Figleaf's Real Adult Sex

Learn something new every day.

At dinner at the Sex 2.0 conference I learned from Bad Influence Girl, who writes sex-toy reviews and erotic reveries, that…

“Female condoms,” the kind of sleeves that are inserted vaginally instead of rolled onto the penis as with condoms for men, are cooler than I’d been led to believe.

• First, they’re great for women who’s partners have difficulty getting or maintaining erections. That would include those who loose steam while putting on condoms, sure, but also for those who have difficulty getting or maintaining full erections at all.
• Next, they’re nice because they make initial entry, the kind involving a lot of nice, cooperative bumping and sliding and aligning when you’re not using your hands, feel more natural.

• Oh yeah, and most of them are polyurethane or nitrile polymer instead of latex, which is not only great for people with real latex allergy-allergies, but for people who’s skin is irritated by that kind of squeaky friction you get even when you use lube.

Anyway, that’s actually pretty cool to hear about. The operative language about condoms in general, and condoms for women in particular, is that the language used to discuss them is often highly… operational. Yes, they give women control, especially in the sense of women who’s partners selfishly refuse to use condoms themselves. And yes they provide roughly the same protection regular condoms to (more in the case of so-called “bikini condoms” since they offer more protection from skin-to-skin transmission of, say, perineal or scrotal herpes; some of the earlier versions provided less protection; like regular condoms they can be difficult to learn to use properly.)

But… BadInfluence wasn’t talking about the pragmatics, she was talking about what made them more enjoyable, for her, than male condoms.

Your mileage may vary but if you use condoms with a second form of contraception and, especially, if you or your partner has erection problems, you might enjoy checking them out.