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Archive for the ‘Sex Toys’ Category

Electronics company Philips has decided to brave the prudes and boldly bring out a massager that’s explicitly for sexual use. That’s right. Philips has started to make sex toys. Gasp, shock, look at the share price go up.

Their new range of personal massagers are designed for use by couples which is an interesting take on things.

“We know that couples in happy relationships tend to have satisfying sex lives together,” says their site. “Our Sensual massagers allow you both to experiment in exciting new ways enhancing your intimate pleasure as you explore your sensuality together.”

The vibes look fairly similar to the designs of Natural Contours or Lelo and they have that “I’m a proper electrical device” look to them, It makes a nice change from the usual lightweight, dinky plastic or pthalate-heavy jelly toys we see regularly in sex shops.

Gizmag has an interesting article on the new products here.

Hence we wholeheartedly applaud Philips for being the first corporate prepared to risk political incorrectness in addressing the marketplace honestly… In making its range of Sensual Intimate Massagers freely available in department stores, without the sex shop stigma, our expectation is that the range will be hugely successful – after all, who wouldn’t want to try them? – and pave the way for other corporates to pursue this far-from-niche marketplace.

I personally welcome this new move toward openness in the massager market. The fact is that mains-powered vibrators are the ultimate weapon when it comes to creating a female orgasm. You can’t beat an electric vibrator for sheer speed and pleasure.

Unfortunately most companies in the last ten years have opted for monster-heavy poundy things which are completely useless for sex. Only the Hitachi Magic Wand (not available in Australia) has been happy to be associated with clitorial stimulation, releasing a range of heads specifically designed for sexual use. Everyone else has been pretending that massages are actually used to, I don’t know, massage or something.

I was particularly upset when Breville stopped making the Soothing Heat Massager, an old-fashioned looking device that, with the help of the “special” bulb head, is one helluva electric sex toy. And I’m not the only one who misses them:

This “unused” Breville massager from the 70s went for over $60 on eBay – and this happens regularly. There’s a huge market for these second-hand electric vibrators and people are scrambling to get hold of them. If I had some way of sourcing or making them I’d be selling them on this site right now.

The Philips vibes are currently only available in Europe but I hope to see them spread elsewhere, including here. They’re not cheap but I’d be willing to buy one, even just to encourage them for taking such a bold step.

This delightful stainless steel work of art is NOT a sex toy.

It is, in fact, a coffee tamper made by Avanti and available for about ten bucks or so from your average kitchenwares shop. Like this one.

The other day my husband arrived home wielding this wonderful thing, keen to get his espresso coffee thoroughly stamped into place, always aiming for the perfect crema. I swear, he and that coffee machine are having some kind of relationship.

Anyway, I took one look at it and got the giggles. When you’re a pornographer, it’s hard not to have a dirty mind. It’s like the way I can never type the word “six” without hitting the backspace.

I also started coming up with wild and evil schemes that involved me selling coffee tampers as butt plugs and making a fortune. Your average stainless steel anal sex toy comes in at around $100 or so. I could flog these off for $30 and be rich, rich, rich hahahaaaaa.

Of course, it’s not designed for the purpose of pleasuring your butt and the flange/tamper bit on the bottom is actually quite heavy, so there’s no way you could wear this around. Still, it’s better than a carrot.

And you can always enjoy a perfectly made espresso after all that butt play.

This interesting looking sex toy is a Luna Butt plug. It looks so weird because it’s an actual cast of someone’s rectum. I’m not entirely sure how they got the cast, but I suspect it didn’t involve plaster of paris.

Anyway, the reason it looks like this is to counteract the bum muscles tendency to expel butt plugs during orgasm.

According to the blurb:

It was designed specifically to resist the expulsive power of the rectal muscles during orgasm. This is accomplished by the unorthodox asymmetrical design of the toy. Rectal muscles have evolved to clamp down symmetrically and produce copious amounts of pressure doing so. By offsetting the external and internal design of Luna, Jollies has created the first blast proof anal toy.

See… isn’t biology fascinating?

