sex toys

If you have made it this far into the Whet Erotic Emporium online store you are obviously curious about sex toys but you still probably have lots of questions about sex toys and choosing the best sex toy to fulfill your personal needs. Sex toys have been around for thousands of years and some sex toys are little more than novelty gadget while other toys are carefully and scientifically designed to satisfy and work with rather than in spite of our bodies.

The number one reason for buying any sex toy is for the almost certain intense and often "instant" gratification that these toys can offer. There is such a huge choice available that you can certainly find a sex toy to satisfy all your whims and needs. While using a sex toy won't as Lisa Sussman in her book Sex Toys frankly admits "keep you in a perpetual "whoo-hoo" mode, they do put many woman who has had trouble climaxing in the past on the inside of the big bang track ". And as she goes on to add- and we fully agree- they are empowering. They tell the world "you are in charge of your own pleasure" and rather than sitting around twiddling your thumbs, or another part of your anatomy, waiting for the man or woman of your dreams to figure out how to satisfy you, you are using your own "thumbs to control the on-off switch of your sex toy and sending yourself into paroxysms of ecstasy.

• It appears too that many women have already discovered this fact and apparently, sex toys 'r' us. Conservatively around 20% of women use a vibrator (or another sex toy) while masturbating and the number is no doubt steadily increasing.

• Anne Summers purveyors of sex toys and underwear in the UK has seen its sale rise by 65% over the last few years. Buying a sex toy has become no more risqué than buying a litre of milk.

Fortunately sex toys have also come a long way since the early hand-mixer shaped models that were advertised in journals including Needlecraft, Home Needlework Journal and Woman's Home Companion, and even sold in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue and which quite frankly looked like they could mince your clitoris into a pulp and made more noise than a Jet engine. Marketed to women as health and relaxation aids, vibrator advertising copy was filled with double-entendres, for example, "all the pleasure of youth ... will throb within you." They were advertised in many consumer magazines, an "aid every woman appreciates."

Today's sex toy shopper has a vast array of discreet, easy to use range to choose from alone or with a partner and many have adjustable controls so you can vibrate but escalate the vibration, pulsate or pulsate and escalate or any combination of the above. So are so small and discreet they can be mistaken for a dental floss container.

History of sex toys

Thousands of years ago, in the age of matriarchs and Goddess worship, societies revered women's sexuality as a life-giving force and celebrated it with elaborate sex rituals that took place in temples and included poetry, music, costumes and feasts. At some point in history, female genitalia were considered potent enough to be used as the catalyst for bringing the Earth and all life back from the brink of destruction. In myths and sacred art from diverse cultural backgrounds several goddesses (and women) publicly display their genitalia.

Legends like the act of Ana-suromai provide a dramatic reminder that the common modern view of what the vagina represents, is not the only one to have existed. The negative judgments which have grown around shame in todays society mean that we have forgotten our roots as well as the knowledge that the body should be regarded as a temple and that sexuality can and should be sacred.

The term Ana-suromai means to lift the skirt to expose the vulva.

The ancient Greek legends tells us how Baubo exposed herself to the goddess Demeter who was grieving over the loss of her daughter Persephone who had been kidnapped and taken to Hades.

When Baubo lifted her skirts she made Demeter laugh thereby restoring fertility to the world, which had been lost because of Demeter's sadness.

As such Baubo has become a symbol for the power and energy of female sexuality. Other cultures also have a Baubo figure. In ancient Japanese mythology she was Ame-no-uzume-no mikoto, who created a face on the front of her body to draw laughter from the Goddess Amaterasu, when she was hiding her light in a cave. Ame-no-uzume-no mikoto induced Amaterasu to emerge, bringing sunlight to the world again.

Carving of the Greek goddess Baubo = power and energy of female sexuality and her life-affirming gesture called ana-suromai (Gr., skirt-raising) A ritual re-enactment of the legend of Ana Suromai became part of religious festivals, associated with the goddess of fertility, Demeter in ancient Greece.Descriptions of what took place, paint a picture of celebrations filled with lifted skirts and dancing steeped in vaginal gestures and fertility symbols.

Archaic sculptures, statuettes, amulets and figurines imbued with sacred significance show women either splay legged showing their genitals or lifting their robes to display their vaginas. Most striking about the images is the women's sense of pride & joy in their genitalia.

On the pages of the Whet erotic emporium you will find an extensive range or high tech, well-made sex toys with models to suit every occasion from getting a non-alcoholic buzz at the end of year office party to making more than waves in your local tide-pool or if you are still a little shy, your own bath tub.