Until I saw Naked City’s post First World Problems: What Would Your Fleshlight Signature Texture Feel Like? — I had no idea. I ended up on the Fleshlight blog, looking at their signature texture post.
(…) we discovered a selection of some of porn’s most celebrated starlets, all posing with their Fleshlights.
Then we noticed something else: they each had signature textures.
(…) Jenna Haze has a maze. Stoya has a space-age seeming chamber of pleasure. Misty Stone has what we envision a pencil sharpener to look like on the inside — only, you know, not painful. Lupe Fuentes is super ribbed. Tera Patrick is like the inside of a unicorn’s horn (rainbows of pleasure sold separately?). How do Fleshlight engineers come up with this? Observation? Experience? (“Wow, Tera, fucking you helped me understand why Charlie had to lose his horn…”)
I mean, I knew with the Tenga there were many textures a guy could enjoy. And I’ve always wondered how a gentleman might select a texture. It’s like, a whole alien planet. (But a cool one, where there are hot alien babes and Orgasmatrons and stuff.)
So, if you could pick your texture, what would it be? 1’s and 0’s? XMatrix?
More importantly, what does your texture mean about you?
I have a Tenga that I chose because the movable head sounded like it could provide some good stimulation. Turns out that when opening it up, I enjoyed using only the textured latex sock directly with my hand on my penis without the plastic shell. I’m curious of getting some more similar products and I find it really nice to have sex toys for men that are more toylike and less a substitute of a real woman. My girlfriend knows I have it and her perception of it is pretty much the way I see her small collection of dildos. They are sex toys, meant for fun and pleasure, for personal use and sometimes for play together. I find it a pity that the playfulness in male sexuality is so neglected in the industry and that it is mostly dolls and vagina substitutes to be found, while on the female side there is a wide spectrum from pink toy cuteness to hard core and beyond. I can only hope that the industry catches up with some reflections on this matter.
If somebody in the manufacturing industry is reading this and would like some more feedback on coming products, tinynibbles has my email.
The Fleshlight is so overhyped in America partly because there are not a lot of toys available for men in America, and what few we have are not very well designed or thought out (men’s sex toys are where women’s were 20 years ago, in other words). Our culture shares a lot of the blame for this problem, though, as men who seek sex toys for use on themselves are seen as either…
A) deficient in some way (“Is your right hand broken?” “What’s wrong, can’t get a real woman like a real man?”)
or B) a caricaturization of a gay man as learned though a lifetime of poor TV and movie-watching habits. (“Oh, you’re looking for a sex toy? You’ll be wanting the Log-Jammer 36″ model.”)
This is, of course, in addition to the traditional problem every gender has of sex-partner insecurities (“You wanna use a sex toy? What’s wrong with me?”)
I would say that the success of Fleshlight proves things are changing, and men are looking for quality sex toys. Now we just have to wait for manufacturers and marketing execs to catch up with the market, and start offering masturbation devices that aren’t necessarily molded from porn-star privates, or anal toys for men that aren’t designed to destroy your lower intestinal tract.
As for what compares in America to the generic shop-brand toy I mentioned earlier? Nothing I’ve found, but that has a lot to do with differing approaches to sex toys between Japan and America. Here, all of the best toys for men are disposable. They come pre-lubed; so literally you pop the top off one, use it, then throw it away. But the Japanese are, in their own way, less shy about needs and desires than Americans. My local department store stocks Tenga cups on the same aisle with shaving cream and toothpaste, something which managed to shock me (and I didn’t think that was possible anymore). American men, on the other hand, are still kinda warming up to the concept of toys for guys; so for a lot of them it’s a really bold, courageous act the first time they walk into a shop and buy a masturbatory-aid for themselves. It’s an event they’d really like to experience one time, thank you very much. Therefore, durability takes precedence over quality. Japanese men seem to have no problem picking up an artificial vagina or two every Friday night, while shopping for cereal and laundry detergent; it’s seems to be a non-issue for them (although the environmentalist in me weeps a bit, and wishes we could figure out something that’s easy to clean, re-usable, AND still provides the sensation the disposable cups do.)
And thank you for the compliment. =)
David, thank you SO much for your comment. I’ve always gotten the sense that the Fleshlight is an overpriced, hyped experience. When they first came out, it was like a revolution in men’s toys, because the material was still new on the market and no one had tried to make a “high end” but still mid-range (price-wise, though for manual-stim toys these are pricey) male toy that was of any reasonable quality. What I’m wondering now is what the shop’s generic brand compares to over here, insofar as what kind of toy that would be for Western shoppers. I’m always trying to find good recommendations. Hmmm….
::thinking
Also: your ex is lucky. Just saying. :)
I’ve never tried a Fleshlight, but I can’t imagine Tera’s spirals or Lia19’s hearts would feel pleasant in any way. (Hearts? Really? What is this, the Barbie Dream Pussy?) I have tried a couple of similarly made American products, and was very disappointed.
On the other hand, I’ve tried a few of the Tenga cups, and several of the generic competitors available in Japan, and wow… big difference. I’ve just now worked my way through all the varieties of the Tenga eggs, and I do have to say that the textures make a big difference. Just using the eggs as examples, I’ve found there’s three different sensations: feels just like a vagina, feels very nice but not like a real vagina, and feels nothing like a vagina and does nothing for me. Wavy, twister, and silky fit the first description; stepper the second; spider and clicker the third. Once you’ve played around with a few different toys like that, you get a feel for what different types of textures will feel like, and you can buy accordingly. And yes, some days I’m in a wavy mood, some days I want the stepper (but usually I prefer the cups).
On that note, there’s a HUGE sex shop here in Japan, in Akihabara, that has an entire wall filled with a variety of Tenga-like cups, all ranging in style and price. After several years of testing (including one night with an ex where we went through a six-pack), I’m delighted to report that the most realistic-feeling “pussy-in-a-can” is that shop’s generic brand. This is great news, because while Tenga’s run $15 – $20, this one costs $3.50. So price really has nothing to do with quality (something that should be obvious to anyone suckered into buying a Fleshlight, I suppose).
R: I’ve heard that, repeatedly. That it’s a big let down. And when I worked at Good Vibes I sold a ton of Fleshlights! But the guys I’ve known in my personal life have said they’ve found them disappointing – and not because they were trying to impress me or anything (quite the opposite with my gay male friends I think). Fleshlights overall from a toy standpoint sound inconvenient and cold and only fun a couple of times. The Tenga on the other hand is much loved from those I’ve talked to. Maybe it’s all the different styles, the low cost, the less expectation. Or the way they affect masturbation technique (I don’t know, I’ve never asked for details).
What I loved about selling the Fleshlight to customers in the store was when lesbians would come in and discover it and investigate it among themselves. So. Awesome. To. Watch.
When were bored and there were no customers we’d occasionally fist the Fleshlight floor model. One woman tried to stretch it over her head during inventory, and that was disastrous. (But hilarious.)
Meh. I was disappointed in the Fleshlight; I’m not sure that a funky texture would help it any.