Can You Share Sex Toys? |
I was at a party recently where one of my friends started gossiping about someone they knew very tangentially, which happens to be one of my favorite kinds of gossip. He told me about this slutty guy, a friend’s co-worker or something like that, a subject so remotely connected to us that he may as well be a character from a folktale.
But who cares about veracity when the goss starts like this: “His body count is in the hundreds and he owns an arsenal of sex toys that he’s reused with dozens of different women!”
I didn’t think it was particularly scandalous to own a collection of high-mileage sex toys, but my fellow party goers seemed to think this guy’s bedroom behavior was a little sketchy. Isn’t it gross to use a dildo that’s been inside someone else, someone asked? Isn’t that kind of unsanitary?
Outnumbered, I started to doubt my own nonchalance about sharing sex toys. I don’t think Emily Post’s Etiquette or any other social-decorum guides of yore had chapters about communal sex toy usage. As an intrepid sex writer, I feel it is my job to bring etiquette into the modern era and ask: Is it okay to put a butt plug in multiple anuses?
First, let’s talk hygiene
I talked to the employees at one of my favorite sex shops in Chicago, Early to Bed, to get the expert lowdown. Early to Bed recommended using toys made of 100 percent silicone, regardless of if you’re going for a solo masturbation sesh or if your bedroom is one of the city’s hottest clubs.
Toys made of 100 percent silicone won’t absorb toxic materials like bacteria, and are therefore safer to use and easier to clean. Beware of silicone blends, which may be porous and more prone to carrying bacteria.
Other non-porous........