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Sex is the practical practice of sexuality, short form: sex

Sex is the practical practice of sexuality, short form: sex, as a totality of the expressions of life, behaviour, sensations and interactions of living beings in relation to their sex.

Sex is the practical practice of sexuality, short form: sex, as a totality of the expressions of life, behaviour, sensations and interactions of living beings in relation to their sex. In common parlance, sexual acts between two or more sexual partners, in particular sexual intercourse and comparable sexual practices, in a broader sense also refers to masturbation.

Incentive

Sex has many functions: It satisfies the libido, serves as sexual intercourse for reproduction and usually expresses feelings of tenderness, affection and love as an important form of social interaction. Especially in love relationships, sex life can play a central role as an expression of the bond between partners. However, it is not exclusively linked to love relationships or relationships with partners.

Sexual contact between animals is usually called mating. As a rule, this is purely instinct-controlled behaviour, which serves exclusively for reproduction. In a number of species, such as bonobos and dolphins, sex is part of social interaction, as it is in humans. In humans, sex is no longer pure instinct behaviour, but is also subject to conscious decision-making processes.

Sexual practice

A sexual practice is any action that subjectively serves sexual satisfaction. These are not only manipulations of the genitals, but everything that can be perceived as stimulating, such as the French kiss.

Since sex has its own meaning and purpose in humans through decoupling from reproduction, it has developed a wide variety of sexual practices, which on the one hand are an expression of their creativity and the joy of physical coexistence, and on the other hand also have very practical backgrounds, for example when heterosexual anal intercourse was often practiced for contraception – even if this is a highly unsafe method.

Sexual practices without intercourse

Sexual practices that are not limited to one person include erotic massages, stimulation of the erogenous zones (including the nipples and earlobes) and the entire body, i.e. necking and petting. However, there are also a number of practices that are perceived by the group of stakeholders as sexually stimulating: Role plays, disguises, delays or accelerations of sexual acts, sexual acts in a certain place, the joint consumption of erotic or pornographic materials, but also stronger stimuli such as pain (sadomasochism) or electrostimulation. Almost all things or actions can be sexually charged.

Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse is the sexual union of two sexual partners, which consists in the penetration or intensive stimulation of the sexual organs during sexual contacts of any kind. In partnership sex, the tender foreplay, the intimate exchange of tenderness increases mutual lust. Penetration can consist of penetration of the penis, hand, fingers or sex toy into an opening in the other person’s body.

Heterosexual intercourse” is usually understood as the insertion of the penis into the vagina with subsequent forward and backward movement. This gliding movement usually stimulates the man to the point where he reaches orgasm and ejaculates. On the other hand, only a small percentage of women, although normally also aroused, can reach a climax solely through vaginal intercourse. Usually, additional – direct or indirect – clitoral stimulation is required both during foreplay and after penetration, for example by suitable body movements of the partners or with the hand. This type of sex can be practiced in different positions – “missionary position”, “doggy position”, “rider position”, etc.

During oral intercourse sexual intercourse takes place with mouth and tongue, whereby the combination mouth-penis is called “fellatio”, the combination mouth-vulva is called “cunnilingus”. Simultaneous mutual oral stimulation is also very figuratively called “Sixty-nine”. Anal stimulation can also be performed orally if the highly sensitive perineum or the outer sphincter muscle is touched with the mouth and tongue (anilingus).

During anal intercourse, the penis is inserted into the anus of the other person. Anal intercourse can also be practiced in different positions; in addition, it is also performed with the fingers or with suitable objects.

Other practices

Besides these practices one also knows the mutual rubbing of the genitals (Tribadie), the introduction of the whole hand or the forearm into a body opening of the opposite (Fisting), the sex between the breasts of a woman, the traffic between the thighs (thigh intercourse), the buttocks or in the armpits (Italian). Special forms of sexual intercourse include BDSM, fast sex (quickie), sex in threes (triplet) or in a group (group sex, gang bang). Without physical contact, sexual and obscene speaking (verbal eroticism, dirty talking, telephone sex, cybersex), observing the sexuality of other people (voyeurism) and showing one’s own sexuality (exhibitionism) are not necessary.

