Baseball metaphors for sex

The game of baseball is often used as a euphemistic metaphor for physical intimacy in the United States and other places the game is played, especially to describe the level of sexual intimacy achieved in intimate encounters or relationships. [cite book|pages=66|title=Offside: soccer and American exceptionalism|author=Steven L. Hellermann and Andrei S. Markovits|date=2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|id=ISBN 069107447X]

Films and television shows too numerous to detail have included baseball metaphors for sex such as "I didn't even get to first base" or "No, I struck out" in a sexual or romantic context.

History

In the baseball metaphor, sexual activities are described as if they are moves in a game of baseball. In the United States from the end of World War II to present, adolescent boys would sometimes use this competitive analogy to describe, usually to boast about, their successes in "making it" with girls. [cite book|title=Communicating Gender|author=Suzanne Romaine|pages=210|date=1999|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates|id=ISBN 0805829261] [cite book|title=The Dark Ages, Life in the United States, 1945–1960|author=Marty Jezer|pages=248|date=1982|publisher=South End Press|id=ISBN 0896081273]

List of sexual metaphors

Although details vary, the most broadly accepted description of what each base represented is as follows:
*First base is commonly understood to be French kissing, but can also mean any mouth-to-mouth kissing, or to an established romantic relationship in general.cite book|title=The Essential Guide to the New Adolescence: How to Raise an Emotionally Healthy Teenager|author=Ava L. Siegler|pages=27|date=1997|publisher=Dutton|id=ISBN 0525939709] cite web|url=http://www.teenwire.com/ask/2001/as-20010601p227.php|title=Ask the Experts: What do people mean by going to first base, second base, third base, and hitting a homerun?|author=teenwire.com Editors|work=teenwire.com|date=2001-01-06]
*Second base usually refers to fondling or groping, especially of the breasts, and sexual stimulation of the genitals from outside of the clothing.
*Third base means fingering or giving a handjob or giving or receiving oral sex. Can refer to being in the nude as well.
*Scoring a Run, Hitting a Home Run (or "scoring", "going all the way", "coming home", "beyond bases" etc.) is sexual intercourse. [ [http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.14.00/columns/lovebites.php Eye Weekly ] ] [ [http://www.houstonpress.com/2005-12-29/news/podnography/ Houston - News - Podnography ] ]

Other baseball sexual metaphors:
*Grand Slam refers to getting the girl pregnant.
*Fifth Base or "scoring in the dugout" refers to anal intercourse. Fact|date=September 2008
*Striking Out is often used to describe rejection and sexual frustration.cite book|title=The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture 1998|author=Alvin L. Hall and Thomas L. Altherr|chapter=Eros at the Bat: American Baseball and Sexuality in Historical Context|pages=157–182|date=2002|publisher=McFarland & Company|id=ISBN 0786409541]
*Pitcher and Catcher are used to describe the participants in male homosexual anal intercourse.cite book|title=The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture 1998|author=Alvin L. Hall and Thomas L. Altherr|chapter=Eros at the Bat: American Baseball and Sexuality in Historical Context|pages=157–182|date=2002|publisher=McFarland & Company|id=ISBN 0786409541]
*Switch Hitter refers to bisexuals, while a "switch" may refer to someone who takes both a "top" or "bottom" role in domination play. Fact|date=September 2008
*Playing Outfield refers to an orgy of four or more people. Fact|date=September 2008
* Foul Ball refers to when a male is having sex with a female in the doggy-style position, then tries to discreetly sneak his penis up into the female's anus, pretending it's an accident
*Batboy refers to act of masturbation

Recent changes

This sequence of "running the bases" is often regarded as a script, or pattern, for young people who are experimenting with sexual relationships. The script has changed slightly since the 1960s. Kohl and Francoeur note that with the growing emphasis in the 1990s on safe sex and efforts by the feminist movement to expand sex beyond phallo-vaginal intercourse, the "home run" has taken on the additional dimension of oral-genital sexual intercourse. Richters and Rissel similarly point out that "third base" has since become seen, by some people, to comprise oral sex as part of the accepted pattern of activities, as a pre-cursor to "full" (i.e. phallo-vaginal) sex. [cite book|title=Doing it Down Under: The Sexual Lives of Australians|author=Juliet Richters and Chris Rissel|date=2005|publisher=Allen & Unwin|id=ISBN 1741143268|pages=32] [cite book|title=The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality|author=James V. Kohl and Robert T. Francoeur|date=2002|publisher=iUniverse|id=ISBN 059523383X|pages=153–154]

Mullaney reports the idea that the introduction of oral sex is in fact a "new teen model", that is replacing the "traditional base system", in part as an "unintended offspring of 'abstinence-only' education". In this new model, sex acts, including many that were not included as part of the traditional "base" system, are classified in a wholly different way. The acts that count as "sex" (i.e. what would in the traditional system have constituted a "home run") are distinguished from those that do not count as "sex" according to whether it is possible to become pregnant, or lose one's virginity, from them. Thus oral sex, anal sex, and "a variety of other acts" are reclassified in the new model as "not a big deal" and "part of the realm of abstinence". Mullaney states that "obviously, not all teens subscribe to this revised model of classification". [cite book|title=Everyone Is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity|author=Jamie L. Mullaney|pages=153–154|date=2005|publisher=University of Chicago|id=ISBN 0226547566]

Educators have found the baseball metaphor an effective instructional tool when providing sex education to middle school students. Levin and Bell, in their book "A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex", make use of it to aid parents in the discussion of puberty with their children, dividing the topics into "first base" ("Changes from the neck up"), "second base" ("Changes from the neck to the waist"), "third base" ("Changes from the waist down"), and "home plate" ("The Big 'It'"). [cite book|title=A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex: A Healthy Look at Sexuality for|author= [http://www.praisestore.com/kevin-leman/ Kevin Leman] and Kathy Flores Bell|date=2004|publisher=Zondervan|id=ISBN 031025096X] The bases may be different for different people, genders, and races.

References

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