Anal sex: The whole story

Anal intercourse has been called everything from arse piracy to uphill gardening, including back shafting, the chocolate cha-cha, David Hockney, fudge packing, gaand maarna (Hindi), mudpacking, petando el culo (Spanish), riding the Hershey highway, spooning and tailgunning. Yet, this A-level, ass-drilling is most simply rectal penetration: a normal part of human sexual behavior, and perhaps (per last week's argument) fundamental to the definition of sex. However because anal sex does not break the hymen, it has been considered a preservation of virginity, and therefore not sex. In fact, celibate religious orators of particular sects in the Middle Ages allowed anal intercourse, and in some contemporary cultures, anal intercourse is approved in a heterosexual context because it is less likely to result in pregnancy.

Who has anal sex? Statistics are uncertain: the Journal of Adolescent Health says eleven percent of sexually active college students participate in anal sex; Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States, a book by Edward Laumann notes 20 percent of heterosexuals have engaged in anal sex; and Alfred Kinsey quoted a participation close to 40 percent. These heterosexual findings coupled with the lack of homosexual anal intercourse research (although Laumann suggests 80 percent of homosexual males have engaged in anal intercourse), makes it difficult to deduce exactly who engages in anal intercourse. Yet historically, nearly every culture has engaged in rectal intercourse.

In the ancient world, from Greece to Japan, anal sex was a hallmark of many male-male couples and recorded artistically and academically. In fact, although the frequency of anal sex in Ancient Greece pederasty is still disputed in scholarly circles, the common practice was coined "Greek Love," modernly tagged "Greek" because of its frequency.

Western cultures since the Middle Ages have not been as embracing of anal intercourse, introducing the heretic "buggery" as an insult for anal sex and other homosexual practices. The etymological roots are in medieval Bulgaria, where Buggre heretics were assaulted for their "sin" of anal intercourse; buggery, however, is most known for Henry VIII's 1533 Buggery Act which deemed anal sex, and consequently homosexuality, punishable by hanging.

In the modern world, the correlation of anal sex with homosexuality stigmatizes it as a perversion of sexual intercourse. In fact, countries all over the world have utilized acts against buggery and sodomy for hundreds of years.

In Queensland, Australia, jurisdiction still mandates an increased age of consent for anal sex, and in 2002 the People's Republic of China sentenced a person to three and a half years in prison for having anal sex with a teenager.

Hungary overturned its sodomy rulings in 1962, and France did not revoke their sodomy laws completely until 1982. In Canada, anal sex between consenting adults was banned until the 1960's when Trudeau liberals famously decided "the government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation."

This conviction that separated government from a person's sexuality was absent from western ideals until the U.K.'s Wolfenden report in 1967, the Human Rights Act of 1998 and in the U.S., a 2004 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence vs. Texas. As such, anal sex and sodomy is correlated to conviction and imprisonment, most famously in the U.K. with Oscar Wilde and in the U.S.A. with McCarthyism.

The false correlation of anal sex with homosexuality and sin (medieval woodcuts actually portray anus-kissing persons as representative devils) has deterred individuals from admitting to or experiencing anal stimulation; an admittedly unfortunate state of affairs. Couple this stigma with the crudely coined "stirring the fudge," and you have partners fearfully staying far away from their anuses. Truth is, anal sex can be very pleasurable for both partners and is not a scary, messy, painful experience, but an intimate one. In addition to the tightness of penetration, women's G-spot is often stimulated from an alternate direction as a thin wall exists between the rectum and vagina.

And men's G-spot is the prostate gland, located near the rectal wall, and therefore a central source of pleasure during anal sex. With so much pleasure to offer, it is a wonder why more people (especially college students) aren't exploring the anus as a source of sexual stimulation. I suspect the hesitancy is namely ignorance, so I've collected three must-knows about anal sex to offer liberation and allow exploration:

1. By initiating stimulation with fingers or dildos and using slow, gentle insertion, you can avoid tearing rectal tissue and thus the painful prospects of anal sex.

2. "Too big" for anal sex is longer than eight inches, cautioned only because it risks colliding with the sigmoid colon and the female uterus which passes adjacent to the rectum. But being that the average penis size is about 5.5 inches erect, this is hardly ever a cause for concern.

3. Use a condom as unprotected anal sex is the most effective way to transmit an STD. And since vaseline and other oil lubricants can destroy latex condoms, be cognisant of your anal sex combinations.

Most importantly, forget the "insert here" limitations of government and societal stereotypes, and enjoy the ride.