A bull is usually a person who engages in sex with someone else’s partner, typically within the context of cuckolding, hotwifing, or other consensual non-monogamy dynamics. The term is most commonly used to describe a third party who plays a sexually dominant or central role in these dynamics, often contrasted with a submissive or voyeuristic partner (sometimes called a cuck, stag, or watcher). A bull can also be a third party in a vixen/stag dynamic where there is no humiliation involved.
While often portrayed as cis men, bulls can be of any gender. What matters is the role, not the body: assertiveness, sexual dominance, and centrality to the scene. The role is often considered to be one that's given to a person by a couple, not self-assigned.
Some people in swinging communities avoid the term because they feel it comes from porn culture or implies arrogance.
Origins of the Term
In farming and ranching, a bull is a male bovine used for breeding. The term applied to humans likely stems from this animal breeding language being used during pre-civil war America to dehumanize black slaves and treat them as cattle. In some historical writings from antebellum America, words like “bull,” “stud,” or “breeding stock” were applied to enslaved men as a way to dehumanize them. While the term is used consensually in kink contexts and may not carry this connotation, awareness of the term’s historical usage and its potential impact is important as it may have racial overtones for some people. This is especially true in public or group scenes.
