Group sex#Key party

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In principle, any sexual behavior performed by more than two people can be referred to as group sex, but various terms are used to describe particular acts or combinations of people. Many swingers argue that non-swingers have conflated the terms because of lack of understanding and that there are distinct differences among the terms with specific meanings as to number, intent, sexual orientation, and familiarity of the persons involved.

• Circle jerk: Group masturbation among men, usually sitting in somewhat of a circle formation.
• Daisy chain: Group of participants perform cunnilingus or fellatio on each other in a circular formation, permitting each participant to both give and receive oral sex simultaneously.
• Gang bang: A number of people performing sex acts on one person, either in turn or at the same time. Sexual intercourse involving multiple women in which one man is the central focus is called reverse gang bang.
• Threesome or three-way: Three people all having sexual relations, not necessarily simultaneously. Not to be confused with ménage à trois (literally, "household of three").
• Foursome or four-way: Sex between four people. Not to be confused with ménage à quatre (literally, "household of four").
• Double penetration: When a person is entered or penetrated in the vagina and/or anus by two people at the same time. This is usually when one person enters the anus while another enters the vagina; however, it also refers to two simultaneous penetrations in the same orifice.
• Monogamous group sex or same room sex (a.k.a. soft swapping): Couples engaging in sexual activity in the same room but in separate pairs, without any swapping of partners or other major sexual activity between couples.
• Spintrian: A term used by Suetonius to describe sexual group practices indulged in by the emperor Tiberius on Capri.{{Cite book |last=Forberg |first=Friedrich Karl |author-link=Friedrich Karl Forberg |title=Manual of classical erotology (De figuris Veneris) |publisher=Medical Press of New York |year=1963 |page=233}}

A sex party is a gathering at which sexual activity takes place. Sex parties may be organized to enable people to engage in casual sexual activity or people interested in group sex to meet, but any gathering where sexual activity is anticipated can be called a sex party.

There are a number of types of sex parties:

File:Édouard-Henri Avril (25).jpg by Édouard-Henri Avril|300x300px]]

File:Peter Fendi scene erotique.jpg depicting participants engaged in group sex]]

An orgy is a gathering where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex; and a bunga bunga orgy is an orgy in which participants have sex underwater, such as in a swimming pool or a hot tub.[http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-07/silvio-berlusconis-bunga-bunga-parties/ "Berlusconi's 'Bunga Bunga Orgies{{'"}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310055404/http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-07/silvio-berlusconis-bunga-bunga-parties|date=2011-03-10}}. The Daily Beast, 7 November 2010

A swinger party or partner-swapping party is a gathering at which individuals or couples in a committed relationship can engage in sexual activities with others as a recreational or social activity.{{cite journal

|journal=Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality

|last1=Bergstrand

|first1=Curtis

|last2=Blevins Williams |first2=Jennifer

|date=2000-10-10

|title=Today's Alternative Marriage Styles: The Case of Swingers

|volume=3

|access-date=2010-01-24

|url=http://www.ejhs.org/volume3/swing/body.htm}}

Swinger parties may involve various group sex activities. Partners can engage in penetrative sex, known as "full swap", or choose to "soft swap" in which they engage only in non-penetrative sex. New swinging couples often choose a soft swap before they are comfortable with a full swap, although many couples stay soft swap for personal reasons.{{cite web | url=http://swingersocial.com/swinger-blog/?page_id=13 | title=What is a Swinger? | publisher=The Swinger Blog | date=Sep 2011 | access-date=April 15, 2012 | author=Wojick, Helen | archive-date=February 7, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207203034/http://swingersocial.com/swinger-blog/?page_id=13 | url-status=dead }} "Soft swinging" is when a couple engages in sexual activities with only each other while other couples perform sex acts in the immediate vicinity.{{cite web|url=http://www.swingersocial.com/lifestyle-sex-defintions/s|title=SWINGERS DEFINITIONS - Swinger words that begin with a S|access-date=16 September 2016|archive-date=17 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217062138/http://www.swingersocial.com/lifestyle-sex-defintions/s|url-status=dead}} Technically this is a form of exhibitionism rather than "group sex" per se.

