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'''cuckold''' is a person, usually a
[[man]], with a sexually [[infidelity|unfaithful]] partner, typically the man's
[[wife]]. There are connotations of helplessness and [[humiliation]] attributed
to the word: implications that the husband is helpless to stop her infidelity,
and too cowardly to leave the wife.
==History of the term==
"Cuckold" appears in older texts as a highly insulting and [[pejorative]] term.
Cuckolds are sometimes written of as "wearing the horns of a cuckold" or just
"wearing the horns". This goes back to an unsubstantiated reference to a
tradition in villages of unknown European location where the community gathers
to collectively humiliate a man whose wife gives birth to a child recognizably
not his own. This is said to have been a parade where the hapless husband is
forced to wear antlers on his head as a symbol of his wife’s infidelity.
Whether this actually happened or not is irrelevant to the phrase, which
survived.
The history of the word is thought to be related to the [[Cuckoo]] bird, who is
known to put its eggs in another bird's nest. Some think that this points to
another hallmark of the cuckold—the raising of a child that is not his
own.
==Cultural usage==
In Italy and Spain, "horns" are a metaphor for suffering the infidelity of a
partner, not limited to husbands in modern usage. However, the use of the term
dates from the Roman empire, since legionaries returning from the war were given
horns as a triumph or prize. So, the use of the term is a mockery of the
husband, victorious in the battlefield, but defeated in his own bed.
The gesture of the [[horned hand]] can be used to insult the cuckold; the
[[Italian language|Italian]] translation, ''cornuto'' literally means ''horned''
(This sometimes causes confusion in Italians who are learning English and
encounter the word ''horny'').
The [[Spanish language|Spanish]] word for a consenting cuckold, ''cabrón'', has
such an offensive nuance that it is a [[taboo word]] rarely used with its
original meaning, "[[he-goat]]".
However, according to the tone and the relation to the addressed, it can be even
laudatory.
The Chinese term for "cuckold" translates as "wearing a green hat".
== Recent usage ==
The term has made a resurgence in the late 20th century amongst couples with a
[[dominant (BDSM)|dominant]] female allowed to take on additional partners, and
a [[submissive]] male is either monogamous to her or denied sex altogether,
aside from performing oral sex. Some dominant women have their male partner
watch them have sex with others, but the more common practice is for the [[dominatrix|domme]]
to go out on dates, while her sub or slave stays at home. Some dominants have
their sub or slave perform oral sex on them after they have had sex with another
man. In some cases, the dominant woman's sex partner may be submissive to her,
while other times, she simply engages in [[vanilla sex]] with him.
Most female-dominant couples who practice cuckolding tend to be in their
thirties or older. It is common for the dominant woman to take on younger men
when cuckolding her primary partner. In these cases, the younger partner is a
mere "boytoy," and there is no possibility of a serious relationship developing.
It should also be noted that by far the most commmon form of cuckolding is the
"interracial-cuckold." This almost always involves a white couple and a black
male. The premise of this cuckold is that black males are sexually superior to
their white counterparts. They are stronger, have more stamina and larger
genetalia than the white husband. Because of this the white wife might deny her
husband in the bedroom, forcing him to watch her copulate with the dominant
"black bull", often relegated to simple masturbation. In part, the cuckold is
seen as "retribution" or "vengence" for the treatment of the black man by the
white historically. The "revenge" is that the white man's greatest "prize", the
white woman, now prefers the more sexually potent black man. Ironically this
"revenge" is based in sterotypes.
Cuckolding among female-dominant couples differs from the original definition of
cuckolding in that many of these men are ''voluntarily'' "cuckolded" by their
wives, as part of the husband's [[sexual fantasy]] of gaining sexual pleasure
from being humiliated by his wife—indeed, the husband may even be the
instigator of this practice, raising questions about who is truly the dominant
and who the truly submissive partner. This is a common theme in letters to
pornographic magazines. It is unclear how common this phenomenon is in real life
as opposed to fantasy. In the fantasy realm, the wife of a cuckold is sometimes
referred to as a [[hotwife]]. In a broader context, the contrast between a
cuckold and bull is sometimes used to summarize an individual's personality or
behavior; the bull representing an agressive alpha male and the cuckold
suggesting weakness, fear and vulnerability.
==See also==
*[[Adultery]]
*[[Human sexual behavior]]
*[[Human sexuality]]
*[[Humiliatrix]]
*[[Paternity testing]]
[[Category:Marriage]]
[[Category:Sexual fidelity]]
[[Category:Sexual fetishism]]
[[de:Cuckold]]
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