Soaking (sexual practice)

Soaking is a sexual practice of inserting the penis into the vagina but not subsequently thrusting or ejaculating, reportedly used by some Mormons, also known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Soaking is reportedly used as a loophole to the LDS Church's strict rules against premarital sex. LDS Church leaders do not support this view, instead teaching that "it is wrong to touch the private [...] parts of another person's body" outside of marriage. There are no published scholarly surveys or research around the prevalence of the practice. Some Latter-day Saints have said that soaking is only an urban legend, while others have given firsthand accounts of having practiced it themselves.

Sexual activity before and outside of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage is strictly forbidden by Mormon teachings. This includes solo masturbation. These teachings around sexuality began with Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith, and are outlined in part in The Book of Mormon. A 2002 US survey found LDS teens had the highest rates of any religious group that reported their parents would be "extremely mad" if they had premarital sex (78%). Despite the prohibition, a study by LDS church university sociologists published in 1992 found that nearly 60% of 1,000 Mormon teen women surveyed reported having had sex before marriage, and a smaller survey of 158 married Mormon women in 1995 found that 32% reported having premarital sex.