What Makes the 'Eiffel Tower' Position a Novel Sexual Experience?

Perhaps no threesome sex position is mentioned more often than the Eiffel Tower. This tongue-in-cheek, frat-boy favorite starts with classic double penetration, with one partner being penetrated two ways––usually anally and orally––by two other partners. It's an act most commonly billed as an MFM (male-female-male) position, but people of all genders can use strap-ons, butt plugs and, of course, their imagination to make it work for them, too.

Next comes the "Eiffel Tower" namesake twist.

"The Eiffel Tower position gets its name because, in heterosexual culture, the two guys would high-five," explained sex educator Gigi Engle, A.S.C., who is based in London. "The high-five creates the shape of the Eiffel Tower."

The novelty value of this threesome sexual position is obvious, but does anyone actually do it?

Before digging any deeper, it's worth zooming out to ask how many of us regularly have threesome sex in general. According to Pornhub's 2021 Year in Review, searches for "threesome" grew by 40 percent worldwide, perhaps unsurprising given the touch-starved horniness that characterized yet another wave of global lockdowns. In the United States "threesome" was the seventh-most popular search term overall. Among women, it was the fourth-most popular.

Sexual positions like the Eiffel Tower are becoming popular

Plenty of people might masturbate to group sex scenes, but the scarce statistics on group sex indicate these fantasies rarely become reality. In 2016, researchers conducted an in-depth study of heterosexual attitudes toward group sex, published in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Although 64 percent of the 274 respondents expressed interest in group sex, only 13 percent––8 percent of women and 24 percent of men––said they had any real-life experience with it.

Studies of kinky, queer or polyamorous respondents might yield wildly different results, but the existing research indicates we're way more likely to fantasize about threesome sex than to actually have it.

Where does that leave the Eiffel Tower position?

"If you'd define the Eiffel Tower as when our hands are joined above hers or as there being a high-five involved, then I'm not sure I've ever actually done it," said New York-based comedian Billy Procida, an OnlyFans creator and host of "The Manwhore Podcast." "I've definitely been part of several Eiffel Towers under construction, though."

In Procida's eyes, the Eiffel Tower can be filed under the category of purely novelty sex positions, the kind that very few of us actually bring to the bedroom.

"The only benefit is that you can you say you did it," he continued. "It's a fun visual, but that's all there is to it."

According to Engle, the Eiffel Tower position should be viewed as a relic of the less progressive sexual past. With prior communication and consent, the Eiffel Tower can still work. Without this communication, the high-five, in particular, runs the risk of offending the penetrated partner.

"The Eiffel Tower is not the way [double penetration] is commonly practiced with sex-positive individuals these days," Engle said. "Now, three-ways are all about making the receiver feel like their fantasies and desire are being met. Sex should never be about making someone feel like an object. It's about mutual satisfaction and enjoyment."

Still, it's not hard to find online anecdotes from forum users with dreams of acting out their own Eiffel Tower. "This is a position that many people in my work fantasize about but rarely have made it happen," Engle explained. "Frankly, finding two cis men––usually straight or bisexual––trustworthy enough to do it is quite rare."

As with all sex positions, the Eiffel Tower requires trust, not least of all because positions on all fours allow for more depth of penetration more quickly.

The Eiffel Tower is commonplace in porn

"I think the Eiffel Tower has a big reputation because of porn, and it does often seem to be the way people think MFM threesomes should go," Engle continued. "It is definitely overblown, though. The Eiffel Tower can absolutely be sexy and empowering, as long as everyone involved is on the same page and there for the same reasons of mutual satisfaction."

While the Eiffel Tower might not seem as popular in real life as porn suggests, there are still plenty of reasons to give it a go. First, there's the aforementioned control over depth of penetration, although it's important to take it slowly and not thrust too suddenly––the last thing anyone needs is for a partner to involuntarily clamp their jaw shut during head. Remove the high-five from the mix and you have a classic double-penetration position that can be fully customized; maybe you'd rather be fingered than penetrated, or perhaps you'd rather have a partner making out with you than opting for oral sex.

The Eiffel Tower might seem old-fashioned, but there are ways to take the highlights and drag it firmly into the present. If you're just keen to try a jokey, tongue-in-cheek sex position, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

"It can be fun to do something that has absolutely no sexual value just to say that you did it," Procida concluded. "At the very least, you might end up with a fun story to tell your friends at a bar one day."