Making out

For the television series, see Making Out. For other uses, see Make out (disambiguation).

In human sexuality, making out is a sexual euphemism^[1] of American origin dating back to at least 1949, and is used synonymously with the terms necking, heavy petting, and hooking up^[2] to refer to non-penetrative sex, though "hooking up" is also used in some cultures to imply casual sex.

History

The sexual connotations of the phrase "make out" appear to have developed in the 1930s and 1940s from the phrase's other meanings of "to succeed". Originally, it meant "to seduce" or "to have sexual intercourse with".^[3]

Studies indicate that at the beginning of the 20th century, premarital sex increased, and with it, petting behavior in the 1920s. The Continental experience at that time is amusingly illustrated by 'a letter that Freud wrote to Ferenczi in 1931 playfully admonishing him to stop kissing his patients', in which Freud warned lest 'a number of independent thinkers in matters of technique will say to themselves: Why stop at a kiss? Certainly one gets further when one adopts "pawing" as well, which, after all, doesn't make a baby. And then bolder ones will come along who will go further, to peeping and showing - and soon we shall have accepted in the technique of analysis the whole repertoire of demi-viergerie and petting parties'.^[4]

Certainly by the postwar period, necking and petting became accepted behavior in mainstream American culture, as long as the partners were dating,^[5] and became the subject of numerous jokes: 'He: "Darling, I'm groping for words." She: "You won't find them there." (N.Y. 1940)'.^[6]

Characteristics

Making out covers a wide range of sexual behavior,^[7] and means different things to different age groups in different parts of the U.S.^[1] It typically involves kissing,^[8] including prolonged, passionate, open-mouth kissing (also known as French kissing), intimate contact, including heavy petting, that is, skin-to-skin contact,^[1] or other forms of foreplay,^[9] but never the direct act of sexual intercourse. Making out is usually considered an expression of affection or sexual attraction. An episode of making out is frequently referred to as a "make-out session" or simply "making out" depending on the speaker's vernacular.^[10]

Make-out parties

The perceived significance of making out may be affected by the age and relative sexual experience of the participants. Teenagers sometimes play party games in which making out is the main activity as an act of exploration. Games in this category include seven minutes in heaven and spin the bottle.^[11]

Teenagers may have social gatherings in which making out is the predominant event. In the United States, these events were referred to as "make-out parties" and would sometimes be confined to a specific area called the "make-out room".^[12]

See also

• Foreplay
• French kiss
• Outercourse
• Sexual slang

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Lief, Harold I. (1975). Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality: 750 Questions Answered by 500 Authorities. Williams & Wilkins. p. 242. "Among the city kids of 13 to 17 who live along the Boston, New York, Philadelphia string, "making out" is heavy petting." 
2. ^ Partridge, Eric (2006). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. New York: Routledge. p. 1259. ISBN 041525938X. 
3. ^ Moe, Albert F. (1966) "Make out" and Related Usages. American Speech 41(2): 96–107.
4. ^ quoted in Janet Malcolm, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (London 1988) p. 37-8
5. ^ Breines, Wini (2001). Young, White, and Miserable: Growing Up Female in the Fifties. University of Chicago Press. pp. 117–118. ISBN 0226072614. 
6. ^ G. Legman, The Rationale of the Dirty Joke Vol II (1973) p. 12
7. ^ Lafollette, Hugh (2002). Ethics in Practice. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 243. ISBN 0631228349. ""making out," which can comprise a rather wide variety of activities" 
8. ^ Bolin, Anne (1999). Perspectives on Human Sexuality. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 222. ISBN 0791441334. "Making out usually refers to kissing or passionate physical contact, but it also may escalate into petting." 
9. ^ Crownover, Richard (2005). Making out in English. Boston: Tuttle Publishing. p. 4. ISBN 0804836817. ""Making out," used in the title of this book is a colloquialism that can mean engaging in sexual intercourse, ..." 
10. ^ Kate Cann, Hard Cash (London 2000) p. 262 and p. 237
11. ^ Benj Demott, First of the Year (2010) p. 121
12. ^ David Mansour, From Abba to Zoom (2005) p. 110

External links

• How to Make Out
• Art of Making Out