AN ORAL HISTORY: BLOWJOBS THROUGH THE AGES

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Katie Lasson
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Barbara Santini
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Humans have been doing things from the beginning, and oral sex is one. The act of giving and receiving head was publicized in the 1970s and introduced into the mainstream by films like "The Godfather" and Deep Throat. It has a long and rich history dating back years. There was a near-perfect freedom period for blowjobs to advance from the moral acceptability scale to the other. Anything than rigorous procreation was judged abnormal. Let's get started on how blowjobs have evolved throughout the ages.

Blow Jobs Through The Ages

Art portraying sexual practices has been discovered worldwide, dating back years and left by ancient people. According to Pierre et al. (2017), the first "known" blow job was between the Egyptian god-king Osiris and his sister-turned-wife Isis though in mythology. Osiris' wife, Isis, stitched his corpse back, but she couldn't find his penis. The murder was set by Osiris' brother, slicing him into bits. "What is a guy without a penis?" he ponders. She made a faux dick out of clay and inserted it on Osiris' crotch, sucking his clay penis to "breathe" life into him. That's why incredible blowjobs take your breath away.

Pompeii was an Italian city engulfed in hot lava when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The old city was saucier and beautiful. Antonio Varone, who assisted in the baths' excavation, testified to seeing erotic fresco murals showing lesbian sex, group sex blowjobs unearthed in the baths of Pompeii over 50 years. Historians believe the ancient people created the murals to lull tourists into the "Pompeii state of mind," sensual and lustful, as they passed through the baths to the city center. There's an opulent two-story brothel in Pompeii called The Lupanare displaying captivating sensual paintings, and rumor has it that a prostitute named Myrtis had a placard on her door that stated her specialty — blowjobs.

The Moche people, who lived on Peru's northern coast and whose civilization collapsed around 560 to 650 AD, created practical ceramics with fellatio images. These images are available in Museo Larco Museum in Lima, Peru. Blowjobs were common during the time of Socrates and Plato, and they were dubbed "playing the flute." According to Mills et al. (2016), Grecians raised their togas to attract women to play with their penises. Oral sex between heterosexuals was common. " Thracian man or Phrygian sips his brew on a straw, forward she stooped, working away," said the renowned poet Archilochus of ancient Greece, "forward she stooped, working away." Or she knows how to utilize her mouth. These poetic texts symbolize blowjobs were common at the time.

The original Sanskrit edition of the Kama Sutra, one of the world’s most famous sexual books from Northern India, has a chapter on "auparishtaka," or "oral congress, the skill of blowjobs. The chapter delves into eight distinct ways to offer head, some appearing complicated and need flexibility. Oral sex was prevalent worldwide in ancient times, and it's unlikely to go out of style because the Roman Empire fell apart. However, texts in medieval Europe claim that any form of sex came with a slew of regulations and baggage. Determining what was and wasn't permissible was complicated.

According to Ormand et al. (2008), oral sex was on the list of prohibited acts, non-traditional positions, and any enjoyable sexual act. Much of O'Donnell's evidence came from pious literature intended primarily for monks. The emails he sent explained the "proper penance for a range of wicked conduct." one medieval penitential record from Ireland advocated "four years penance" for cunnilingus but "five years penance" for fellatio.

 The Church's imposed link between sexual pleasure and sin pervaded medieval civilization (and is still hanging on, some might argue). Sexual pleasure and relationships that didn't lead to procreation within the institution of traditional marriage were fatal crimes as in the 19th century. Fellatio was and is a forbidden subject. There was a slew of English-language slang terms for fellatio and cunnilingus, including "prick eating," "minetting," and "eating shellfish," in the 19th century, according to slang historians who constructed an interactive timeline of slang terms for oral sex.

The turn of the century witnessed an increase in oral sex slang phrases, including gems such as "dicky-licker," "deep-sea diving," "sneezing in the cabbage," and  "blowjob," which dates back to the 1940s. According to some historians, oral sex became a feasible part of 'foreplay according to historians. It was the greatest sexual breakthrough of the early years of the twentieth century at an accelerated rate during the twentieth century. Oral sex had become an essential part of the sexual repertoire of adventurous heterosexuals by the turn of the century. The historians believe that "the emergence of a regard for female sexual satisfaction" and greater priority placed on "the achievement of reciprocal orgasm" contributed to the normalizing of oral sex. There appeared to be more people who engaged in oral sex by the twentieth century.

Women have engaged in oral sex compared to men, according to researchers. Oral sex is also popular among teenagers because they believe it doesn't count as sex as penetrative sex. Findings suggest that many teenagers who engage in oral sex do not believe it to be sex. Consequently, they may utilize oral sex as an option to have sex while still, in their minds, remaining abstinent. Despite what teenagers believe, adults regard oral sex to be sex.

The Bottom Line

Blowjobs, a bedroom staple, have been a renowned sex act for thousands of years, though they weren't exactly a topic of conversation until a few decades ago. Is there a gender divide between who gives and receives oral sex nowadays? Despite the popular belief that straight guys don't love cheating on their female relationships, statistics show that current straight men enjoy giving and receiving. We are free of sexual stigmas by no means, but we've finally arrived at a point where we can comfortably accept that oral sex has been a part of our culture for thousands of years. There's nothing new under the sun. Our forefathers invented blowjobs, and men still uphold them. 

Reference:

DePierre, D. (2017). A Brief History of Oral Sex. McFarland.

Mills, A. (2016). Bodies permeable and divine: Tapu, mana, and the embodiment of hegemony in pre-Christian Tonga. New Mana: Transformations of a Classic Concept in Pacific Languages and Cultures, 77-105.

Ormand, K. (2008). Controlling desires: sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome. ABC-CLIO.