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Oral sex consists of all the sexual activities that involve the use of the mouth, tongue, and possibly throat to stimulate genitalia. It may be used as foreplay before intercourse, as climax of a sexual act, or even following intercourse. It is sometimes performed to the exclusion of all other forms of sexual activity. Oral sex may or may not include the ingestion or absorption of semen and/or vaginal fluids. Ingestion of these fluids alone, without physical mouth-to-genital contact (e.g., the extreme form of facial known as bukkake), is not considered to be oral sex -- although it remains an erotic practice nevertheless. Common slang terms for oral sex include "going down on," "giving head to," "giving a blowjob to" (male), "eating out" (female), "licking out" (female) or "sucking off" (male) a sexual partner.
Utility Oral sex is used in both homosexual and heterosexual relationships. In heterosexual relationships, oral sex can be a method of contraception (birth control) since pregnancy is impossible unless sperm enters the vagina. Many heterosexuals choose oral sex as an alternative to intercourse for this reason. It is important to note that oral sexual activities are not effective methods of preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), although some forms of STD are believed to be less readily spread in this way. Some heterosexual couples use fellatio as a substitute for intercourse during a woman's menstrual cycle or pregnancy. While it is often used for these reasons, oral sex is also commonly used between heterosexual couples as they consider it pleasureable, or as foreplay. Many women who are situationally anorgasmic can only achieve orgasm through oral sex, and so they will choose it instead of sexual intercourse. A report issued in September 2005 by the National Center for Health Statistics was the basis of an article in the September 26 2005 issue of Time magazine. The report comes from the results of a computer-administered survey of over 12,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 44, and states that over half the teenagers questioned have had oral sex. While some headlines have interpreted this as evidence that oral sex among teens is "on the rise", this was the first comprehensive study of its kind to examine the matter. Among those who would be dedicated virgins, oral sex is also common, as some people do not consider oral sex to be sex. For such people, engaging in oral sex does not entail the loss of virginity. Fellatio
Cunnilingus Cunnilingus is the act of using the mouth and tongue to stimulate the female genitals, especially the clitoris. The term comes from an alternative Latin word for the vulva (cunnus) and from the Latin word for tongue (lingua). Only one-third of women orgasm easily during the actual act of intercourse. Masturbation and cunnilingus are alternative ways for women to achieve orgasm with a partner. Most women can orgasm easily during clitoral or pubic area stimulation.• As in all human sexual behaviour, the variety of techniques in cunnilingus and individual responses to them are almost endless. As always, communication, experimentation and practice are the best way to learn how to please a particular partner. The clitoris is the most sensitive part for almost all women, but may be too sensitive to stimulate directly at times, especially in early stages of arousal, and it is often best to begin with more gentle and less focused stimulation of the labia and the whole genital area. Ron Jeremy has advised in several films that a clockwise, counterclockwise, all over the place approach is more important than focusing solely on the clitoris. Tongue tip, blade or underside can be used, as can the nose, chin, lips and teeth (with caution). Movements can be slow or fast, regular or erratic, firm or soft as the moment requires. The tongue can be inserted into the vagina, either stiffened or moving. Humming to cause vibration while performing cunnilingus is often considered to be especially arousing, with certain pitches, rhythms or tunes thought to be particularly effective by different people. Cunnilingus is easily accompanied by the insertion of finger(s) or a sex toy into the vagina, which allows for the simultaneous stimulation of the g-spot, or into the anus, either of which many women find produce very intense sensations. Many other activities can accompany cunnilingus to enhance overall pleasure, of course, limited only by preference, physics, anatomy and multitasking ability. Cunnilingus is also sometimes referred to as a "eating out" or "poon-job", a slang term and a cunnilingus variant of "blow-job" (see the section of Fellatio above), where "poon" is short for poontang or punani. Additionally, in lesbian culture a common slang term used is "giving lip" or "lip service." Anilingus Anal-oral contact – also referred to as anilingus and colloquially known as rimming, a rimjob, tossing the salad, pepe'ing, 87 (compare 69), or, historically, the black kiss – is a sexual activity involving contact between the anus or perianal areas of one person and the mouth of another. Variants Facesitting is a form of oral sex in which the receiver sits on the giver's face and pushes into it with his or her genitals. Oral sex can be performed by both partners at the same time in the so-called "sixty-nine" position. The receiver of oral sex may find it pleasurable if the giver hums or sings at the same time, sometimes called a hummer. This in effect makes the giver's mouth into a vibrator, though unlike mechanical vibrators the mouth has built-in lubricant (saliva). A similar effect can now be created by placing a small, yet powerful vibrator under the jaw, causing the tongue to vibrate, which can be very pleasurable in small quantities, but can be numbing for one or both parties if overused. Spitting and/or swallowing of the ejaculatory fluids may cause different sexual stimulations. Also, eye contact - during fellatio or cunnilingus may be very stimulating and more pleasurable as it acknowledges that a real person is performing oral sex, not a machine or sex toy. Autofellatio is a possible but rare variant; autocunnilingus may also be possible for extremely flexible women, like contortionists and dancers. Irrumatio is similar to fellatio, but with the receiver actively thrusting into the giver's mouth. Irrumatio is often depicted in pornography as a type of dominant behavior. Taboo Oral sex had been considered to be a taboo or at least frowned upon in many cultures and parts of the world. Reasons mentioned are that this sexual act does not lead to procreation, or that is a humiliating and/or unclean practice (an opinion that is, at least in some cases, connected with the symbolics attached to different parts of the body). This has been more or less the case in Christian and Sub-Saharan African cultures, in Ancient Rome, and Ancient India. Similar lines of reasoning have been espoused by only a fraction of the modern religious authorities in Islamic cultures. In pre-Christian Ancient Rome, sexual acts were generally seen through the prism of submission and control. This is apparent in the two Latin words for the act: irrumare (to penetrate orally), and fellare (to be penetrated orally). Under this system, it was considered to be abhorrent for a male to perform fellatio or cunnilingus, since that would