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I’m gonna be honest, y’all — as much as I research and study topics that surround sex, there are times when I will stumble upon a term and then decide to write about it, mostly because I find it to be fascinating that it’s so popular in social media. And gooning? These days, gooning is one of them.

If you’ve never heard of it before, don’t feel the least bit bad about it. It first came across my attention on Instagram (although it’s also quite the hot topic on TikTok as well) and then — surprise, surprise — the Urban Dictionary. LOL. According to that rich source of data, gooning is apparently what happens when a man has engaged in edging (which I’ll expound on in just a second) for so long that he puts himself into a bit of a hypnotic mindset — a deeply meditative state, if you will.


That piqued my interest even more, so I decided to Google the mess out of the word to see what else I could find — and I think I’ve come across a few points that you may find interesting. Shoot, you might even decide to “tweak the term” a bit and apply it to your own sex life with your partner.

Listen, if you know about gooning already, I’m impressed. Hop in the comments and share your thoughts about it. On the other hand, if this is your first time even hearing the word, let’s explore why more and more people are not just talking about it…but are getting into doing it.

Gooning vs. Edging. What’s the Difference?

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Okay, so since edging basically walked so that gooning could run, let’s tackle what edging is first. Edging is all about stimulating yourself and/or your partner to the point where you feel like you are about to have an orgasm — and then holding back and repeating the action over and over again. If that sounds more torturous than pleasurable, the method behind the madness here is the fact that one of the hormones that increases during sexual arousal is dopamine. One of the things that dopamine does is “reward you” with feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

And so, when you’re in the process of edging, the more that you stimulate-then-stop, the more dopamine ends up flooding the brain which, in return, ends up intensifying your orgasms when you actually do have them.

So, what is gooning all about? Well, let’s start with where the name even comes from. From what I’ve read and researched, the old-school Popeye cartoons used to have goons on them. They were men who seemed to only be focused on one thing (ahh, got it!). Gooning, sexually, is similar.

And just what makes gooning different from edging — well, for one thing, you’re going to need to set aside quite a bit of time to pull gooning off because, while it is a lot like edging, it’s what happens when you self-stimulate (again, without climaxing) for literal hours on end until you end up in what some folks consider to be a trance and others consider to be meditative (kind of like orgasmic meditation — check out “What Exactly Is 'Orgasmic Meditation'?”) state.

To be totally forthcoming, the way that a lot of people (especially men) accomplish this is by watching porn and/or consuming amyl nitrite which is also known as poppers (which is not recommended); I also peeped that some folks will goon in the presence of other gooners. However, none of this is necessary. In fact, in the BDSM world, gooning (although it’s not always called that) is pretty popular because certain sex-related acts (that don’t involve porn or drugs) are all about raising dopamine, oxytocin and adrenaline levels so high that you ended up with the same result as gooners do.

Okay, so now that you know more about what gooning is, let’s — pardon the pun — touch on how it benefits men, women and couples…in its own special way.

How Men Can Benefit from Gooning

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I ain’t got no lies to tell you, when it comes to gooning, it’s definitely something that (at least currently) is mentioned in the male space more. One reason is because, although many women do indeed masturbate, reportedly, men still do it more often — and since self-stimulation plays a huge role in gooning well…there you go.

Plus, since men’s refractory period (the time that it takes for them to become erect again after experiencing ejaculation) is longer than women’s (in their case, the time it takes for them to orgasm after already having one), in many ways, this makes gooning an easier process for guys because they can stimulate themselves to the point of ejaculation, stop and then use even more time to get to the point of wanting to ejaculate again.

Oh, and if the follow-up question is “Well, is semen retention a form of gooning?” — technically, I would say so because semen retention is about either going through a season of abstinence or intentionally engaging in sexual activity without ejaculating.

And how can all of this ultimately benefit men in a sexual way? Well, since something that continues to come up about gooning is that it can put you into a meditative state, this means that it can de-stress men, which is a good thing, on pretty much every level. As far as sex is concerned, decreasing stress levels can help to lower one’s blood pressure, and reduce tension and it can help to put them in a better mood.

