Scissoring

Tribadism (/ˈtrɪbədɪzəm/ TRIB-ə-diz-əm) or tribbing, commonly known by its scissoring position, is a sex act in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for sexual stimulation, especially for ample stimulation of the clitoris. This may involve female-to-female genital contact or a female rubbing her vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or other body part (excluding the mouth). A variety of sex positions are practiced, including the missionary position. Tribadism (/ˈtrɪbədɪzəm/ TRIB-ə-diz-əm) or tribbing, commonly known by its scissoring position, is a sex act in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for sexual stimulation, especially for ample stimulation of the clitoris. This may involve female-to-female genital contact or a female rubbing her vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or other body part (excluding the mouth). A variety of sex positions are practiced, including the missionary position. The term tribadism is usually used in the context of lesbian sex, and originally encompassed societal beliefs about women's capability of being penetrative sexual partners. Women accused of having been penetrative during sexual activity were subject to ridicule or punishment. In modern times, the term typically refers to various forms of non-penetrative sex (or frottage) between women. It may also involve vaginal penetration by use of the fingers, a dildo or double penetration dildo, or refer to a masturbation technique in which a woman rubs her vulva against an inanimate object such as a bolster to achieve orgasm. The term tribadism derives from the Greek word τριβάς (tribas), meaning 'a woman who practices unnatural vice with herself or with other women', which derives from the verb τρίβω (tribō), 'rub'. In ancient Greek and Roman sexuality, a tribas, or tribade (IPA:/ˈtrɪbəd/ /tribad/), was a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through use of the clitoris or a dildo. The term tribade did not begin to refer exclusively to eroticism between women until Late Antiquity. Because penetration was viewed as 'male-defined' sexuality, a tribas was considered the most vulgar lesbian. The Greeks and Romans recognized same-sex attraction, but as any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be 'phallic' and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus. This appears in Greek and Latin satires as early as the late first century. In English texts, tribade is recorded as early as 1601, in Ben Jonson's Praeludium (Poem X in The Forest), to as late as the mid-nineteenth century; it was the most common lesbian term in European texts, through the proliferation of classical literature, anatomies, midwiferies, sexual advice manuals, and pornography. It also came to refer to lesbian sexual practices in general, though anatomical investigation in the mid-eighteenth century led to skepticism about stories of enlarged clitorises and anatomists and doctors argued for a more precise distinction between clitoral hypertrophy and hermaphroditism. Author Bonnie Zimmerman stated, 'More often, however, writers avoided the term, instead euphemistically invoking 'unnatural vice,' 'lewd behavior,' 'crimes against nature,' 'using an instrument,' and 'taking the part of a man.'' In the eighteenth century, where the term saw one of its most popular uses, it was employed in several pornographic libels against Marie Antoinette, who was 'tried and roundly convicted in the press' as being a tribade. ' rumored tribadism had historically specific political implications,' stated author Dena Goodman. 'Consider her final (fictive) testimony in The Confession of Marie-Antoinette: 'People!' she protests, 'because I ceded to the sweet impressions of nature, and in imitating the charming weakness of all the women of the court of France, I surrendered to the sweet impulsion of love...you hold me, as it were, captive within your walls?'' Goodman elaborated that in one libel, Marie-Antoinette is described as generously providing details of her husband's 'incapacity in the venereal act' and that her lust resulted in her taking an aristocratic beauty Yolande de Polastron, the Duchess of Polignac (1749-1793), 'into service' and later specifying that what makes sex with a woman so appealing is 'Adroit in the art of stimulating the clitoris'; Marie-Antoinette is described as having stated that La Polignac's attentions produced 'one of those rare pleasures that cannot be used up because it can be repeated as many times as one likes'. By the time the Victorian era arrived, cited Zimmerman, 'tribadism tended to be constructed as a lower class and non-Western phenomenon and often was associated with the supposed degeneration of prostitutes and criminals'. By the twentieth century, 'tribade had been supplanted' by the terms sapphist, lesbian, invert, and homosexual, as tribade had become too archaic to use. Fricatrice, a synonym for tribade that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English texts as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson's Volpone). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than tribade. Variants include the Latinized confricatrice and English rubster. Tribadism is a common sexual practice among women who have sex with women (WSW). Although the term tribadism is often applied to the act of vulva-to-vulva stimulation, it encompasses a variety of sexual activity. In addition to the scissoring position, which involves the partners interlocking their legs in a position similar to the shape of scissors and pressing their vulvas together, tribadism may involve a missionary position, a woman on top position, a doggy style position or others, or simple movement of the woman's vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or another body part. Vaginal penetration by use of the fingers or by use of a dildo may be accompanied, and so sometimes 'mutuality and reciprocation tend not to be the main objective, although satisfaction for both partners through different means most definitely is its aim'. Women who enjoy or prefer tribadism report finding pleasure from its allowance of whole-body contact, the experience of timing hip movement and feeling their partner's motions without manual stimulation, which is considered exciting, erotic and a much easier way to achieve orgasm due to ample clitoral stimulation. Some lesbian and bisexual women do not engage in the scissoring position, because they find it physically uncomfortable, feel that it is not representative of lesbian sexual practices and is more attributable to the male fantasies of the heterosexual porn industry, or because they otherwise have not included it as part of their sex lives. The Raw Story states, 'Whether describes a traditional or even common lesbian act remains up for debate.' Some sources, however, such as Shere Hite's 1976 and 1981 research, show that women may enjoy performing the scissoring position with other women because it is a variation of vulva-to-vulva contact or can allow for maximum vulva-to-vulva contact and therefore an elevated level of intimacy. Scissoring is commonly used as an umbrella term for all forms of tribadism, and many lesbian and bisexual women are unaware that some of the sexual acts they include in their lovemaking are aspects of and are formally labeled tribadism, as tribadism is commonly omitted from mainstream sex research. Judith Halberstam, in her book Female Masculinity, stated, 'If we trace the use of the term forward into present, we find that tribadism is one of those rarely discussed but often practiced sexual activities, and the silence that surrounds it now is as puzzling as the discourse it produced in earlier centuries.' She added that Sigmund Freud 'had nothing to say' with regard to the topic, 'and few contemporary lesbian sex books even discuss it'.