Fisting

Putting a whole hand, and sometimes part of the forearm, into a man's ass: an advanced kink also called FF or fist-fucking.

Fisting is putting a hand, and sometimes part of the forearm, inside a man's ass. Fisters call it the fine art, and they mean it: it takes time, a lot of lube, trust and very slow progress, and the men who love it describe it as something closer to meditation than to a quick fuck. In the scene it is also called FF, as in fist-fucking.

It is not a fist punched in, whatever the name suggests. The hand goes in with fingers together, shaped like a duck's beak, and only closes once it is inside. The bottom sets the pace, and the top's job is mostly patience.

Where it comes from

Fist-fucking is gay slang from the sexual liberation years. Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it around 1970 in a booklet called the Fist Fucker's Manual, which noted that "the fine art of fist fucking is seldom discussed over dinner or cocktails". Through the 1970s it shows up in gay porn writing, in the gay press and in Karla Jay and Allen Young's Gay Report of 1979. Green's adds that it was hugely popular in that decade and then declined, partly out of fear of injury and of AIDS.

It never disappeared. Fisting has its own clubs, parties and color in the hanky code, and it is a staple of the leather bar world and of fetish porn.

How it is used today

On the apps, fisting is usually spelled FF, with fister or FF top for the man giving it and FF bottom or "hole" for the man receiving. Profiles tend to be specific: depth, experience, whether gloves are a must, which lube. Fisters are famous for their gear talk, and a fisting session often starts with douching that is far more thorough than for ordinary sex.

Fisting also overlaps with chemsex for some men, because certain drugs relax the body. That mix makes it easier to ignore pain, which is exactly the signal fisters rely on to know when to stop.

The health side

The rectum is delicate and has no sense of humor. The basics of harm reduction for fisting are short nails, gloves, plenty of lube, warming up slowly and stopping at any sharp pain. Hepatitis C can pass between gay men through blood during sex, and fisting without a glove is one of the known routes; a new glove for each partner and your own container of lube are the standard advice. Some bleeding afterwards needs watching; heavy bleeding, severe belly pain or fever after a session are reasons to go to an emergency department or see a doctor straight away.

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