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To make up for this transgression, this update is laden, heavily laden, with sex and sexual terms. I actually resisted the urge to put in a moan, maybe I’ll save that for the 100th podcast.
I feel like people still like mentioning the “bases” metaphor for sexual acts, if only in a joking way.
From Clone High:
Cleo: I hear that second and a half base is amazing when you are on raisins.
Abe: Under the shirt, over the bra?!
What do these metaphors mean? How do they stand up to an evolution in sexual practices, thought and technology?
Find out by listening to the CultureCast above (by pressing the little blue play botton), or by clicking through and checking out the transcript and further sources.
Baseball Metaphors for Sex: Second base and beyond (CultureCast #040)
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Transcript
Hello CultureCats, this Joshua Hwang pitching another 90 Seconds to Culture podcast.
This installment contains sexual content; if that’s going to bother you, now would be a good time to skip ahead. (pause)
Baseball Metaphors for Sex: Second base and beyond
How’d things go with your *ahem* friend last night?
We totally went to third base.
Already?
Blam-o!
These baseball metaphors for sex have been in use at least since the end of World War II, but what they mean can sometimes be a little ambiguous. Generally these have been used to describe male-female sexual practices, but can be expanded. As I know them, here are the sexual practices to which the bases correspond:
First base: Generally any type of mouth-to-mouth kissing, but usually “French kissing”, yes with tongues.
Second base: is fondling, groping breasts underneath the shirt. Whether this is under or over a bra is the subject of many drunken debates.
Third base: Can mean mutual masturbation, which is to say fondling of the other person’s genitals, or it can mean oral sex. Basically genitals are being touched.
The home run: is sexual intercourse, generally describing coitus (penis in vagina).
Of course, coitus is not possible in male-male or female-female sex, so the definition of home run can change depending on sexual or personal preference: it may include anal and/or oral sex (or other acts).
Because sexual acts can be quite varied, there is this gray area that is hard to classify with this baseball metaphor. Examples include anal-oral sex and sex with strap-on dildo.
Sources / Further Reading:
Wikipedia: Baseball metaphors for sex - I didn’t even get to mention pitching and catching
Wikipedia: List of Sexual Acts - There are way more than I thought, I thought I knew a lot.
[tags]sex, sexuality, baseball metaphors, culture, podcast[/tags]
(image from StuSeeger via flickr)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Nothing against you, but I just realized I don’t think I ever want to hear you talking about sex again.
I enjoyed reading Wiki’s “Lesbian sexual practices” entry. It was educational.
Happy New Year Josh!
@Ryan: Happy New Year Ryan! And yeah, there’s a lot more information than I expected.
@Shan: I will dedicate the next podcast on sex to you.