Pegging is not new. Marquis de Sade wrote about the practice back in 1795. So we can easily imagine pegging was already practiced years before — however, what is new is the open conversation that started a few years ago and is expanding now.
The term “pegging” was first introduced by Dan Savage in 2001 and refers to the scenario where a woman wears a strap-on dildo to penetrate her male partner. Besides the stigma that haloes the practice, couples are more and more uninhibited about their sexual experience. Anal pleasure and penetration have always been taboo in the context of heterosexual couples. For men, enjoying anal stimulation was and still is often incorrectly associated with homosexual intercourse. Additionally, a woman penetrating her partner is also stereotyped as saying something about her sexuality. Both of these assumptions are obviously false and restrictive but seem very present in people’s mind. Using a strap-on dildo doesn’t change their sexual orientation. Nowadays, prostate pleasure for men tends to be more accepted. The P (prostate) spot is for a man what a G-spot is for a woman — a highly erogenous and pleasurable zone that should not be shamed or put in a box, but instead, celebrated and accepted (if not stimulated yet…!)
The market for prostate stimulation toys really started to take off in 2010 and has been on the rise ever since.
Technically, the prostate or P-spot is a kidney-bean-sized gland that produces and secretes the seminal fluid when males ejaculate. The P-spot is surrounded by nerves that can lead to orgasm when touched just right. The prostate is located between the bladder and the penis, just in front of the rectum. A P-spot orgasm can lead to ejaculation, but sometimes it is dry. What is really interesting is that even researchers still don’t fully understand all of the mechanics of those orgasms.
The market for prostate stimulation toys really started to take off in 2010 and has been on the rise ever since. At that time, only few companies were developing specific toys for this trend. Today, it is not considered as just a trend but as a high-demand category with a lot of new players in the universe of anal pleasure emerging. All of the big manufacturers have their own prostate-focused toys, as well as a growth in smaller specialty brands.
The usage and ownership of sex toys is on the rise worldwide, and we can easily forecast that the demand from the end consumers for P-spot stimulation toys will follow this growth. It will clearly be helped by the growing number of heterosexual couples exploring prostate play, and the LGBTQ+ community alike. The expansiveness of the segment is today more important than the demand, meaning that the products offered are more technical, more beautiful, and more adapted.
When we ask our partners and retailers, they tell us that more and more couples are asking questions about how to spice up their intimate moments, how to go further than a simple vibrator or cock ring. Many of them want to step up their game. When their salesperson tells them about pegging, at the beginning they are a little bit shy, and that is when the seller must have a relevant sales speech and an expert approach to get them started.
By focusing on the pleasure aspect, we can suggest a dildo or strap-on for role-switching erotic games, or we can focus on health with — for example — smart and ergonomic designed prostate massagers. Be prepared to see more demand for pegging toys in the coming months and be ready to stock the best products to offer to your customers.
This is something that you already know … the more prepared and trained your sales team is, armed with all of the latest tips and trends, the better your sell-out rate will be. Pegging is coming!
Anne Meunier is the sales director at Lovely Planet.
