<< Positions in Intercourse >>

Universally, at all social levels in our Anglo-American culture, the opinion is held that there is one coital position which is biologically natural, and that all others are man-devised variants which become perversions when regularly engaged in. Nearly all coitus in our English-American culture occurs with the partners lying face to face, with the male above the female. Throughout the population as a whole, a high proportion of all the intercourse is had in a position with the female supine, on her back, with the male above and facing the female.  This is the traditional position throughout European and American cultures, and to many persons it may seem to be the only biologically normal position. Nearly all of the females in the sample recorded that they had most frequently used a coital position in which the male was above while the female lay supine beneath, facing the male. There may be as much as 70 per cent of the male population (estimated from Table 95a) which has never attempted to use any other position in intercourse.

Among the females in the sample, the positions utilized in the premarital coitus appear to have been more restricted than those utilized in marital coitus. Just as in marriage, the coitus had most frequently involved a position in which the male was placed above the female. That was only position which had been utilized by some 21 per cent of those females in the sample who had had more extensive pre-marital experience. Only 9 per cent of the married females had been so restricted in their positions. But it is exceedingly rare among the other mammals and is only doubtfully recorded for the orang-utan and young chimpanzee.

However, the one position which might be defended as natural because it is usual throughout the Class Mammalia, is not the one commonly used in our culture. The usual mammalian position involves, of course, rear entrance, with the female more or less prone, face down, with her legs flexed under her body, while the male is above or to the rear. Among the anthropoids this mammalian position is still the most common, but some variety of positions also occurs (Bingham 1928, Yerkes and Elder 1936, Beach 1947, Nowlis ms.).

Most persons will be surprised to learn that positions in intercourse are as much a product of human cultures as languages and clothing, and that the common English-American position is rare in some other cultures. The near restriction of coitus in our European-American culture to the single position must represent a cultural development rather than a biologically determined phenomenon. There is some evidence that it may not have been used as commonly in ancient Greece and Rome as it is today, and there are other positions that are regularly used in parts of Asia and Africa and in various Pacific areas. Among the several thousand portrayals of human coitus in the art left by ancient civilizations, there is hardly a single portrayal of the English-American position. It will be recalled that Malinowski (1929) records the nearly universal use of a totally different position among the Trobrianders in the Southwestern Pacific; and that he notes that caricatures of the English-American position are performed around the communal campfires, to the great amusement of the natives who refer to the position as the “missionary position.”
    There are literary references and frequent portrayals of coital positions in the ancient art. It is difficult to know whether such representations record the usual, or whether they record the unusual and therefore the repressed desires of a culture. Whatever they may mean, references to various coital positions are, for instance, in: Aristophanes [5th-4th cent, b.c., Greek]: Lysistrata, 229-232 (1912(1):248; 1924(3):25); 678 (1912(1):269; 1924(3):71); 773 (1912(1):274; 1924(3):79). Peace, 887-899 (1912(1):203; 1924(2): 81). Horace [1st cent, b.c., Roman]: Satires, II.7.49-50 (1926:229). Ovid [1st cent. B.C., Roman]: Art of Love, 771-808 (1929:173; May 1930:178-179). Martial [1st cent, a.d., Roman]: XI.104 (1920(2):311; 1921:329). Lucian [2nd cent, a.d., Greek]: Lucius, or the Ass, 8-10 (1895:12-15). Apuleius [2nd cent, a.d., Roman]: The Golden Ass, IL16-17 (1915:72-75; 1822:33). IIL20 (1915:131; 1822:60).
    For Islamic and Oriental discussions of positions and other techniques in coitus, see, for instance: Vatsyayana, Kama Sutra [between 1st and 6th cent, a.d., Sanskrit] 1883-1925:50-53, 57-59. Ananga-Ranga [12th cent. a.d.(?), Sanskrit] 1935:191-195. Anon., Marriage, Love and Women Amongst the Arabs [orig. date?], 1896:56-59, 100-102, 139-143. Nefzawi, The Perfumed Garden [6th cent, a.d., Islamic], n.d.:8, 58-75. Stem 1933:249, 262-264 [Islamic]. Hikatsu-sho (Book of Secrets), ca. 1845 [Japanese]. Jiiro Haya-shinan ca. 1850 [Japanese].
    For anthropologic data, see: Malinowski 1929:336-337 (Trobriand Islanders). Devereux 1936:8 (Mohave of Arizona and California). Schapera 1941:188-189 (Kgatla of Africa). DuBois 1944:98-99 (Alor Islanders). Ford 1945:27. Elwin 1947:438 (Muria of India). Ford and Beach 1951:24-25 (a summary  of the literature).

