What do a 19th-century German sexologist and Canadian rapper Drake have in common? Rumors over the summer circulated about how Drake enjoyed getting his ass eaten by a female fan.

This sex act is colloquially referred to as “rimming”––or more technically anilingus. I found out that, unsurprisingly, this sex act is not at all new and has been an area of interest to serious researchers since sexologist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing published Psychopathia Sexualis in 1886.

Titled “Warning: A Column on Butt Play,” this NYMag article published on April 8, 2014 proclaimed that “butt-stuff is such a thing,” citing Cosmopolitan and Playboy articles that centered on participation in the act. What I’m getting at is not that rimming and other anal-related sex acts are now “in,” but rather that people are now being honest about participating in them.

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