Sex positions have been uppermost in the minds of people ever since the sexual revolution began in the 60s and began a roller-coaster ride into the future of  unbridled sexual free-for-all.  The different forms of sexual intercourse were once the purview of dilettantes and free-living souls. Today it has become the subject of every man and woman who is concerned about having a fruitfully satisfying sexual life.

Different types of sexual intercourse are used to either make sex interesting or to help a man or woman achieve sexual fulfillment if they have been afflicted by a sexual problem.

How many postures are there? There are not more than four or five basic positions and all the rest are merely variations of these four or five positions. The most basic is the Missionary position so called because some African tribal’s in the 17th century saw the western missionary making love to his wife and thus was the name was born! The other more popular ones are rear entry vaginal penetration, woman on top, the side by side spoons and the one where the woman lies on her back with her legs placed on her partner’s shoulders. There are also the standing, kneeling or sitting sex positions.  In the standing sex position the woman has her back to a solid support slightly raised so that the man can easily penetrate her.  In the sitting posture the man sits with leg outstretched and the woman sits atop him with her legs wrapped around him. In a variation the man sits in a chair and the woman straddles him with her feet on the floor.

There are other unusual forms like the ‘Seventh Posture’. This is described fully in Burton’s translation of ‘The Perfumed Garden’. Briefly the woman lies on her side and the man straddles her lower leg and lifts her upper leg on to his shoulder or holds it under his arm.

Sex positions are found in any of the classical erotic manuals of the East like the Kama Sutra (Sanskrit), The Perfumed Garden (Arabic), Sunu miaoshan or The Admirable Discourses of the Plain Girl (Chinese) and Ishimpo or the Essence of Medical Prescriptions (Japanese).  These books are much more than sex manuals they are pieces of classical literature enlightening and entertaining.