Photo: WeHeartIt
And you thought you knew everything ...
By Rebecca Jane Stokes — Written on Jun 05, 2017
The first time I saw scissoring happen was in porn for straight men.
Yes, the porn was two women getting freaky, but before these gay-for-pay lesbians got to the main event, they decided to wrestle each other and then assume the appropriate lesbian sex position.
Because I'm a kinky BDSM freak, I loved the game of domination and submission these two lesbians were playing. It was unbelievably hot.
I watched as one got the other on her back, and began to grind her own pubis against the other woman's pubis. It was like angry dry-humping, and it was exceptionally hot.
Turns out, what I was seeing was called "scissoring," a lesbian sex position where the two women co-mingle their legs (like pairs of scissors) and grind their relevant bits (clitorises and vulvas) against each other in order to achieve orgasm.
After seeing this once, I assumed that the answer the question of "what is scissoring" was simple: it's how lesbians have sex. The truth is actually a little bit more complicated, and like most things sex-related, men are to blame (I am both kidding and not kidding, as I often do).
Here are 4 things you need to know about scissoring:
1. It's a lesbian sex position.
What is scissoring? It's essentially dry humping: two women, face to face, foot to foot, or any other combination, comfortably arranging their legs in a way to best grind on each other. It gets its name from the image of a woman's two splayed legs working up and down like a pair of scissors.
It doesn't have to be "dry" either. In fact, if you've seen scissoring before you've probably seen naked scissoring before. Folks just tend to call it "dry" because there is no penis involved, and you know, homophobia and utter incomprehension of the fact that a woman can have sex without a man being even remotely involved.
2. Scissoring is not the ONLY way lesbians have sex.
Guess what? While scissoring might be the lesbian sex act you are the most familiar with, it is so far from being the only sex act that lesbians partake in when the time comes to get good and freaky.
There is oral sex, fingering, fisting, tossing of salad, strap-ons sex, pegging, the list goes on...
In case I wasn't clear: lesbians have sex in just as many ways as straight couples do. Hell, lesbian sex can go on indefinitely because us broads ain't even got to wait around on some dumb ol' refectory period before we can orgasm again.
3. Scissoring is not easy to do.
There are definitely real life lesbians and bisexuals who engage in scissoring on the reg (as the kids say), and then there are lesbians and bisexuals who don't ever engage in scissoring.
Because it's fucking challenging. Think about it: it's hard enough to make yourself cum on certain days, even with access to your fingers and the finest vibrators available. Do you really think you're going to be able to make yourself and another have an orgasm just by grinding your vulva up on her vulva?
In order for this to work, it has to be something that turns you on, if it doesn't, you're screwed. Or rather, you're not screwed.
4. Scissoring is complicated.
While scissoring is a lesbian sex act, it's definitely been co-opted by the straight community.
Straight men love watching lesbian porn where women scissor, which has led to the idea that scissoring is purely the invention of pornography for straight men.
While it is definitely played up in some porn, scissoring is still a sex act that most lesbians have toyed around with, even if only for foreplay.
Just because scissoring has been co-opted by the straight community that doesn't mean that lesbians around the world decided to just stop doing something that brought them pleasure.