69 (sex position)
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Template:Multiple image 69 or sixty-nine is a sex position in which two people align themselves so that each person's mouth is near the other's genitals, allowing each partner to simultaneously perform oral sex on the other.<ref name="little">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Julie Coleman, "Love, sex, and marriage: a historical thesaurus", Rodopi, 1999, Template:ISBN, p.214</ref><ref name=aggrawal>Template:Cite book</ref> The participants are thus mutually inverted like in the number 69 (Template:Rotate text), hence the code name.<ref name=aggrawal/><ref>René James Hérail, Edwin A. Lovatt, "Dictionary of Modern Colloquial French", Routledge, 1990, Template:ISBN, p.484</ref> In this case, the numerals 6 and 9 are treated more as pictographic symbols than as numerical representations, with the bulbous part representing the heads of the performers.
The name is a translation of the original French, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref name="collins">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which is also sometimes borrowed directly into English. The concept is that both partners can experience sexual stimulation and oral sensation simultaneously, but this can also distract those who try to focus solely on their own pleasure from giving oral sex well. The position can also be awkward for partners who are not similar in height.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
History
Template:Stack The term sixty-nine or soixante-neuf for mutual simultaneous oral-genital stimulation is an English translation of the euphemistic French term "soixante-neuf" (i.e., "sixty-nine").Template:R The term "soixante-neuf" has not been traced any earlier than the Whore's Catechisms published in the 1790s in France, usually attributed to an early leader of the French Revolution, Mlle. Théroigne de Méricourt.<ref>Legman, 1969, p. 289.</ref>
Legman has described how the concept dates back to at least ancient Roman times:
Legman has also elaborated on Hindu representations:
The Kama Sutra mentions this sex position, albeit by a different name: "When a man and woman lie down in an inverted order, i.e. with the head of the one towards the feet of the other and carry on [mouth] congress, it is called the 'congress of a crow'."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Internet meme
In reference to the sex position, "69" has become an Internet meme, where users will respond to any occurrence of the number with the word "nice" and draw specific attention to it.Template:Citation needed This is meant to sarcastically imply that the reference to the sex position was intentional. Because of its association with the sex position and resulting meme, "69" has become known as "the sex number" in these communities,<ref name="Feldman 2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> similar to the number 420, which is known as "the weed number".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="adams2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Variations
Variations of the 69 position include mutual anilingus or "double rimming", and digital penetration of either partner's anus or vagina.