The Politics of Oral Part II

Oral Intimacy’s Role in Historical Power Dialectics

The Political Philosophy of Oral Intimacy Part I

-Alain De Botton on oral sex

While the primary purpose of oral sex is to make another person feel good, oral sex represents the total embrace of another person. It is actually much more intimate than sexual intercourse, despite the narrative that oral sex isn’t really sex. There is also an animalistic sense of ownership, with one partner marking the other as their property. A person who is orally selfish believes themselves to be superior with the need to impose themselves upon others. If there is no reciprocity, then oral sex is extremely hierarchical. However, if there is reciprocity, it’s a more egalitarian exchange, which defeats the purpose.

While there is a male instinct to dominate and seek ownership or exploit, a segment of women have this as well. The male already dominates via penetration but a female can sexually dominate by leaving her taint, scent, taste, and her very essence in a male’s mouth. Reasons for male hangups about cunnilingus include concerns about emasculation and an assumption that the female genitalia is dirtier, but also that it is more intimate than the male genitalia, being internal.

Oral sex enforces social hierarchies, creating both male and female castes based on whether a person gives, receives, or does not partake in oral sex. “Too hot to give head” is a saying, implying that is something that only unattractive women do to compensate. The face, which represents the house of one’s senses, taste, scent, and sight, and what one experiences and presents to the world, is placed upon another’s dirtier or most hidden body part, where also urine comes from. The essence of oral sex is that it has an element of humiliation and domination but also extreme intimacy.

Source: @PrinceTamayuki on X

The filthy, depraved sexual act of “Analingus,” is even more hierarchical than regular oral sex, as it is placing one’s highest orifice upon another’s filthiest. The act was first popularized among homosexual men, though there has been a push to normalize it among heterosexuals. The aged old term ‘kiss my ass’ was traditionally used to show disrespect rather than overtly sexual, before the culture war pornified. In Medieval Europe, kissing ass was viewed as the greatest humiliation.

Comedian, Chris Rock, said about tossing salad, prison slang for analingus, “If I had the choice between the electric chair and tossing a salad, I would be like so where do you plug this thing in.” It is prison rape as extrajudicial punishment for transgressors against societal norms, with a homophobic element. It also shows that the greatest fear is an extreme form of contamination with someone who is genetically inferior, or basically just anyone one is sexually repulsed by. The racial component for oral sex is also significant, as whichever race is receiving is showing dominance. Black-dominant interracial oral sex in porn serves as an inversion of traditional social hierarchies and could be a form of political subversion.  

The Tossed Salad Man

This applies to the disgust people had with Harvey Weinstein receiving oral sex from beautiful women with a disgusting deformed fish penis. Beauty tainted by the grotesque is symbolically satanic. In contrast, it is the most intense otherworldly ideal if it’s with your crush or someone you most desire. Basically, people let down their disgust mechanisms for love and lust.

Source: @Thee__Standard on X

Source: @stuartlosaltos on X

While Christianity traditionally shunned oral sex as dirty and sinful, the Ancient Greeks and Romans had an elaborate hierarchy dictating norms about oral sex. On one hand, it was acceptable for men to receive fellatio from other males, as long as they were of lower social standing, like servants. However, for ancient Greeks and Romans, performing cunnilingus on a woman was considered the most shameful, disgusting, degrading, and unmanly sexual act that anyone could perform on another human. This is because they believed women to be naturally inferior to men and that cunnilingus was the only way for a man to submit to a women, thus becoming even inferior to and less manly than a female. Also the Romans believed that the mouth was sacred, so being sullied by filthy genitals was the worst thing that could happen to someone.

There is some evidence that elite Roman women could hire male prostitutes or use male servants or slaves for cunnilingus. For instance, graffiti at Pompeii advertised the prices that male prostitutes charged for cunnilingus. While a lot of these stories sound more like erotic fiction than real documented history, the scenario of high-status women using low-status men for oral pleasure is plausible as female sexuality was simultaneously suppressed while wealthy and aristocratic women had free reign over male servants and slaves. Not to mention no risk of pregnancies during infidelity before the invention of birth control.

Chinese empress, Wu Zetian, allegedly demanded cunnilingus from male dignitaries. On a similar note a story on live journal via the fetish Mag, Madame Magazine, alleges that “In old Japan, brothels would provide male victims for such use by visiting, paying women.” It sounds outlandish and dubious but it does not totally shock me that the Japanese would have this fetish.  

Source: @WhoresofYore on X

To be continued