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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   34442 thread views

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

Is there a serious value add for male sex toys? there's no anatomical analogy to a Hitachi, but a hand can curl around a dick just fine. No batteries, no plug, and I'm carrying it around anyway. The hell I need a toy for?

Is there a serious value add for male sex toys?

Yes. The general problem with them is that you need to lubricate them before use and actually have to get out of bed to clean them (not an extra step if you do this anyway, but a rag won't do the job like it normally does).

but a hand can curl around a dick just fine.

Sure, but the silicone sleeves have 100% coverage and consistent pressure around the enclosed cylinder. Your hand can't do either of those things, especially if you're only focused on one part at a time; it is quite a bit better sensation-wise. It also prevents you from clamping down too hard (this may or may not be a problem for you). But it does ultimately add inconvenience where there wasn't before.

Maybe it's a circumcision thing too, if you're uncut you require no lube and can get real far focusing pressure on the frenulum.

if you're uncut you require no lube

The silicone used with these toys exhibits enough friction that it doesn't matter.

If you don't lubricate it, it is difficult to impossible to insert against, which just adds more cleanup and complication to what should in theory be a perfectly simple process.

Right but I'm under the impression that uncut folks are already using lube anyway so the jump to toys might not be as much of a pain?

Men don't regularly have these conversations among themselves. I wonder if female masturbation tradecraft is more developed because women actually talk about it whereas men for the most part figure it out like any primate can and go to town for life.

I'm under the impression that uncut folks are already using lube anyway so the jump to toys might not be as much of a pain?

If anything, it'd be the cut folks using lubricant, since they're missing the piece that automatically provides it.

I am not (and don't need it), so needing to use it is inconvenient even though the experience on offer from a toy is strictly better than simple hand motion.

Might be a difference specific to the US, since that's the place with the highest raw (heh) number of circumcisions; but then again I believe people from the US are less likely to purchase these toys for other reasons (their society is far more masculine-leaning than any of their closest competitors), so it might be a wash.

I inverted that, I meant cut folks.

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