Obviously semen is the juice of love and plays a large part in helping the human race continue. It is also collected and stored by various clinics, for use in artificial insemination.
But are there any other uses for semen?
For example, are there any cultures that use it in rituals? Any chemists that use it in fancy soaps? Is there a country that uses semen in a food dish?
Don’t need answer fast, its just something that randomly popped into my head and google is playing a bit weird with the search terms.
Ancient Romans believed semen was good for the skin and suposedly gladiator semen was sold to wealth matrons as face cream. I always wondered if the gladiators showed up in person for the treatments, or if there was some other method of keeping the product fresh.
In biology labs, herring or salmon sperm is a common source of purified DNA. It’s used whenever you want large quantities of any ol’ DNA to block nonspecific interactions. It’s cheap, thanks to aquaculture, and sperm cells are little more than DNA with a tail, so they make a convenient source of purified DNA.
It’s used in some western occult magick, generally of the ceremonial type, but Wicca has a Rite that uses it as well, mixed with vaginal secretions. Practitioners may use semen and/or vaginal fluids to charge talismans or amulets. But it should be noted that these are generally “advanced” sex magick spells, not the sort of thing generally mentioned in the Wicca 101 books they stock at Borders for sullen teenagers and bored housewives.
Vodoun/Hoodoo use semen for some love spells. Semen can be used as an offering in Ifa, although oils, animals, alcohol and candy are more popular.
It wouldn’t surprise me to find it used in animist and shamanic magics as well, but I haven’t, uh, come across it, so to speak. Such things are usually pretty well coded against outsiders understanding, and I haven’t spent enough time in those worlds to be given the key.
That was one of the first GQ threads I ever read. I was hooked. Then for a while whenever a thread on fellatio or semen would turn up, I’d mention Mangetout. I did it often enough that I PM’ed him apologizing. He graciously accepted the apology, and said he had no idea what I was talking about.
Probably not an authoritative source, but I remember reading in a magazine somewhere (probably Penthouse, years ago) about a very exclusive restaurant which served up tiny goblets of chilled semen as a novelty drink. May have been a fantasy story…as I recall, one of the female narrators was experiencing the place for the first time, got seriously squicked out and sent her goblet back untasted. The waiter approached looking upset and said “Madame, that was my semen…is anything wrong?”
I suppose that one line is the reason I’ve remembered the story after all this time. One just doesn’t forget a classic like that.
SS
In Polish weddings it is often customary to spend a week or two collecting the groom’s and best man’s semen and filling little thimbles full to give to the guests.
In aboriginal culture, semen is often used as lip balm.
Penn and Teller are well known for their use of semen (and disappearing semen) in various magic acts.
Sega of America and Hudson briefly embarked on a joint venture to develop a video game/home computing system that would react and function differently depending on the type, volume and temperature of semen inserted into the SRD (semen receptacle drive).
