Intercourse
A sexual relationship is the set of behaviors performed by at least two people with the aim of giving or receiving sexual pleasure. Sexual relationships can include many practices such as sexual caresses, sexual intercourse, oral or coitus
Intercourse or copulation consists of the introduction of the penis into the vagina or anus. In the case of fertile heterosexual couples, reproductive purposes may also be present. The duration of a sexual act is usually from 2 minutes to more than 40 minutes.
Terminology: intercourse and mating
Usually the term sexual relations is used to refer to the courtship and sexual behavior of human beings and the term mating is used to refer to other animals. In biology, mating is the set of all sexual courtship and breeding behaviors carried out by two individuals of different sex to procreate, and which culminates in copulation; in opposition to the possibility of generating offspring with only one (self-fertilization of hermaphrodites, parthenogenesis).
Types of sexual relations
- According to the number of people involved at the same time and place
- Two, like in a couple
- Threesome or ménage à trois.
- Orgy or group sex: several individuals have sex at the same time and in the same place. Without excluding any sexual group
- According to the link of the people involved.
- With more or less developed affective links such as in many types of couples (marriage, girlfriend, friendship with rights or polyamorous groups)
- Only with the aim of giving and receiving sexual pleasure (occasional sex or exchange of couple)
- According to the gender of participants
- Among women, typical but not limited to lesbians and bisexual women
- Between males, typical but not limited to gay and bisexual males
- typical but not limited to heterosexual and bisexual persons
- Including transgender or intersexual people, typical but not limited to pansexuality
- Other types
- Shared use of sex toys
- BDSM
- Inclusion of other paraphilia
- Unconsensual sexual practices
In our culture, the requirement to consider a sexual practice as part of a valid sexual relationship and not a crime, is consent. Thus, sexual practices can be consented or not.
Some of the sexual practices in which a person lacks consent have particular names.
- Violation that occurs when a person has sexual access to another, through the use of physical or psychological violence or through the use of mechanisms that nullify the consent of the offended. Rape is also spoken when the victim is unable to give consent, such as in cases of mental incompetents, minors, or persons in a state of unconsciousness, through alcohol or other drugs.
- Child sexual abuse or paedophilia: it is all conduct in which a minor is used as a sexual object by another person with whom he maintains an unequal relationship, whether as to age, maturity or power.
- Enforced prostitution, one of the purposes of trafficking in persons mediated by a certain type of pimping
Other practices where consent is lacking are necrophilia, the sexual practice between a person and a corpse, and bestiality, the sexual practice between a person and an animal.
Sexual practices
Practices can be divided, as a first approximation, into coital and non-coital. Among the non-coital practices are such as:
- Wizard, hugs, caresses and kisses.
- Sex
- Mutual Masturbation.
- Oral sex directed towards genitals (felation, cunnilingus, 69), anus (anilingus) or other parts of the body (e.g. nipples)
- Genital-genital sex without penetration: tribadism and frot
Intercourse or copulation
Coitus or copulation (from the Latin: co-iter, 'common march' or 'common walk') is the insertion and pelvic thrust of the penis into the vagina or anus. In humans, intercourse is one of the sexual practices that is part of the sexual relationship. It is also the normative practice of sexual relations (see Coitocentrism). The authors often use the word coitus to refer to the vaginal. Of sexual practices, it is the practice that has the highest risk of being a route of transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which is why it is the main target of safe sex recommendations.
Vaginal intercourse
Vaginal intercourse involves inserting the penis into the vagina. It is the sexual practice that, among fertile people, is more likely to result in fertilization and pregnancy, which is why it is the target of some contraceptive methods.
Although there is a tendency to think that the original form of vaginal intercourse in humans is the so-called a tergo or ventro-dorsal —since this exists in other mammals of almost exclusively—, there are studies that question this theory and find a relationship between morphological coercion and the preference for ventro-ventral intercourse in humans and in the bonobo chimpanzee.
