Fisting—also known as fist fucking (FF),[1] handballing, and brachioproctic or brachiovaginal insertion[2]—is a sexual activity that involves inserting one or more hands into the rectum (anal fisting) or the vagina (vaginal fisting).[1] Fisting may be performed on oneself (self-fisting)[3] or performed on one person by another. People who engage in fisting are often called "fisters".[1][4]
History
Fisting's emergence as a sexual practice is commonly attributed to gay male culture.[5][6] However, its precise origin is disputed. Some claim fisting began in the twentieth century,[7][8][9] whereas others assert the practice dates back to the eighteenth century or earlier.[5][10]Sex educatorRobert Morgan Lawrence, for example, claimed the practice dates back thousands of years.[11][12]
Fisting became more visible and popular around the time of the gay liberation movement, during which sex clubs partly or entirely dedicated to the practice emerged. The hanky code allowed fisters to surreptitiously solicit partners in public by wearing red handkerchiefs.[13] By 1973, gay bars, bathhouses and clubs such as the Red Star Saloon in South of Market, San Francisco were openly advertising fisting.[14] The most famous fisting club was the Catacombs, a gay and lesbian S/Mleather fisting club in San Francisco that operated from 1975 to 1984.[15] The Handball Express was another notable fisting club.[16]Crisco was commonly used as a lubricant—prominently featured in pornographic films like Erotic Hands (1980)[17]—before specialized products became available.[18][6]
During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, cities such as San Francisco[19] and New York[20] forcibly closed gay establishments that, accurately or not, were believed to permit unsafe sex,[21] including fisting.[18] Consequently, most venues that permitted fisting, namely gay bathhouses and sex clubs, permanently closed.[22][6] While the closures were supported by some in the gay community (such as Randy Shilts), others—including the gay press, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and San Francisco Human Rights Commission—criticized the decision as counterproductive and a violation of civil liberties.[21] Many regarded the closures as a product of anti-gay hysteria as well as anti-sex attitudes and disapproval of gay sexual activity in particular.[21] Meanwhile, safe sex advocates launched a public health campaign to promote the use of gloves.[23]
Fisting's visibility and popularity has grown in the twenty-first century,[24][25] likely due in large part to the internet[26] and greater HIV prevention and treatment options. Fisting pornography is now widely available online[27] and fisters can easily meet via social media platforms, some of which are tailored for fisting (e.g. Recon).[28][29] Gay bathhouses have made a comeback, with some even advertising fisting parties and live demonstrations.[30][18]
Anal self-fisting
Techniques
Hands
A common technique, particularly for beginners, is to extend four fingers straight with thumb tucked beneath. Some refer to this technique as the "silent duck" or "duck-billing", because the hand position resembles a duckbeak.[2][3]
"Silent duck" hand position
In more vigorous forms of fisting, often referred to as "punching" or "punchfisting", the hand is partly or fully clenched into a fist before, during, and/or after insertion.[31]
Taking two hands at once is referred to as "double fisting".[4][6] In the case of double fisting, pleasure may be derived more from the stretching of the anus or vagina than from the in-and-out movement of hands.[2]
Oftentimes, hands are inserted up to the wrist.[5] Some experienced fisters enjoy deeper penetration, sometimes referred to as "depth play",[32] in which hands may be inserted as far as the elbow.[5][4]
Sometimes a penetrative partner may insert their penis or a sex toy at the same time as their hand(s), to masturbate inside the receptive partner's rectum or vagina.
While rare, some experienced fisters are capable of taking three hands.[33]
A man fisting a woman with the duck-beak method
Lubricants
Lubricants designed specifically for fisting or with fisting as an intended use are widely available in some countries.[34]
Sex toys
Fisters commonly use dildos to loosen the vagina or anus before or during a fisting session.[4][35]
Terminology
Common fisting-related terms include:
Fist; fist fuck: "the practice of inserting the hand (and part of the arm) into a partner's anus (or vagina) for the sexual pleasure of all involved."[1]
Fister; fist-fucker: a practitioner of fisting; or, depending on context, a penetrative partner in a fisting session involving two or more people.[1][4]
Fistee: a receptive partner in a session involving two or more people.[4]A blooming rose is a common symbol and metaphor for fisting
Punch fisting: fisting in which the hand is partly or fully clenched into a fist before, during, and/or after insertion.[31]
Double fisting: fisting in which two hands are inserted into the anus or vagina.[4][6]
Rosebud or rectal prolapse: when walls of the rectum have prolapsed to such a degree that they protrude out of the anus. Can be induced by fisting or other ass play (named due to the prolapse's resemblance to a rose flower).[36][37][38]
Bloom: "bloom" is used as a verb (e.g. "blooming") to describe the act of inducing a rosebud or prolapse, or the moment when a rosebud or prolapse becomes visible.[36]
According to The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, "fisting" and "fist fuck" entered the American slang lexicon no later than 1969.[1]
A 2021 study found that men who practiced anal fisting were more likely to experience fecal incontinence than men who engaged in other forms of anal sex. 18.1% of men who engaged in fisting experienced some form of fecal incontinence in the last month, compared to 7.2% of men who did not engage in fisting.[46][47][48] However, more research is required to establish a causal link, and whether or not this is temporary or has a long-term impact.[48][47]
A 2022 report published in the journal Sex Education found that "clinical and forensic research has over-inflated the ‘dangers’ of fisting without an understanding of contexts in which fisting takes place."[18] It also found that anal and vaginal fisting present "low to no risk" of sexually transmitted infections.[18]
Gloves, lubricant, and fingernail trimming can help reduce risk.[49][34][35]
In popular culture
Fisting has been depicted or referenced in art, music, cinema and other forms of popular culture. Examples include:
In Solar Anus (1999), Ron Athey challenged the feminization and sexual roles associated with male penetration by both giving and receiving penetration through self-fisting.[64]
The album cover for Slide... Easy In by Rod McKuen (1977) depicts gay porn star Bruno's fist clenching "Disco" shortening.[69][70] The inscription states "this was a project everyone had to get into; not just on the surface, but deeply—and together. If you don't feel "easy in" then perhaps your threshold of pain or pleasure needs looking into."[70] (The European edition of the album featured a different cover because the original was considered "too outrageous.")[71]
Le One Way, gay bar and sex club in Paris, France[90][91]
Other
In the handkerchief code, the color red signifies interest in fisting.
