Okay, so I overheard a conversation between two sixteen-or-seventeen-year-olds in the shop today, and it brought back to mind something that has bothered me ever since the Bill Clinton -Monica Lewinsky thing.
Girl One: So, girl had sex with boy after the party?
Girl Two: No, she bottled out and just gave him a blow-job.
Just? JUST?
I will never understand the concept that says that oral sex is a lesser thing than penetrative sex. How much more intimate can you get than putting some other person's bits in your mouth (or vice versa) for goodness sake? I've seen people cringe at the very idea of using their boyfriend/girlfriend's toothbrush to clean their teeth, but they'll blithely go down on that same partner. Is it just me, or does this lack any semblance of logic?
Now, I have a lot of good friends, people I love dearly, and I can see situations where, if they were particularly depressed or needy, I might indulge in a little horizontal jogging to cheer them up or offer comfort, but I can't even imagine providing "Lip service" (as my mother so discreetly calls it) to anyone I wasn't "in love" with.
Yet the view that "Oral sex isn't real sex" seems widespread. I've heard people who've vowed to remain chaste till their wedding discussing how they overcome their lustful urges through the giving and receiving of it. Now, I'll accept that one can retain one's virginity that way, if one holds to the technical definition of a virgin, but somehow, I can't call it chaste, pure or innocent.
Oh well, maybe, I'm old-fashioned. Maybe, I'm strange. I still don't understand it.