Rimming—the last great sexual frontier
While the Golden Globes came to a disappointing end last week, the season premiere of Girls featured a graphic sexual encounter that sent shockwaves throughout the internet. In a blink-and-you-miss-it scene, Marnie Michaels (portrayed by Allison Williams) received a rim job from her current love interest. For those of you who aren’t aware of what that entails, it’s oral for the backdoor.
Even within my own friend group, we couldn’t resist talking about how uncharacteristically adventurous it had been for Marnie. But what was it about that particular scene that was so shocking? The explicit nature of the moment was not the issue, since Girls has featured more than its share of sexually explicit content. It could be argued that it’s due to a lack of scenes featuring assplay on television, except even that seems to have changed over the past year. In fact, Buzzfeed posted a list titled “The 6 Iconic Rim Jobs of 2014,” featuring shows like Looking, True Detective and How To Get Away With Murder (although only one of those scenes is male on female). What’s more, rim jobs were a hot topic over 10 years ago, being a major plot point in one episode of Sex and the City.
The shock value of the Girls scene might derive from the fact that although rim jobs are a rather common precursor to penetrative anal sex for many gay men, the heterosexual world only seems to be catching up now. Rim jobs are the flavour of the month (so to speak) in pop culture, the next taboo to be surmounted in order to gain the badge of “sexually adventurous,” or at least to be able to label your show avant-garde. Marnie’s scene was meant to be shocking; the lack of lead up or explanation, the abrupt end of the scene and her loud moans all attest to this. But why should engaging in this act be considered so out of the ordinary for a man and a woman? The most logical explanation is that in heterosexual relationships, unlike in homosexual ones, most of the action usually occurs elsewhere, leaving the backdoor forgotten.
Since rimming is popping up all over the place lately, some of you may be tempted to try it—or maybe just keep at it, who knows. Some of you may find having your “salad tossed” to be earth shatteringly pleasurable, while others might find the thought of it invasive and maybe even gross. The bottom line is, whether you enjoy head, anal or possibly neither, sexual pleasure is subjective. As long as it takes place between two consenting adults, there should be no judgment.
