Reboot: G is for Group Sex - a podcast by Dr. Lori Beth Bisbey - A to Z of Sex

Please enjoy again: G is for group sex.
 Hi everyone!  Welcome to the A to Z of Sex.  I’m Dr Lori Beth and I am your host.  We are working our way through the erotic alphabet one letter at a time.  Just a reminder this podcast deals with adult content, so if you don’t have total privacy, you might want to put on your headphones. Today the letter is G and G is for Group Sex.
I get lots of questions about whether being polyamorous means that you have a lot of group sex.  In short, no.  You can have group sex as a one off fantasy event, as part of a non-monogamous relationship style (like swinging), or as part of a polyamorous relationship.   There are as many polyamorous folks who are not fond of kinky sex as there are folks who enjoy it.Group sex is defined as sex with any more than two people participating.  I include when people are watching as participants as observers always impact upon what they observe.   Enjoying group sexual activities requires a degree of self-confidence and sexual confidence.   If you have no confidence, you are likely to spend the entire time feeling self-conscious and that is not at all fun.
Part of feeling confident when it comes to a group experience can be down to the atmosphere and planning that goes into the experience.  Some environments bring together people who know each other and others bring together strangers.  It takes a different type of confidence to manage an environment full of strangers than it does an environment full of friends and acquaintances.Dr Katherine Frank spent a year studying all different types of group sex.  She points out in her introduction that images of group sex can be found in Paleolithic cave art and that many societies through the ages have engaged in group sex.
Group sex comes in a variety of flavours:Threesomes or menage a trois:  This looks like what it says – three people engage in sex with each other.  This can take the form of any mix of genders or sexual orientations.  Having a threesome with another woman is one of the most popular male fantasies.  Single bisexual women are often sought after by couples who want to engage in this type of groups sex and they are called unicorns (because they can be very hard to find). 
Couples playing together is the next most common form of group sex.  This is usually done privately.  Couples meet online, through swinging sites and sometimes at swingers clubs.  As long as all members of the couple are excited by the idea, this can be one of the easiest group sex combinations for couples as there tends to be less jealousy because everyone is involved. Wife swapping:  These parties became popular 1960’s and 1970’s and have had a resurgence since the 1990’s.  It was popular to have the swaps be random so as to limit jealousy and this lead to key parties in which all the car keys were put in a bowl and each man (or woman) chose a key from the bowl and the owner of the key was his partner for the evening.
Swinging:  Not all swingers engage in group sex.  At many swinger’s clubs and parties, you will see a variety of group activities.  Many people enjoy watching at swinger’s clubs and parties.     Dogging:  This is a largely British practice where people meet in large carparks and have sex in cars whilst others watch.  Sometimes spots are simply known as dogging spots – other times groups are arranged via email with some participating and others watching. 
Orgies are often seen to be larger groups having sex together or next to each other.   Bathhouses catered primarily to gay men and in the pre-AIDS days, were often anonymous sex.  These days anonymous sex still happens but more people are aware of the risks they are taking and insist on condoms and other barrier methods of protection when engaging in group and/or anonymous sex.Japan has the record for the largest orgy – 250 couples having sex together.
Orgies are often seen to be more decadent and sometimes negative than group sex. 

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