Cum Shot - Origin and Features of Cum Shots

Origin and Features of Cum Shots

Predating the modern age of pornography, facials were described in literature. As an example, the French aristocrat Marquis de Sade wrote about performing facials in his work The 120 Days of Sodom, written in 1785. One passage of the novel reads "... I show them my prick, then what do you suppose I do? I squirt the fuck in their face... That's my passion my child, I have no other... and you're about to behold it."

Although earlier pornographic films occasionally contained footage of ejaculation, it was not until the advent of hard-core pornography in the 1970s, that the stereotypical cum shot scene became a standard feature—displaying ejaculation with maximum visibility. An oft quoted influential work of this era, Steven Ziplow's The Film Maker's Guide to Pornography (1977), states "There are those who believe that the come shot, or, as some refer to it, 'the money shot', is the most important element in the movie and that everything else (if necessary) should be sacrificed at its expense. Of course, this depends on the outlook of the producer, but the one thing is for sure: if you don't have the come shots, you don't have a porno picture."

Cum shot scenes may involve the female actor "calling for" the shot to be directed at some specific part of her body. Cultural analysis researcher Murat Aydemir considers this one of the three quintessential aspects of the cum shot scene, alongside the emphasis on visible ejaculation and the timing of the cum shot, which usually concludes a hard-core scene.

As a possible alternative explanation for the rise of the cumshot in hardcore pornography, Joseph Slade, professor at Ohio University and author of Pornography and sexual representation: a reference guide notes that pornography actresses in the 1960s and 1970s did not trust birth control methods, and that more than one actress of the period told him that ejaculation inside her body was deemed inconsiderate if not rude.