Are You Ready For Pegging?

It’s the sex move that more heterosexual couples are experimenting with – Gareth May reports on why it’s transforming relationships and orgasms for men and women

- Gareth May

‘I like trying new things, otherwise how do you know what you like?’ says Eve, 24, from Manchester, who learned about pegging online. When a guy she was dating suggested they try it, she saw it as the perfect opportunity. She’s since pegged two other men.

For the uninitiated, pegging is the term used for when a man is penetrated anally by a strap-on dildo worn by a woman. It’s niche, for sure – 45 per cent of couples didn’t know what it meant when polled in a recent survey by Lovehoney. But now the online sex-toy retailer has reported it’s on the rise among heterosexual couples in the UK, with sales of strap-ons up by nearly 200 per cent in the last year. ‘I get a kick out of introducing a guy to something he hasn’t considered before and then watching his reaction as he realises he’s into it. I guess the power of female on-male anal sex comes with the role reversal, for both parties.’ says Eve.

In the same way that Ann Summers attributed the turn-of-the-century buzz in vibrators to the appearance of the Rampant Rabbit on a 1998 episode of Sex And The City (and Fifty Shades Of Grey led to a spike in spanking and bondage), popular culture has helped put pegging on the kinky map. Back in 2015, American sitcom Broad City, a show following the exploits of two female millennial New Yorkers, featured one of the main characters pegging her long-term crush. Pegging also made a cameo in a sex montage in hit superhero movie Deadpool, with Ryan Reynolds taking one for the progressive male team. Last year, sex-toy brand LELO declared 2016 as the year pegging would take off. There’s even a Reddit thread with 34,000 Redditors devoted to pegging, where posts range from harness advice to celebratory ‘we did it!’ selfies.