Muffing

What is Muffing?

Muffing is a sexual activity that involves penetrating the inguinal canals of folks with external gonads (basically, fingerbanging someone with external gonads from the front). The term “muffing” was coined by Mira Bellwether in her foundational zine Fucking Trans Women (2010), but the practice Bellwether described can be identified as pleasure practices (chiefly as part of genital massage) in numerous cultural traditions. For folks with external gonads and for those who have sex with folks with external gonads, muffing can be a way of queering up sex, circumventing tremendously limiting culturally proscribed/prescribed understandings of the erotic, and opening a potential universe of pleasure that celebrates the sublime polymorphous perversity of our bodies.

How can I learn more about muffing?

The best place to start learning about muffing is to go directly to the source, Bellwether’s Fucking Trans Women zine. The zine isn’t easily available in print any more, but you can access pdf copies of it here.

There are also a couple of good articles on muffing, including:

• Tobi Hill-Meyer, “Muffing 101” (Autostraddle)

• Diana Tourjée, “A Guide to Muffing: The Hidden Way to Finger Trans Women” (Vice)

Spectrum Journal recently commissioned an article on muffing from me that contains helpful diagrams designed by Dana Beierle:

• Lucie Fielding, “Diving Deep into Muffing” (January 2024)

Finally, if you’re keen learn muffing in a more experiential and kinetic way, I often offer workshops (tailored for professionals and for community) that include live demos of muffing in action. More information on these workshops can be found in the section directly below.

Muffing Workshops

Curiously, despite the wealth of skill sharing opportunities in sex positive feminist, queer, trans, leather, and sex worker lineages, I can find no record of workshops focused on muffing being offered. I wanted to change that! Developed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest-based somatic sex educator Katie Spataro, the first known workshop on muffing was given in October 2022 in Seattle. Since that time muffing workshops have been offered in Seattle, WA; Vancouver, BC; Victoria, BC; Montréal, QC; Los Angeles, CA; and Philadelphia, PA. I offer two versions of the workshop: an intensive geared toward touch professionals that is typically 4-6 hours long, and a community-centered workshop that is typically 2 hours. Both have, to date, included live demos.

I will be offering a muffing workshop as part of the educational offerings at IMsLBB 2024 (April 11-14, 2024).