So…What Exactly Does Anal Play Involve?

Everything butt!

LOL! I kill myself.

Seriously, though, anal play includes all forms of anal pleasure and sexuality:

• Spanking
• Fingering
• Plugs/Insertables
• Analingus
• Intercourse

There is a lot you can do with anal, and you may try all of them and love them all, or you may decide that you prefer just one or two options or none at all.

Whatever you decide, that’s OK.

Everyone’s body and pleasure centers are different.

That’s a good thing to keep in mind with your partners. What you love, they may dislike or even hate, or vice versa, so it’s all about doing what works for the two of you.

Let’s look at the options in a bit more detail.

Spanking

I’d guess most books on anal play won’t really discuss spanking, since it’s done on the outside of the buttocks, and isn’t really a big mystery.

After all, most of us have experienced a spanking before. Yee-ouch!

Heck, I didn’t even include it in my other book about anal, In Through The Out Door.

However, I teach a class on the psychology of spanking, and I touch quite a lot on why spanking is pleasurable—because it stimulates the same nerve bundles that the anus and the genitals do: the pudendal nerve.

The pudendal nerve is the main nerve of the perineum. It carries sensation from the external genitalia of both sexes and the skin around the anus and perineum…

— Attributed to Wikipedia

In the case of spanking, as a hand or instrument impacts the bottom, in addition to the normal nerves on the surface of the skin (which are similar anywhere on your body), the vibrations also stimulate the pudendal nerve, creating sensations of pleasure for many people.

And not just for the pain-equals-pleasure people.

Spanking can be done heavy-handedly or gently. With a good warmup, even harder blows that might hurt otherwise feel deliciously good, and spread warm pleasure through the body and the sexy-parts-genital-bits.

Fingering

Fingering is where the curious often start their journey into anal exploration. After all, you already have the tools you need, you don’t necessarily need another participant, and because fingers are chock-full of sensitive nerve endings, they are perfect for trying out a bit of tickle and poke.

More than that, though, fingers are capable of creating intense pleasure sensations, and between two people, anal fingering can be a deeply bonding and intimate experience.

Plugs/Insertables

Sticking things up your (or someone else’s) butt for fun is a time-honored tradition. In fact, the world’s oldest dildo is estimated at 28,000 years old.

When it comes to dildos, they actually get double duty here under plugs/insertables and below also classified with intercourse, the difference not being in the dildos themselves, but in how they are used.

dildo • a sex toy, often explicitly phallic in appearance, intended for sexual penetration or other sexual activity during masturbation or with sex partners

butt plug • a sex toy that is designed to be inserted into the rectum for sexual pleasure. In some ways, they are similar to a dildo, but they tend to be shorter, and have a flanged end to prevent the device from being lost inside the rectum.

— Both definitions attributed to Wikipedia

Plugs, however, do exactly what the name suggests. They plug up the anus, giving a penetrated sensation. There are multiple kinds of plugs, such as those intended to give a feeling of fullness, and those used for training the sphincters to relax and take larger diameter penetration.

Analingus

French kissing the butt. Another, slightly less-well-known form of oral sex.

While it’s generally considered incredibly pleasurable, there are risks associated with mouth-to-ass play that we’ll discuss further on in the book.

Intercourse

I’m defining anal intercourse for the purposes of this book as:

The insertion and thrusting of the penis or dildo (via a harness in the pelvic region) into the anus for sexual pleasure.

There are a few reasons I’m grouping both flesh and non-flesh phalluses in this way:

1. I believe that whatever your parts and bits might be, you have an equal opportunity to give pleasure to your partner via penetrative anal sex.
2. Dildos used with a pelvic harness are used/handled differently in many cases than those wielded by hand, suction-cupped to a shower wall or nailed to a stool (long story, I’ll leave that to your imagination).

So, intercourse in this book will be popping that sucker into the butthole and thrusting with hips to create pleasure. Vaginal intercourse will be identified separately as such.

So, now that we’ve covered the basics of anal play, let’s move on. 

Let’s Discuss!

Did any of these surprise you? Or remind you of something you’d like to try?