greek Erotica Martin F. Kilmer, depicts "the position most commonly adopted".[1]

Intercrural sex, also known as coitus interfemoris, thigh sex and interfemoral sex, is a type of non-penetrative sex where the penis is placed between the receiving partner's thighs and friction is generated via thrusting. It was a common practice in ancient Greek society prior to the early centuries AD, discussed frequently by writers and portrayed in artwork such as vases. As history went on, it became subject to sodomy laws and became seen as a sin for which one needed to repent. Discussed within multiple pieces of literature, the 17th century saw it take cultural prominence—being seen as a part of male-on-male sexual habits following the trial of Mervyn Tuchet.

In modern times, intercrural sex is commonly practised in relationships of various orientation; adult women are said to use it to stimulate orgasm. In Africa and parts of Asia, like Sri Lanka, the practice is normalised and is expressed both among heterosexuals and homosexual males. Knowledge regarding intercrural sex and its relation to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and pregnancy is low. Studies have found it composing a small percentage of sexual assault cases.

Etymology

The term intercrural sex was first introduced by Kenneth Dover in his 1978 book Greek Homosexuality. Dover used the term to refer to sexual activity between an older man and a young boy.[1] The Ancient Greek term for this practice was διαμηρίζειν diamērizein ("to do [something] between the thighs").[2] Webster's Dictionary defines intercrural sex as where one partner “plac[es his] penis...between the other partner's [closed] thighs...[and thrusts] to create friction".[3] Synonyms include coitus interfemoris,[4] thigh sex[5] and interfemoral sex.[6]

Kang Tchou notes that Dover's definition is similar to the idea of "heavenly love", articulated by Pausanias, which "encourages a stable life-long relationship between the boy and the man and enhances the intellectual development of the younger boy".[1]

History and modern practice

Ancient history and the Middle Ages

See also: Homosexuality in ancient Greece

Intercrural intercourse was a common manifestation of pederasty in ancient Greece.[1] Dover has suggested that it was the preferred activity and was done to prevent "breaching whatever protocols happened to be in force concerning same-sex actions".[3][7] It has been associated with Eromenos, although its prominence in such a relationship is undetermined.[8] By the early AD era, however, intercrural sex fell out of fashion, as sex with women became a more encouraged practice in Greek society.[1]

Intercrural sex has been depicted on artworks such as vases, where they were called "courting scenes", and were heavily discussed by writers.[1][9][a] Visual depictions, following the 5th century BC, were sparse and almost exclusively found on black-figure pottery.[11] Aristophanes references the act in The Knights through the character of Agoracritus.[12] The Republic was reported by Plutarch to mention intercrural sex.[13] Joan Roughgarden refers to standing, face-to-face intercrural intercourse as the "gay male missionary position" of Ancient Greece.[14]

Various historical sodomy laws and religious restrictions, enacted mostly by Christianity, have included intercrural intercourse within their purview.[15] In 15th-century Italy it was a part of sodomy's infamous reputation.[16] Medieval penitentials often highlighted intercrural sex as sinful and gave instructions on how to repent.[3]

Modern history

A 19th-century erotic artwork depicting intercrural sex between a man and a woman.

In early modern English, writers referred to intercrural sex by "rubbing” or “frigging”. Literary works like The School of Venus, The Choise of Valentines and The Lady of Pleasure depicted intercrural sex, with the first two speculated, by Will Fisher, to have encouraged people to perform the act. Works of satire at the time also discussed the act, specifically male-on-male intercrural sex. Cases of sodomy at this time, such as the trial of Mervyn Tuchet in 1631 which resulted in his execution, occasionally mentioned intercrural sex. Tuchet's case took on significant cultural prominence at the time and informed many people of male-on-male sexual habits and likely influencing the cultural perception to believe that intercrural sex was the main method of homosexual male sexual activity.[3] Richard Ellmann believed that Oscar Wilde solely performed intercrural sex in the hope that he could consequently declare his innocence against the allegation of "posing as a sodomite".[17] In 1885, Parliament of the United Kingdom passed a statute penalizing "gross indecency" between men, under the Labouchere Amendment; intercrural sex fell within the law's remit.[18][b]

