Vile vile Ann Summers product

[Dillytante]

Apologies if there has already been a thread on this.

Bj strap

I actually don't know what to say about this.

---

This thread is years old and inactive. If you've found this page in search of Ann Summers products that have been tried and tested by fellow Mumsnet users, you might find our guide to the best Ann Summers sex toys useful. Hope this helps! MNHQ 💐

There are also certain feminists who say no to PIV. That seems like taking away sexual practices.

They're not asking for PIV to be banned, so how is it taking away a sexual activity?

Well I haven't contacted AS so you would have to ask the posters who have.

Although even if this product were to be removed (which I imagine is highly unlikely) that won't stop people who practice throat fucking/gagging/choking/deep throat/restraint during fellatio, etc. from continuing to do so. It may however stop these practices as being presented to the general public, via a high street name, as not being niche.

Me discussing BDSM and naming it as abusive (which is not controversial AFAIK with BDSMers, as that is the point of BDSM) is not about to prevent anyone from practising it is it?

PMSL at the powerful feminists taking people's PIV away from them.

Do these feminists beam themselves into people's bedrooms at the crucial moment, and prevent them from having a PIV shag, by waving dungarees and smouldering bras in the air thereby putting them off?

If you want to gag on your husband's cock as he holds your head in place so you can't escape, fine, good luck to you.

But don't try and flog it to everyone else as some kind of slightly kinky sexual activity that's akin to wearing a naughty nurse outfit or using strawberry lube.

I can't see myself emailing Anne Summers over this, tbh. But I can still express an opinion here and say that I don't like the implications of them stocking it.

what is PIV? (Hoping this is not some new sex technique ive not heard of!)

Beachcomber - BDSM is NOT abuse if it takes place between consenting adults of sound mind. It CAN be abusive and as such should be entred into with great care but it has a place in some loving relationships. It is very difficult to explain.

With regards to worrying about teenagers being exposed to sex in anne summers, well i had the misfortune to work as a cover supervisor in a secondary school last year, i had to listen to young girls openly discussing anal sex and had one particular, actually quite a nice girl, not one of the really naughty ones (it was quite a rough school!) ask me if i knew what a Blue waffle is. I am pretty sure she wont have learnt about that in anne summers. Its all here, sadly, on the internet for all to see. I did smile to myself at the time though and wondered if she had been spying on her mother's mumsnet account!! Thats where i learnt about BW and lots of other things that make me gag!

I actually don't like having anne summers in the high street though, anne summers parties, yes, great laugh, but not on the high street. Specialist sex shops have their place too, but not next to nettos or tesco! I much prefer my sex life and therefore shopping for my sex life to be naughtily private and not someting i'd do while out shopping for kitchen utensils, although wasn't there a classic thread on here...............

I agree handbagcrab. Ann Summers was generally supposed to be just a bit naughty fun. Not a fetish or bondage shop. If people want to buy this sort of product a high street store is not where I would like it to be sold. It doesn't belong next to penis pasta and edible underwear.

sighs wistfully at the thought of being ABLE to gag on DPs cock!

But the point I made earlier was that Ann Summers is having to compete with online businesses not high street competitors. Which are as easily accessible, if not more so, than the high street for teens to be influenced by.

If you are asking AS to remove that product, you need to ask the other leading sex toy sellers to do the same for the same reasons.

Which is trying to restrict things.

I also pointed out that sex toy stores online do not have age warnings on. Again, probably a good place to start rather than going in for certain products first.

The logic and thinking on all this just sees backward to me.

'But the point I made earlier was that Ann Summers is having to compete with online businesses not high street competitors. Which are as easily accessible, if not more so, than the high street for teens to be influenced by.',

I agree, teens are far more likely to access this kind of stuff online, I think the 'don't want it on the high street' argument is a poor one.

The internet and older friends are much bigger influences on teenagers than a single high street shop. I agree with Hmm and Sigmund.

Goawaybob of course BDSM is abuse. That is the point of it. BDMS fetishizes abuse and sexualized violence.

The act of consenting does not change that. That is why it is called 'consensual physical abuse' (the clue is in the name).

Why are people so keen to pretend otherwise?

Abuse (physical) has a very simple and straightforward definition;

"Physical abuse is an act of another party involving contact intended to cause feelings of physical pain, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm."

Any responsible parent will have discussed the internet with their teenager though, and made it clear that while a lot of stuff is available on the internet, there are legal (and consequently ethical) considerations about what you view, what is passed on to you and who you send it on to.

Now, while viewing this particular product has no real legal concerns, viewing it happens in the context of the potential illegality and offensiveness of the internet. As appearance on the internet is within a context of things that are not always legal to view and not always acceptable by many people to view, seeing something for sale on the internet does not carry the same message (or not to the same degree) of acceptability that selling something on the high street which is part of mainstream society does.

The internet is awash with extreme violence, things connected to terrorism and extreme racism. A young person may come across such things and they may come across things that are illegal. They are aware of this. It would send a very different message if such things were routinely visible on the high street.

PIV is 'penis in vagina'.

God I hate the term PIV.

normalisation.
mainstreaming.

of niche practices

that's what this thread is about.

Not all parents are responsible in that way. So it makes a difference only to a few.

I think the majority of parents are responsible and explain issues about the internet to their children. It is also taught in school as part of PSE.

It seems bizarre to say that the parents of only a few children are responsible.

The argument seems to be, unless I a misunderstanding, that the internet should be the standard against which behaviour and imagery in public in front of children and young children should be measured.

I don't think that is really plausible.

I'm into BDSM (and I believe you can be a feminist and like being dominated in bed, I am 100% a feminist - and BDSM is NOT abuse). However I really don't like that this is stocked in Ann Summers. I think BDSM is the preference of a few rather than the many - I don't want teenage girls to feel that they have to try it because products like this BJ strap are sold in Ann Summers. I have loads of pretty heavy bondage gear, bought on the internet, I certainly don't think it needs to be in a mainstream shop. There is the added worry that this BJ strap will not be used within a mutually loving relationship but could be bought by a bloke to use on his girlfriend who then feels she 'has' to go along with it because it's from Ann Summers and therefore isn't a big deal. BDSM is a big deal and should be treated with some degree of caution. This product in itself isn't necessarily evil. However I reckon that selling this product in a mainstream shop on the high street is ridiculous and really not on.

Only just realised it's not available in high street stores, sorry. That's good then.

"I'm not making a moral judgement - I'm naming and analysing. It is not for me to decide what is right or wrong for other people. That is not what feminism is about. "

I've read this statement many times on this board and find it is disingenuous.

Really? What do you understand disingenuous to mean, WW?