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Thursday 14 January, 2010Sex toys: The ultimate in hardware?
“Using technology to enhance sexual pleasure is as limitless as the imagination,” said Claire Cavanah, one of the co-authors of “Sex Toys 101” and co-founder of the 15-year-old store, Babeland, which specializes in sex education and toys, and is in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Technology “can give your fantasy life a boost through the use of porn DVDs or porn sites, for example,” she said. “Sex toys, even at their most basic, can bring orgasms to people who have never had them, and are now learning their users’ preferences.
“People are also using their phones to stay connected to their lovers through text messaging — to flirt and keep a sexual charge alive while separated. Judging by sales, and mainstream attitudes of greater acceptance for pleasure and sex toys, the demand will continue to grow.”
It’s not like I’m relaying anything shocking.
Tapping into tech
In the last decade, men and women have tapped into their love of technology and devices to facilitate more pleasure.
A 2004 study by The Berman Center, a Chicago-based center that specializes in sexual health and wellness, and Drugstore.com showed 44 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 60 have used a sex toy. And they’re not just talking about single women who use devices in-between relationships. According to the study, 78 percent were women who are in relationships.
Regina Lynn, a writer for Wired.com’s “Sex Drive Daily” blog and author of “The Sexual Revolution 2.0,” writes in her book, “Humans have always sought to sexualize technology and technologize sex.
“As author Annalee Newitz says, humans are a tool-oriented species, however far back you go,” Lynn writes. “So why would anyone think it strange that we bring technology into the bedroom (or in the shower, onto the kitchen table or on the living room rug — you get the idea)?”
Sex and tech are intertwined
On TV and in the movies, sex and technology have been intertwined, feeding our imagination and possibilities for the future.
Fans of “Star Trek” should be familiar with the “holodeck,” a device that simulated real life so much that it served as a way for the crew to get some R&R without ever leaving their ship.
Ralph Fiennes’ character in the movie “Strange Days” showed how people lost themselves in memories, sometimes intimate ones, using devices that allowed them to relive those experiences in 3-D. Even Woody Allen dabbled in the idea with his “orgasmatron” in “Sleeper.”
It was just a matter of time before hard drives were incorporated into one of the most basic of human drives.
Online sex is still going strong and evolving, with Webcam voyeurism and sites like Redtube the new norm, and chatrooms almost nostalgically old school — but still popular.
Gadgets like Web cams, buzzing mice and remote-controlled eggs and bullets (see Babeland’s catalog — babeland.com) are foundations for futuristic hardware that plugs into the USB port of your computer, allowing the sensations to flow from those online turn-ons to the stimulating device of your choice.
Can devices replace flesh and blood?
But there are limits on how far devices can replace flesh and blood.
“The industrial revolution brought us the earliest vibrators, moving pictures led very quickly to ‘blue movies’ and the VCR brought porn into the home, and made the fast-forward button indispensable,” said Cavanah.