Excerpts from “The History of Fellatio�

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Excerpts from

[biggest][tab]The History of Fellatio[/biggest]

 

in Salon MONDAY, MAY 22, 2000 08:16 AM EDT

 

http://www.salon.com/2000/05/22/oral_history/

 

Annie Auguste talks to author Thierry Leguay and finds out that humans may be the only animals that give blow jobs.

 

By ANNIE AUGUSTE

 

According to recent press reports, Americans are having oral sex at alarmingly younger ages - and with increasing nonchalance. (Note: Oral sex here refers exclusively to fellatio.) Oral sex precedes and often replaces sexual intercourse because it's perceived to be noncommittal, quick and safe. For some kids it's a cool thing to do; for others it's a cheap thrill. Raised in a culture in which speed is valued, kids, not surprisingly, seek instant gratification through oral sex (the girl by instantly pleasing the boy, the boy by sitting back and enjoying the ride). A seemingly facile command over the sexual landscape of one's partner is achieved without the encumbrances of clothes, coitus and the rest of the messy business. The blow job is, in essence, the new joystick of teen sexuality.

 

In short, if we are to believe today's sociologists and culture mavens, oral sex has become ordinary. But the increased banality of the blow job is perplexing. When I was a teenager, in the bad-taste, disco-fangled '70s, fellatio was something you graduated into. Rooted in the great American sport of baseball, the sexual metaphors of my generation put fellatio somewhere after home base, way off in the distant plains of the outfield. In fact, skipping all the bases and going directly to fellatio was the sort of home run reserved only for racy, borderline delinquents, who enjoyed a host of licentious and forbidden activities that made them stars in the firmament of teen recklessness.

But generational blips - like empires and economic upheavals - come and go. As French writer/professor Thierry Leguay notes in his (not yet translated into English) "History of Fellatio," as long as the penis has the power to please, fellatio is not likely to be bumped off the bestseller list of all-time favorite male joys anytime in the next millennium or two.

 

What are the earliest traces of fellatio?

 

A well-known French paleontologist by the name of Yves Coppens suggested that the famous Lucy (the first prehistoric woman) practiced a sort of "paleo-fellatio." But the first clear real traces of fellatio are from ancient Egypt. Many of the more stellar examples are in the British Museum, where we find the famous myth of Osiris and Iris: Osiris was killed by his brother and cut into pieces. His sister Iris put the pieces together but, by chance, the penis was missing. An artificial penis was made out of clay, and Iris "blew" life back into Osiris by sucking it. There are explicit images of this myth.

 

As an aside, Egyptian women were particularly well known for their sexual prowess. Egyptian women are also purported to be the first women to use makeup.

 

You also cover a lot of Roman ground in your book.

 

Ancient Rome was a society of soldiers, of machos and rapists, and their perception of fellatio was interesting. The practice of fellatio in ancient Rome was perceived in terms of active and passive: The active one was in fact the person getting fellatio. In this case we're talking about the soldier, the virile male. The passive one - usually a woman or a slave - was the one giving fellatio or, to understand it more clearly, the one receiving the penis.

 

Today, of course, it's the other way around. We perceive the one who's giving fellatio as the active one and the one receiving it as the passive one. But in Rome to give fellatio was a passive act, a submissive act. For example - and this is very clear in Roman texts - to punish a person who stole potatoes from his field, a Roman might oblige the person to give him fellatio. He might stand up, drop his pants and say, "Now you're going to kneel down and take it in your mouth." The one who was required to give fellatio was the passive one, the one who went against the valor of virility. The Roman perception is interesting.

 

Western European culture didn't necessarily ritualize fellatio, but there was a time when it was much more openly libertine than today.

 

Yes, even in Western culture going back to the 18th century. In 18th century France the upper clergy lived according to principles that were similar to Roman times. You had your chapel, your chateau, your wife and then all your mistresses. The bishops lived this way as well. The population of 18th century Paris was 600,000, with 30,000 recorded prostitutes. That's enormous. Enormous. In the Palais Royal 50,000 little booklets from the 18th century were found; they were mini-directories of prostitutes and their specialties. One can assume that fellatio was a basic staple here.

 

[FigoItaliano]

This was interesting to read. A history/sex combo is a good thing

[Guest]

When I grew up in th 50s and early 60s, prior to Linda Lovelace, it seemed most people thought that fellatio was a degrading or humiliating act willfully imposed upon the submissive partner for the satisfaction of the dominant partner who enjoyed not only the physical release, but was expected to enjoy humiliating the partner.

 

Of course, that has changed, primarily, I would assume, due to porn.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Guest