Intercrural sex was one of many forms of sexual socialisation amongst young Africans that was critiqued by Christianity.[20] In both the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, intercrural sex between men was an indictable offence.[21] In Japan it is known as sumata.[22] American sociologist Josiah Flynt recalled that as a tramp he'd mostly have intercrural sex with young boys.[23] It has been practised by older and young South African men in "mine marriages".[24] Malawians and Mozambiquean men practiced it in Zimbabwean mines.[25]

In Zulu it is referred to as okusoma. It has a long history as an accepted practice for young people in southern Africa and was often practiced to prevent population growth.[26][27] Traditional Zulu culture encouraged youth to engage in intercrural sex as a part of sexual socialisation – intercrural sex as practiced by young unmarried couples was also supported.[28] A 1989 report regarding the city of Durban stated that in South Africa:

There is some evidence...to suggest that children from conservative homes are still schooled in the practice of ukusoma, that is intercrural intercourse, but in Christian homes this was stopped long ago in favour of chastity.[29]

Statistics

Sexual assault

Hickson et al. (1994) found that in 219 cases of male sexual assault reviewed in England and Wales, intercrural sex took place in five.[30] During 2014 in Sri Lanka, 270 instances of sexual assault were medically examined; 18 occurrences of intercrural intercourse were reported. No physical injuries occurred to the victims. These assaults reportedly occurred when the victim was between the age of 4 and 19 years.[31] A 1957 analysis of 148 sexual offenders in the United States who assaulted children under the age of 14 found that 6 percent committed their offences by means of intercrural intercourse.[32] In cases of child sexual abuse, there are usually no physical signs of intercrural intercourse.[33]

Education

Ripley et al. (1971), demonstrated that only 3 out of every 10 boys and 4 of every 10 girls in the 14-year-old age group surveyed thought that intercrural intercourse could not result in pregnancy.[34][c] In South Africa it has been seen as a method of preventing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In a 1997 study, 12.5 percent of girls who were asked how not to acquire AIDS responded by suggesting intercrural sex.[28] In Nigeria only 13 of 298 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive respondents knew that the disease could be transmitted through intercrural sex, while a further 30 said "no" and the remaining 255 responded with uncertainty.[35]

