# Is the Mormon practice of "soaking" a real thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2024, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223 "2024-08-26T02:45:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/41 "2024-08-27T18:54:07Z")
It is clear now, so what is the answer? ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/42 "2024-08-27T18:59:14Z")
@kenobi_65 answered it in the very first response. Unfortunately I can’t get to the link (it seems to be down), but even what he excerpted in the post points out that it was not an obscure sect thing, it was obscure in the sense of “only really obscurely dimwitted people thought that this actually circumvented chastity rules.” ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/43 "2024-08-27T19:21:28Z")
Another ex-Mormon here. TokyoBayer got it right. I got out of the church before “soaking” (or “floating” as I first heard it) became a punchline. But now it’s well enough known that lately everyone who learns I’m ex-Mo wants to know all about it. I suppose it’s possible some Mormon youths did this. But I seriously doubt it’s been widespread. Certainly the church authorities would say soaking is sex. Slightly more plausible is youths using the “poophole loophole” as was rumored to be common in the '90s. My bishop stood before all the youth of the congregation to declare that anal is intercourse, and the penalties were the same as for conventional sex. One must wonder if that actually came up in a worthiness interview. “Sister Young, do you obey the Law of Chastity?” “Yes of course, Bishop. I only take it in the bum.” Another rumor is that a couple drives to Vegas, gets married by Elvis, has a wild night or two, and then gets annulled. When I was an unmarried Mormon sexually repressed male, I didn’t see different penalties for premarital sex, whether the offender was male or female. As mentioned above, it disqualifies them from serving a mission, which is expected of boys. Pregnancy would sure make it a lot harder to hide. ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/44 "2024-08-27T19:22:47Z")
[![](https://preview.redd.it/6mhi3yu9p9g31.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e8d43d00d92999ef0f7285c216d455bee5b63ded) ](https://preview.redd.it/6mhi3yu9p9g31.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e8d43d00d92999ef0f7285c216d455bee5b63ded) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/45 "2024-08-27T19:24:14Z")
But the T Rex’s vision was only based on movement because of the frog DNA! SUS… ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/46 "2024-08-27T20:13:50Z")
> [@Rhodes](#): > > Slightly more plausible is youths using the “poophole loophole” as was rumored to be common in the '90s. As covered in: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ZF\_R\_j0OY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ZF_R_j0OY) Although frankly if that is a loophole, rainbow parties would also be a loophole. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/47 "2024-08-28T01:01:02Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Unless males can become pregnant, that can’t really be true, can it? If you want a different answer then ask a different question. It’s not fair to explicitly exclude something and then criticize the answer for not including what was specifically excluded. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > As pointed out, it is/was an obscure practice by some Mormons. I am just asking about what exactly those obscure practices by some Mormons might have been. There are many Mormon sects that used to and/or still exist that differ from the official postion of the Official Church of Latter Day Saints. As others have noted, this is not some sort of practice that is acceptable now or was historically accepted by any Mormon sect. From wiki, this is a LDS thing; > [@](#): > > **Soaking** is a [sexual practice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sexual_activity) of inserting the [penis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_penis) into the [vagina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina) but not subsequently thrusting or [ejaculating](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejaculation), reportedly used by some members of [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints) (LDS Church).[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soaking_(sexual_practice)#cite_note-5) News sources do not report it being a common practice, and some Latter-day Saints have said that soaking is an [urban legend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend) and not an actual practice.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soaking_(sexual_practice)#cite_note-DailyDot-1)[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soaking_(sexual_practice)#cite_note-Real-6) Others report knowing church members who had soaked. > [@](#): > > Articles state it is usually Latter-day Saint [teenagers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenagers) and unmarried students at [church-sponsored universities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Educational_System) who participate in the practice. They also state students are concerned that [confessing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession_(religion)#Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints) to or getting caught having pre- or extra-marital sex is against those [universities’ codes of conduct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Educational_System_Honor_Code) and can get them expelled. It’s also recent. > [@](#): > > One source said the term started as “dick soak” on an internet forum in 2009, and morphed to simply “soaking” by 2011, and gained wider use in 2019. The only Mormons that I regually talk to are my mother and aunt and I’ve stopped following Mormon and ex-Mormon news. More importantly, I don’t watch TikTok so the world is passing me by. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/48 "2024-08-28T01:28:08Z")