Beyond that, the first thing that actually came to my mind is gooning is something that can help men to build up stamina and endurance for if/when they do choose to have sex with someone else. This is great to know since men are able to climax in (on average) 5-7 minutes while it takes women (on average) almost 14 minutes to do the same. Yep, gooning is something that can help men to “get in sync” with their partners as far as orgasms and, more specifically, simultaneous orgasms (climaxing together) go.

How Women Can Benefit from Gooning

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Now, if you would like to give gooning a shot, a lot of what I’ve already said about the fellas applies to you as well.

What I will add is the fact that, since masturbation is pretty much about self-stimulating to the point of having an orgasm while gooning is more about “overloading your system” with feelings of pleasure that are outside of climaxing, I would venture to say that a major perk for women is gooning teaches you how to slow down and really get to know your body: what kind of touches that you like, what type of pressure you prefer, what erogenous zones are your actual favorite and even how to truly and fully enjoy sexual stimulation outside of cumming.

Something else that can be a perk about gooning, especially when it comes to women, is it can help to intensify your orgasms. For starters, the less stressed you are, the easier it is to climax in the first place. Also, gooning not only heightens your endorphin, oxytocin, and dopamine levels, but it also increases blood flow throughout your body too.

By gooning instead of climaxing, the build-up of the blood flow can take your orgasms to another level once you actually allow your body to have one — and after hours of denying yourself the “top of the mountain”…your system will be more than ready to explode after gooning, chile.

How Couples Can Benefit from Gooning

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If while reading all of this, the thing that comes to your mind is gooning sounds a lot like tantric sex — on many levels, I would have to agree, although something that separates gooning for a lot of people is the element of porn (which again, is oftentimes incorporated). Still, it can’t be said enough that gooning can be “tweaked” in the sense that — you don’t have to use porn, instead, you can use your imagination or the visuals of your partner; you don’t have to down poppers when edibles are right there (check out “Want More Frequent And Intensified Orgasms? Puff, Puff, Pass.”), and you also don’t have to “go it alone”, you can enjoy the practice of gooning with your partner.

In fact, when you take into account that, again, gooning is something that is supposed to take much longer than 30 minutes, it seems like it would be most exhilarating when you are in the presence of someone else whether you choose to self-stimulate in their presence or you both decide to stimulate one another. To me, it seems that this would take sexual communication (check out “Are You A Good Sexual Communicator? You Sure?”) to new dimensions because, as you’re “gooning them,” you would have to ask questions like “Does this feel good?” or “Do you want more or less pressure?” while they would have to convey to you what they like and when you need to pause because they are on the brink of cumming.

Yeah, just imagine how great sex would be once penetration took place if it’s after spending hours doing nothing but building up the anticipation for it. Because again, when you’re gooning, you’re spending hours, y’all…HOURS. And then, once you’ve actually mastered sexual self-control for hours before engaging in intercourse, this means that y’all might easily turn into a throwback R&B song and be able to have sex all night long…LITERALLY. LOL. *Insert “Wanna Make Love (All Night Long)” by Lillo Thomas right here*

Gooning. Gooning can help to make this all happen.

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Aight, so with all of the benefits that come with gooning, are there any downsides? I mean, anything in excess can become potentially problematic, and certainly, if you decide to bring porn into the mix and you choose to watch it for hours on end, for days, weeks, or months at a time, that could pose some issues. Also, since you’ve got to set some real-time aside to become an expert gooner, if it gets to the point where you’re consistently up all hours of the night or you’re ditching daily responsibilities just to do it, that’s not good.

But if you’ve got a low-key weekend coming up, instead of binge-watching Tubi or scrolling through Instagram, I don’t see how you and your partner touching each other for hours, first without an orgasm, only to have an ultimate one a couple of hours later could be a bad thing.

In fact, gooning in moderation? It actually sounds pretty damn…amazing.

Report back. #wink

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