Snowballling 101

Snowballing is a sexual act where a man ejaculates into someone’s mouth, then open-mouth kisses that person, and has their partner pass the semen back into the ejaculator’s mouth. They then continue to kiss and pass the semen back and forth. With each pass, the load of semen will “grow” in size with the new saliva that is added to the mixture. Porn star Kayden Kross explains that the term “snowballing” is often used interchangeably with “cum swapping,” though according to Gail Dines’ Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, “cum swapping” can also refer to a woman passing semen from her mouth into the mouth of another woman — not the original man who ejaculated into her mouth.

The podcast host and sex columnist Dan Savage, referred to the mixture of fluids as “pud” in a column from 1999.

The New Partridge Dictionary of American Slang notes that the term is of US origin dating back to 1972, and was first used exclusively by gay men. In the Handbook of Psychology and Sexual Orientation, researchers found when studying gay men that: “Semen can carry symbolic meaning (and thus symbolic power) for some men, representing (1) successful completion of sexual behavior, and (2) sexual power, virility, strength, and masculinity.)”

Snowballing is a human thing, but certain animals also engage in a similar snowballing-like act. In Carmen Cusack’s Animals, Deviance, and Sex, Cusack writes about how male cichlid fish must blow sperm into a female’s mouth (where she will be holding her eggs in her mouth) in order to reproduce. However, Cusack explains that because the end goal for the fish is reproduction, it’s not the same thing as snowballing, the human kink, which is “considered deviant in spite of insemination and conception.”

How To:

First, talk it over with your partner to make sure you are both comfortable with what snowballing will entail. Then, if it’s something you both want to do, you can try giving your partner a blow job and having him finish in your mouth.

As a warm up to test the waters, you can start with just an open-mouthed kiss post blow job, and then work your way up to swapping so you don’t have to go from 0–100 suddenly. Since half the material of snowballing is saliva anyways, you can do a dry-run sans semen if you want to be even more cautious at first.

If everyone is still on board, kiss your partner and try passing the semen back and forth in each of your mouths. See how big it can get, then spit or swallow the whole thing. Taster’s choice!

Variations:

Felching: When a man ejaculates into someone’s anus, and then sucks the ejaculate out with their mouth.

Creampie Eating: When a man ejaculates into a woman’s vagina, and then sucks the ejaculate out with his mouth.