Was oral sex always as popular as it is today?

[The Maple Leaf Forever]

This question has been bugging me for a long time. I was quite shocked in my early 20s (c. 2001) to find out that many people are not satisfied with having only vaginal sex but insist on their partner performing oral sex on them too. From what I have read on the internet since then, I get the impression like oral is something almost everyone likes to receive and that many, if not a large majority of people would even consider it a deal breaker, I.E. that they would supposedly break up with a partner who didn't want to give it to them.

Was it always like that or is this a relatively recent phenomenon (I.E. since Bill Clinton's 1993 "Monica-gate")? Would not doing oral have been considered odd in the 1980s? In the 1970s? In the conservative 1950s before the sexual revolution? Or was it something that was always part of most people's standard sexual repertoire?

[Star Bit]

For one, i think it differs by culture, but from the ancient drawings/paintings I've seen depicting it i think it has always been popular.

XD Apparently bats and primates do it too.

[Waist of Thyme]

I read that it actually used to be taboo, but mafia films made it popular.

[Rising Sun]

I think oral was even more popular in the past, when there was no birth control and sex wasn't supposed to exist outside of marriage. From what my parents, who were born before WW2, told me, they found ways to have sex without any risk of pregnancy or "loss of virginity" (even though I find that their concept of virginity reduced to "no vaginal sex" is quite weird).

[Autumn Season]

I heard that people used to be quite clueless and embarrassed about sex. It has even been considered a sin to do sex just for pleasure.

[The Great WTF]

There are depictions of oral sex in the ancient Roman bath houses, Japanese artwork, and it's been mentioned in Sumerian texts, so, yes, oral sex has always been very popular. The idea that it's a recent fad is mostly the fault of Western religion and cultures taking up the concept of sex being purely for procreation and shaming those who took part in any sexual activity that was not done for such reasons.

[UncommonNonsense]

I can only speak to my own family here, but I remember my grandmother and great aunt (who were very close friends), being totally shocked and scandalized when Bill Clinton's little problem became widespread media fodder. They were shocked that anyone would do *that* and surprised at the level of media intrusion into his private life. The leaders of their youth had many failings, foibles, bad habits, affairs, and even addictions, but they either got covered up or never came out until the elected official left office. Even those whose private lives became public news fodder, they didn't get demonized the way Clinton was, and that shocked them just as much as Clinton's sexual habits.

When nosy lil me asked Nan about it later, I was told that the only talk she got about the 'birds and bees' happened on the night before she was to marry and was given by her mother. This talk was the only informative, educational mention of sex she'd gotten before marriage. She was only told about sex for procreation, and was told that engaging in any sexual contact for any other purpose was against god's laws. The concept that sex could be for pleasure, emotional bonding, comfort, or anything but making babies was considered wrong, taboo, and enough to endanger the soul.

Of course, by the time I asked, Nan had left behind most of the very restrictive views of the religion she was raised in (and the fact that her only granddaughter was an open atheist also contributed to her becoming a lot more moderate and liberal), but she still felt that certain things were *wrong*. And oral sex was one of those things.

I never did ask my great aunt...

[Guest]

I can only speak to my own family here, but I remember my grandmother and great aunt (who were very close friends), being totally shocked and scandalized when Bill Clinton's little problem became widespread media fodder. They were shocked that anyone would do *that* and surprised at the level of media intrusion into his private life. The leaders of their youth had many failings, foibles, bad habits, affairs, and even addictions, but they either got covered up or never came out until the elected official left office. Even those whose private lives became public news fodder, they didn't get demonized the way Clinton was, and that shocked them just as much as Clinton's sexual habits.

When nosy lil me asked Nan about it later, I was told that the only talk she got about the 'birds and bees' happened on the night before she was to marry and was given by her mother. This talk was the only informative, educational mention of sex she'd gotten before marriage. She was only told about sex for procreation, and was told that engaging in any sexual contact for any other purpose was against god's laws. The concept that sex could be for pleasure, emotional bonding, comfort, or anything but making babies was considered wrong, taboo, and enough to endanger the soul.

