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Intercourse remains the definitive heterosexual act, implied by terms such as `having sex', `making love', or even just `doing it'. However, the particular bodily mechanics of intercourse mean it carries considerably higher risks (of disease and unwanted conception for example) than other forms of sex. Because of this, we suggest a need to question the taken-for-grantedness of intercourse in heterosex. Drawing on data from interviews with 15 women and 15 men, we examine discourses and significations which continue to prioritize intercourse over other forms of sex. Intercourse was described as natural and normal, and as signifying intimacy, closeness, and love within heterosexual relationships. Somewhat paradoxically, it was also pragmatically described as easy and non-intimate. The tensions and inconsistencies created by competing discourses and alternative significations may offer a space to destabilize the taken-for-granted normality and naturalness of intercourse. Furthermore, a strategic construction of heterosexual sex around pleasure may help shift intercourse from being the inevitable goal and endpoint of heterosex to being one sexual possibility among many.
Gavey et al. (Mon,) studied this question.