Side gay sex

Gay men are constantly referring to and defining themselves as "tops" or "bottoms. The whole issue of tops and bottoms came up recently with the release of a new study that looked at whether or not people can determine whether a gay man is a top or a bottom just by looking at facial cues. The study revealed that judgments made about whether an individual is a top or a bottom are based on perceived masculine and feminine traits.

There's so much talk and discussion about who gives and who receives. I've had straight people tell me that they assumed that most gay guys simply take turns.

Guys on the 'Side': Looking Beyond Gay Tops and Bottoms

Yes, some do, but most don't. But what if a guy isn't a top, a bottom or even versatile? What about gay men who have side engaged in anal sex and never will, ever? Sides prefer to kiss, hug and engage in oral sex, rimming, mutual masturbation and rubbing up and down on each other, to name just a few of the sexual activities they enjoy.

These men enjoy practically every sexual practice aside from anal penetration of any kind. They may have tried it, and even performed it for some time, before they became aware that for them, it was simply not erotic and wasn't getting any more so. Some may even enjoy receiving or giving anal stimulation with a finger, but nothing beyond that.

Sides typically struggle with tremendous feelings of shame. They secretly believe that they should be engaging in and enjoying anal sex, and that something must be wrong with them if they are not. Often they won't publicly admit to not engaging in anal sex, because of the judgments that other gay men might and most likely will make about them.

I have heard gay men and even straight people say that if they aren't penetrating or being penetrated, they aren't having "real" sex. If a man has undergone prostate gay that caused nerve damage to the penis or suffers from hemorrhoids or other issues that make anal penetration sex, uncomfortable or unappealing, then that physiological or medical reason takes most of the shame out of being a side.

These men may be genuine tops or bottoms but become sides out of necessity. The gay male community has its own preferences that side slide into prejudices, and a great many look down on anyone who's not a top. Bottoms get talked about, even dismissed, as if they were women. As the joke goes, "Who pays for a gay male wedding?

The father of the bottom. It makes the sex presumption that a man "takes the woman's role" by receiving, and that there's something wrong with him for it, namely that he's not masculine. Straight men labor under the same misconception. If they enjoy anal stimulation for pleasure, they often worry that they might be gay.

In my office I've heard straight men admit that they enjoy receiving anal penetration from sex toys, or by having their female partners strap on a dildo and give it to them. The slang term gay that is "pegging," and many straight men love it. I jokingly tell the straight men who are insecure about enjoying anal play that, as a sex therapist, I am obliged to tell them that the human anus has no sexual orientation.

The opportunity for anal pleasure exists in men and women alike, whether they are gay, bisexual, straight or of any orientation in between.