It would be interesting to discover how our culture ever came to believe that this is the only normal position for coitus. The origin of our present custom is involved in early and later Church history, and needs clarification before it can be presented with any authority; but certain it is that there was a time in the history of the Christian Church when the utilization of any other except the present-day position was made a matter for confession. What has been taken to be a question of biologic normality proves, once again, to be a matter of cultural development.

Table 95a. Coital techniques at three educational levels, in three generations
  Educ.
Level		 Coital Techniques
At Three Educational Levels
All Ages Adol.-25 26-45 46+
Cases % Cases % Cases % Cases %
Female above; frequent 0-8 457 17.1 74 24.3 251 20.3 132 , 6.8
9-12 265 28.3 80 31.2 148 20.4   
13 + 1071 34.6 226 42.9 688 34.4 157 23.6
Side; frequent 0-8 457 16.4 74 32.4 251 16.4 132 7.6
9-12 263 22.8 80 20.0 147 27.2   
13 + 1066 26.0 225 22.7 684 27.2 157 25.5
Rear; frequent 0-8 456 7.6 74 12.2 250 8.4 132 3.8
9-12 265 11.3 80 7.5 148 14.9   
13+ 1068 10.6 225 9.8 686 11.1 157 9.6
Sitting; frequent 0-8 457 7.7 74 17.6 251 7.2 132 3.0
9-12 265 9.4 80 6.2 148 11.5   
13 + 1065 6.1 224 6.7 684 6.1 157 5.0
Standing; frequent 0-8 455 7.5 74 17.5 249 7.2 132 2.3
9-12 263 9.1 80 7.5 146 11.0   
13 + 1062 3.6 224 2.6 683 3.6 155 4.5

The most frequently used coital position is the one in which the male is above.
It is not shown in the table because its use does not significantly vary between educational levels.
Ages shown represent ages of subjects at time of reporting.
Consequently it may be expected that the incidence data for the youngest generation,
although they are already higher than any other on most items,
will go still higher before this group reaches the age of the oldest generation shown in the table.


Since this is so, it is not surprising to find that within our American culture there is some variation in coital positions among the social levels.

It is the better educated portions of the population which experiment with other positions most frequently. Only about half as many persons of the grade school level ever depart from the one position which they consider most natural. We have pointed out that other positions are, from any biologic stand point, more natural, and that the standardization of a particular position in our society is the product of cultural forces which more often control the behavior of lower levels, less often of upper levels. The widest experimentation had occurred in the earlier years of marriage. Most of the married couples in the sample had ultimately adopted a limited number of positions or a single position in later years.

In the available sample, the generations born after 1900 showed a trend toward an increasing use of a variety of coital positions. Among the females born before 1900, some 16 per cent reported that they had never tried any position except the one with the male above, but only 6 per cent of the females born between 1920 and 1929 reported that their coitus had been so confined.
For the limited data in the previous statistical studies on coital positions, see: Hamilton 1929:178. Dickinson and Beam 1931:66. Landis et al. 1940:92.

The incidences and frequencies with which variant positions are employed are shown in Table 95a, where it will be observed that the second most common position is the one in which the female is above, facing the male; and among most persons who have used it, this position is found to be the one which most often results in orgasm for the female. It should be emphasized that the most common variant position is the one with the female above. It is used, at least occasionally, by more than a third (34.6%) of the college level histories, in about 28 per cent of the high school histories, but in only 17 per cent of the grade school histories (Table 95a). Sitting positions, standing positions, and rear entrance into the vagina as the female lies face down or kneels are much rarer in American patterns. Variety in coital position is regularly suggested by marriage manuals, but once again it is the male who is most often interested in experimenting.

