Text your group chat about mixing up your sex life and they’ll

recommend it. Do a quick online search and you’ll be directed to it. Ask
your sister (if that’s the kind of relationship you two have) and she’ll
send you a link to order it online. Yep, I'm talking about the Kama Sutra,
an ancient Sanskrit text that, over the years, has become the go-to guide
for intricate sex positions.

The Kama Sutra, written by Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, has

garnered a lot of attention for acting as a guidebook to what seems like
every sex position ever (some waaaay more adventurous than others).
But that’s not really the point of it.

“The Kama Sutra has been quite distorted in how it has circulated in

translation in the U.S. and other parts of the western world,” says Durba
Mitra, PhD, an assistant professor of women, gender, and sexuality at
Harvard University, and author of Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the
Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought. “Kama Sutra is a book of
philosophy on ethics and aesthetics, never just an ancient text on sexual
positions and sexual pleasure.”

The original set of texts that became known as Kama Sutra “were

actually about everything from urban living to statecraft, from perfumes
to gardens,” Mitra says. The “distortion” of the book happened “in part
because the first edition of Kama Sutra in English was done by colonial
enthusiast—and Orientalist—Richard Burton in the late nineteenth
century,” Mitra says. Burton “wanted to create a fantasy for his English-
speaking audience by portraying people of the East as hypersexual and
unchanging, without history,”Mitra says. But, she adds, “unfortunately
people still use these reductive, racist ideas to think about Indian
sexuality in the past and present.”

The Kama Sutra does address sex positions, but it’s really only in one
section, points out Gigi Engle, a certified sex coach. Kama Sutra “is
about the art of living and loving well and obtaining and maintaining the
pleasures of life—including sex and love,” says sex therapist Debra Laino,
D.H.S.

That said, the section on sexuality is packed with a number of sex

positions that promote emotional intimacy between partners by way of
touch and physical connection. The ancient text even teaches that men
should prioritize a woman’s pleasure over their own (hear hear!), by
focusing on making sure she climaxes before even thinking about their
own orgasm. Kama Sutra also emphasizes being present and making eye
contact during sex, Laino says.

“It’s not so much about going in and being able to do all of these different
positions," says Engle. It’s more about finding techniques and moves that
you can connect with and that allow you to connect with your partner on
more than one level.

Now that you're call caught up...ready to give these 13 Kama Sutra sex
positions a whirl?