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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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For any of you who's familiar with New York Times's Wirecutter, which publishes products reviews and lists hot deals:

As of right now, among deals on toys, subwoofers, and mattresses, there are also two vibrators, both around $100.

As far as I can tell, there are no deals on sex toys for men (I'm ignoring vibrators' cross sex appeal here, or how men may use toys to pleasure their female partners).

I don't expect this observation by itself to generate much new insight, as it seems fairly obvious that culturally, men tend to be viewed as perverted or losers for pleasuring themselves with tools, while for women it's fun and almost virtuous (well, certainly less slutty than finding a casual partner). I can see a Wirecutter staff member publishing a review of her personal experience testing various toys, but cannot fathom a male staff member talking about how this particular lifelike doll had very full lips but that one has perkier breasts, and this third company makes ethnic dolls for your fantasies. If you Google Wirecutter and sex toys, all the articles that come up are exclusively focused on women or gay men (i.e. anal stuff).

So my question is more about a prediction for how culture may evolve along this front. By what year do you think Wirecutter will publish reviews and deals on sex toys targeted at straight men looking for thrusting fun?

The year that I'll pull out of my ass is... 2032

My guess is when men's sex toys start selling a the rate women's sex toys sell. How many men on here own sex toys they bought strictly for themselves? I know I don't and I'm unaware of any of my IRL friends who own them. Meanwhile, almost every woman I know owns a vibrator and isn't afraid to let you know about it if the topic comes up in conversation. A bar I used to frequent hosted a sex toy party once and all the men who were regulars were asking when it was going to end so they wouldn't show up while it was going on. The bartender said that there was no need to wait because the lady hosting the thing had a few items for men they might be interested in, and everyone took this as a joke. The truth is, the reason men's sex toys don't sell has nothing to do with status, or feminism, or any other culture war topic, it's because men generally don't need help getting off. Most guys learn to rub one out in 15 minutes at the age of 12 and though it may take longer in later years, the basic technique remains the same. Women, on the other hand, don't reach orgasm as easily and it can take quite a bit of self-exploration to figure out what they like.

This is 100% your bubble. I have never met a woman that owns a sex toy or masturbates. This is media programming of masculinized blue tribe women

You've definitely met many of both (more who masturbate), it just hasn't been mentioned due to local norms

False, this is Kinsey style propaganda like how 50% of men have had homosexual relations. Pure cope from blue tribers who feel compelled to insist everyone is as sexually perverse as they are. I have lived with female roommates, lived with multiple girlfriends and am married. This tactic doesn’t work on me

edit: I’m just speaking the truth of my lived experience, please stop invalidating me

  • -14

gulps down bait

Even if/given that it is modern society-degenerate-prison brainwashing, most people still do masturbate. Most conservatives I know jerk it to porn just like the liberals do. There's no point in making stuff up about it, the libs aren't gonna lose because you claimed conservatives doesn't jerk off, it just means you have a flawed understanding of social dynamics and are less equipped to solve whatever issues there are

Why does your experience trump mine? OP said every woman he knows owns and talks about sex toys proudly. I said my experience completely contradicts this so it must be a bubble thing. Is this really so hard to imagine given he is the kind of guy who attends sex toy parties? Isn’t it a little bit likely that is evidence his bubble is somewhat skewed on this issue? I have never even heard of such a thing and neither has my wife. If you are attending sex toy parties that probably puts you in the top 5% (just pulling a number out of my ass (definitely in a totally straight way though)) in terms of progressive sexuality.

But now people in the “attends sex toy party” bubble are boldly asserting “No way, every woman you know definitely owns vibrators and masturbates secretly.” It would be equally supported for me to claim “No way, all those women claiming to own vibrators are just lying to you for feminist cred”

For some reason blue tribers have some obsession with claiming that definitely everyone is sexually degenerate/adventurous as they are and any claims otherwise are false/lies/social pressure/shame. Like I said, this is like Kinsey citing outrageously inflated numbers for homosexual activity in men.

I can believe none of them talk about it around you/men in public generally, but they certainly do it. ref - "I have never met a woman that owns a sex toy or masturbates"

No way, every woman you know definitely owns vibrators and masturbates secretly

nobody claimed this, and everyone who was told they claimed it clearly stated it wasn't true. But certainly some of those women have sex toys, and many of them masturbate!

For some reason blue tribers have some obsession with claiming that definitely everyone is sexually degenerate/adventurous as they are and any claims otherwise are false/lies/social pressure/shame

I'm not really a 'blue triber', and acknowledging the sexual degeneracy of even the 'conservatives' is important even in the case one opposes sexual degeneracy, so you can understand the situation. If you want to stop sexual degeneracy, believing conservatives are more or less pristine of it will make it virtually impossible to understand anything or take any useful action!

I don't necessarily think every woman masturbates or has a vibrator. I do know for a fact that there are genuinely non-horny women out there who do neither. But given the fact that we're programmed to want to orgasm, you'd think that there'd be a bunch of women out there who do try to reach it on their own. Many people have very strong urges that they submit to, even more so than just masturbation. I think something like 60 to 80 percent of Christian women have premarital sex, despite the fact that the general Christian line is that it's immoral. So we can see that sexual urges are quite strong, strong enough to make people take action.

IME, moderately to very horny women are not an insignificant percentage of the population, so you really are bound to have met some of them. Just because they're not personally telling you about it, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of them. And just because you have only dated women who are non-horny, or have not told you about it, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of them.

Major confound with with your premarital sex figures is that many people check a box claiming they’re part of the majority religion without knowing very much about it or intending to follow it. The better practice for studying religious people is to restrict the sample to regular church attendees. I’m not denying that a significant percentage of these people have premarital sex, but I am saying that the numbers might well be different from general population numbers in ways that self professed Christians often aren’t.