Demographics

Shere Hite's 1976 and 1981 research on female sexuality found that some adult women reported being able to achieve orgasm via intercrural contact to stimulate the clitoris.[36] Intercrural sex is popular in Sri Lanka: in a 2006 study, 4.2 percent of women reported to have engaged in it while 20.7 percent of men said to have had homosexual intercrural sex.[37] A 1997 report on the sexual health needs of males who have sex with males in the Calcutta suburbs found that 73 percent of men asked engaged in intercrural sex, though the frequency varied based on demographic factors: only 54 percent of sex workers, 50 percent of lower income men and 40 percent of Muslims reported intercrural sex, while 82 percent of Hindus and 88 percent of middle income men reported engaging in it.[38]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ There exists no examples of male-on-female intercrural sex in either form listed.[10]
  2. ^ The Sexual Offences Act 1967 permitted homosexual acts between two consenting adults over the age of 21.[19]
  3. ^ According to Ripley (1973), intercrural sex is not a recommended method of contraception.[34]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Tchou, Kang (2008). "Purificatory Hermeneutics of Desire". Comparative Humanities Review. 2 (1). Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. ^ Dover, K. J. (1978). "The Prosecution of Timarkhus". Greek Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 98. ISBN 0674362616. OCLC 3088711.
  3. ^ a b c d Fisher, Will (1 January 2015). ""Wantoning with the Thighs": The Socialization of Thigh Sex in England, 1590–1730". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 24 (1): 1–24. doi:10.7560/JHS24101. ISSN 1043-4070. S2CID 141561814. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  4. ^ Mistry, Hannah; Jha, Swati (2 November 2015). "Pregnancy with a pinhole introitus: A report of two cases and a review of the literature". The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care. 20 (6): 490–494. doi:10.3109/13625187.2015.1044083. ISSN 1362-5187. PMID 25960283. S2CID 207523628.
  5. ^ De Vries, Hein; Eggers, Sander Matthijs; Jinabhai, Champak; Meyer-Weitz, Anna; Sathiparsad, Reshma; Taylor, Myra (1 August 2014). "Adolescents' Beliefs About Forced Sex in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 43 (6): 1087–1095. doi:10.1007/s10508-014-0280-8. ISSN 1573-2800. PMC 4133072. PMID 24729133.
  6. ^ Blondell, Ruby; Ormand, Kirk (2015). "Ancient Sex: New Essays" (PDF). The Ohio State University Press. p. 32. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  7. ^ Tatum, James (2010). "Auto-Obituary". Southwest Review. 95 (1/2): 304–325. ISSN 0038-4712. JSTOR 43473061. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  8. ^ Lanni, Adriaan (1 April 2010). "The Expressive Effect of the Athenian Prostitution Laws". Classical Antiquity. 29 (1): 45–67. doi:10.1525/CA.2010.29.1.45. ISSN 0278-6656.
  9. ^ Percy, William A. (1996). Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. University of Illinois Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-252-06740-2. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
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  11. ^ Osborne, Robin (2018). Imaginary Intercourse. Oxford University Press. pp. 313–337. ISBN 9780190649890.
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  13. ^ Houser, J. Samuel (1998). ""Eros" and "Aphrodisia" in the Works of Dio Chrysostom". Classical Antiquity. 17 (2): 235–258. doi:10.2307/25011084. ISSN 0278-6656. JSTOR 25011084.
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  15. ^ Karras, Ruth Mazo (1 June 1999). "Prostitution and the Question of Sexual Identity in Medieval Europe". Journal of Women's History. 11 (2): 159–177. doi:10.1353/jowh.1999.0005. ISSN 1527-2036. S2CID 143952834. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
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  17. ^ Robson, Julie-Ann (2004). ""The Time of Opening Manhood": Mahaffy, Wilde, and Pater". Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS). 10 (1/2): 299–310. ISSN 1218-7364. JSTOR 41274283.
  18. ^ Goldstein, Anne B. (1993). "Reasoning about Homosexuality: A Commentary on Janet Halley's "Reasoning about Sodomy: Act and Identity in and after Bowers v. Hardwick"". Virginia Law Review. 79 (7): 1781–1804. doi:10.2307/1073386. ISSN 0042-6601. JSTOR 1073386.
