Basic Types of Sexual  Behavior

2. Heterosexual Intercourse

Manual Intercourse

Manual intercourse is here defined as involving sexual contact between the sex organs of one person and the hand(s) of another.
In older marital guides, this kind of sexual intercourse was often described as "petting" or as a "foreplay" to coitus. Intensive manual stimulation of a woman's sex organs was considered necessary for her complete arousal, and men were therefore admonished to make it a regular habit in order to please their female partners. Unfortunately, many men came to think of this "foreplay" as just another unpleasant male duty. Furthermore, since they knew little about the female sexual response, some of them overstimulated the female clitoris to the point where they caused more pain than pleasure. Women, on the other hand, were often reluctant to touch the male sex organs at all. In short, manual intercourse was rarely seen as a mutually enjoyable experience in its own right.
Today, however, a general change in sexual attitudes seems to be taking place. Many men and women now frankly tell each other what they like sexually, and they are much more willing to experiment. Thus, they begin to realize that coitus is by no means the only road to sexual satisfaction. Indeed, they may find that they can give and receive great pleasure by simply touching, stroking, and massaging each other's bodies. Moreover, modern sex therapists have discovered that such mutual pleasuring can unblock long inhibited sexual responses and thus help overcome male and female sexual inadequacies (see Course 5).