Etymology and usage
The tribas, lesbian, from Greek tribein, to rub (i.e. rubbing the pudenda together, or clitoris upon pubic bone, etc.), appears in Greek and Latin satires from the late first century. In the sexuality of the ancient Romans, a tribas was a woman or hermaphrodite who actively penetrated another woman. Until the 20th century, the term was used to refer to lesbian sexual practices in general. Therefore, lesbians were occasionally called tribades. The tribade was the most common (vulgar) lesbian in European texts for many centuries. ?Tribade? occurs in English texts from at least as early as 1601 to at least as late as the mid-nineteenth century before it became self-consciously old-fashioned?it was in current use for nearly three centuries.
Fricatrice, a synonym for tribade that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson's Volpone). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than tribade. Variants include the Latinized confricatrice and English rubster. In modern times, the term tribadism refers to various forms of frottage between women without any negative connotations.Sexual practices
Among women who have sex with women (lesbian or otherwise), tribadism is a common sexual practice. Though usually applied to the act of vulva-to-vulva stimulation, the term encompasses a variety of sexual activity. In addition to the commonly titled "scissoring" motion, tribadism may involve a missionary position, a woman on top position, a doggy style position, or simple movement of the woman's vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, palm, arm, or another body part (excluding the mouth). It may be accompanied by penetration of a partner with fingers or a dildo; and so sometimes "mutuality and reciprocation tend not to be the main objective, although satisfaction for both partners through different means most definitely is its aim." Lesbians who prefer tribadism for sexual stimulation report enjoyment of whole-body contact, the experience of timing hip movement and feeling their partner's motions without manual stimulation, which is considered "very erotic" and a much easier way to achieve orgasm due to direct clitoral stimulation.
Some lesbian and bisexual women object to the term "scissoring," as they do not partake in this particular aspect of the activity and attribute it more to the male fantasies of the heterosexual porn industry. Often times, "scissoring" is used as an umbrella term for all genital-to-genital forms of tribadism, and many lesbian and bisexual women are unaware that some of the sexual acts they include in their lovemaking are aspects of tribadism, as tribadism is commonly omitted from m@instre@m sex research. Judith Halberstam, in her book Female Masculinity, stated, "If we trace the use of the term forward into present, we find that tribadism is one of those rarely discussed but often practiced sexual activities, and the silence that surrounds it now is as puzzling as the discourse it produced in earlier centuries." She added that Sigmund Freud had nothing to say on the subject, and few contemporary lesbian sex books even discuss it.
According to older studies, approximately one-third of lesbian women used tribadism, or body contact, as a means of achieving orgasm (Saghir & Robins, 1973; Jay & Young, 1977). Masters and Johnson's 1979 study on lesbian sexual practices found that vaginal penetration with dildos is rare, and that lesbians tend to do more overall genital stimulation than direct clitoral stimulation, which is also often the case for heterosexual relationships. In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado. When asked what techniques they used in their last 10 lovemaking sessions, 100% were for kissing, sucking on breasts, and manual stimulation of the clitoris; more than 90% reported French kissing, oral sex, and fingers inserted into the vagina; and 80% reported tribadism.
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