Bawdy Shorts - A brief history of blowjobs
While blowjobs have become a firm staple of playtime, things haven’t always been that way. Throughout history the act has gone in and out of fashion, as well as being made illegal on a number of occasions! Illegal or not, people have been engaging in oral sex since the dawn of time, and we’re all about celebrating getting down and dirty with that special someone.
To get some clarity on where blowjobs come from, and how they made their way into Western bedrooms, we’ve spoken to Bawdy founder and sexuality advocate Sylwia Wiesenberg. She’s shared her knowledge with us to discover more about the history of blowjobs and shed some light on how the act has gone in and out of fashion over the years.
Q&A
Bawdy: Where does the term ‘blowjob’ come from?
Sylwia: For centuries, a blow job was part of intimacy, and human pleasure and punishment through fun. We have been performing oral sex on each other for as long as we’ve had genitals and mouths, and the actual act of oral sex evolved. But it took decades for the name we use today to develop - The Blowjob.
Greeks referred to it as fellatio which derives from Latin “to suck “; however, according to Shakespeare, ‘blow’ was the Edwardian euphemism for orgasm. The actual term ‘blowjob’ was not used until later in the 1930s and 1940s, even then it was primarily used in underground art circles: for example it was glorified in the 1948 novel The Platonic Blow.
Bawdy: What about the scientific name for a blowjob?
Sylwia: In 1894 the term ‘fellatio’ was made official by sexual researcher Havelock Ellis who used it in his clinical piece on sexuality and also described the performers of oral sex as a fellator, or a fellatrice or fellatrix if female.
Bawdy: How did blowjobs find their way into history books?
Sylwia: When we look back at the Egyptians and their relationship with blowjobs, we need to look at story extracts from wall inscriptions. Some of which tell the myth of Osiris: after being murdered and cut into pieces, the goddess Isis tried to put the pieces together but could not find his manhood. Resourcefully, she fashioned one out of clay and used her mouth to ‘breathe life into him’ through it.
Greeks called blowjobs ‘playing the flute’…. Grecians happily lifted their togas for someone to come along and play their flute, and it was pretty standard for oral sex to be exchanged between two straight men. Likewise, in Ancient Rome, sex between men was a common act of love and punishment.
Bawdy: What about blowjobs and religion, how do they sit alongside one another?
Sylwia: In the Dark Ages, the severity of medieval churches created an era that few would describe as ‘fun.’ Going down on someone or blowing them went against the biblical instruction and carried with it a sentence of 15 years of penance — the same sentence you’d get for committing murder.
However, in Ancient India, fellatio was ritualized. The original Sanskrit version of the Kama Sutra even has an entire chapter on Auparishtaka (mouth/oral) which is basically the art of blowjobs. There are stated details on eight different ways to give head, and some of them are pretty complicated - and require good flexibility!
Bawdy: As well as a diverse religious history, blowjobs have a checkered past when it comes to the legality of the act. Could you tell us more about that?
Sylwia: The United States’ puritanical roots are in part responsible for the length of time it took for blowjobs to take off stateside. Oral sex only really began to make its way from brothels into regular bedrooms in the 1900s – until then, it was considered a lurid act that was dirty and forbidden. In fact, blowjobs were considered a homosexual sex act and were illegal in every US state until 1950!
Bawdy: References to blowjobs are pretty commonplace in pop culture now, but how did the arts embrace giving head in the past?
Sylwia: One big reason for the blowjob’s introduction into popular culture and peoples’ bedrooms in the US is the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo.
The pornographic film Deep Throat is still one of the most easily named and recognized films in pornographic films despite coming out way back in 1972. “The term ‘Deep Throat’ was used famously by the informant in the Watergate scandal –named after the film as well as for the ‘deep’ involvement of the informant in the FBI,” Colin Hanna told Volonte. History students will likely have had to deal with some pretty interesting search results when researching the topic..!