Fellatio

A felation.

Fellatio —from the Latin fellatio, from fellare, 'to suckle'— or coitus per os (by mouth) is a practice of oral sex that consists of stimulating the penis with the mouth, using the tongue and lips.

Description and variants

As a form of self-masturbation (autofellatio) it is very rare, due to physical difficulty, so in general it is usually done by another or other people, of the same or different sex.

In prostitution it is relatively common for two people to do it (duo fellatio), and in orgies and in pornographic films there can be three or even more.

When the mouth is passively still and the penis penetrates it, the act is called irrumation (from the Latin irrumatio). This difference is more theoretical than practical, since neither of the two participants usually remains completely passive.

When two members of a couple perform oral sex on each other simultaneously, it is known as the 69 position, whether it is two fellatios, two cunnilingus, or one fellatio and one cunnilingus.

There is also double fellatio, where a couple performs oral sex on a man while stimulating both the penis and the testicles. It is important to note that the testicles are also an erogenous zone that contracts as they are stimulated and that is linked to the penis during ejaculation.

In the slang of prostitution

Chile

Painting of Édouard-Henri Avril.

Mainly in the slang of escorts there are specific expressions to explain the variants of this practice.

• American or American Oral: originally this practice referred to the felation in which it was ejaculated in the mouth of the woman and she swallowed the semen. With the passage of time and the concern of contracting diseases the expression lost the real meaning, so it is common that today it is used only to describe the felation in which it ejaculates in the mouth of the woman, without her swallowing it.

The term Real American is now used to describe the original practice (having the person performing fellatio swallow the semen).

• The dragon or make the dragon: felation, with ejaculation in the mouth, in which the semen is released by the nose.
• Facial: felation that ends with ejaculation in the face.
• French or oral: felation in which the penis is licked or inserted into the mouth, can be with or without condom.

Spain

In prostitution slang there is a specific vocabulary to refer to the different variants of fellatio:

• French beverage: swallow the semen when the man ejaculates at the end of the felation.
• Deep French: put the penis in its entirety in the mouth.
• French or natural without French: perform a felation without condom.

Bareback blowjob is a fairly frequent practice despite the risks it implies for health, since it can spread venereal diseases, among others.

In the 19th century the practice of fellatio was frowned upon even among prostitutes. It is recorded that in Madrid prostitutes could blame each other for the practice of fellatio, in an insulting way.

History

Ancient Egypt

In the myth of the god Atum, he performs autofellatio and spits out his semen giving rise to the gods Shu (air) and Tephnut (moisture).

Image of a homosexual felation in a Greek vessel.

Greece

In the Iliad the term women of Lesbos appears for the first time and refers to the females who best practiced fellatio, since the Greek verb lesbiázein means "fellar". In fact, in classical Greece the island was famous for the skill and tendency of its inhabitants to carry out this practice.^{[citation needed]} The deviation from the meaning of this term is due to the use that Christians later gave it and to the origin of the poetess Sappho. However, the word used in ancient Greece to refer to lesbians was tribada, from the Greek tribo (to rub).

Rome

In ancient Rome this practice was called fellare or irrumare or fellatrices. It is considered that this practice was common in the Roman world due to the fact that Marcial quoted it in various works.

The Romans tied power to oral sex, creating dominant and submissive roles. Although cunnilingus was considered a dirty practice, thanks to some graffiti done in public baths and words carved on walls, some male prostitutes are known to they waited in the corners of these baths for women who requested their services.

Practicing fellatio or cunnilingus, whether the perpetrator was a man or a woman, made him guilty. According to the Roman hierarchy of sexual degradation, a man suspected of having orally stimulated a woman lowered himself more than one who was penetrated by another man. He was imposed the legal status of infamous, on the same level as prostitutes, gladiators and actors, which prevented him from voting and representing himself in court.

Moche culture

Felt in a moche ceramic piece.

The ancient Peruvian Moche culture worshiped daily life including sexual practices. They described fellatio on their ceramics.

Papua New Guinea

Among the Sambians of Papua New Guinea there is a belief that semen has special properties, so it is important that youngsters ingest the semen of their elders by performing fellatio. It is an important initiation for young adolescents to reach adequate sexual maturation.

Indian

The Indian Kámasutra, first century AD. C., describes oral sex, analyzing fellatio in great detail and briefly mentioning cunnilingus. However, according to this text, fellatio is primarily a behavior characteristic of eunuchs, who used their mouths as a substitute for the female genitalia.

