Baseball metaphors for sex
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2008-07-13T20:02:34Z
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/* List of sexual metaphors */ Can't say I've heard the rape one before, though I suppose it's funny. At any rate, rape isn't gendered, "refers to rape" would make more sense.
The game of [[baseball]] is often used as a [[euphemism|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Communicating Gender|author=Suzanne Romaine|pages=210|date=1999|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates|id=ISBN 0805829261}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>.
==List of sexual metaphors==
Although details vary, the most broadly accepted description of what each base represented is as follows:
*'''[[First baseman|First base]]''' is commonly understood to be [[French kiss]]ing, but can also mean any mouth-to-mouth kissing, or to an established romantic relationship in general.<ref name=Siegler>{{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}}</ref><ref name=teenwire>{{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]]}}</ref>
*'''[[Second baseman|Second base]]''' usually refers to [[fondling]] or [[groping]], especially of the [[breasts]], and possibly stimulation (ejaculation) of the [[genitals]] from outside of the clothing.
*'''[[Third baseman|Third base]]''' means [[oral sex]], [[fingering (sexual act)|fingering]] or giving a [[handjob]].
*'''Scoring a [[Run (baseball)|Run]]''', '''Hitting a [[Home Run]]''' (or "scoring", "going all the way", "coming home", "beyond bases" etc.) is [[sexual intercourse]].<ref name=Siegler /><ref name=teenwire /><ref>[http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.14.00/columns/lovebites.php Eye Weekly<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.houstonpress.com/2005-12-29/news/podnography/ Houston - News - Podnography<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Other baseball sexual metaphors:
*'''Fifth Base''' or "'''scoring in the [[Dugout (baseball)|dugout]]'''" refers to anal intercourse.
*'''[[Strikeout|Striking Out]]''' is often used to describe rejection and sexual frustration.<ref name=Cooperstown>{{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}}</ref>
*'''[[Pitcher]]''' and '''[[Catcher]]''' are used to describe the participants in male homosexual anal intercourse.<ref name=Cooperstown>{{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}}</ref>
*'''Switch Hitter''' refers to bisexuals.
*'''Grand Slam''' is used to refer to a pregnancy resulting from that sexual encounter.
*'''[[Balk]]''' refers to premature ejaculation.<ref name=Cooperstown>{{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}}</ref>
*A '''[[night game]]''' refers to [[necrophilia]].{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
*A '''[[no hitter]]''' refers to [[abstinence]].
*A '''designated hitter''' refers to a go-to casual sexual partner.
*A '''ninth inning''' refers to a sexual encounter with the elderly.
* '''Bat Boy''' refers to someone who has never done anything sexual with a partner and/or someone who frequently masturbates.
==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 sex|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Educators have found the baseball metaphor an effective instructional tool when providing sex education to [[middle school]] students.<ref name=Cooperstown /> 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'").<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==In popular culture==
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*In [[Rush Hour 3]] James Carter (played by [[Chris Tucker]]) becomes intimate with Genviève ([[Noémie Lenoir]]) before discovering she is [[Shy Shen]], afterwards at George's house when she removes the wig - Carter exclaims: "Holy Mother of Jesus! She's a man! I went to second base with a damn Frenchman!
*[[David Letterman]] once had a [[Top Ten list (David Letterman)|Top Ten List]] of "baseball euphemisms for sex."<ref>Letterman, David. [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/index/php/20010920.phtml Top Ten Baseball Euphemisms for Sex.] [[Late Show with David Letterman]]; cbs.com. 20 September 2001.</ref>
*[[Woody Allen]], in his [[1972 in film|1972]] feature film ''[[Play It Again, Sam]]'', has just awakened in bed with [[Diane Keaton]], and the following dialog ensues:{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
<blockquote>
:'''She:''' What were you thinking about while we were doing it?<br>'''He:''' [[Willie Mays]].<br>'''She:''' I wondered why you kept yelling, "Slide!"
</blockquote>
*This was a follow-up to an early standup bit in which Allen talked about the later stages of a date, who turned out to be his second wife:{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
<blockquote>
:"That was two o'clock in the morning, and I get my date back to her apartment, and the two of us are alone, and we're going pretty good. I have to explain this very delicately, 'cause it's really tentative. As I... as I am an inordinately...passionate...man. Volatile. Sensual. In general, a stud. When making love...when making love...in an effort...to prolong...the moment of ecstasy...I think of baseball players. All right, now you know. The two of us are making love violently, she's digging it, I figure I better start thinking of ballplayers quickly. So I figure it's one out, the ninth, the [[San Francisco Giants|Giants]] are up. Mays lines a single to right, he takes second on a wild pitch. Now she is digging her nails into my neck. I decided to pinch-hit for [[Willie McCovey|McCovey]]. [[Felipe Alou|Alou]] pops out. [[Tom Haller|Haller]] singles, Mays holds third. Now I got a first-and-third situation. Two out, the Giants are behind one run. I don't know whether to squeeze or steal. She's been in the shower for ten minutes, already. This is too...I can't tell you anymore, this is too personal. The Giants won."