Sexual appetite

Sex is regarded in psychology as appetite behaviour, whose driving force is the sexual drive, also called libido. As long as sexual satisfaction is not experienced, sexual appetite builds up, the desire for sexual activity is intensified (see also sexual appetite disorder).
Physiologically, libido depends on the production of sex hormones, i.e. testosterone in men and estrogen in women. Many women report libido fluctuations during the female cycle.
Sexual arousal is initially a reaction of the limbic system in the brain to certain sensory stimuli that can result in involuntary physical reflexes, which may then lead to the initiation of mating behavior.

Sex response cycle

The process of sexual intercourse – with or without a partner – is called the sexual reaction cycle and is usually divided into four phases.

During the excitation phase, pulse and blood pressure increase: The sex flush starts. A woman’s clitoris, labia and nipples swell, a man’s penis. These erections are a natural process of sexual arousal caused by congestion of the blood in the associated erectile tissue of these organs (but not in the nipples). It is normally triggered by the erection centre in the lower spinal cord, for example by mechanical reflex stimulation, erotic thoughts, eroticizing sensual perceptions or ideas, naturally also directly by foreign caresses or own manipulations. At the same time, erection in men is one of the prerequisites for penetration, i.e. coitus, although an active and fulfilled love life is also possible without it.
During the plateau phase an individually different excitation level is maintained for some time, whereby the muscle tension is intensified and pulse and blood pressure continue to rise. The woman’s outer labia swell and a vaginal transudate, the vaginal secretion exits; the Bartholins glands release their clear fluid late in this phase, while men secrete from the Cowper’s glands.
In the third phase, the orgasm, the desire is felt most strongly for a few seconds. The blood flow to the skin increases to a maximum, the frequency of the heartbeat can double, blood pressure increases and breathing accelerates, which can even lead to a brief loss of consciousness. Meanwhile, involuntary, rhythmic muscle contractions occur in the genital and anal regions.
An average woman’s orgasm consists of about 5 to 15 muscle contractions of the “orgasmic cuff”, which are some muscles in the abdominal area. Sometimes during female ejaculation a clear fluid can be released from the G-spot glandular center (prostate feminina). Many women have a slower and shallower arousal curve than men and therefore need more time to reach a sexual climax.
During orgasm with ejaculation, the man usually ejects about two to six millilitres of sperm thanks to coordinated contractions of the epididymis, the spermatic duct, the bladder gland, prostate and urethra and the contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. Orgasm and ejaculation can also occur independently.
The last phase is the refractory period, during which erections decrease after sexual climax and cardiovascular function returns to normal. This usually happens much more slowly in women than in men. Men often suffer from postcoital fatigue. Most men then need a few minutes or even considerably longer (with increasing age also several days) until they can repeat the sexual reaction cycle.

Moral aspects

Sexuality in the Field of Tension between Society and Religion: Allegory of Love (Angelo Bronzino, 1545)
The ethics of Western society are strongly influenced by the Christian faith. Since the Middle Ages, Catholic institutions and later other Christian churches dominated public opinion of sexuality in Western Europe. The joy of sexuality was widely considered sinful, only the procreation and procreation involved in the sacrament of Christian marriage was morally advocated and promoted, although the practice may have looked different. After a phase of affirmative attitudes towards sexuality, attitudes changed in the 18th century as a result of prevailing bourgeois and Protestant sexual morality; various sexual behaviors were regarded as “sick”: masturbation was regarded as harmful to health, as was child sexuality. With the progressive secularization of the Western world in the 20th century, more and more sexual activities and behaviors have since found acceptance. The tabooing of the sexual, however, is often still effective today: publicly “celebrated” sexual taboo breaks, for example on television, are just as much an indication here as the often still practiced double standards.

Most people who have grown up in Western societies can accept three moral “minimum rules” for sex:

Sexual acts are carried out by mutual consent of the sexual partners, i.e. each partner agrees to these acts in full awareness of the consequences and in free decision – i.e. without compulsion. The sexual partners must also have reached a minimum age (often 14 or 16 years).
Sexual activity should not cause permanent physical or mental damage to either partners or third parties.
Sexual activity should only produce children if one is able to assume the full responsibility and duties associated with it.
Normative and cultural differences in sexual morality exist with regard to the formal assessment of marriage, sex before and outside marriage (adultery), forms of coexistence (monogamy, polygamy, polyamory, polyandry), attitudes to prostitution, the age of the ability to marry, the times and executions of sexual intercourse, etc. In contrast, there is broad socio-cultural agreement on the practice of sexual intercourse only in the private sphere, the outlawing of rape and the incest taboo.

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