Receptacle [II, 42]

In a male-centered society sexual congress is typically conceived of in terms of penile penetration. Heterosexual males, so this ideology goes, are never the penetrators, always the penetrating. Not so gay men, who commonly play the receptor role in anal and oral intercourse. Hence the coarse synecdoches hole and butt boy.

This category seems especially characteristic of the Italian domain. Cupio stems from Latin cupa, little bottle, receptacle. It is Piedmontese. Parallels from other regions of the peninsula are vasetto (Naples), lumino (S), buco, bucaiolo (Tuscan), and busone (Emilian).

In Peru one finds mostacero, mustard pot. The latter relates to the old custom of keeping a common mustard pot in an inn serving food. It was always replenished and the customers could dip into it at will. In this parallel the passive homosexual is a public utility, though one that is possibly fiery and could “burn” one’s member. In contemporary Spain a hueca, hole, refers to a person whose anus has been penetrated so many times as to be substantially enlarged.

In French the enculé is one who offers his anus as a receptacle for the insertor, the enculeur.

In American prison language there is a contrast between catchers and pitchers. The insertee receives the “ball” of the insertor as if in a catcher’s mit. In a different setting fisting relies on the penetrated anus as the “glove” of the hand.

In public toilets the glory hole is an aperture bored between stalls, permitting the insertion of the penis to the other side where oral gratification is offered. In this situation there are, as it were, two holes, one in the wall, the other in the buccal cavity of the fellator