Of course, by the time I asked, Nan had left behind most of the very restrictive views of the religion she was raised in (and the fact that her only granddaughter was an open atheist also contributed to her becoming a lot more moderate and liberal), but she still felt that certain things were *wrong*. And oral sex was one of those things.

I never did ask my great aunt...

I remember reading something like this in some of the classic and/or old/set in early 1900's books I've read, too. Though, just the part about getting "the talk" just before the wedding, really.

[Lord Jade Cross]

For one, i think it differs by culture, but from the ancient drawings/paintings I've seen depicting it i think it has always been popular.

XD Apparently bats and primates do it too.

primates I can understand but bats o.o

[UncommonNonsense]

I can only speak to my own family here, but I remember my grandmother and great aunt (who were very close friends), being totally shocked and scandalized when Bill Clinton's little problem became widespread media fodder. They were shocked that anyone would do *that* and surprised at the level of media intrusion into his private life. The leaders of their youth had many failings, foibles, bad habits, affairs, and even addictions, but they either got covered up or never came out until the elected official left office. Even those whose private lives became public news fodder, they didn't get demonized the way Clinton was, and that shocked them just as much as Clinton's sexual habits.

When nosy lil me asked Nan about it later, I was told that the only talk she got about the 'birds and bees' happened on the night before she was to marry and was given by her mother. This talk was the only informative, educational mention of sex she'd gotten before marriage. She was only told about sex for procreation, and was told that engaging in any sexual contact for any other purpose was against god's laws. The concept that sex could be for pleasure, emotional bonding, comfort, or anything but making babies was considered wrong, taboo, and enough to endanger the soul.

Of course, by the time I asked, Nan had left behind most of the very restrictive views of the religion she was raised in (and the fact that her only granddaughter was an open atheist also contributed to her becoming a lot more moderate and liberal), but she still felt that certain things were *wrong*. And oral sex was one of those things.

I never did ask my great aunt...

I remember reading something like this in some of the classic and/or old/set in early 1900's books I've read, too. Though, just the part about getting "the talk" just before the wedding, really.

Well, Nan was born in 1918, so I guess that kind of fits. Nan was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to parents who came to Canada from England after her father was disowned from his family for having the gall to fall in love with a girl who worked in a hat shop. The family was very Anglican/Church of England but settled in an area where most of their neighbours were Catholic Eastern Europeans.

[Wyrmcraft]

A funny thing for me is that it would almost be a deal breaker for me if my partner didn't want to RECEIVE oral. As I'm somewhere stuck in the middle of the grey area, the only thing that really makes me...frisky is the foreplay and I'm indifferent to what comes after.

[Guest]

Oral is kinda gross to me. Like I think I could if I had a partner than wanted to give or receive it, but I would prefer things with hands over that.

[Sally]

My mother told me about sex when I was 10, and my aunt told me when I was 13 that it could be fun. I was disgusted. I can't imagine what I would have felt if they'd said anything about oral.

Supposedly some English upper-class matron told her daughter to just lie there and think about England.

[Guest]

My goats (both male) used to "get frisky" and do that to each other... kinda weird for a kid to have to see o.O lol

I dunno why it's so popular. I find it annoying, personally. But, whatever, some people like it. It's not a new thing though.

[SorryNotSorry]

My take on it is similar to UncommonNonsense's... it definitely happened, but it was kept in the closet in Victorian society.

I mean, Victorian society was pissed off at Oscar Wilde not for having sex with men, but for having come out of the closet about it and not saying he was sorry.

When you don't regret breaking sexual taboos, you invariably step on others' toes.

[Star Bit]

A funny thing for me is that it would almost be a deal breaker for me if my partner didn't want to RECEIVE oral. As I'm somewhere stuck in the middle of the grey area, the only thing that really makes me...frisky is the foreplay and I'm indifferent to what comes after.

Oral isn't foreplay; it's a form of sex.

