Irrumatio

{{Redirect|Egyptian rape|the phenomenon of rape in the Arab Republic of Egypt|Rape in Egypt}}

Irrumatio (also known as irrumation or by the colloquialism face-fucking) is a form of oral sex in which someone thrusts their penis into another person's mouth, in contrast to fellatio where the penis is being actively orally excited by a fellator. The difference lies mainly in which party takes the active part. By extension, irrumatio can also refer to the sexual technique of thrusting the penis between the thighs of a partner (intercrural sex).{{cite web|url=http://www.sex-lexis.com/Sex-Dictionary/irrumatio|title=irrumatio in Sex-Lexis|access-date=2009-07-07}}

In the ancient Roman sexual vocabulary, irrumatio is a form of oral rape (os impurum), in which a man forces his penis into someone else's mouth, almost always another man's.Amy Richlin, "The Meaning of irrumare in Catullus and Martial", Classical Philology 76.1 (1981) 40–46.

Etymology and history

The English nouns irrumatio and irrumation, and the verb irrumate, come from the Latin {{lang|la|irrumāre}}, meaning to force receptive male oral sex.{{Cite web |url=http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=irrumatio |title=Whitaker's Words: irrumatio |access-date=2018-05-06 |archive-date=2022-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930111355/http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=irrumatio |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal|jstor=269544|title=Richlin, A. 1981. "The Meaning of Irrumare in Catullus and Martial". Classical Philology 76 (1): 40–46. Link to preview available from the WWW.|pages=40–46|last1=Richlin|first1=A.|author-link=Amy Richlin |volume=76|issue=1|journal=Classical Philology|year=1981|doi=10.1086/366597|s2cid=162094918}} J. L. Butrica, in his review of R. W. Hooper's edition of The Priapus Poems, a corpus of poems known as Priapeia in Latin, states that "some Roman sexual practices, like irrumatio, lack simple English equivalents".{{cite journal|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2000/2000-02-23.html|title=Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2000.02.23|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|last=James L. Butrica|access-date=2009-07-07|date=February 2000}}

There is some conjecture among linguists, as yet unresolved, that irrŭmātio may be connected with the Latin word rūmen, rūminis, the throat and gullet, whence 'ruminate', to chew the cud, therefore meaning 'insertion into the throat'. OthersAdams (1982), The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, p. 126. connect it with rūma or rūmis, an obsolete word for a teat, hence it would mean "giving milk", "giving to suck". (Compare the word fellō, which literally meant "suck (milk)" before it acquired its sexual sense.)

As the quotation from Butrica suggests and an article by W. A. Krenkel shows, irrumatio was a distinct sexual practice in ancient Rome.{{cite book|last=Krenkel, W. A.|title="Fellatio and Irrumatio" in W. Bernard and C. Reitz (eds.). Naturalia non turpia (this work is one of a series of articles written by Krenkel about sexuality in the Roman Empire.)|publisher=Ildesheim|location=Zurich & New York|date=1980|pages=205–232}}{{Clarify|date=December 2012}}{{cite book|last=Krenkel, Werner|title="Masturbation in der Antike." "Pueri meritorii." "Fellatio und Irrumatio." "Tonguing." and "Tribaden." |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock|pages=28 (1979): 159–89; 29 (1980): 77–88; 30 (1981): 37–54; 38 (1989): 45–58}} J. N. Adams states that "it was a standard joke to speak of irrumatio as a means of silencing someone".{{cite book|last=Adams, J. N.|title=The Latin Sexual Vocabulary|publisher=Baltimore|year=1982|pages=126–127}} Oral sex was considered to be an act of defilement: the mouth had a particularly defined role as the organ of oratory, as in Greece, to participate in the central public sphere, where discursive powers were of great importance. Thus, to penetrate the mouth could be taken to be a sign of massive power differential within a relationship. Erotic art from Pompeii depicts irrumatio along with fututio, fellatio and cunnilingus, and pedicatio or anal sex.{{cite web|url=http://www.focusarticle.com/children/article349.htm |title=Roman Sex ?C Hot Sex from the Frescos in Pompeii |last=Tarkovsky, S. |access-date=2009-07-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220094859/http://www.focusarticle.com/children/article349.htm |archive-date=December 20, 2008 }} The extant wall paintings depicting explicit sex often appear to be in bathhouses and brothels, and oral sex was something usually practiced with prostitutes because of their lowly status. Craig A. Williams argues that irrumatio was regarded as a degrading act, even more so than anal rape.{{cite book|last=Williams, C. A.|title=Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity|publisher=Oxford: Oxford University Press|year=1999|pages=331}} S. Tarkovsky states that, despite being popular, it was thought to be a hostile act, "taken directly from the Greek, whereby the Greek men would have to force the fellatio by violence". Furthermore, as Amy Richlin has shown in an article in the Journal of the History of Sexuality, it was also accepted as "oral rape", a punitive act against homosexuality.{{cite journal|jstor=3704392|title=Preview of "Not before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the Cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men"|pages=523–573|last1=Richlin|first1=A.|volume=3|issue=4|journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality|year=1993}} Catullus threatens two friends who have insulted him with both irrumatio and pedicatio in his Carmen 16, although the use could also mean "go to hell," rather than being a literal threat.{{cite book|author=Micaela Wakil Janan|title=When the Lamp Is Shattered: Desire and Narrative in Catullus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5gG9Zcc6aeUC&pg=PA45|access-date=26 May 2016|date=18 January 1994|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=978-0-8093-1765-3|page=45}}

In modern English, the term "fellatio" has expanded to incorporate irrumatio, and the latter has fallen out of widespread use.{{cite web|url=http://www.sex-lexis.com/Sex-Dictionary/fellatio|title="Fellatio" in Sex-Lewis|access-date=2009-07-07}} Likewise, irrumatio might today be called "forced fellatio" or "oral rape". In modern English, especially in a non-rape context, the term "face fucking" is often used.{{Cite web |date=2021-04-08 |title=Face fucking |url=https://definedictionarymeaning.com/topic/208763/face-fucking |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Define Dictionary Meaning |language=en-US}}

Another synonym for irrumatio is Egyptian rape or simply Egyptian; this goes back to the time of the Crusades when Mamluks were alleged to force their Christian captives to do this.Edwardes, Allen; Masters, Robert E. L. The cradle of erotica. New York: Julian Press, 1963.{{page needed|date=May 2016}}

Ethnology

Peruvian erotic pottery of the Mochica cultures represent a form of fellatio in the vases showing oragenital acts. See the vases illustrated in color in Dr. Rafael Larco-Hoyle’s Checan (Love!), published in both French and English versions by Éditions Nagel in Geneva, 1965, plates 30–33 and 133–135. The action should really be considered irrumation{{cite book|last=G.|first=Legman|title=Oragenitalism: Oral Techniques in Genital Excitation|publisher=The Julian Press and devious quantivies. |year=1969|pages=243}}