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Petting.
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
Erogenous zones are widely used not only in normal sexual life, but also in petting. Petting is usually understood as all sorts of lovemaking that causes a sharp arousal, and sometimes brings both partners or one of them to orgasm. Petting is used by women to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, and in some cases by virgins who, for various reasons, do not want defloration.
According to the degree of the range of caresses, light, superficial and deep petting are distinguished. Light superficial petting includes any flirting, coquetry, hugs, kisses, and stimulation of the mammary glands. Deep petting includes contact with the genitals.
According to G. S. Vasilchenko, petting is understood as the deliberate induction of orgasm by artificial stimulation of erogenous zones in conditions of bilateral sexual contact, excluding direct contact of the genitals. Superficial petting only sharply excites and does not always lead to orgasm. G. S. Vasilchenko attributes this situation not to petting, but to frustration (frustratio - deception, failure), but deep petting also does not always end in orgasm. Despite the desire of one of the partners to have an orgasm, the matter is also limited to frustration, but this does not stop all manipulations from being deep petting.
Petting is currently widespread in those countries where the anatomical virginity of a young girl, even if depraved, is highly valued in an official marriage. According to the technique of petting among American youth, the following forms are distinguished: superficial kissing, deep tongue kissing, breast stimulation, kissing and sucking of nipples, manual stimulation of female genitals, manual stimulation of male genitals, oral contact with female genitals, oral contact with male genitals, bilateral oral-genital contact (simultaneously cunnilingus and minette), known as "amour croise", French love and "69".
G.S. Vasilchenko excludes the last phase of petting - superficial coitus with a virgin without defloration - from petting, classifying it as the so-called "vestibular coitus".
In a study by scientists, 77% of respondents reported that they had resorted to petting, of which 19% had resorted to deep petting, and according to D. N. Zheltakov, such half-girls accounted for 24.7%.