Physical intimacy? |
Did you mean | Travel | Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology | New site added |
| Add a link on the top of this Physical intimacy page Express submission by secure payment ! |
- Caress redirects here. There is also the US community of Caress, West Virginia.
A man and woman huggingPhysical intimacy is informal proximity and/or touching, usually between two persons, where their positioning and/or touching is an expression or result of intimate feelings (such as close friendship, love, and/or sexual attraction) which they have for each other. Examples of physical intimacy include being inside someone's personal space, holding hands, hugging, kissing, carressing, and sexual activity.
The forms of Physical intimacy, in order of increasing degree of intimacy (but not necessarily in order of increasing enjoyment), with each form generally including those preceeding it, are: physical closeness, touching (especially tenderly), touching intimate parts (including outercourse), and sexual penetration.
Have to see |
Contents |
|
Intimate Proximity
You can be physically intimate with someone without actually touching them, you just have to get very close. When two people stand face-to-face very close and look lovingly into each other's eyes, that's physically intimate. Even more so is when two people lay next to each other naked. There is a game couples play (either standing up with clothes on, or on the bed while in the nude) in which they see how close they can get to each other without actually touching. Running your hands along the countours of your partner's body without touching him or her is a good example of this, and this technique is often used to sexually arouse the one not being touched. When someone enters someone else's personal space for the purpose of being intimate, then that's physical intimacy whether touching occurs or not.
Asexual Touching
Touching may include:
- Holding hands
- Interlocking arms while walking
- Bear hug: gently enclosing the arms around the trunk of each other or holding them against you
- Sitting on, sitting near or lying against each other
- Caressing (petting): gently stroking body parts or hair with a hand
- Cuddling
- Massaging a part, or the whole body
- Kissing
- Licking
The touching is rarely violent when speaking of physical intimacy. Unless the participants enjoy that sort of thing. Then touching may include:
Clothing versus nudity also plays a role. In particular, touching with clothing tends to be more intimate if the (combined) layer of clothing at the area of touch is thin and flexible. The layer can be reduced or eliminated even without undressing, by touching under someone's clothes.
Objects, especially hard or large ones, such as big buttons and zippers, piercings, jewellery, and objects in pockets, may somewhat obstruct intimate touching.
Physical closeness may also be involuntary, as in a crowded train or elevator. See also frotteurism, groping.
An intermediate form of voluntariness is when one goes to a crowded place for entertainment: a bar, disco, pop concert, street festival, etc.
A cuddle party is a party where strangers cuddle, touch, caress, and massage, subject to rules such as no nudity, no hands under clothes, no French kisses and no dry humping or other sex.
National Hugging Day was founded on January 21st, 1986.
December 4 is considered International Hug Day.
See also: Public display of affection, Jealousy, National Hugging Day
Physical intimacy between a human and an animal may involve petting (caressing), hugging and playing.
Also a person, especially a child, may caress and hug a teddy bear or doll. There are also sex dolls, as a surrogate for a person.
A personal relationship that does not involve sexual behavior, e.g. friendship, may involve physical intimacy. This varies greatly. In western culture it is often more among female than among male friends; the latter may want to avoid associations with homosexuality. In other cultures, such as Arab culture, men may hold hands with no implication of homosexuality.
A man and a woman who are friends may avoid physical intimacy to avoid associations with sexuality (for example if one or both have a relationship with someone else).
Sexual Touching
Also called "heavy petting", sexual touching involves touching or carressing of a person's intimate parts. Examples of sexual touching include sensual massage, feeling and kissing a woman's breasts, mutual masturbation, non-penetrating oral sex, and outercourse.
Sexual Penetration
Sexual penetration is the ultimate form of physical intimacy. It is the most intimate thing you can do, physcally speaking. Types of sexual penetration include vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, and penetrating oral sex (when one partner's penis enters the other partner's mouth, or one's tongue enters another's vagina or anus).
For a comprehensive treatment of sex acts and practices, see the article human sexual behavior.
The Baseball Metaphor
- Main article: Baseball Metaphor
One subject often used as a metaphor for physical intimacy, especially to describe the level of intimacy achieved in intimate encounters, is the game of baseball. In the baseball metaphor, the intimate encounter itself is compared to the act of running the bases. Holding hands is considered getting to first base. Kissing and/or light petting means you got to second base. Heavy petting puts you on third base. While a home run means you went all the way and had sexual intercourse.
Other Forms of Intimacy
Other kinds of intimacy, though less entertaining, are:
- emotional intimacy: telling about emotions, knowing and feeling what the other feels
- financial unity, sharing property, community-property