The toy is made from medical grade silicone and is one of the many weird and wonderful sex toys available at JT Stockroom.

By the way, if you’re into anal porn, check out Anal For Women.

Last Friday on a whim I decided to attend Sexpo in Brisbane, hoping to maybe make some industry contacts and also just to check it all out. I last went to one of these mega sex exhibitions in Sydney ten years ago, back when I was a “civilian.” That expedition was part of the growing curiousity about sex and the adult industry that led me to write for Australian Women’s Forum and an eventual career as a smut mongerer. I thought it might be interesting to view the whole thing as an insider this time.

We paid $22 each to get in and were confronted with topless women and buffed male strippers at the door handing out flyers. Inside the cavernous hall was a giant stage surrounded by bleachers and a growing crowd. Beyond that were the various exhibitor stalls, with the porn stars lined up down the back near the gerbil-themed rollercoaster.

We’d barely arrived before the chocolate licking competition started onstage. I must admit, it seemed a bit try-hard and I suspect that two of the contestants were professionals there to make up the numbers. Still, it seemed to make people happy. The winners were a flirtatiously big-breasted amateur and her female companion who made short work of the choc sauce.

The audience seemed to be largely made up of couples, with a healthy smattering of girly groups, all clinging together and giggling. Indeed, I’d say that there were more women than men at this event. The gangs of younger, sniggering men were well outnumbered by average, everyday people.

We roamed the stalls, checking out the various sex toys, lingerie and personal services on offer. The “Everything $10″ stand was doing a roaring trade, despite the fact that they were selling some seriously dubious “novelty” items and awful jelly dildoes. Indeed, most sex toy sellers weren’t offering anything too new or worthy, just the same old thing in different packaging. You could go home with a $20 showbag and choose your own vibrator, but I didn’t buy anything.

There were some higher-quality toys on offer. The ladies at D.Vice did have a nice range of silicon and rechargeable toys and it seems they design some of their own dildoes which is great.

The headline porn stars were down the back signing autographs and posing for paid photos with eager guys. I wanted to meet both Belladonna and Dana DeArmond, especially since the latter was in Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry, but in the end I didn’t line up with the crowd. They were there to look sexy and scribble their names for gawking male fans, not to meet someone who is more interested in what they have to say. Nope, there was no time to have a serious discussion about their jobs or the role of women in the adult industry. Ah well.

I ended up having a chat with the guys from Sex Machines Australia, one of whom was menacing passersby with a large machine-gun dildo that resembled “The Anal Intruder” from Top Secret. These blokes are selling their own vibrating/fucking machines that are similar to the Sybian and they invited me to try, but I was washing my hair that second. They’re also in the process of setting up a membership site similar to Fucking Machines. I wished them luck with it.

Pricasso was also there, painting happily with his penis and amusing the crowd. His self-portrait didn’t make it into the Archibald Prize, unfortunately, but he has got an advertising contract on the cards. I’m hoping to interview him for FTG soon.

One of the first stalls I went to was Bad Boys Australia, which is a male strip troupe, and I asked if I could photograph their performance later and use it on For The Girls, maybe with an interview. I received a fairly disinterested response. These guys make their money charging women for photos and they weren’t keen on me wielding a camera around for free. In the end I gave up. Seen one male strip show, seen ‘em all.

The thing that DID get my attention was the BDSM area run by The Hellfire Club. There a clothed woman was roped to a cross and being flogged by a biker-looking type wearing leather pants and a plait in his red beard. Nearby a man was kneeling in stocks, being paddled by a cheerful, long haired mistress.

Soon the flogging finished and the biker asked if there was anyone who wanted to give it a go.

I volunteered.

I explained to the man that I was doing it for research. “I run a few porn sites,” I said, “and this should be fun to write about. I’ve never done this before.”

“Wait,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “You run porn sites but you’ve never done bondage? Why not?”

I couldn’t really give him an answer beyond “Well, it’s just not something that I do.” It sounded kind of lame, to be honest.

Anyway, I did it and the experience was… interesting. I’m going to write about it for For The Girls so if you want to know more, you’ll just have to join. I’m also planning on visiting the Hellfire Club, just to satisfy my curiousity. And yes, I’ll write about that too.

