Legs on shoulders
M/F · Vaginal penetration · Penetrating partner on top
Keypoint template
Attributes
- Position family
- One-on-one
- Primary act
- Vaginal penetration
- Partner arrangement
- Penetrating partner on top
- Penetration type
- Vaginal
- Facing
- Face to face
- Dynamics
- Thrusting
- Support / surface
- Flat surface / bed
- Participant count
- Two
- Composition code
- M/F
- Source medium
- Both
- Physical difficulty
- Moderate
- Prevalence in adult media
- Very common
- Intensity tier (compliance)
- Explicit
Common camera framing
Description: A missionary deepening: the receiving partner's legs are raised and rested on the penetrating partner's shoulders, tilting the pelvis for a steeper angle.
Variations: One leg up and one down, ankles crossed behind the neck, or legs draped over the elbows (deckchair).
On camera: Side profile reads the raised-leg line; a staple escalation from flat missionary.
AI design considerations: The receiving figure folds at the hips with ankles at the partner's shoulder line — leg-to-shoulder registration is the key detail.
Historical provenance
Where this position appears in historical sex manuals & erotic literature
- Monkey's AttackChinese (Han dynasty tradition) →
Su Nü Jing (Classic of the Plain Girl) — attributed to the Plain Girl dialogues with the Yellow Emperor · c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE; preserved in the Japanese Ishimpō (984 CE)
Legs raised past the shoulders in the Nine Ways.
- Wild Horse LeapsChinese (Tang dynasty) →
Dongxuanzi (Master of the Cavern Mystery) — attributed to Li Dongxuan · c. 7th century CE
- The second mannerArab–Berber (Maghreb) →
The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight — Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nafzawi · 15th century CE
al-Nafzawi's raised-legs congress, ankles at the shoulders.
Related positions
Part of the Erotic Pose Catalog open dataset · CC BY 4.0 · keypoints are idealised COCO-17 templates.