Pegging (sexual practice)

A naked man is on all fours. A naked woman is knelt behind him wearing a strapped dildo. The woman is preparing to penetrate the man's anus with the dildo. — A woman pegging a man in the doggy style position

Pegging is an anal sex act in which a woman penetrates a man's anus with a strap-on dildo.^[1]

Naming

The neologism "pegging" was popularized due to the sex education movie Bend Over Boyfriend released in 1998. After, it became the winning entry in a contest for the "Savage Love" sex advice column, held by Dan Savage in 2001 upon observing that except for the phrase "Strap On Sex" used by Queen and her partner Robert in their national lecture series (Robert was the original Bend Over Boyfriend at the Good Vibrations lectures), the concept lacked a common name and there was no dictionary entry for the act.^[2]^[3] Other words include "buggery" or "sodomy", but these refer to anal sex in general.^[3] "Strap-on sex" can be used for vaginal or anal intercourse between people of any gender using a strap-on, and is thus less precise than pegging.^[4] Some queer people prefer "strap-on sex" instead of "pegging" because they feel the latter is too hetero and cis centric.^[4]

Beckett and Miller use "pegger" and "peggee" to refer to the person penetrating and the person being penetrated; "top" and "bottom" are also used.^[4]

Method

Pegging is penetrative sex with a strap-on dildo, usually anal penetration. It is usually defined as a practice in which a woman penetrates the anus of a man.^[4]^[3] The woman uses a strap-on dildo, often a silicone phallus, attached with a harness, or a strapless dildo (that also penetrates the pegger).^[4] Lubricant is also used.^[4]

According to Tristan Taormino, gender and gender roles can play an important part in pegging.^[3] Pegging reverses traditional cisgender heterosexual gender roles in sexual practices: the man is penetrated by the woman, becoming passive rather than active.^[3]

In popular culture

According to Beckett and Miller (2022), most popular representations of pegging are derogatory, negative or even amounting to sexual assault.^[5]

Long before the term was coined as such, the 1970 film Myra Breckinridge depicted a pegging scene where Myra rapes a man with a strapon dildo.^[6]^[7] The first explicit pegging scene is believed to be the 1976 pornographic film The Opening of Misty Beethoven.^[8] Marquis de Sade describes a pegging act in his 1795 book Philosophy in the Bedroom.^[9]^[10] There is a depiction of pegging in the William S. Burroughs 1959 novel Naked Lunch. The dildo used in the scene is called a Steely Dan III, and is the source from which the musical group Steely Dan takes its name.^[11]^[12] Bend Over Boyfriend (1998) is based on a series of lectures and workshops by Robert Lawrence and Carol Queen. Bend Over Boyfriend originally inspired Dan Savage to call the act "BOBing" but his readers subsequently voted on the winning term, "pegging".^[8]

Since the coinage of "pegging", it was featured in the TV show Weeds, on the episode "Crush Girl Love Panic" (2006).^[8] Here, pegging appears to be non-consensual and is played as a joke towards the male character being forced into anal sex.^[5] In the episode "Knockoffs" of the sitcom Broad City, Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) turns to friends and family for advice regarding Jeremy's request for pegging.^[13] Subsequently, Jacobson called it "the best episode we've ever done".^[14] In the 2016 film The Do-Over, there is a brief pegging scene. In the 2016 film Deadpool, Wade is pegged by his girlfriend Vanessa, commemorating International Women's Day.^[15] In François Ozon's 2017 film Double Lover, Chloé pegs Paul. Ozon stated that this scene, where the woman penetrates the man, "aligns with the feminist film that I advocate for".^[16] In the episode "To Peg Or Not To Peg" of the TV series The Bold Type, Kat pegs Cody.^[17] At the Met Gala 2021, Cara Delevingne wore a vest printed with the slogan "Peg the Patriarchy", garnering media attention. Speaking about it, she said: "It's about women empowerment, gender equality—it’s a bit like, 'stick it to the man',".^[18]

References

^ Cooper S. Beckett and Lyndzi Miller (2022). The Pegging Book: A Complete Guide to Anal Sex with a Strap-On Dildo. Thornapple Press. pp. xii, 7–8, 10, 12–14, 15. ISBN 9781778242090.
^
These three links chronicle how the term pegging came into usage.
- Let's Vote Archived 2020-11-12 at the Wayback Machine, May 24, 2001
- Count Every Vote Archived 2019-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, June 7, 2001
- We Have a Winner! Archived 2020-12-10 at the Wayback Machine, June 21, 2001
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Beckett & Miller (2022), foreword by Tristan Taormino
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Beckett & Miller (2022), "what is pegging?"
^ ^a ^b Beckett & Miller (2022), "media representation of pegging"
^ Chia-wen Kuo (Veronique Kwak) (1 January 2013). "The Subversive Plasticity of Posthuman Womanhood in the Cases of Vidal's Myra Breckinridge and Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Navigating Cybercultures. Brill Publishers. pp. 181–191. ISBN 978-1-84888-163-1. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
^ Spitznagel, Eric (8 March 2012). "Raquel Welch Hopes People Don't See Her as a "Wretched, Horrible Bitch"". Men's Health. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Nault, Curran (Summer 2010). "Bend Over Boyfriend to Take it Like a Man: pegging pornography and the queer representation of straight sex". Jump Cut (52). Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
^ Sade, Marquis (2010). La Philosophie dans le boudoir [Filozofija v budoarju ali Nemoralni učitelj] (in Slovenian). Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost. p. 110. ISBN 978-961-6789-14-1.
^ Philosophy in the Boudoir: Or, The Immoral Mentors. Penguin Classics. 2006. p. 74. ISBN 0-14-303901-6.
^ Sweet, Brian (2000). Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years. Omnibus Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-7119-8279-1.
^ "Official Steely Dan FAQ". Archived from the original on 27 January 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
^ Hope, Clover (5 February 2015). "Last Night's Broad City Was All About Pegging". Jezebel. Archived from the original on 16 July 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
^ Chan, Mi-Anne (24 June 2015). "Abbi Jacobson Thinks Broad City's Pegging Episode Was 'The Best' One They've Done". Vulture. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
^ Le Vine, Lauren (9 February 2016). "We Need to Talk About the Pegging Scene in Deadpool". Refinery29. Archived from the original on 7 July 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
^ Boivin, Justine (26 May 2017). "François Ozon et son Amant Double, virtuose schizophrénie" (in French). Le Journal des femmes. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
^ Frey, Meaghan (27 February 2020). "The Bold Type Season 4 Episode 6 Review: To Peg or Not to Peg". TV Fanatic. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
^ Zhou, Maggie. "'Peg The Patriarchy': Activism Fashion Has Its Moment At The 2021 Met Gala". Refinery29. Retrieved 16 March 2024.