I missed most of the male strip show thanks to the BDSM area, but I don’t think I missed much.

After all that, we cruised the stalls a bit more, admiring some of the nice corsetry from the House of Fetish. But in the end I was a bit of a cheapskate. I bought a hat for ten bucks.

We strolled off into the balmy night, relatively pleased with our visit. Sexpo wasn’t hugely sexy, I’ll say that. It had a certain naive charm, as Frank n Furter would say, but there was something of a clinical, slightly tacky atmosphere to the whole thing. It’s definitely designed for the nervous first-time sex toy consumer rather than someone like me.

Part of the problem, of course, is due to the various censorship and zoning laws that prevent people from selling X-rated videos or engaging in nudity or actual sex on site. Sexpo wasn’t allowed to be truly sexy, and – despite the best efforts of the Eros Association and its petition stall – I don’t think that can change any time soon.

As I wandered around Southbank I found myself eyeing off people’s shopping bags, wondering what goodies were inside, trying to spot the Sexpo attendees. Fact is, they could have been anyone. Sexpo shows us that average, everyday people are becoming more relaxed about their sexuality. “Community standards” are to the point that porn and sex toys are considered to be normal and acceptable. It’s a pity our laws don’t reflect that.

This little 12 minute video is called “Dildo Diaries” and it documents the insane laws against sex toys and anal sex in Texas which, thankfully, have just been overturned by a court. It’s worth watching for the first 5 minutes as we go into an adult store and see the insanity at work.

To summarise the rules:
* You can’t own more than 6 dildoes because that means an intent to sell
* You can’t call them “dildoes”: they’re “educational demonstrators.”
* You can’t use the word “vibrators”: they’re “personal massagers.”
* You can buy as many butt plugs as you like because the anus is not a sex organ.

The court decision will change all this. It’s also encouraging for the women of Alabama, where it’s still illegal to sell sex toys.

Following financial difficulties (which apparently nearly saw them close their doors), Good Vibrations has announced a merger deal with General Video of America and Trans World News. GVA-TWN is a huge distribution and adult products company and it looks like they stepped in with a wad of cash.

It’s an interesting turnaround for what was originally a small, grassroots co-operative. I wonder if they will maintain their committment to providing women with quality adult products? I hope so.

A site called Tree Hugger has an interesting article about 10 ways to green your sex life. And while they recommend non-phthalate dildos and rechargable battery vibrators, they didn’t mention the solar powered vibrator.

This handy-dandy device is designed to plug into numerous existing sex toys like the micro bullet or micro kitty strap-on and gets all its energy from the sun. So you can get off without warming the planet. Handy for camping too.

I haven’t tested this vibe so I have no idea if it’s powerful enough to do the job. Here’s hoping all that lovely solar enery helps to pack a decent punch, as it were.

Tree Hugger has a video about how to buy a green sex toy, if you’re curious.

So there I was perusing the sex toys and vibrators at Amazon.com and I was musing about how when I first joined their affiliate program you weren’t supposed to sell via an adult site. Whereas now they have a wide range of dirty, naughty adult products on sale and no questions asked.

Anyway, there it was: a 1930s vintage vibrator from Battle Creek, for sale for $249 via a company called NJ Auctions.

Imagine that.

Here’s most of the official description:

This is a Vintage 1930’s Battle Creek Medical Massage Vibrator which came out of a physician’s estate and it is in good looking and in good working ondition. It was made by the Battle Creek Equipment Company of Battle Creek, Michigan and it is 115 volts AC-DC, 60 watts and features a rheostat which can be varied from 0 to 100 units. This is a particularly powerful massager which was designed to be used on a daily or continual basis. It features a fine vibration to a heavy pulsating motion which is powerful enough to massage horses (my emphasis). Battle Creek, Michigan was the location of the first vibrator and massage development during the late 1800’s in the U.S.,and based on the style and design this one likely dates back to the 1930’s or earlier.

