Fellatio
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Fellatio (also known as fellation, and colloquially blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an act of oral stimulation of the penis by a sexual partner or by oneself (autofellatio). It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, lips, tongue or throat. A person who performs fellatio on someone can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person as the receiving partner. Fellatio is regarded by many as an erotic act in its own right and a physically intimate act. For many males, it is a turn-on which may be used by the giving partner to initiate foreplay and sexual arousal before sexual intercourse. The act may also be performed for the sexual gratification derived by the male receiving partner and can be continued until orgasm and ejaculation of semen.
Though the person receiving fellatio must be male, his sex partner may be of either gender. When the penis is forced into someone's mouth, it may be called irrumatio, though the term is rarely used. Oral sex when the receiving partner is female is called cunnilingus. Laws of some jurisdictions regard fellatio as penetrative sex for sexual offense purposes, with the person performing fellatio being regarded as the person penetrated; but most countries do not have laws which ban the practice itself, as in the case of anal sex or extramarital sex. Most people do not regard fellatio as affecting the virginity of either partner.
History
In ancient Greece and modern Japan, fellatio has been referred to as "playing the flute"; the Kama Sutra has a chapter on auparishtaka (or oparishtaka), "mouth congress".
Galienus called fellatio "lesbiari" since women of the island of Lesbos were supposed to have introduced the practice of using one's lips to give sexual pleasure.
The Ancient Indian Kama Sutra, dating from the first century AD, describes 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 "a wise man" should not engage in that form of intercourse while acknowledging that it can be appropriate in some unspecified cases.
The religious historian Mircea Eliade speaks of a desire to transcend old age and death and achieve a state of nirvana in the Hindu practice of Tantric yoga. In Tantric yoga the same emphasis is placed on the retention and absorption of vital liquids and Sanskrit texts describe how semen must not be emitted if the yogi is to avoid falling under the law of time and death.
The Moche culture of ancient Peru worshipped daily life including sexual acts. They depicted fellatio in their ceramics.
In some cultures, such as the Manchu, Telugu, and in rural areas of Cambodia and Thailand, kissing or briefly taking the penis of a male infant or toddler into one's mouth is considered a nonsexual form of affection or even a form of greeting. Such practices generally decline with urbanization or Westernization.
