With changing attitudes and a new wave of personal products geared toward fulfilling feminine needs and desires, intimacy is coming out into the open.
This is partially because there has been a radical shift in how-and to whom-such personal products are marketed. The packaging is generally more discreet and the products are more widely available. No longer banished to “adult” shops, the new “sexual health and well-being” merchandise is going mainstream. These products are now sold in pharmacies, retail outlets, and online stores and Web sites.
For many women, discretion is the better part of experimentation. With once taboo items now packaged discreetly and on the shelves with other everyday drugstore items, consumers should no longer feel shy about their desire to try new things in the bedroom.
According to the 2005 Durex Global Sex Survey-the world’s largest online sex survey-ownership of a personal massager increases with age, and jumps to 62 percent among respondents over 55. It is also higher for people in relationships, as opposed to singles (46 percent vs. 35 percent). “Pleasure is a great stress...