DW: Why is the "missionary pose" called that?

Some say boring, some say patriarchal, the only common sexual pose around the world is called "missionary". Does it really have anything to do with Catholic missionaries? Get ready for a story full of twists and turns.

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Illustration, Photo: Shutterstock
Illustration, Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

"Missionary position" is a strange name for the most classic sex: man on top, lying down, face to face.

But what is that pose called? The story has more twists and turns than a Latin American soap opera.

Since the medieval era of Catholic popes, bishops and priests should dedicate themselves to God alone, which includes abstaining from bodily pleasures such as sex. Celibacy.

Of course, the church has never advocated for the flock to give up sex.

"Of course, the church needs people who go to church, to keep the church alive. So, the more children you have, the better Christian you are," says Sinzija Giorgio, the author of "Erotic History of Italy," which she wrote while working for the Vatican.

Moreover, it has been claimed that one pose is most suitable for conceiving children - missionary. It was believed that this idea originated from the church, that it was held for centuries without any scientific evidence, based only on authoritative theorizing about gravity.

A theory that seems logical is that Catholic missionaries, who traveled the world to bring people to Christianity, told people how to make love in order to increase the flock.

"But that's not true," Kate Lister, sex and sexuality historian and author of The Strange History of Sex, tells us. Lister says there is no evidence that the missionaries advertised the pose.

"Although this theory is written about in books, medical texts, dictionaries or professional works - it's all one big rumor," she says.

True, the missionaries may not have practiced poses, but they did promote a new system of sexual morality and values.

Let's say in India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, an ancient guide to love and pleasure in sex. Even there, sex became taboo when Catholic priests helped the British colonize India.

Solving the mystery

But, let's get back to the question: why do we call our favorite sexual pose "missionary"?

"The term itself came into use only in the sixties of the twentieth century," says Lister. He states that the term can be associated with the legendary American sexologist Alfred Kinsey.

In 1948, Kinsey wrote a revolutionary book at the time, "The Sexual Behavior of the Human Male." In it, he claimed that Americans prefer face-to-face sex, with a man from above. He called it the "Anglo-American pose."

Here, Kinsi refers to the work of anthropologist Bronislav Malinovski, who traveled around Australia, New Guinea and Melanesia to "study" the natives in the 1920s. In one of his many books, he writes about the sexual life of the Trobrians, the people of Papua New Guinea.

Kinsey quotes Malinowski, writing that the Trobriands made fun of the way white people made love. Allegedly, around the campfire, they "caricatured" the pose preferred by white people, and it caused them a lot of fun. Again, allegedly, the locals called that pose the "missionary pose".

But that's not the end of vicissitudes. Kinsey actually made a mistake when he read, paraphrased and quoted Malinowski. "If you go back to Malinowski's work, he doesn't say that anywhere," Kate Lister tells us.

Malinovski actually writes that the natives mocked face-to-face sex with a man from above, but that they heard about this pose from "white traders, plantation owners and officials". Malinovski does not mention missionaries anywhere.

According to Malinovski, the Trobrians spoke of "missionary fashion" when describing the way in which white people show affection, say by holding hands in public. Back then, they didn't talk about sex, nor about the "pose".

"So Kinsey misrepresented Malinowski's work," says Lister.

And then, somewhere along the way, the story was changed again. From the locals allegedly making fun of the pose brought by the missionaries, it got to the point where the missionaries allegedly advised people to have such sex.

How everything was found out

In 2001, scholar Robert Priest wrote a paper on how the missionary pose became a symbol of criticism against Christianity - allegedly stiff, restrictive, patriarchal and male-dominated.

Prist thus went through hundreds of texts trying to verify the real story behind the name of the pose.

"Kinsey appears to have invented the legend even though he believed he was conveying historical fact," writes Priest. "He coined a new term thinking he was writing about an old one."

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