The Best Position for Making Love 1

A Girl's Best Friend

Think of it this way: Do you look better leaning over your husband with your stretch marks glistening and everything drooping and jiggling — or reclining with your face turned up, lips parted expectantly and your hair arranged over a bank of snowy white pillows? The missionary position is feminine; it's alluring. And don't try telling me that it's not erotic. Arch your back, give your husband your best "Come get me" look and just watch that man move.

Of all positions, this is the most aesthetic. You don't have to be self-conscious about your body because most of it is covered by your husband's. And, for women anyway, there's no performance anxiety. This is a position everyone knows how to do. Lying on your back with nothing on your mind other than, say, how that stain got on the ceiling, you're in the ideal position to unwind and enjoy yourself. As my friend Joanne remarks, "I find it easier to have an orgasm in that position, because I'm more relaxed. With the others I'm constantly thinking about what I should be doing." It's the perfect position for the coy, the shy or the just plain lazy. "I can concentrate on me," says another friend, Beth.

No other position makes you feel so loving, affectionate and close to your partner. Face-to-face you can kiss and explore each other. You can watch the expressions on his face — an erotic experience in itself — and your hands are free to caress or grip him tight. The missionary position is also the most comforting to finish in — you're cuddling already, for heaven's sake.

Some women, however, are put off by the position's simplicity. If just anyone can do it, they don't want to. And its name doesn't do it any favors either, as it was reportedly introduced by missionaries to inhabitants of the old European empires as a "respectable" position — a history unlikely to make you paralyzed with lust.

"It's boring," says Patricia, who clearly never wrestled with some of the missionary's variations. "Sideways-facing positions or being on top gives him better access to all my important parts."

"Being on top makes me feel aggressive, which is erotic," says Rachel. And some women, says Shirley Zussman, Ed.D., a New York sex and marital therapist, may feel pinned down in the missionary. "They're not as free to move around as they are in other positions."

ByRedbook