As with all sexual activity, the relative risks of group sex depend on the specific activities engaged in, although having a large number of sexual partners increases one's risk of exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

From the mid-1980s there was active lobbying against gay bathhouses, blaming them for the spread of STIs, in particular HIV, and this forced closures in some jurisdictions, particularly in the United States.{{cite news

|first=Jane | last=Gross | title=Bathhouses reflect AIDS concerns | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/14/nyregion/bathhouses-reflect-aids-concerns.html | newspaper=The New York Times | date=October 14, 1985 | access-date=26 December 2006 | quote=At the St. Marks Baths, for the price of a locker or a room, patrons now get a free condom, enclosed in a package that bears the legend the contents of this envelope could save your life.}}{{harvnb|Woods|Binson|2003}} Sociologist Stephen O. Murray writes that, "there was never any evidence presented that going to bathhouses was a risk-factor for contracting AIDS."{{harvnb|Murray|1996}} This statement ignored the fact that few studies had been done.{{Cite journal |last=Reidy |first=William J. |last2=Spielberg |first2=Freya |last3=Wood |first3=Robert |last4=Binson |first4=Diane |last5=Woods |first5=William J. |last6=Goldbaum |first6=Gary M. |date=April 2009 |title=HIV Risk Associated With Gay Bathhouses and Sex Clubs: Findings From 2 Seattle Surveys of Factors Related to HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections |url=https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2007.130773 |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=99 |issue=S1 |pages=S165–S172 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.130773 |issn=0090-0036 |pmc=2724952 |pmid=19218174}} Later studies have confirmed a higher risk off STI from bathhouses.{{Cite journal |last=Lau |first=JosephT. F. |last2=Zhao |first2=Jin-Kou |last3=Wu |first3=Xiao-Bing |last4=Gu |first4=Jing |last5=Hao |first5=Chun |date=2013-03-01 |title=Gay Saunas and the Risks of HIV and Syphilis Transmissions in China—Results of a Meta‐Analysis |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743609515302824 |journal=The Journal of Sexual Medicine |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=642–652 |doi=10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02956.x |issn=1743-6095|pmc=7105074 }} In other countries, fears about the spread of STIs have prompted the closing of bathhouses—with their private rooms—in favour of sex clubs, in which all sexual activity takes place in the open, and can be observed by monitors whose job it is to enforce safer sex practices.{{Cite book

|last=Woods

|first=William J.

|author2=Diane Binson

|title=Gay Bathhouses and Public Health Policy

|publisher=Haworth Press

|year=2003

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t2MsjlZT1LcC

|access-date=10 July 2008

|isbn=978-1-56023-273-5}}

Proponents claim that venues where group sex takes place often provide condoms, dental dams, latex gloves, lubricants and other items for safer sex, although they cannot prove that those items are used and use is typically not mandated. Bathhouses in particular are a major source of safer sex information—they provide pamphlets and post safer sex posters prominently (often on the walls of each room as well as in the common areas), provide free condoms and lubricants, and often require patrons to affirm that they will only have safer sex on the premises.{{cite web|last=Westerfelt |first=Alex |title=Bathhouse Norms: What goes on in the Bathhouse? |publisher=Healthy Living |date=August 2005 |url=http://www.4healthyliving.org/05aug.htm |access-date=10 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220130453/http://www.4healthyliving.org/05aug.htm |archive-date=February 20, 2012 }}{{cite news|last=Bernstein|first=Sharon|title=Rising Rate of HIV Infection Renews Bathhouse Debate|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 23, 2004|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-mar-23-me-bathhouse23-story.html |access-date=10 July 2008}}{{cite news|title=NHS to hold STI testing in gay sauna|date=October 15, 2007|newspaper=Pink News|access-date=21 October 2009|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5752.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629101456/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5752.html|archive-date=29 June 2011|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|journal=QX Magazine London|date=September 17, 2009|publisher=QX|access-date=25 October 2009|issue=758|page=44|url=http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=rqqwpg#/page44|title=QX journal article|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091126013815/http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=rqqwpg#/page44|archive-date=26 November 2009}}

