BEHIND the BUZZ

It's been 50 years since an intimate massager, The Magic Wand, kick-started the sex toy revolution. As the Wand finally launches in Australia, the sex toy market is booming - but also faces a backlash. Why are so many women breaking up with their vibrators, asks Amy Molloy

- Amy Molloy

When an episode of Sex and the City showed Samantha (Kim Cattrall) attempting to return a “neck massager” because it failed to “get her off”, the ripple effect was astounding. This was 2002 and, although such sex toys had existed for decades, it was one of the first times we’d seen them, shamelessly, in popular culture.

As a result, sales of The Magic Wand – the microphone-shaped massager that Samantha appeared to be using – went through the roof. A similar product placement for The Rampant Rabbit would see sales jump by a claimed 700 per cent annually.

It’s been more than 50 years since The Magic Wand launched in America, initially marketed as a massager before word spread that it had other uses. To this day, the brand reports half a million sales a year. Now it’s available to buy in Australia – but it has some stiff competition.

In Australia, our sex toy trends tell us more about our country than the Census, with our shopping habits linked to our relationship status and even the state of the economy.

We buy more sex toys once we’re married, according to research. We also buy more sex toys in a recession. During lockdown, sales surged by 350 per cent (clearly, we were all masturbating and making banana bread).

Australia’s “sexual happiness” retailer Lovehoney fills more than half a million orders a year (that’s an average of 10,000 a week), and tastes are changing to reflect sexual fluidity and feedback from the LGBTQI+ community, including “gender-neutral toys” for every body.