mean that he was penetrated (controlled), whereas receiving fellatio from a woman or another man of lower social status (such as a slave or debtor) was not humiliating. The Romans regarded oral sex as being far more shameful than, for example, anal sex — known practitioners were supposed to have foul breath and were often unwelcome as guests at a dinner table. The practice was taboo for public health reasons, as well. In Rome, the genitals were considered to be unclean. Oral sex was thought to make the mouth dirty, and (ultimately) to present a public health risk. Interestingly, the practice of fellatio was said to have been introduced by the women of Lesbos, who used to whiten their lips as though with semen. The Ancient Indian Kama Sutra, dating from the first centuries AD, does describe oral sex, discussing fellatio in great detail and only briefly mentioning cunnilingus. However, according to the Kama Sutra, fellatio is above all a characteristic of eunuchs (or, according to other translations, of effeminate homosexuals or transwomen similar to the modern Hijra of India), who use their mouths as a substitute for female genitalia. The author states that it is also practiced by "unchaste women," but mentions widespread traditional concerns about this being a degrading or unclean practice, with known practitioners being evaded as love partners in large parts of the country. He seems to agree with these attitudes to some extent, claiming that "a wise man" should not engage in that form of intercourse, while acknowledging that it can be appropriate in some (unspecified) cases. In Islamic literature, the only two forms of sex that are explicitly prohibited between married couples are anal sex and sex during menstrual cycles. Still, the exact attitude towards oral sex is a subject of disagreements between modern scholars of Islam. In Islamic terminology, the practice hasn't been described as haram (forbidden), but some have claimed that it is makruh (undesirable). The authorities that consider it objectionable do so because of the contact between the supposedly impure fluids, emitted during intercourse, and the mouth. Others emphasize that there is no decisive evidence to forbid it. A common misperception is that oral sex is still nominally illegal in some states in the U.S. However, in the U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas (2003), Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, struck down all anti-sodomy laws in the United States, declaring that such laws violated the liberty phrase of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Health issues Semen contains water, small amounts of salt, protein, zinc and fructose sugar. It is slightly alkaline, which causes some to find the taste bitter or brackish, but neither male nor female sexual bodily fluids are in themselves harmful to a sexual partner, apart from concerns of STDs (separately discussed below). Urban legends sometimes describe semen as nutritious and a good source of protein. However, semen only contains a small amount of protein and in any case is typically only available in small quantities during oral sex. Partners should be careful not to bite or scratch the genitalia with the teeth harder than desired. It is also possible for the inside of the mouth to be bruised by the penis if oral sex is too rough, although this can be lessened if the person giving fellatio tilts his or her head back (as in looking up) instead of keeping the head level. People with mouth ulcers and temporomandibular joint disorder may find that giving oral sex is uncomfortable. Possible beneficial effects It has been suggested that fellatio may have a beneficial role in preventing dangerous complications during pregnancy. Specifically, a research group reported that pre-eclampsia, a life threatening complication that sometimes arises in pregnancy, is much less frequent in couples who have practiced oral sex, and even more rare in couples where fellatio ended with the semen swallowed. Both results were highly statistically significant. This is consistent with other evidence that semen contains an agent that prevents preeclampsia, and with the theory that preeclampsia is an immunological condition. According to that view, preeclampsia is caused by a failure of the mother's organism to accept the foetus and placenta, which both contain "foreign" proteins from the father's genes. Regular exposure to the father's semen might cause her immune system to gradually "grow accustomed" to his proteins. Other studies also found that, while any exposure to the partner's sperm during sex appears to decrease the chances of various disorders, women who have practiced "other sex acts" than intercourse are almost twice as unlikely to suffer pre-eclampsia. It is not known whether this represents a protective effect of "other sex acts" including oral sex, or a correlation between these sexual practices and some other protective factor: for example, greater overall frequency of sex . The standard way to resolve such questions (confounding) in medical science would be through a randomized trial, but there are unique challenges to research in sexual health . When reporting the findings of the first research group mentioned above, New Scientist magazine thought it worth mentioning that some of the research team were women (including the lead author). Sexually transmitted diseases Chlamydia, human papillomavirus (HPV), gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis (multiple strains), and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) — including HIV — can be transmitted through oral sex. However transmission of HIV through fellatio or cunnilingus is relatively rare. Any kind of direct contact with body fluids of a person infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) should be avoided. In 2005, a research study at the College of Malmö in Sweden suggested that performing unprotected oral sex on a person infected with HPV might increase the risk of oral cancer . The risk from most of these types of infection, however, is generally considered far lower than that associated with vaginal or anal sex. Furthermore, oral sex should be avoided when either partner has wounds or open sores on the genitals or mouth, or bleeding gums in the mouth, or has recently brushed, flossed, undergone dental work, or eaten crunchy foods such as potato chips, all of which can cause small scratches in the lining of the mouth. These wounds, even when they are microscopic, increase the chances of contracting STDs that can be transmitted orally under these conditions. Such contact can also lead to more mundane infections from common bacteria and viruses found in, around and secreted from the genital regions. Because of this, many medical professionals advise the use of condoms in the performance of fellatio (flavoured condoms are available for this purpose) and the use of plastic or latex sheets (dental dams or ordinary plastic wrap) for cunnilingus, although the latter has failed to achieve the same level of widespread use as condoms. Terminology and slang There are many words describing oral sex, including euphemisms and slang. Like all aspects of sexuality, there exist a very large number of variations on a theme, and no attempt will be made here to represent them all. Works cited See also | ||||||||||
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