Facial (sexual act)
Sexual act involving ejaculation onto a partner's face.
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A facial is a non-penetrative sexual act where a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more partners. It usually follows other sexual stimulation, such as vaginal, anal, oral, manual sex, or masturbation. This act is commonly featured in pornography, often to conclude a scene.
Cultural depictions
Before modern pornography, facials appeared in literature; the Marquis de Sade described performing them in his 1785 work The 120 Days of Sodom. In the 1970s, hardcore pornography made the visible cumshot a central element, often with the female performer calling for the shot to a specific body part. Facials are now common in pornographic films, videos, magazines, and websites, and have generated a niche market of video series specializing in the act.
A 2010 content analysis by psychologist Ana Bridges of best-selling heterosexual pornographic videos found that over 96% of scenes ended with ejaculation onto the female partner's body, with the mouth the most common area; when all facial regions are included, facial cum shots occur in about 62% of scenes with external ejaculation. Feminist pornography pioneers such as Candida Royalle (1980s), Ms. Naughty (since 2000), and Petra Joy (since 2004) excluded facials from their work. Tristan Taormino initially excluded them but later sometimes included them, and Erika Lust has occasionally featured facials since her 2004 debut.
Health risks
Semen in the eye can cause intense pain, stinging, burning, tearing, light sensitivity, redness, and blurry vision; rinsing with clean water and natural tears usually relieve the discomfort. Any sexual activity involving contact with bodily fluids carries risk of transmitting sexually transmitted infections. Semen is generally harmless on skin or if swallowed but not on ocular tissue, and can transmit infections such as HIV and hepatitis; the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration classifies semen as other potentially infectious material.
If a man has chlamydia in his semen, the receiving partner may develop chlamydial conjunctivitis. Risks differ greatly: the ejaculating partner faces almost no STI risk, while the receiving partner faces higher risk if semen contacts broken skin or mucous membranes. Rarely, people experience human seminal plasma hypersensitivity, with symptoms including itching, redness, swelling, blisters, hives, or difficulty breathing; treatment options include condom use and desensitization.
Criticisms and responses
Views on facials range from seeing them as degrading and humiliating to grounded in mutual respect and pleasure. Feminist perspectives are primarily critical, even among some sex-positive feminists, though others regard the act as always acceptable or acceptable only under certain conditions. Sex therapist Ruth Westheimer considered facials humiliating and not sexy, advising that they are not a necessary part of oral sex. Sex columnist Dan Savage wrote that facials are degrading and that is why they are hot.
Daily Nexus columnist Nina Love Anthony viewed facials non-threateningly, saying they add variety and can satisfy a secret porn star fantasy. Sociologists Gail Dines, Robert Jensen, and Russo, in the book Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality, asserted that ejaculating onto a woman in pornography turns her into a slut whose primary purpose is to be sexual with men. Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin stated that the convention of sperm on her, not in her, marks what he owns and how he owns it, contaminating her with his dirt.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Facial (sexual act) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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