As human, the main reason we study on the human sex positions is only for baby conception. Today, I want to stand in the prospective of evolution to have a look at the animals’ sex positions. First, we have to know how many sex positions animals have on the earth. One is rear entry (doggie style), the other is face to face.
1, Rear entry
In this position, male have the penetration into vagina behind the female. It is also called doggie style, because animals mostly have sex in this position as same as dog. Of course rear entry has lots of variation, such as the standing canine, spooning, the cuissade, and so on, but the core of these positions is penetration from the back of female. According to the people who hold the theory of penis envy, this position is good for stroking female G-spot, because penetration is quite deep in this position. I really have to admit that this position indeed offers a deep penetration during sex, but unfortunately the G-spot never exist. With the skin gone, what can the hair adhere to?
2, Face to face
In this position, male penetrates female face to face. If you have ever seen other animals mating, you know that face to face position is pretty much unique to humans, so far we only find two animals who do the sex face to face: Bonobo and Chimpanzee, undoubtedly they are the closest relatives to humans we have found. Missionary position is the most popular in human, and it offers the deepest penetration thereby allowing semen to easily enter the cervix. Of course missionary position also has lots of variation, such as the lap dancing, the female superior position, the scissors position, and so on, but the core of these positions is penetrating female face to face.
Do you ever think why almost animals, except human, only have the rear entry sex position? Why face to face position only happens during human, bonobo and chimpanzee? What is the difference between the two positions in evolution? What makes face to face happened on human, but not on other animals? Is face to face sex position the result of human evolution?
Here I try to explain these questions step by step.
First, if earth’s entire history was just 24 hours long,
Life on Earth (app. 3.8 Ga)
Metazoans (1.2 Ga?)
Chordates (565 Ma)
Land dwelling plants (475 Ma)
Land dwelling animals
Reptiles (340 Ma)
Dinosaurs (235 Ma)
Mammals (225 Ma)
Common ape-human ancestor (7 Ma)
Homo sapiens (165.000) ,
Oldest civilizations (3.500) ,
Industrial revolution (250) :59,999 ?
From the history of evolution, undoubtedly the face to face sex position occurs far behind rear entry sex position, because sex reproduction occurs in , but human occurs in . So we can claim that rear entry really has a long history than face to face, and it also means face to face is really the result of evolution.
Second, I think one of the reasons why face to face happens on human is that people want to see and communicate with each other during sex process, at least one side wants. It illustrates that other animals don’t have the desire to see the partner during the sex. Why? Sex also ends as male ejaculation, what makes the difference between human and animals? I think the only reason is that the purposes they have sex is different. The purpose animals have sex is just for reproduction, so male only have sex with female during the estrus, maybe once a year or twice a year. In general, they mates only during female estrus. Look back to our human. Man nearly want to have sex with a woman all the time, whatever she is in estrus or not, whatever she is in fertility age or menopause age. Apparently, we can claim that human have sex not only for the reproduction, but also for some other purpose, maybe for pleasure or self sex desire. In modern time, I think reproduction is only a by-product for a man to have sex.
Third, what makes human have the other purpose to have a sex rather than reproduction different from other animals? I think the answer is evolution, not only physical evolution, but also psychology evolution. In physical evolution, human is the only animals who always walk upright, and scientists think the first mammal that walked upright was the ape-like australopithecines - believed by scientists to be an ancestor of early humans – which lived about five million years ago in Africa. Walking upright significantly frees up the hands to carry objects, also creates the physical conditions for face-to-face mating. But only physical evolution is not enough in short history of human. In psychology evolution, self-awareness shows up. Frankly speaking, I am not an idealist, but I really agree with some points of Descartes. Human need more than basic physical needs which only in the first floor during Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Undoubtedly, the self-awareness of human is the strongest among all animals, then human are going to pursue the other four needs, like safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, self-actualization. Do you notice that: the higher up in the model of Maslow, the more words “Self” he used, such as self-esteem in forth floor, self-actualization top floor, and of course, self-awareness makes humans so significant difference from others. I don’t mean that self-awareness can exist without brain, but the form of its existing is really different from substance, for example, if people got drunk, they were unconscious, but the brain still there. Self-awareness is going to start make human to have a clear perception of internal and external things, including personality, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions, so human began to a real evolution in comparison with other animals. As human grow in self-awareness, we will understand who we are and what we want and why we want it. So men found that they were more willing to enjoy the special pleasure during sex, not only for the original purpose: reproduction, as a species. I can claim that the phenomenon of human having sex all the time is the product of development of human self-awareness, precisely to say, just man self-awareness.
Finally, sex positions evolved. Because chimpanzee females are highly promiscuous, some scientists thought chimpanzee females are more likely to achieve orgasm by mating sequentially with multiple males. This is big mistake. The main reason I think chimpanzee females can’t achieve orgasm is just because they mate with multiple males sequentially. If they really have an orgasm, they must have the refractory period right after orgasm, and can’t get into another mating. As a woman, I have to admit that the evolutions of man and woman are not synchronous, apparently, the evolution of female, in many areas, lagged behind male. As men, they have already walked out the trap of reproduction, but women are still trapped in the cave. Evolution is always moving forward. Human and our closest relatives are already evolved far forward than other animals, and the most significant sign is the appearance of face to face sex position, because only in this position, female have a chance to stimulate the clitoris shaft by accident, and then women's self-consciousness can be awakened. Women will know that sooner or later the true meaning of sex is “genital rubbing”, the problem is that male genital is penis, but female genital is clitoris shaft, not vagina.
Many times history is unfair, especially in the reproduction of species. Even we can say that the reproduction is so selfish and cruel, not only can it sacrifice the interests of other species, and also even can sacrifice some group of their own species. Fortunately, evolution is still moving forward, we are only on the middle way of long evolutionary history. Human have lots of things waiting to be changed, human females have more. It is really time for women to get out the trap of reproduction.