Bareback (sex)

Bareback sex is physical sexual activity without the use of a condom, especially male to male anal sex. A slang term, bareback sex comes from the equestrian term bareback, which refers to the practice of riding a horse without a saddle. It therefore has the connotation of being wild, dangerous, and fun.Barebacking usually refers to a conscious and deliberate choice to forgo condoms.

It is not known when the term (as sexual slang) was first used, although its use did gain momentum in the 1960s with the first appearance in print (as analogous reference) occurring in 1968. The term was used by G.I.'s during the Vietnam War when sex without the use of a condom was known as "going in" or "riding" bareback. The term was included the 1972 publication, Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words: A Liberated Dictionary of Improper English.

The term appeared occasionally in print until the 1980s and then in context to the AIDS epidemic and the discussion of sexual practices. It did not have widespread use in LGBT culture until 1997, when there was an increase of discussion regarding condomless sex (as reflected in print publications).

Initially used for contraceptive purposes, condoms also came to be used to limit or prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs/STDs), even after other contraceptive methods were developed. As AIDS emerged and the sexual transmission of HIV became known in the 1980s, the use of condoms to prevent infection became much more widespread, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM) who engage in anal sex. At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, in the context of the invention and development of safe sex, the uptake of condoms among Western MSM was so widespread and effective that condom use became established as a norm for sex between men. From 1995, several high-profile HIV positive men declared their refusal to wear condoms with other HIV positive men in gay publications, dubbing the practice barebacking. While these early articulations of barebacking expressed a concern for HIV prevention, in that they generally referred to dispensing with condoms in the context of sex between people of the same HIV status, the moral panic which ensued was so pronounced that barebacking came to be framed as a rebellious and transgressive erotic practice for HIV positive and HIV negative people alike, irrespective of the risks of HIV transmission.

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