The sexual position a tergo—that is, the penetration of the penis into the vagina when the female is facing away from the male—is often called the levrette, if the The woman is leaning on her legs and arms, although it is also performed when the woman is vaginally penetrated from behind (for example, lying down resting her back on the man).
The most common form of intercourse in humans is the ventro-ventral or frontal position, colloquially called the missionary position, since popularly the introduction of this form of coitus in Oceania is attributed to missionaries.
Another common position during intercourse in humans is the Andromache position, with the woman sitting on the lying man. This pose gives more movement possibilities to both the woman and the man, since both can use their hands to caress other parts of the body.
Anal intercourse
In anal intercourse, penetration takes place in the anus. In academic parlance, the term "pedication" (from the Latin pœdicatio or pœdicationis) is also sometimes used.
The anal mucosa lacks lubrication and is even more easily irritated than the vagina, so it is at greater risk of transmitting STIs, especially HIV, if not done safely. For this, it is advisable to use water-based lubricants, which do not affect condoms.
Coitocentrism
Coitocentrism is the tendency to hierarchize sexuality into significant, adult and complete practices (coitus) and vain, infantile and immature practices (other practices) to the point of confusing sexual relations with coitus and not giving the name and status of sexual relations, the sexual practices in which intercourse has not occurred or to not consider them a way of obtaining pleasure or orgasm.
Coitocentrism is located as one of the characteristics of hegemonic and normative sexuality, which must also be procreative, genital, monogamous, in marriage, naturalized, for love, at home, in pairs, and, of course,, Heterosexual. The rest of the practices will be rejected and branded as abnormal, unnatural, or sick. Although it is accepted that coitocentrism is also present as a norm in some homosexual relationships.
In the West, the Judeo-Christian tradition has been linked to the support of coitocentrism. According to this tradition, the sexual act is valid only in marriage, and it becomes a means to express intimate feelings, acquire responsibilities and, above all, reproduce the species. According to this doctrine, both non-heterosexual and extramarital heterosexual sexuality are immoral. For libertarians, it is the lack of consent, or an imbalance of power - such as forced intercourse - that is immoral; but for many conservatives marital coercion is not immoral. It is contextualized as one of patriarchal "ballasts".
It sits alongside other mandates of hegemonic masculinity such as phallocentrism, that is, the reduction of the male body to the penis, the denial of all other sensitive and pleasure areas; and the denial of emotion; all these necessary attributes for harmonious relationships within the couple.
The emergence of the concept of coitocentrism and its criticism comes hand in hand with feminism, and the latest technological advances in the field of contraception and abortion and sexual reform that occurred in the XX thanks to which the list of socially accepted sexual practices is expanding.
Intercourse in literature
In addition to the Marquis de Sade, many other authors (Chaucer, Bocaccio, Petronio or Rabelais) have described this type of practice in their works. An example about vaginal sex is in the story "The Devil and Hell", from the book The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Sexual Controversies
Sexual relations have always been a controversial issue throughout the history of all civilizations, especially in Judeo-Christian culture. Religions have had an important influence on the concept of sexuality. In general terms, it is known that performing the sexual act contributes to relaxation. Within Western culture, certain acts such as pedophilia, incest, or the rape. Pedophilia and rape are crimes in almost every country in the world.
Sexual activities such as adultery, homosexuality, orgies and premarital relations, may be rejected or accepted by certain groups of people, although they are unsanctioned practices in much of the West and elsewhere, while there is a punitive tendency in societies theocratic and fundamentalist.
In many Islamic countries all sexual activity outside of marriage is illegal. These countries include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania, etc.
Colloquial Terminology
In Spanish, a multitude of terms are used colloquially to refer, in human beings, to sexual relations, the sexual act, intercourse; some of them: fucking, fucking, throwing, having sex, fucking, cohabiting, pumping, going through the arms, garchar, give inside, get laid, check measurements, have belly button seals, feed the monkey, climb to the guava tree, moisten the blackboard, fornicate, put a collar on the neck, give broth, deflate the cuaresmeño, hit the stuffed animal, stab the bear from the inside, put meat inside, make the delicious, etc.