LIQUIDS TO MAÏA
MAIA MAZAURETTE
Let it be said: Sex is an activity (and an organ) that gets wet. This summer, Maïa Mazaurette puts on her diving suit to introduce us to these liquids. In this final episode we don’t spit in the soup, but end up as an appetizer – we meet saliva.
Characteristics : Saliva, a clear fluid produced by the salivary glands, allows us to chew, swallow, speak, protects us from a whole range of bacteria… and enables sexual practices outside of the sacrosanct vaginal penetration – something nine out of ten people in France have already sucked or licked their partner’s penis (IFOP, 2017).
Figure: According to the Norwegian Asmund Eikenes, author and doctor of cell biology, “the salivary glands produce up to 1.5 liters of saliva every day, more than a carton of milk!” » (in blood, sweat, saliva… The surprising mechanics of fluids (des body) », Dunod, 2021). This milk carton comes in two forms: viscous resting saliva and stimulated saliva.
Gluttony: By converting solid into liquid, saliva makes us feel the taste of food…it even makes us expect pleasure, hence the expression “saliva” (before profiteroles). Metaphorically, our mouths can of course water: for example, at the prospect of an erotic rendezvous.
A kiss : Kissing with tongue is a fantasy for teenagers… but also for bacterial transmission experts. In 2012, a group of Dutch researchers led by microbiology professor Remco Kort collected saliva samples from twenty-one couples before and after a wet kiss that lasted about ten seconds. Conclusion of the experiment: A couple who kissed intensely more than nine times a day would release enough bacteria to mark their respective tongues for life. Enough to make it clear to everyone that getting rid of an ex isn’t that easy. Second result (slightly more reassuring): The saliva that flows into the stomach after such a kiss would prevent new bacteria from being deposited in the oral cavity and on the tongues of the two lovers.
Symbolic: Sorry to those of you eating breakfast, but saliva brings us back to the hellish trio of drool, spit, and spit. The first two are (usually) involuntary. When we think of drooling, we naturally think of childhood and the dripping baby. Adults, on the other hand, continue to drool: in their sleep, in the flowing fullness of sleep (warning: morning breath!). Saliva, in turn, sends us back to the world of dirt… and even disease, as Covid-19 has shown us.
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