I don’t know if this vibrator originally was linked with Dr Kellogg’s Battle Creek sanitarium where vigorous exercise, fibre and enemas were used to prevent masturbation. But I kind of hope it was.

I feel kind of tempted to buy it but the shipping would be a killer. Imagine trying to explain it to customs.

It’s now been over 8 years since I wrote an article for Australian Women’s Forum about the history of the vibrator (you’ll find a copy of it at For The Girls). When I read Rachel Maines’ The Technology of Orgasm I was astounded and felt compelled to write about it. It seemed like such an amazing thing, that women would be getting orgasms from doctors to treat “hysteria.” And that doctors invented the vibrator to save time and push through more paying “patients”. Sexuality at the turn of the century was seriously messed up.

Still, it was probably a nice thing to pop by the doctors, get away from the family for a while and be on the receiving end of something powerful enough to massage a horse.

That AWF article led to me appearing in Turn Me On: The History Of The Vibrator. That doco was only supposed to be a student project, but it developed legs and every now and again SBS shows it late at night. It’s very weird when people ring me up and say they saw me talking about vibrators on TV.

You can read more about the history of the vibrator here.

You’ll find more pics of vintage vibrators here. Also check out Good Vibrations vintage vibrator museum page.

The Scotsman has an article about the growth in adult stores for women.

Lucy says: “Over the last couple of decades women have come into their own, especially with their own sexuality. The whole Ann Summers thing has helped the mass acceptance of this. I’ve had a lot of women come in of all ages, particularly those who are over 40 and confident in their own skin and they know what they like and what they want.”

Samantha Holmes, a 42-year-old office manager from Blackhall in Edinburgh, agrees. She says: “Erotica was definitely a man’s thing and, although women are just as sexual, it was once deemed cheap if we were vocal about it.

“But there has been a change in this trend and women finally have a voice.”

I want to do a quick post about a new adult store which is owned by a friend of mine. Ashley’s Sex Toys is a nice looking site and it sells all the usual stuff but what I really like is the education section which contains quite a large number of useful articles and information.

Naturally I’m very pleased that they’ve got a piece about women-friendly porn, including a plug for Tristan Taormino’s films. There really aren’t many online sex toy shops that acknowledge that women want porn – even if females make up the majority of customers. There’s also tips on using strap-ons on your man, getting into bondage and latex and even simple stuff like how to put on a condom. I think it’s great to see this kind of proactive effort added onto a standard online business.

SFGate reports that adult store Good Vibrations is having financial difficulties and apparently the internet is to blame. It seems they can’t compete now that Amazon has started to sell sex toys. They’re also blaming Google and it’s nasty new algorithm which stuffed up their listings (tell me about it!) and subsequent sales.

Interestingly, Libida.com says they also had trouble with Google but overcame it by becoming “leaner”.

There are a squillion DIY adult stores now operating on the net but very few of them have put their hand up and said “Yes, we’re just for women!” It’s a pity that GoodVibes has hit problems because they were one of those few. Unfortunately they never offered an affiliate program so I have never promoted them on my many sites and I would suspect that a lack of coverage via affiliates has dented their online business.

Some news stories today dealing with women, porn, vibrators and sex:

* Picking up good vibrations in the Melbourne Age discusses the increasing respectability of sex toys and adult material.

“From a feminist point of view, the industry has been dominated by men for so long,” says Judith Glover. “Dildos were all about dick and balls, and that’s just so unimaginative. It’s like saying, ‘That’s all you sheilas get.’ But women are sophisticated consumers. And statistics show that the more income a woman has, the more likely she is to have a sex toy.”
….
The Eros Foundation says we have a way to go before claiming our hypocrisy about sex has been entirely stamped out. Robbie Swan points out that US porn star turned sex toy designer Candida Royalle this week won an internet-based award for best vibrator, but her Femme series of erotic movies are banned in Victoria because they are X-rated. “They’re beautifully made movies, aimed at women. The State Government isn’t keeping up with what women want.”

* In other Melbourne news, the council blocked an application for a new sex shop catering exclusively to women despite earlier indications that it should get approval. No idea why this happened, but it’s a pity.

