Soaking, also known as marinating or floating, is a sexual practice of inserting the penis into the vagina but not subsequently thrusting, reportedly used by some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).^[1][2][3] News sources do not report it being a common practice, and some Latter-day Saints have said that soaking is an urban legend and not an actual practice.^[1][4] Others report knowing church members who had soaked.^[1][5][6][7]

One source stated it was difficult to know how common it was due to the secrecy and shame around sex in the LDS Church,^[2] and underreporting due to the social-desirability bias is a common issue even among anonymous surveys of many stigmatized sexual behaviors.^[8][9] Articles state it is usually Latter-day Saint teenagers and unmarried students at church-sponsored universities who participate in the practice. They also state students are concerned that confessing to or getting caught having pre- or extra-marital sex is against those universities' codes of conduct and can get them expelled.^[3][10][6] An interviewee stated that star basketball player Brandon Davies was expelled from the basketball team of the LDS Church's largest university Brigham Young University (BYU) for soaking.^[3][11]

Soaking serves as a purported loophole to the LDS Church's sexual code of conduct, called the law of chastity, which states that all sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is a sin,^[2][12][13] and further bars masturbation for church members.^[14][15][16] While it purportedly circumvents the church's restrictions, top leaders have stated that "it is wrong to touch the private ... parts of another person’s body even if clothed" outside of a monogamous heterosexual marriage.^[17][18]

Historical citing of a chastity loophole

In 1885, one of the LDS Church's top leaders, 73-year-old apostle Albert Carrington, argued during excommunication proceedings that his decade of extramarital sexual relationships with multiple younger women did not count as adultery and was only a "little folly" because he would only partially penetrate the vagina with just the tip of his penis and part of the shaft (reportedly to less than the total "depth of four inches"), and pulled out before ejaculation.^[19]

In popular culture

In 2021, a video about soaking went viral on TikTok,^[20][6][5] and the practice has its own page on the pop-culture website "Know Your Meme".^[21] It has been used as a plot point in sitcoms in the early 2020s,^[2][22] such as the television series Alpha House,^[22] Get Shorty,^[23][24] and Jury Duty.^[25][26] It was also referenced in the book Up Up, Down Down,^[27] in a Barstool Sports video segment,^[28] and in at least one short film of Mormon pornography.^[29]

Reactions

Two satirical social media accounts, the BYU Virginity Club^[30] and the BYU Slut Club,^[31] have both disavowed the practice.^[32][33] One author noted that soaking does not prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infection and may still result in pregnancy.^[3]

Related practices

Practices described in the following sources as related to soaking include jump humping, provo pushing, and durfing:

• Jump humping – Soaking is sometimes accompanied by "jump humping", in which a third person is invited to bounce on the bed (or to push up on the mattress from below) for a couple engaged in soaking, thus generating motion for them (according to TikTokers ExmoLex and FuneralPotatoSlut, and a BYU student interviewee on Barstool Sports).^[12][20][13] The external source of motion allegedly absolves the soaking couple from responsibility for any genital movement.^[1][2][34]
• Provo pushing – The "jump hump" assistant has been termed the "bed jumper" or "Provo pusher" (after Provo, Utah, home of BYU).^[1] Other definitions of "provo push" refer to it as clothed or unclothed, non-penetrative dry humping or sexual frottage between church members,^[35][36]
• Durfing – Dry humping between church members is also called "durfing".^[10]