In 2011, adult performers Jiz Lee and Courtney Trouble proclaimed October 21 as "International Fisting Day," which Lee described as "a day of international celebration and education" intended in part to combat censorship.[27][18]
In the United Kingdom, performing fisting[93] and fisting pornography are both legal.[94] However, until 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) considered publication of fisting material to be grounds for prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act 1959[95] and Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, the latter of which prohibits so-called "extreme pornography."[96] In 1998, the University of Central England was involved in a controversy when a library book by Robert Mapplethorpe was confiscated from a student by the police, who informed the university that two photographs in the book (including one involving fisting) would have to be removed. If the university agreed to the removal (which it did not) the book would be returned. The two photographs, which were deemed possibly prosecutable as obscenity, included “Helmut and Brooks, NYC, 1978”, which shows anal fisting.[54][55][56] However, after a delay of about six months, the affair came to an end when Peter Knight, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, was informed that no legal action would be taken.[55][56] The book was returned to the university library without removal of the photos.[97] In R v Peacock (2012), the jury found Michael Peacock not guilty of breaching the Obscene Publications Act for selling DVDs containing anal fisting.[98] That same year, a jury took less than 90 minutes[99]to acquit Simon Walsh for possession of images of anal fisting that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) alleged constituted illegal, extreme pornography.[93] In 2019, the CPS declared it would no longer prosecute pornography produced by consenting adults engaging in legal acts,[100] including fisting.[94]
United States
Fisting is on the Cambria List, meant to be a list of sex acts that carry risk of prosecution under U.S. obscenity law, created by Paul Cambria in 2001 to help producers avoid obscenity lawsuits.[27] However, as of 2019, the Cambria List is generally regarded as obsolete within the American pornography industry.[101]
^ abcdefgDalzell, Tom, ed. (2018). The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN9781351765206.
^Gayle Rubin, "The Catacombs: A Triumph of the Butthole", in Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, Alyson Press, 1992, ISBN1555831877, pp. 119-141; reprinted in Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, Duke University Press, 2011, ISBN0822349868, "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved September 30, 2014.
^Gayle S. Rubin, "Elegy for the Valley of Kings: AIDS and the Leather Community in San Francisco, 1981-1996", in In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS, ed. John H. Gagnon, Peter M. Nardi, and Martin P. Levine, University of Chicago Press, 1997, ISBN0226278573, pp. 101-144.
^Cindy (July 17, 2017). "Reginold Alley's Leather Memoir". Public Art and Architecture from Around the World. Art and Architecture. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
^Gallego, Julia R. (2014). "The Dissector's Cut, the Wound and the Orifice: Seeing Ron Athey's performances through a cultural anatomy of the vagina". Performance Research. 19 (4): 74–84. doi:10.1080/13528165.2014.947124. S2CID191537518.
^ ab1977 cover art for Slide Easy In by Rod McKuen, digitized and published on Blogspot.com on January 29, 2015. Inscription on cover reads, in part: "If this album sounds different, it tried to be. The performers, producers, the players (whether part of the enormous rhythm section or the full symphony complement of strings) knew this was a project everyone had to get into; not just on the surface, but deeply—and together. If you don't feel "easy in" then perhaps your threshold of pain or pleasure needs looking into. [...] Photos of Bruno courtesy of Target Studios. Bruno Courtesy of The Bull Pen. Special thanks to Target."
Addington, D (1998). A Hand in the Bush, The Fine Art of Vaginal Fisting. Greenery Press.
Donovan B; Tindall B; Cooper D. Brachioproctic eroticism and transmission of retrovirus associated with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Genitourin Med. 1986 Dec;62(6):390-2.
Herrman, Bert (1991). Trust, the Hand Book: A Guide to the Sensual and Spiritual Art of Handballing. San Francisco: Alamo Square Press. ISBN0-9624751-5-7.
Inciardi, James A.; Surratt, Hilary L.; Telles, Paulo R. (November 1, 2000). Sex, Drugs, and HIV/AIDS in Brazil. Westview Press. ISBN0-8133-3424-1.
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