What What in the Butt: Anal Sex Is Trending at Harvard (and Beyond)

What was once only known as “going in the backdoor” rather than by any other more clinical or graphic name is now barely taboo.

In fact, it’s so close to mainstream that Harvard held a workshop on it. The class, part of Harvard’s Sex Week, was called “What What in the Butt: Anal Sex 101,” and was lead by Good Vibrations, a sex-positive store in Brookline, Mass.

The course description said the instructors would “dispel myths about anal sex and give you insight into why people do it and how to do it well.” This included talking about anal anatomy and the potential for pleasure for all genders; how to ask for it with a partner; basic preparation and hygiene; lubes, anal toys, and more.

Forty-four percent of straight men and 36 percent of straight women say they’ve had anal sex, according to the Center for Disease Control. And an academic study found that 51 percent of men and 43 percent of women who’ve had anal sex have also participated “in oral-anal sex, manual-anal sex, or anal sex toy use.”

Harvard isn’t the only institution trying to help, either. This summer, GQ published a piece called “The Modern Gentleman’s Guide to Going in Through the Back Door.”

“Whether you read about it, heard it whispered around a campfire, or experienced it firsthand, surely you’ve gotten the news that butt stuff is in,” GQ’s Julieanne Smolinski wrote.

About the Harvard seminar, Good Vibrations’ Carol Queen told the Huffington Post, “Anal play isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it is far more common than many people realize, and the team producing Sex Week is on the same page as we are: We want people to know enough about anal play to decide whether to try it, and if they do try it, we want them to have information to stay safe and healthy.”