īy the time the Victorian era arrived, cited Zimmerman, "tribadism tended to be constructed as a lower class and non-Western phenomenon and often was associated with the supposed degeneration of prostitutes and criminals". "Consider her final (fictive) testimony in The Confession of Marie-Antoinette: 'People!' she protests, 'because I ceded to the sweet impressions of nature, and in imitating the charming weakness of all the women of the court of France, I surrendered to the sweet impulsion of love.you hold me, as it were, captive within your walls?'" Goodman elaborated that in one libel, Marie-Antoinette is described as generously providing details of her husband's "incapacity in the venereal act" and that her lust resulted in her taking an aristocratic beauty Yolande de Polastron, the Duchess of Polignac (1749-1793), "into service" and later specifying that what makes sex with a woman so appealing is "Adroit in the art of stimulating the clitoris" Marie-Antoinette is described as having stated that La Polignac's attentions produced "one of those rare pleasures that cannot be used up because it can be repeated as many times as one likes". " rumored tribadism had historically specific political implications," stated author Dena Goodman.
Īuthor Bonnie Zimmerman stated, "More often, however, writers avoided the term, instead euphemistically invoking 'unnatural vice,' 'lewd behavior,' 'crimes against nature,' 'using an instrument,' and 'taking the part of a man.' " In the eighteenth century, where the term saw one of its most popular uses, it was employed in several pornographic libels against Marie Antoinette, who was "tried and roundly convicted in the press" as being a tribade. It also came to refer to lesbian sexual practices in general, though anatomical investigation in the mid-eighteenth century led to skepticism about stories of enlarged clitorises and anatomists and doctors argued for a more precise distinction between clitoral hypertrophy and hermaphroditism.
In English texts, tribade is recorded as early as 1601, in Ben Jonson's Praeludium (Poem X in The Forest), to as late as the mid-nineteenth century it was the most common lesbian term in European texts, through the proliferation of classical literature, anatomies, midwiferies, sexual advice manuals, and pornography. This appears in Greek and Latin satires as early as the late first century. The Greeks and Romans recognized same-sex attraction, but as any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be " phallic" and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus. Because penetration was viewed as "male-defined" sexuality, a tribas was considered the most vulgar lesbian. The term tribade did not begin to refer exclusively to eroticism between women until Late Antiquity. In ancient Greek and Roman sexuality, a tribas, or tribade (IPA: /ˈtrɪbəd/ /tribad/), was a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through use of the clitoris or a dildo. The term tribadism derives from the Greek word τριβάς ( tribas), which in turn comes from the verb τρίβω ( tribō), "rub". It may also involve vaginal penetration by use of the fingers, a dildo or double penetration dildo.
In modern times, the term typically refers to various forms of non-penetrative sex (or frottage) between women. Women accused of having been penetrative during sexual activity were subject to ridicule or punishment. The term tribadism originally encompassed societal beliefs about women's capability of being penetrative sexual partners. A variety of sex positions are practiced, including the missionary position. This may involve vulva-to-vulva contact or rubbing the vulva against the partner's thigh, stomach, buttocks, arm, or other body part (excluding the mouth).
Tribadism ( / ˈ t r ɪ b ə d ɪ z əm/ TRIB-ə-diz-əm) or tribbing, commonly known by its scissoring position, is a lesbian sexual practice in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for sexual stimulation, especially for stimulation of the clitoris. Two women engaged in the missionary position of tribadism and rubbing vulvas, one of the various positions in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for the purpose of sexual pleasure.