A Brief History Of Bareback Sex
According to Wikipedia, bareback sex is “a slang term to describe acts of unprotected sex (i.e. sexual penetration without the use of a condom). The origin of the term is by an analogy to riding a horse without a saddle.” The Wikipedia article refers to bareback sex being a heterosexual term used to refer to sexual intercourse without a condom, but this term was originally used to describe anal sex without a condom between men and not between men and women. The term is now becoming more commonly associated with both heterosexual and homosexual sex, but it originally referred to unprotected homosexual intercourse.
Bareback sex had its beginnings established from the moment people began having sex, but the term itself is far younger. Bareback sex is the terminology originally coined as a sexual reference to men having unprotected anal sex with other men. Before the sexual reference was introduced, barebacking only related to riding a horse without a saddle, a reference which still applies today.
This article will predominantly examine bareback sex between men, as the meaning is beginning to change over time. When men had unprotected anal sex prior to then 1980′s, this was simply known as having sex or fucking – there wasn’t anything particular about this activity, it was a natural sexual experience between two men. At the time when HIV and AIDS became known, unprotected sex between men tapered off dramatically when it became known as being a gay disease, something we know which can affect both heterosexuals and homosexuals.
The concept of the word “bareback” and “barebacking” took off in the 1990′s when pornographic film studios began producing video titles featuring men having unprotected sex with other men. One of the first studios to do so was Hot Desert Knights, with their controversial video release Bareback Buddies. This video was controversial at the time, because of the intensity of the safer sex messages and the time when many people had become sick or had passed away because of the HIV or AIDS epidemic. Some people were disgusted by such a concept being introduced to gay pornography, yet others relished in the freedom which these films represented.
It was at this point where unprotected anal sex between men became known as bareback sex. The introduction of this definition resulted in a new definition for unprotected sex, which then resulted in new names being introduced to refer to the condom-free films produced before this time. The early films became known as “vintage” and then they became known as “pre-condom classics”. Because the internet did not take-off until the mid to late 1990′s and due to the fact that communication was not as free back then as it is today, these terms were accepted based on the pornographic references but are now more commonly used to refer to everyday intercourse.
For about a decade bareback sex was well-known to be anal sex between men, but this is now beginning to change to include sex between men and women. What is also changing is that bareback sex is beginning to relate to sex without a condom for various types of intercourse, including anal, oral and vaginal and not just the anal sex it originally referred to. The explosion of gay bareback pornographic films has been noticed by many people, including straight pornographic producers, so you are beginning to find barebacking references in heterosexual porn, not that you would probably be looking for those titles, but you just never know.
It seems that definitions are strongly dependent on the porn industry, but this may not always be the case and the future is dependent on people such as ourselves to introduce concepts. It was interesting to have bareback sex or barebacking known uniquely as a man to man terminology, but it looks like we may have to share the terminology with others because sex without a condom is just known as sex, so introducing a name introduces a concept. In summary, while the concept of bareback sex (between men) has been the same for decades (unprotected anal sex), the definition has only changed over time.
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