* The Coloradoan (what an awful name) raises the bogey of “porn addiction” with the new and exciting angle that women like porn too. Thankfully they do give a balanced opinion halfway down the article, after the prudish churchies have had their go. Psychotherapist J.J. Levy calls for a bit of calm:

“We call it a porn addiction if they spend three hours on the Internet viewing sexually explicit material, and yet lots of people spend a lot more time than that watching TV without referring to TV watching as an addiction,” Levy said.

* Sawf News reports on the growing market for female-friendly products in Japan.

She said many of her female customers had even resorted to buying gay porn due to the dearth of material geared towards heterosexual women.

“Many videos made for men show sex that is too animal-like. Women like to fantasise about good-looking men, about something unrealistic,” she said.

* German sex retailer Beate Uhse is again trumpeting plans to make their sex stores more female-friendly in an attempt to revive the company’s flagging fortunes. More info here.

* Violet Blue reports in her blog that she will be “(alone, personally) debating pro-porn for women versus anti-porn Moral Majority representatives on national television.” Unfortunately she doesn’t give any further information so I’ll try and post more info when it becomes available.

* And here’s an interesting statistic: romantic fiction accounts for a whopping 53% of all fiction book sales in the US (source). That’s a lot of romance novels. I think it’s a sobering thing to remember when thinking about what women want. There’s still a lot of women out there who love a good heaving bosom melodrama (although those stats also include the newly popular erotic romance titles).

So while porn for women isn’t necessarily about log fires, candles and Fabio, I’m sure the occasional burst of squishy romance amid the hardcore makes a lot of horny chicks very happy.

Attack of the Phthalates. It’s a great graphic.

The image is from an article questioning the Greenpeace study about phthalates in sex toys. The article is in AVN Novelty Business magazine, a journal for sex toy retailers, so I’m not sure it can be said to be unbiased. Still, if you want an alternative viewpoint to the idea that jelly sex toys are toxic, there it is.

Via Shevibe.

Edit… Damn, how do you spell “phthalates” again?

“Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do I.”

It’s a quote by Anne Gibbons, one that I’ve long admired. Now, it seems, there’s less reason to hate the Hoover.

A new sex toy called the Vortex Vibrations is a special attachment for low wattage vacuum cleaners designed to stimulate the clit and give intense orgasm.

I’ve read numerous news stories about guys sticking their dicks into a vacuum cleaner for pleasure but this is new. The site offers a hilarious video demonstration of what exactly happens to your little man in the boat when the air pressure is applied. Except – and this had me giggling – they do so using a balloon “for reasons of good taste.”

Ananova says the product was invented by a 49 year old divorced woman who hadn’t had sex in 15 years.

“In my attempts to alleviate frustration, I began to think what I could do. I noticed how the rubber moved in the top of the vacuum.

“After several hours, I came up with the prototype. The first time I tried it I reached an orgasm within 10 seconds.

“That was when I knew I was on to something that could potentially bring pleasure to all women.”

The site claims the product produces an orgasm in under 2 minutes. It sells for US$60.

UK adult store Love Honey has a video demonstating the toy using a guy and a ribbon here.

Via Viviane’s Sex Carnival.

Next time you’re thinking of smuggling a few drugs through airport security, don’t assume the police won’t check your hashish-filled vibrator.

At least, that’s what happened to a Ukrainian woman who thought the cops would be too embarrassed to look closely at her vibe. She had taken out the batteries and stuffed hash into the empty compartment. The Kiev security people had sniffer dogs and subsequently arrested her.

Perhaps the most distressing part of this story is that it renders the vibrator suspicious. Suddenly our buzzy friends are no longer the embarrassing yet innocuous piece of equipment we’re used to.

Nope, now they’re complicit in smuggling contraband and not to be trusted. Most likely the result is that they will be studied closely and waved around at the x-ray counter more often.

Who knows, next they’ll be testing our vibes for traces of gunpowder.

Pictured is Hustler’s My First Vibe which may be the ideal drug-smuggling toy, given that it comes with around 6 inches of hashish-stuffing space inside.