Anal Intercourse and Power in Sex Between Men

TLDR

Anal intercourse among men is examined through interview narratives, drawing on Foucault’s distinction between domination and negotiated power, which suggests intimacy can arise within domination and submission fantasies. The study investigates how men describe and experience anal intercourse as a power dynamic between partners. The authors analyze the perceived vulnerability of the receptive partner by exploring the historical, linguistic, and corporeal structuring of the practice. Narratives reveal both dominant and resistant practices, with resistance—expressed through concepts like versatility and active passivity—redistributing power from insertor to insertee, a claim supported by Elias’s power‑chance theory.

Abstract

Anal intercourse between men is discussed using various texts, primarily interview narratives. The focus is upon the way men talk about and experience anal intercourse as a relation of power between men. Drawing upon the work of Foucault, a distinction is made between power as domination and power as negotiated between people. The latter opens up the possibility of intimacy and mutual pleasure within fantasies of domination and submission. Some of the men's narratives embraced the idea that the anally insertive partner dominated the receptive partner. Others resisted such an understanding by drawing upon the concepts of `versatility', `getting on top', `sex is not about power' and `active passivity'. It is argued in the article that such resistant practices redistribute power from the insertor to the insertee rather than eliminate power in sex, and this argument is supported through Norbert Elias's concept of power chances. The idea that the receptive partner in anal intercourse is `vulnerable' is discussed with reference to how the practice is structured historically, linguistically and corporeally.