Sex & Relationships

One thing women can’t get enough of in bed — it’s simpler than you think

Question: When did we all become so cool with sex toys? Seriously.

When I cast my mind back to the first vibrator I came across, it was on my 21st birthday. A friend had gifted me a pink sparkly one “for a laugh.”

Oh, I did indeed get a laugh out of it, as I waved it above my head in front of all my friends and family, loudly proclaiming, “Look what Lucy just gifted me!” We all had a giggle and then back in the box it went to gather dust under my bed.

You see, I didn’t think a battery-operated device could do anything half as good as the real deal. Yes, I was a sex-toy snob.

The second time I properly came in contact with a vibrator was when I was working with an all-male crew and considered myself one of the “lads, lads, lads!” They thought it would be hilarious to put a really abnormally big one in my handbag on random occasions as a joke.

Jana Hocking explains what women want in bed this year. Jana Hocking/Instagram

I did find this pretty funny until one day I opened my bag in Sportsgirl to pay for some earrings and both the sales assistant and I copped an eyeful of dildo. Mortifying. Safe to say, one of my co-workers paid for it dearly when I popped it in his hand luggage before a flight.

Oh, how we laughed.

You see, not too many years ago, they were seen as a cheeky joke. Something reserved for stag parties and “Sex and the City” episodes.

But then lockdown hit. And I, along with many lonely ladies, found them less “LOL” and more “Yes please!”

A company specializing in “pleasure” had sent one as a gift, which I had never taken it out of its packaging. But lockdown was long, friends. It was long.

So one night, curiosity/boredom got the better of me and I tried it out. It was one of those shell-shaped vibrators that fit perfectly into the palm of your hand and was for external use. (Which, for reference, lads, is where women are more likely to reach orgasm.)

Hocking claims that the topic of sex toys has becomes less taboo. Getty Images/iStockphoto

Holy. Mother. Of. God. How could something so small. so plastic, create a feeling “down there” that was so dang pleasurable?

Only a few months earlier, I had ranted on and on about how something plastic or rubbery surely couldn’t do the same thing as a living, breathing human man.

Well, it could. And it did. And did, and did, and did. To the point where I was worried that I would become less interested in the real thing.

Then something else happened. A popular influencer popped up on Instagram, waving one around in her pictures. I thought it was so BOLD. People (shamefully, myself included) were saying things like, “Oh, her career is over.” “She’s reached the bottom now, parading dildos on Instagram.” “Wow, can you believe what she’s hyping!”

But that hyping and that sex-positive stance eventually made her enough money to buy a house! All because she was brave enough to state publicly, “I use sex toys and they’re bloody marvelous.”

She didn’t have to take anything off. She wasn’t joining PornHub, she was simply stating a very popular opinion.

She wants women to orgasm more in 2024. DalaiFood – stock.adobe.com

Before I knew it, friends were hosting events at their houses similar to Tupperware parties, but with far more enjoyable items.

Brunches involved sharing notes on which brand did the best “double sided wand.” Or recommending the perfect c–k ring for that special man in each of our lives.

Heck, even Gwyneth Paltrow started selling a variety of sexy gadgets on her Goop website. (Now that’s a celebrity collaboration I can get on board with!)

In fact, just this week I was listening to the “Call Her Daddy” podcast interview with Heidi Klum and, in between brainstorming with host Alex Cooper an idea she had to make a dildo in the shape of a worm, she casually revealed she has a “sexy drawer” with all sorts of gadgets.

Could you imagine celebrities openly talking five years ago about what gets them off?

I am loving the level of comfort women now have with their sexuality and finding new ways to orgasm. No more keeping these topics hushed up, hidden like dirty little secrets.

Female orgasms can be a tricky thing to come by sometimes, and if a store-bought gadget makes it easier, then subscribe me to your newsletter, send me your recommendations and send me one in every color.

Here’s to more orgasms in 2024.