The author Vatsiaiana states that it was also practiced by "non-chaste women" and he mentions the traditional prejudice, very widespread, to consider this practice as degrading or impure. Vatsyayana seems to agree to some extent with these attitudes, stating that a "wise man" it should not fall into that form of copulation, although he acknowledges that it may be appropriate in some cases, which, curiously, he fails to specify.

Khajuraho is home to the largest set of Hindu temples in India, famous for their erotic sculptures. According to some hypotheses, the decoration had an educational motive: to teach the Kama Sutra to the youngest. For others, the temples are a tribute to the marriage between Shivá and Párvati, and some even point out that the representation of lovers served as protection, since it scared away evil spirits and lightning. They were built in a period of about a hundred years, between the year 950 and 1050, and among their sculptures we can already see figures practicing fellatio.

Kama sutra Kama sutra Khajuraho Figures

Quran

In Islamic literature, sex during the menstrual cycle is explicitly prohibited within marriage. But the attitude towards oral sex and anal sex is a matter of contention among modern students of Islam. Regarding oral sex, some religious authorities believe that it is allowed, as long as no liquid enters the mouth. Other factions, on the other hand, believe that oral stimulation of the penis is prohibited, while female oral stimulation is acceptable.

Historical figures

Throughout history, different women have been pointed out as great or expert fellatrices, or they became known because of some sexual scandal. The most conspicuous of these has been Queen Cleopatra, nicknamed "merichane" (the mouth of the ten thousand men) Of Cleopatra it was affirmed that she was able to practice oral sex with one hundred Roman soldiers in one night.

During the tenure of US Democratic President Bill Clinton, an intern, Monica Lewinsky, became famous for giving blowjobs to the President, in the sex scandal known as Monicagate.

Fatlatio in art

An image of two men performing a felation.

The practice of fellatio has been represented countless times in different formats. Records are kept on Greek vases, on skylights, on Roman paintings and reliefs, and on Indian temples.

At the movies

The American pornographic film Deep Throat (Deep Throat) was released in 1972, was written and directed by Gerard Damiano and starred actress Linda Lovelace.

It's called Deep Throat because in it the protagonist shows her virtuosity in the art of fellatio. Her great success is due to Linda's great ability to perform fellatio down her throat. This meant a change in the world of porn, since since then a multitude of actresses have emulated Linda.

Andy Warhol, the father of pop-art, directed the 1963 film Blow Job ("fellatio" or "blowjob, in English), about 35 minutes long, which is made up exclusively of a closed shot on the face of a man who seems to react to some type of stimulus that the camera does not capture.

In recent years, several conventional (non-pornographic) films have been made, which show real fellatio. A pioneering case was the film adaptation of Raymond Radiguet's novel The Demon in the Body carried out by Marco Bellocchio in 1986, in which Maruschka Detmers stimulated her partner in this way. More recent examples are the film Baise-moi, The Brown Bunny, with Chloë Sevigny, Intimacy, with Kerry Fox, The Debutantes , by Andrés Waissbluth, Battle in Heaven, by Carlos Reygadas, Q, with Déborah Révy and Hélène Zimmer, among others.

In plastic art

In shunga, a Japanese word that refers to erotic images, usually made by printing with wooden plates or, even more rarely, as painted scrolls, both heterosexual and homosexual relationships were described. Shunga is a type of ukiyo-e that had its production period in the Edo period (1603-1868) and from which all kinds of erotic scenes including fellatio have survived.

Flat-job has also been the subject of artistic explorations by established painters, such as Salvador Dalí or Pablo Picasso. There is an explicit painting by Picasso, called La douleur (Scène Erotique) from the author's blue period, which is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. It is an oil painting in which the artist portrays himself in the middle of the sexual act and that this venue has never dared to hang.

Édouard-Henri Avril, painter and illustrator of erotic literature, became renowned for his paintings of various sexual practices.

Flat and health

Luc Lafnet etching.

Contact between the oral mucosa, precum and semen can be the cause of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV-AIDS, diseases caused by papillomavirus, chlamydiasis, genital herpes or hepatitis B are some of the diseases transmitted by this practice. The risk is greater for the person who performs it, so the use of a condom is recommended by the person who receives it.

In the case of HIV, assuming that one of the two members of the couple is a carrier of the human immunodeficiency virus, the risk of infection through fellatio is very low, since saliva has a low virus concentration. However, the risk increases if there are injuries (penis, mouth or pharynx) in any of the practitioners. If fellatio is performed without a condom, the risk is moderate if he ejaculates in the mouth but does not swallow the semen, but it becomes a high-risk practice if, in addition to performing it without protection, the semen is ingested.