</blockquote>
*The metaphor was highlighted again by [[Meat Loaf]]'s song "[[Paradise by the Dashboard Light]]" on the 1977 album ''[[Bat out of Hell]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Philosophy at 33 1/3 Rpm: Themes of Classic Rock Music|author=James F. Harris|date=1993|publisher=Open Court Publishing|id=ISBN 0812692411|pages=116–118}}</ref>
<blockquote>
"...He continues to push the matter, and makes some progress, mirrored by New York Yankees announcer [[Phil Rizzuto]] broadcasting a portion of a baseball game that serves as a metaphor at his attempts.: "Things are looking up, and it appears the boy is going to 'score': "Here he comes, squeeze play/ It's gonna be close/ Here's the throw, here's the play at the plate/ Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it...!"
</blockquote>
when suddenly Ellen Foley bursts to life telling him to "Stop right there!"
*In the 1999 movie ''[[American Pie (movie)|American Pie]]'', third base was described as feeling like a warm [[apple pie]], referring to digital penetration. A character in the movie has sex with a freshly made apple pie to test this theory.
*In an episode of "[[Drawn Together]]", [[Spanky Ham]] claims to have let [[Captain Hero]] get to a fictitious "seventh base" with him, presumably referring to his [[Tracheotomy|stoma]].
*In the sitcom [[That '70s Show]], the teenagers, mainly [[Fez (That '70s Show)|Fez]], refer to their sexual endeavors with baseball metaphors. In particular, after Big Rhonda dumps Fez, he later laments, "No more baseball for Fez. Now it's back to [[masturbation|handball]]."
*On the show "[[The Office (U.S. TV series)]]", Kelly Kapoor asks Jan Levinson what it means when Michael Scott, the boss, is said to have rounded second base with Jan.
*On the show "[[Robot Chicken]]," during a [[Harry Potter]] parody, Draco Malfoy has rigged the Sorting Hat to say how sexually experienced the wearer is. For Harry the hat spouts "VIRGIN!" and when put on Hermione Granger the hat shouts "SECOND BASE!" to the shock of everyone in the Great Hall.
*In "[[The Simpsons Movie]]", When Homer dares Bart to skateboard naked from [[742 Evergreen Terrace]] to [[Krusty Burger]] and back, Bart replies "How naked?" Homer then replies "Fourth Base".
*In the 1988 version of ''[[Hairspray (1988 film)|Hairspray]]'', while outside Motormouth Maybelle's All Soul Review, Penny urges Seaweed to "Go to second, go to second!"
*In an episode of "[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]", Kim says to JD "At least I got to third base with you" referring to her having to treat JD's genital area after bareback horseriding.
*In [[Blades of Glory (film)]], Chazz ([[Will Ferrell]]) yells to Jimmy (Jon Heder) as well as a full skating arena, "I didn't have sex with Katie! We didn't even make it to second base!"
*In the movie [[Meet the Parents]], [[Ben Stiller]] and [[Teri Polo]]'s characters start making out, when in pops Pam's father ([[Robert De Niro]]) and brother in law, the two are surprised and the brother in law remarks that Ben Stiller was "rounding second base"
*A Breast Cancer awareness group is named "Save Second Base": http://www.save2ndbase.com/
*In [[Stephen Colbert]]'s book [[I Am America (And So Can You!)]], the Abstinence Bases are stated to be a wholesome substitute for the conventional bases, and progress as follows: Eye contact, polite chatter, a randy joke, furious dry humping.
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
== External links ==
* {{cite news|title=Strike me lucky, it just isn't cricket|date=[[2004-02-10]]|work=[[The Sun-Herald]]|author=David Dale|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/09/1076175089032.html?from=storyrhs}}
* {{cite web|title=Moving Beyond First Base|author=Nikki Sen|work=Lifestyle|publisher=Indiainfo|url=http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/relationships/kamasutra/moving_beyond_first_base.html}}
[[Category:Intimate relationships]]
[[Category:Sexual acts]]
[[Category:Human sexuality]]