Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of bizarre rumours about what people get up to sexually.
Many sex rumours are dismissed as rubbish. One example is that of a farm teenager losing their virginity to cows or sheep. Others we’re not quite sure about.
Are gay men able to insert lightbulbs rectally in trust exercises? (If so, I have no proof. Is it possible to have seven hours of sex straight, as Sting says? Yes – tantric sex can last hours. But a lot of it involves staring into each other’s eyes and meditating rather than having marathon intercourse sessions.
We’ve all heard about the model who slept with the Hollywood A-lister who insisted on keeping his noise cancelling headphones on throughout, listening to whale music. He certainly hasn’t admitted it publicly.
The one that tells the story of the recognisable UK comic who visited brothels, and sat in the waiting area with all the others, without caring much about anyone else who saw him. (The eye witnesses accounts of many people are available, but few want their true names to be used.
Some celebs are very open about their ‘kinks’.
Carmen Electra admits she uses wire coat hangers to ramp up her sex life – though won’t go into details of how she uses them. She only said, “A little pleasure and a little pain.” It’s all about fun.’
Rumours of sex acts include many that are downright disturbing, and some that seem ridiculously bonkers.
I decided to take a look at some of the eyebrow-raising ones that have done the rounds, to investigate which are urban legends and which might really be a ‘thing’.
For instance, is it REALLY true that…
There are many wild stories about the sexual activities of other women. But Tracey Cox now has the scoop (stock photo)
They pretend to be ponies, and people get turned off.
It’s true!
Pony play (PP), is when a pony is fed carrots and has a saddle. It also includes a tail that’s attached via a plug to the butt, a bridle with blinkers, and often a bridle. Some fans may wear a metal bit between their teeth, and use a mane as a hairpiece.
‘Ponies’ gallop, whinny and stomp their feet and their owners or trainers lead them around, groom them, pretend to ride them and interact in other – less innocent – ways.
Because it generally combines elements of BDSM, you’ll tend to find PP devotees at BDSM clubs and gatherings.
It is not surprising that hard statistics about how many people practice it are very difficult to locate. PP was the subject of a Madonna film in 2008. This led to a tremendous increase in interest.
Sniffing dirty T-shirts can help you find your perfect match
About five to six years back, Pheromone parties were the hot thing. They were packed full of singles who wanted to meet a lover or someone erotic.
Although they were a dating craze in LA, the idea of olfactory outings was popularized in London.
Guests would wear and sleep in a cotton T-shirt for three days running – not washing or wearing fragrance or deodorant – then seal it in a plastic bag.
They’d then take their (secretly marked) bag to the party, place it on a table and spend the evening taking a sniff of all the bags until they found a scent that aroused them.
What happened when you made contact with the person who’d been wearing the T-shirt was up to the guests – but rumour has it more than a few ended up having sex.
There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to say the parties were semi-successful at matching people up but no real scientific evidence to support this.
Probably why you’d be hard pressed getting an invitation to a pheromone party near you today.
It is believed that pheromones trigger sexual attraction. But the validity of whether pheromones really do send us wild has been challenged: the experiments this was based on weren’t done on humans.
Tracey Cox said that if you’ve tried pegging, teabagging or grapefruit oral sex, you’re not as risqué as you think
Sexual thrills can be had by hanging weights from your testicles
There are many reasons why some men voluntarily do something that makes most other men’s eyes water, at the mere mention of it.
Testicle stretching is believed to increase testosterone production. This can be done by massaging the hands and gentle stretching. Many people feel the act of stretching out their testicles by adding weights to them is more sexually stimulating than they realize and may find that it intensifies orgasm. According to some devotees, having lower-hanging testicles may make it more difficult and longer lasting.
Specially designed weights or devices are used to stretch. These can also be used by the BDSM community in various kinky games.
It is claimed that some men are capable of stretching their testicles as far as 10 to 11 inches. It is possible for a testicle-stretcher to stretch as much as four to seven inches.
One of the world’s biggest sex toy retailers, Lovehoney, reports that sales of testicle stretchers are up by over 20 percent globally.
It’s a common practice for people to wear a nappie and be treated as if they were a child.
The ABDL (adult diaper/diaper loving) community has many members.
For eight years, a company hosted monthly Adult Baby Parties for 500+ Londoners. (It’s having its final event in December this year due to Covid and other reasons.)
A quick Google search revealed several ABDL nurseries, where adult can meet up with other like-minded persons. Tykables – a US website – has been selling adult nappies since 2014 and regularly organises events and gatherings.
Infantilists can be described as people who play the role of babysitters. They wear diapers, use a baby bottle to drink, climb on the floors, take baby baths, feed baby food, and have fun with toys.
Some feel sexual satisfaction or the humiliation, but others simply find comfort in clothing and other items associated with infancy.
(It’s worth pointing out here that infantilism is in no way connected to paedophilia: people in the ABDL (adult baby/diaper lover) community are NOT interested in sexual contact with children or babies.)
Nobody really knows the triggers for the fetish.
A study found that most devotees are in their late 30s and well-educated men with stable relationships. There are questions about whether the survey is representative.
Little is known about it because adult babies don’t tend to seek help – most are quite happy doing what they’re doing and don’t see it as causing anyone harm.
Those who do see a psychologist or psychiatrist tend to turn up because their partners want them to ‘get help’.
Adult breastfeeding is a ‘thing’
Channel 4 recently aired a documentary on adult breastfeeding in Britain. It featured couples who are enamored by the practice.
Lots of men admit to ‘having a try’ of their wife’s breast milk after pregnancy. This may explain why over 300,000. people watched the breastfeeding video that one of the couple on the show posted on an internet porn site.
A performer called ‘Milky Mummy’ also produces adult content for those who find breastfeeding erotic.
It’s niche – but it does happen.
You can have more intense sexual pleasure with electric shocks
BDSM porn images often feature people with things like cattle prods. However, electrified sex toys for everyone are now available.
Sex and electricity don’t sound like a good mix but electro sex toys are a fast growing sector of the sex toy market.
‘Electro sex’ is a way of stimulating the genitals and erogenous zones with a safe amount of electrical energy (the human body is mostly water so it’s an excellent conductor). A toy, or conductive pad, is placed anywhere on the body to permit electricity to move through the nerve cells.
The sensations you get are extremely sensitive to touch.
They’re also effective in helping tone the pelvic floor.
Everyone’s having golden showers
OK, so you’ve all heard of this one and know it happens. Is it really as widespread as people believe?
Golden showers or water sports, for those who aren’t in the know, means getting sexual pleasure by either urinating on someone, being urinated on, watching others urinate or (rarer) drinking it.
Ricky Martin admits to loving these (“I love giving the golden shower. I’ve done it before in the shower,” he famously said during an interview) but it’s actually not as mainstream as you think.
Justin Lehmiller (US sex educator and Kinsey fellow) cites one study in which 400 adult respondents were asked about their most favorite sexual fantasies. Only 1.4 percent mentioned it, while none of the men did.
A European study asked college students if they’d watched urophilia porn and/or got aroused by it.
It was watched by 23 per cent, but scored 1.27 on the excitement scale (9 being very exciting).
Golden showers got a spike in popularity in the lead up to the US election because of a leaked dossier that contained ‘compromising’ information on Donald Trump. According to the dossier, Trump was alleged to have watched Russian sex workers pee on a bed Barack and Michelle Obama previously used.
Pornhub statistics show searches for ‘golden shower’ rose by 289 per cent on that day the story broke. It’s sustained some popularity since but isn’t quite as common as the average person thinks.
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