In a 2015 US survey, a significantly larger percentage of men than women responded that they had any lifetime experience of a threesome (17.8 vs 10.3) or group sex (11.5 vs 6.3).{{Cite journal|title=Sexual diversity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative probability sample of adult women and men|first1=Debby|last1=Herbenick|first2=Jessamyn|last2=Bowling|first3=Tsung-Chieh (Jane)|last3=Fu|first4=Brian|last4=Dodge|first5=Lucia|last5=Guerra-Reyes|first6=Stephanie|last6=Sanders|date=20 July 2017|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=7|pages=e0181198|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181198|pmid=28727762|pmc=5519052|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281198H |doi-access=free }}

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalized homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age in private in England and Wales;[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/02/tories-out-in-force-gay-pride "From Section 28 to a Home Office float - Tories come out in force at gay march"], The Guardian, London, 3 July 2010. however, the privacy restrictions of the Act meant a third person could not participate in the sex or even be present, as well as that the two men could not have sex in a hotel. These restrictions were overturned in the European Court of Human Rights in 2000.{{cite web|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-58922|title=HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights|website=hudoc.echr.coe.int|access-date=2016-11-18}}

Section 20A of the Immorality Act, 1957,In 1988 the Immorality Act was renamed the Sexual Offences Act. commonly known as the "men at a party" clause, was a South African law that criminalized all sexual acts between men that occurred in the presence of a third person. The section was enacted by the Immorality Amendment Act, 1969 and remained in force until it was found to be unconstitutional in 1998 by the Constitutional Court in the case of National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice.

A 1996 sexual harassment case filed against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) highlighted corporate involvement by Mitsubishi in sex parties arranged by managers and other employees.[http://www.contilaw.com/pleadings/EEOCvMitsubishsi.htm "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115244/http://www.contilaw.com/pleadings/EEOCvMitsubishsi.htm |date=2016-03-04 }}, Adam J. Conti, LLC, Filing 96-1192, September 15, 1997

Group sex is illegal in China, due to Article 301 of China's 1997 Criminal Law which bans “group licentiousness”.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pressreader.com/singapore/esquire-singapore/20141001/283296045880117|title=In China's rampant consumerist era, friends going to buy sex together has become normalised, perceived as not all that different from having a pint |publisher=Esquire (Singapore) |via=PressReader|access-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330024845/https://www.pressreader.com/singapore/esquire-singapore/20141001/283296045880117 |archive-date=30 March 2020}}{{cite web |author=Robert Foyle Hunwick |url=http://supchina.com/2018/02/13/polyamory-in-the-prc-a-brief-history-of-sex-and-swinging-in-modern-china/amp/ |title=Polyamory in the PRC: A brief history of sex and swinging in modern China |date=13 February 2018 |publisher=SupChina |access-date=2020-03-30 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330024938/https://supchina.com/2018/02/13/polyamory-in-the-prc-a-brief-history-of-sex-and-swinging-in-modern-china/amp/ |url-status=dead }}

In Canada, in a 2002 decision regarding a case in which three people were engaged in sexual intercourse, the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta declared section 159 of the Criminal Code in its entirety to be null, including the provisions criminalizing anal sex when more than two persons are taking part or present.{{cite web|url=http://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2002/2002abqb145/2002abqb145.html|title=R. v. Roth, 2002 ABQB 145 (CanLII)|access-date=12 June 2016}} In June 2019, C-75 passed both houses of the Parliament of Canada and received royal assent, repealing section 159 effective immediately.{{cite act |type=bill |date=21 June 2019 |legislature=Parliament of Canada |title=Bill C-75 |url= https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-75/royal-assent}}

