it’s a bit related to the sexual roles that traditionally were gendered, with women being receptive partners in sex receiving men’s penetration. The woman is like the bottom and the man is like the top.
The dynamic is generalized by ContraPoints in the Twilight video, where she labels it DHSM: Default Heterosexual Sado-Masochism:
This is also similar to the ideas Julia Serano lays out in Sexed Up about our binary gender conceptions.
I think the reason for thinking in terms of top and bottom is to move away from essentializing “top” as male and “bottom” as female, and these are terms used in queer communities where there might be same-sex lovers or genderqueer lovers who still engage in these sexual dynamics but might not want to use heteronormative and gender essentialist language, or in kink communities where straight people might be going against the grain (e.g. a woman pegging a man, the man is the bottom while the woman is the top) but prefer language that doesn’t imply their sexual practices invalidate their gender.
it’s a bit related to the sexual roles that traditionally were gendered, with women being receptive partners in sex receiving men’s penetration. The woman is like the bottom and the man is like the top.
The dynamic is generalized by ContraPoints in the Twilight video, where she labels it DHSM: Default Heterosexual Sado-Masochism:
This is also similar to the ideas Julia Serano lays out in Sexed Up about our binary gender conceptions.
I think the reason for thinking in terms of top and bottom is to move away from essentializing “top” as male and “bottom” as female, and these are terms used in queer communities where there might be same-sex lovers or genderqueer lovers who still engage in these sexual dynamics but might not want to use heteronormative and gender essentialist language, or in kink communities where straight people might be going against the grain (e.g. a woman pegging a man, the man is the bottom while the woman is the top) but prefer language that doesn’t imply their sexual practices invalidate their gender.