# Do humans instinctively know how to have sex? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158 "2010-03-29T00:43:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/61 "2010-03-31T14:37:09Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > …the laying down “spooning” doggy style position… This is what Ron White calls “the lazy dog.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/62 "2010-03-31T16:32:24Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s to misrepresent their views. Sex was viewed as a gift from God, and, as such, intended to be enjoyed - but only within the proper context of marriage. Even that’s not quite it. It’s more that people just slept around a lot before marriage, and whenever a girl got pregnant, she had to marry whomever it was that she was sleeping with at the moment. It was taken for granted that young folks “courting” each other would be sleeping in the same bed. ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/63 "2010-04-01T03:23:07Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > I think humans have spent far more of their existence not wearing clothes, than they have wearing them. I know _I_ have. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/64 "2010-04-01T04:59:58Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > I know _I_ have. Hello? m/f? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/65 "2010-04-01T05:14:48Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > \ > When it got to the point [of sex], though, I found that I was completely out of condoms. :smack::eek:☹ Best use of emoticons I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/66 "2010-04-01T07:47:39Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > @ **njtt’s** comment _“The most likely explanation, to my mind, is that humans, unlike other animals, wear clothes, and thus do not normally get to see what members of the opposite sex have down there”_ > > I think humans have spent far more of their existence not wearing clothes, than they have wearing them. Assuming that is true (presumably you are talking about prehistoric times), what reasons do you have for thinking that they had the same sorts of problems in figuring out how to have sex back then that many people have now, when we wear clothes? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/67 "2010-04-01T08:29:51Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Or it could be that the Puritans disappeared because they didn’t make little Puritans. 😉 The non-joke answer is that most Puritan congregations became Congregational Churches in the 18th century. But the Puritan-Congregationalists became far outnumbered by the ordinary Church of England and Presbyterian immigrants who settled in New England in the late 17th and 18th centuries. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/68 "2010-04-01T16:11:03Z")
It’s worth mentioning that the earliest experience for most boys and girls is with Rosy Palm and her Five Sisters. No one needs instructions on doing that. People figure it out on their own. That experience should help with the first sexual encounter. The boy knows what works for him. The girl knows what she likes. They share information. 😉 Yes, I think it is instinctive. At least that applies to the kind that lasts less than 5 minutes. Extended sex that allows women to orgasm takes study and a guy that is willing to learn. ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/69 "2010-04-02T00:03:07Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s worth mentioning that the earliest experience for most boys and girls is with Rosy Palm and her Five Sisters. No one needs instructions on doing that. People figure it out on their own. I thought I had invented it. I was ready to write a book. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158/70 "2010-04-02T17:36:40Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Who says we are doing it correctly now? Maybe we are supposed to stick it in an ear. There is actually [an example](http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/medieval_art/tapestry_with_the_annunciation/objectview.aspx?OID=170008075&collID=17&dd1=17) of that which produced offspring, they say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-humans-instinctively-know-how-to-have-sex/534158.md?page=3)