[Artistofnoname]

I have wondered about that as well. As far as I can tell it has been around since biblical times. If anything it's likely dependent on the society and culture as well as people who are open about it or would keep it behind closed doors. I personally see it as sodomy and would definitely have no interest in it. If anything what really puts me off about it is that it just seems very germy and awkward. Not to mention I'm really not sure that we were actually meant to do that. That's just my opinion

[Guest]

This question has been bugging me for a long time. I was quite shocked in my early 20s (c. 2001) to find out that many people are not satisfied with having only vaginal sex but insist on their partner performing oral sex on them too. From what I have read on the internet since then, I get the impression like oral is something almost everyone likes to receive and that many, if not a large majority of people would even consider it a deal breaker, I.E. that they would supposedly break up with a partner who didn't want to give it to them.

Was it always like that or is this a relatively recent phenomenon (I.E. since Bill Clinton's 1993 "Monica-gate")? Would not doing oral have been considered odd in the 1980s? In the 1970s? In the conservative 1950s before the sexual revolution? Or was it something that was always part of most people's standard sexual repertoire?

Sex, should be kept in the bedroom and should never leave those four walls.

I have wondered about that as well. As far as I can tell it has been around since biblical times. If anything it's likely dependent on the society and culture as well as people who are open about it or would keep it behind closed doors. I personally see it as sodomy and would definitely have no interest in it. If anything what really puts me off about it is that it just seems very germy and awkward. Not to mention I'm really not sure that we were actually meant to do that. That's just my opinion

As sodomy really :O Where in the bible does it say that? The bible says very little about sex what you should do or do not do... I would love to hear your point of view.

[Lord Jade Cross]

My goats (both male) used to "get frisky" and do that to each other... kinda weird for a kid to have to see o.O lol

I dunno why it's so popular. I find it annoying, personally. But, whatever, some people like it. It's not a new thing though.

Ok, I dont know why I read this and all I could think about was one of them saying the infamous Johnny Bravo phrase "whoaaaa momma" and then immediately proceeding to losing my sides.

[UncommonNonsense]

My goats (both male) used to "get frisky" and do that to each other... kinda weird for a kid to have to see o.O lol

I dunno why it's so popular. I find it annoying, personally. But, whatever, some people like it. It's not a new thing though.

Ok, I dont know why I read this and all I could think about was one of them saying the infamous Johnny Bravo phrase "whoaaaa momma" and then immediately proceeding to losing my sides.

I used to have a pet rat named Charley who was a very talented oral self-pleasurer..

The thing is, he only ever wanted to do that when people were his captive audience. He never did that when he was alone in his cage or when I was home alone with g, but if I had a friend visiting and the rats were free-ranging around my apartment, Charley would get up on the couch or coffee table and start giving himself oral pleasure right there in front of everyone. He was a total exhibitionist.

Of course, my friends, being my friends and by necessity a little weird, used to find this abso-fucking-lutely hilarious. Which just ended up encouraging Charley to keep doing it. I have weird friends.

[Skycaptain]

So far as I can see the only real change is that anything to do with sex is a topic of conversation at a dinner party whereas it always used to be taboo.

It reminds me of an old Private Eye cartoon from the seventies where one person turns to their neighbour at a cocktail party, and says " tell me dear, who is this actress Connie Lingus about whom we hear so much these days? "

[The Maple Leaf Forever]

I used to have a pet rat named Charley who was a very talented oral self-pleasurer..

The thing is, he only ever wanted to do that when people were his captive audience. He never did that when he was alone in his cage or when I was home alone with g, but if I had a friend visiting and the rats were free-ranging around my apartment, Charley would get up on the couch or coffee table and start giving himself oral pleasure right there in front of everyone. He was a total exhibitionist.

Of course, my friends, being my friends and by necessity a little weird, used to find this abso-fucking-lutely hilarious. Which just ended up encouraging Charley to keep doing it. I have weird friends.

LOL rats are real clever. Off topic but they are are the coolest. I used to have two.