The position was more nearly universal in Ancient Greece and Rome (vide the art objects and materials, as well as the literature from that period). It is shown in the oldest known depiction of human coitus, dating between 3200 and 3000 B.C., from the Ur excavations in Mesopotamia (Legrain 1936). The position with the female above is similarly the commonest in the ancient art of Peru, India, China, Japan, and other civilizations. In spite of its ancient history, many persons at lower social levels consider the position a considerable perversion. It is associated in their rationalizations with the idea that the female becomes masculine while the male becomes effeminate in assuming such a position, and that it destroys the dignity of the male and his authority in the family relationship. There may be a feeling that a male who accepts this position shows homosexual tendencies. One of the older psychiatrists goes so far as to insist that the assumption of such a dominating position by the female in coitus may lead to neurotic disturbances and, in many cases, to divorce. Even the scientifically trained person is inclined to use such rationalizations to defend his custom.

About a third (35 per cent) of the older generation and over a half (52 per cent) of the younger generation reported that they had frequently had coitus in a position in which the female lay above the male. Some moral philosophers and philosophically inclined clinicians think they see evidence of a personality disturbance when the formal male and female roles are so reversed. On the other hand, some of the gynecologists, impressed with the mechanics of coitus, have been inclined to recommend that the female should be above in order to effect the anatomic relationships which are most likely to bring her to orgasm. Certainly our histories include instances of females who were unable to achieve orgasm in any other position, but we are now inclined to believe that the effectiveness of the position depends not so much on an anatomic relation as upon three other factors:
(1) the female who will assume such a position is already less inhibited in her sexual activity;
(2) she may reduce her inhibitions by accepting a non-traditional technique; and
(3) the utilization of such a position makes it possible for her to move more spontaneously than when she is lying under the male. In fact, when she lies above, she is more or less forced into actively participating in the coital movements.

Only a part of the intercourse is had with the female above the male.
-- Positions in which the female was above the male are involved in 35 per cent of the pre-marital histories and in 45 per cent of the marital histories.
-- At the upper level 26 per cent of the males and about a third (31 per cent) of the females may use a position in which the partners lie on their sides, facing each other, but only 23 and 16 per cent of the high school and grade school males try such a technique. This side position had been used in some 19 per cent of the pre-marital activity, in some 31 per cent of the marital activity and by about a third (31 per cent) of the females in the sample.
-- Rear vaginal entrance from behind had occurred in about 15 per cent of the histories. Rear entrance into the vagina is found in 11 per cent of college and high school histories, but in less than 8 per cent of the grade school histories.
-- A sitting position on occasion in 8 per cent of the pre-marital sample and in 9 per cent of the marital sample. The lower level experiments more often than the upper level only in sitting and standing positions, but no group uses these two positions very often.
-- Standing positions had been less frequently and still more rarely used.

It is generally believed that a high proportion of the pre-marital coitus is had in uncomfortable sitting positions in back seats of cars, or in standing positions when the relationships are more hurried. It is, therefore, significant to note that a number of the married spouses use sitting and standing positions, evidently from choice rather than from some force of circumstance. While the variety used in pre-marital coitus is not as great as the variety used in some of the older marital histories, the pre-marital techniques actually come near matching and in many instances surpass the techniques utilized by newly-wed couples.

There are many males and some females who are psychologically stimulated by considering the possibilities of the positions which two human bodies can assume in coitus. From the time of the most ancient Sanskrit literature, through Ovid and the Arabic treatises, down to the marriage manuals of the present day, there have been numerous attempts to calculate the mathematic possibilities of the combinations and recombinations of human forms in coital relationships. Descriptions of a score, or of several score, or even of a couple of hundred positions have been seriously undertaken in various literatures. Artists in many cultures have attempted to portray the full panoply of the conceivable variety. In view of the lack of evidence that any of these positions have any particular mechanical advantage in producing orgasm in either the female or the male, they must be significant primarily because they serve as psychologic stimulants.

And though it may be doubtful whether any particular position is of any advantage as a means of inducing orgasm, the use of a variety reflects a psychologic acceptance of sex which is of some import. The clinician, discovering what positions his patient has used in coitus, may thereby obtain some insight into her attitudes on sex.

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