Reverse Cowgirl

Where does reverse cowgirl come from?

The name is an English compound: "cowgirl" refers to the image of straddling someone as if riding a horse, "reverse" to the flipped orientation. The term took off from the 1990s and 2000s onward, partly through music and pornographic media, and is now the common name in both casual and sexological usage (WebMD).

What reverse cowgirl isn't

Reverse cowgirl often gets lumped together with the regular cowgirl position, but the difference is purely about direction: in cowgirl, the partner on top faces the other person, in reverse cowgirl they face the other way. It isn't a separate "category" of sex, just an orientation variant within the same family of woman-on-top positions.

What makes this position different for people who try it?

Because the partner on top is steering, control over pace and depth sits with them, something some people find enjoyable precisely because it gives room to signal what works. Research into coital positions shows that angle and pelvic floor tension affect blood flow and stimulation, and that this varies by position and by person (Sexologies, biomechanical analysis of coital positions). As with any position: briefly checking in about what does and doesn't feel good matters more than the position itself, see also our term Consent.

Examples

Reverse cowgirl has several variants: low and close to the other person's body, higher and upright with more freedom of movement, leaning forward and resting on the other person's legs, or using a pillow to support the knees or lower back. Which variant feels best differs by body and by moment, so keep checking in with each other.