Sex, by any other name is still… If they’re paying for your college keep it in your own britches… If they’re practicing, believing, wanting to be _good_ Mormons the guilt is already installed. It must be so hard to be in college and be restricted like that. They ain’t having no fun. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/49 "2024-08-28T01:39:06Z")
I don’t get this…at all. Mormons can’t masturbate. Mormons can’t have premarital sex. But somehow they can put a penis in a vagina and after accomplishing that, not move and most importantly, not orgasm. I guarantee you that all those LDS guys have a very BLUE pair of bumper nuts on their trucks. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/50 "2024-08-28T01:42:34Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > But somehow they can put a penis in a vagina and after accomplishing that, not move and most importantly, not orgasm. As noted several times, it’s also not an accurate interpretation of any LDS teaching; anyone who might actually try it is pursuing an inaccurate urban legend that they heard was somehow a loophole in the church’s rules. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/51 "2024-08-28T01:45:13Z")
I realize that. I was trying to state that it’s hard to imagine that anyone, ever, could do this practice. It is 100% unbelievable. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2024, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/52 "2024-08-28T01:49:28Z")
Eh, if you come up with any weird sexual practice at all, it’s pretty much a given that someone out there, somewhere, somewhen, has tried it. Doesn’t mean it’s common, or that it’s any more common among Mormons than anyone else. And it’s not like Mormons are the only religion that prohibits premarital sex, or for which young horny folk try to look for loopholes. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/53 "2024-08-28T01:58:44Z")
It’s really hard to buy the idea that anyone would believe this practice is less sinful than whatever sin they assign to premarital sex. It’s penetration. I also have a hard time imagining a situation where one or both parties would just lie there and not begin moving. As a sex substitute it wouldn’t be very satisfying. There you are, penis-in-vagina, in private where nobody’s going to know if you broke a rule, and you’re going to not do it? I call BS. Honestly this really sounds like an LDS member got caught having sex, and had to think of an excuse quickly. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/54 "2024-08-28T17:31:50Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > It’s really hard to buy the idea that anyone would believe this practice is less sinful than whatever sin they assign to premarital sex. It’s penetration. That’s the part that’s hard to believe - it really has little or nothing to do with Mormons , I’d have difficulty believing it no matter what group we’re talking about. I mean, even the people I knew who believed in “technical virginity” didn’t think their parents/religion would be OK with it just as long as it wasn’t PIV. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/55 "2024-08-28T17:55:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > or for which young horny folk try to look for loopholes. I recall a story I heard in high school. Some guy asked his girlfriend if he could put it in for “just a second”, and she reacted, “What am I? A microwave?” ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2024, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/56 "2024-08-29T01:57:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eh, if you come up with any weird sexual practice at all, it’s pretty much a given that someone out there, somewhere, somewhen, has tried it. When I said earlier that no doubt someone has tried it, I wasn’t thinking about having a third party jumping up and down on the bed. I was thinking about the male just inserting his penis without movement. I have a hard time picturing having that with others jumping on the bed because it doesn’t make sense in terms of who would likely engage in soaking without help. For some, being a teen / young adult in a sexually repressed environment is all about getting as absolutely close to a line without crossing it. Others abandon the attempt to remain pure and others back off well before they approach any lines. One problem with trying to convince conservative religious teens / young adults to use birth control is that once the sex act is planned, then it’s more of a sin and psychologically harder to deal with. Everyone understands getting tricked by Satan into going too far in the moment, but heaven forbid that you plan on having sex. Couples who care (or feel guilty) enough about the rules to go that far but not further are not likely to plan it out enough to obtain outside cooperation. Likewise, the couple really knows that this isn’t true and why they can willfully ignore that by themselves, they aren’t going to do that with someone else present. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/57 "2024-08-29T03:15:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Noyes created Perfectionism; one aspect of which was Complex Marriage Is that where you have one real partner and one imaginary one? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2024, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/58 "2024-08-29T03:34:17Z")
No silly! But I wonder what happened where the communal marriage Noyes people were left alone, while the polygamous LDS had to fight small-scale wars. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/59 "2024-08-30T22:07:13Z")
🤣 Good one! ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2024, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223/60 "2024-08-31T01:48:23Z")
Would they wear condoms? I’d think many horny, sexually repressed young people would blow their load as soon as they entered a woman for the first time, moving or not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-mormon-practice-of-soaking-a-real-thing/1006223.md?page=4)