  19. ^ writer, Parliament of the United Kingdom (n.d.). "Sexual Offences Act 1967". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 6 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Macleod, Catriona (1 May 2009). "Danger and Disease in Sex Education: The Saturation of 'Adolescence' with Colonialist Assumptions". Journal of Health Management. 11 (2): 375–389. doi:10.1177/097206340901100207. ISSN 0972-0634. S2CID 73166118. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  21. ^ Giles, Geoffrey J. (2002). "The Denial of Homosexuality: Same-Sex Incidents in Himmler's SS and Police". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 11 (1/2): 256–290. doi:10.1353/sex.2002.0003. ISSN 1043-4070. JSTOR 3704558. S2CID 142816037.
  22. ^ Constantine, Peter. Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures. Tokyo: Yenbooks, 1993, p. 75. ISBN 978-4-900737-00-6.
  23. ^ DiGirolamo, Vincent (2008). Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective. Ohio University Press. p. 238. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g.
  24. ^ Rupp, Leila J. (2001). "Toward a Global History of Same-Sex Sexuality". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 10 (2): 287–302. doi:10.1353/sex.2001.0039. ISSN 1043-4070. JSTOR 3704817. S2CID 142695691.
  25. ^ Msibi, Thabo (2011). "The Lies We Have Been Told: On (Homo) Sexuality in Africa". Africa Today. 58 (1): 55–77. doi:10.2979/africatoday.58.1.55. JSTOR 10.2979/africatoday.58.1.55. S2CID 144208448.
  26. ^ Kaarsholm, Preben (2005). "Moral Panic and Cultural Mobilization: Responses to Transition, Crime and HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal". Development and Change. 36: 133–156. doi:10.1111/j.0012-155X.2005.00405.x.
  27. ^ Klugman, Barbara (1 February 1991). "Population policy in South Africa: A critical perspective". Development Southern Africa. 8 (1): 19–34. doi:10.1080/03768359108439567. ISSN 0376-835X. PMID 12284789.
  28. ^ a b Varga, Christine A. (1997). "Sexual decision-making and negotiation in the midst of AIDS: youth in KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa". Health Transition Review. 7: 45–67. ISSN 1036-4005. JSTOR 40608688.
  29. ^ Preston-Whyte, Eleanor; Zondi, Maria (1989). "To Control Their Own Reproduction: The Agenda of Black Teenage Mothers in Durban". Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity (4): 47–68. ISSN 1013-0950. JSTOR 4547930.
  30. ^ Hickson, Ford C. I.; Davies, Peter M.; Hunt, Andrew J.; Weatherburn, Peter; McManus, Thomas J.; Coxon, Anthony P. M. (1 June 1994). "Gay men as victims of nonconsensual sex". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 23 (3): 281–294. doi:10.1007/BF01541564. ISSN 1573-2800. PMID 8024441. S2CID 26991937. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  31. ^ Senanayake, S. M. H. M. K.; Karunathilaka, H. A. (30 June 2017). "Age and injury patterns of female survivors of different alleged sexual assaults examined in the Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka". Sri Lanka Journal of Forensic Medicine, Science & Law. 8 (1): 23–32. doi:10.4038/sljfmsl.v8i1.7790. ISSN 2465-6089. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  32. ^ Parr, Denis (1958). "Psychiatric Aspects of the Wolfenden Report: II". The British Journal of Delinquency. 9 (1): 33–43. ISSN 0524-6369. JSTOR 23640854.
  33. ^ Bamford, Frank; Roberts, Raine (1989). "Child Sexual Abuse: II". BMJ: British Medical Journal. 299 (6695): 377–382. doi:10.1136/bmj.299.6695.377. ISSN 0959-8138. JSTOR 29704943. PMC 1837205. PMID 2506974.
  34. ^ a b Ripley, G D (1973). "Sex Education – Whose Baby?". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 66 (3): 267–269. doi:10.1177/003591577306600332. ISSN 0035-9157. PMC 1644813. PMID 4697995.
  35. ^ Ikechebelu, J.; Mbamara, S.; Joe-Ikechebebelu, N.; Ezenwabachili, A. (2009). "Sexual practices of people living with HIV in south eastern Nigeria". Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice. 12 (4): 416–20. doi:10.4314/njcp.v12i4.54642 (inactive 31 May 2021). ISSN 1119-3077. PMID 20329684.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of May 2021 (link)
  36. ^ Hite, Shere (2004). The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press. pp. 277–284. ISBN 978-1-58322-569-1. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  37. ^ Perera, B.; Reece, M. (1 July 2006). "Sexual behavior of young adults in Sri Lanka: Implications for HIV prevention". AIDS Care. 18 (5): 497–500. doi:10.1080/09540120500241538. ISSN 0954-0121. PMID 16777642. S2CID 22962445. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  38. ^ "Needs Assessment of Males who have Sex with Males in Calcutta and its Suburbs" (PDF). Naz Foundation International. 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2009.
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