As a culture, most of us have come to understand that “sex” can mean more than just penis-in-vagina intercourse. Instead, it can include any combination of genitals, hands, mouths and sex toys. But lately, TikTok has been making the case for including a rather surprising body part among that list: knees.
According to dozens of videos, the “knee trick” is a move in which a person firmly but gently grinds their knee into their partner’s vulva. The presser can be any gender, of course, but the knee trick is intended to stimulate the clitoris. Numerous related TikToks have several hundreds of thousands of views, with one knee trick video amassing just under two million. In this particular entry, @em.whatevertherest describes using one knee to hook your partner’s leg over yours so that her legs are spread. Then, they say to press the area above the knee of your other leg, rather than the actual knee itself, into your partner’s genitals and rock back and forth to stimulate her clit.
For the most part, the knee trick seems to go over well — several of the videos on the topic are from women saying their lives would be better if men knew about the trick. Nobody has specified whether this move is enough to bring them to orgasm, but apparently, it feels good regardless.
Since this technique can be done with or without clothes, the “knee trick” is really just a specific position of dry humping — something that’s increasingly being talked about on TikTok more broadly. On March 16th, sex-ed TikToker @normcoresoul made a video stating that the majority of women were “pillow-thumpers” growing up — i.e., that many women’s early masturbation experiences involved humping and grinding on pillows. However, porn primarily emphasizes “poking,” she says in her TikTok-safe language to describe penetration, and doesn’t demonstrate how “thumping” is often more pleasurable for women/people with vaginas because of the friction it delivers to the clit.
This particular video now has 5.5 million views, and sparked a huge discussion among women in the comments. “This needs to land on straight men TikTok ASAP,” one wrote. “I grew up thinking that men didn’t even go inside, I thought they just rubbed in between,” another said. “Boy was I surprised!”
The knee trick, then, seems essentially like a way for people to pass off a familiar, enjoyable technique of being stimulated as a new thing to try. By calling it a trick, people are branding it as some sort of sex hack — most importantly, one that straight men might want to try in hopes of impressing their partner. But really, it’s just old school dry humping repackaged, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. If naming it the knee trick helps women experience the type of pleasure they’ve been hoping for, maybe we should all consider taking a knee.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
