The Science of Semen

The theory extends to sex between men:

… the antidepressant effects of seminal plasma may not be limited to vaginal absorption of its mood-brightening chemical properties. “It would be interesting to investigate,” write Gallup and his coauthors, “the possible antidepressant effects of oral ingestion of semen, or semen applied through anal intercourse (or both) among both heterosexual couples as well as homosexual males.”

The most intriguing result to emerge from this study, in the context of Gallup and Burch’s overall theoretical perspective regarding the psychobiology of semen, was that so many of the barebacking interview subjects viewed the exchange of semen through unprotected anal sex as providing them with a palpable sense of “connectedness” with their same-sex partners, one that happened only with the internally, unimpeded ejaculation.

There is so much of interest in this article, I recommend reading the whole thing. I’m trying not to copy-and-paste it all here, but this part about the “Sambia” is too good to leave out:

… Gallup and Burch’s model reminded me of those oft-cited Papau New Guinea tribes, such as the “Sambia,” and their semen-ingestion rituals involving young boys. On the surface, there’s a puzzling scenario here: such cultures have long histories of being embroiled in violent warfare and thus they tend to place extraordinarily high value on expressed masculinity. Yet ritualized homoerotic practices involving young boys fellating older males in order to ingest their semen are common. In a 2000 issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Gilbert Herdt, a cultural anthropologist who studied the Sambia, describes how “… by the age of 11–12 (Sambia) boys have become aggressive fellators who actively pursue semen to masculinize their bodies.”