Sex Toys that Changed the World
While these sex toys may not have actually changed the world, they did change the sex toy world, and the sexual world view of many of us who are fans of these groundbreaking products. Each of these sex toys offered genuine innovation, something new, and in doing so they made us do something new with ourselves.
Hitachi Magic Wand
| As the guillotine was the French Revolution and the couch to psychoanalysis, so the Hitachi Magic Wand is to the sex positive women's movement and more broadly the pro-masturbation movement. Thanks in large part to women like Betty Dodson and to its simple and functional design, the Hitachi Magic Wand remains a bestseller at most high end sex shops and by far the fastest and easiest way to have an orgasm. |
Rabbit Pearl
| First designed in Japan, this toy and its comrades offered a revolutionary design element, a clitoral stimulator that offered simultaneous vaginal penetration and clitoral stimulation. Through its starring role in a Sex and the City episode, the Rabbit Pearl vibrator has arguably did more for bringing sex toys out of the closet than anything else in the vibrators long and storied history. |
Coil Electric Massager
| Enter any respectable sex shop or "small appliance" section of your local department store, and you'll find a "coil" electric vibrator that doesn't look much different from the models designed over eighty years ago. This vibrator has no moving parts resulting in a virtually silent but powerful vibration. Dubbed "the parent vibrator" coil massagers allow almost anyone needing privacy a powerful buzz without the questioning knocks on the bedroom door "what's that humming?" |
Fleshlight
| While sex toys were traditionally marketed to men, the intended end user was usually women, and toys made for men were largely poorly designed and of poor quality. The Fleshlight raised the bar exponentially with a revolutionary material, a practical design, and a marketing campaign that glorified male sexual pleasure without making fun of men or women. |
Fukuoku
| The Fukuoku revolutionized both vibrator design and sex toy marketing. A lightweight vibrator that fits on the finger and allows for simultaneous skin to skin touch and vibration, the Fukuoku may be the first example of the power of television, women's magazines, and the Internet in grassroots sex toy marketing. |
Silicone Dildos
| The introduction of silicone dildos represented the first time sex toy customers were put first in the minds of manufacturers. The material was ideal for its intended purpose, easy to clean, warms to the touch, and able to be sculpted and colored in a wide range of options. Scorpio Products" Gosnell Duncan was the first to make these beloved toys available, and he inspiration has been both duplicated and expanded on. |
Cyberskin
| Cyberskin, a material first created by Topco Sales (and now often imitated) represented another genuine revolution in material, offering a "dual density" material that's firm at the core and soft on the outside, offering a surprisingly realistic feel. The revolution had its limits as the material remains easy to break and difficult to clean, but it was also the first packaging to cite NASA research. |
Eros Silicone Personal Lubricant
| Eros was the first widely available silicone-based lubricant. Offering a fundamentally different lubrication "feel", silicone lubricant doesn't dry up, is condom compatible, and can be less likely to cause irritation or reaction, all offering a true innovation from traditional water based lubricants. The success of the Eros model can be found in the dozens of companies now manufacturing silicone based lubricants. |
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