Sex parties, under various names, have been a common focus of moral panics fed by media reports claiming that such parties are prevalent, or growing in prevalence, especially among teenagers.{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/love-sex/is-your-teen-sending-you-secret-sex-sgnals-2235874.html|title=Is your teen sending secret sex signals?|last=Daly|first=Susan|date=Jun 26, 2010|work=Irish Independent|access-date=16 November 2010}}

Sensational media reports about the prevalence of sex parties, especially among young people, appear with some regularity. In the early 1950s, for example, it was alleged that teenage girls, mainly throughout the Southern and Midwestern United States were forming "non-virgin clubs", in which they organized and held sex orgies with reports of couples being paired off by drawing numbers from a hat. These claims were investigated and debunked.{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qy0gAAAAIBAJ&pg=6771,6733980&dq=non+virgin+clubs&hl=en|title='Non-Virgin Club' New Aspect of Teen-age Sex Misbehavior |last=Morin |first=Relmin |date=August 26, 1951 |work=Eugene Register-Guard |access-date=19 October 2012}}Cahn, Susan (2007). Sexual Reckonings: Southern Girls in a Troubling Age. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. (p. 199) {{ISBN|978-0-674-02452-6}}Peril, Lynn (2002). Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons. New York. W.W. Norton & Company Inc. (pp. 100-101) {{ISBN|0-393-32354-4}}{{cite web|url=http://mattoonhistory.home.mchsi.com/Timeline/1950s.htm |title=Mattoon, Illinois History 1950-1959 |publisher=mattoonhistory.home.mschsi.com |access-date=2012-10-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103200204/http://mattoonhistory.home.mchsi.com/Timeline/1950s.htm |archive-date=2012-11-03 }}

Several stories of this type arose in the US in 2003. In New York, rumors began that teens had been taking days off from school to attend "hooky parties" while their parents were at work. One school even suspended a group of girls for allegedly skipping school to attend such a party, refusing to let them return to school until each had submitted to a medical examination for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, and school officials were allowed to examine the results. The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the school[https://www.aclu.org/studentsrights/gen/12776prs20030708.html "NYCLU Sues New York School Officials for Forcing Teen-Age Girls to Undergo Intrusive Medical Exams"] (July 8, 2003). aclu.org. Retrieved February 2, 2007. on behalf of the girls and won a settlement which included monetary damages and a change in the school district's policy.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nyclu.org/case/doe-and-roe-v-reid|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707061617/http://www.nyclu.org/case/doe-and-roe-v-reid|url-status=dead|title=Doe and Roe v. Reid|website=New York Civil Liberties Union|archive-date=7 July 2010|access-date=17 May 2022}}

A rainbow party is a baseless urban legend spread from the early 2000s. At these events, females wearing various shades of lipstick reportedly took turns fellating males in sequence, leaving multiple colours on their penises,Lewin, Tamar (June 30, 2005). [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/fashion/thursdaystyles/30rainbow.html "Are These Parties for Real?"] The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2009. ignoring the fact that in such a situation the colors would blend. Rainbow parties were covered on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2003, and became the subject of a juvenile novel called Rainbow Party. On May 27, 2010, the television program The Doctors discussed the topic with dozens of teens, parents, and professionals. However, sex researchers and adolescent health care professionals have found no evidence for the existence of rainbow parties, and as such attribute the spread of the stories to a moral panic.

Similar stories concerning teenagers using gel bracelets as coupons or signals for sex also arose at the time, with a similar lack of corroborating evidence.Mikkelson, Barbara (2003). [http://www.snopes.com/risque/school/bracelet.asp "Sex Bracelets"]. snopes.com. Retrieved December 22, 2005.

{{Portal|Erotica and pornography}}

• Sex positions of groups

{{Reflist}}

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{{Commons category}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Weinberg|first1=Martin S.|last2=Williams |first2=Colin J.|title=Gay Baths and the Social Organization of Impersonal Sex|journal=Social Problems|volume=23|issue=2|pages=124–136|date=December 1975|doi=10.2307/799651 |jstor=799651 }}

{{Human sexuality and sexology}}

{{Human sexuality}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Group Sex}}

Category:Sexual fidelity