As you can see, men and women largely agreed that penile-anal intercourse counts as sex; however, about 1 in 10 said that it does not. By contrast, a majority of men and women said that manual and oral stimulation of the anus are not sex—although men were significantly more likely than women to count both of these activities.

In addition to this gender difference, there was also an association with age, such that older adults were more likely to count a given anal behavior as sex than were younger adults.



One limitation of this study is that only heterosexuals were included. It’s likely that whether these behaviors are viewed as a form of sex would differ for persons who identify as gay or bisexual.

Bottom line (pun intended): these findings provide additional support for the idea that the way people define sex varies widely and that, in particular, there is a lot of disagreement among heterosexuals regarding whether various forms of anal stimulation count.

Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates.

To learn more about this research, see: McBride, K. R., Sanders, S. A., Hill, B. J., & Reinisch, J. M. (2017). Heterosexual Women’s and Men’s Labeling of Anal Behaviors as Having “Had Sex”. The Journal of Sex Research.

Image Credit: 123RF.com/Nipon Temsakun

You Might Also Like: