With a surge in online sales of sex toys and a predicted Christmas 2020 baby boom, it seems that quarantined Britons are casting off their PJs, slippers – and inhibitions – and getting their kink on.
Leading the erotic charge is elite sex party organiser Killing Kittens, which has taken its members-only events (where famous faces rub leather- and lace-clad shoulders with 30-something beautiful people, and tickets cost £150-plus) online. Last weekend, it started hosting weekly Zoom house parties for the (comparative) bargain of £20 a ticket.
Launched by Kate Middleton’s former school friend and ‘sexpreneur’ Emma Sayle, Killing Kittens has seen a ‘stratospheric’ rise in new-member applications, with a 330% increase in website traffic since the UK’s lockdown began. Tickets for the first online event sold out in 48 hours, with proceeds going to UK food banks.
Quarantine Core: a place for remote threesomes, no hand sanitiser required!
Meanwhile Feeld, a location-based app where couples and singles can meet others for multiple-partner hook-ups, also reports a ‘rapid rise’ in membership and has launched a new virtual location called Quarantine Core: ‘a place for remote threesomes, no hand sanitiser required!’, which quickly surpassed London as the app’s most popular location tag. And at the hipster end of the shagosphere, sex-positive rave and record label Crossbreed staged the first of a series of fortnightly online raves on Friday (dress code: PVC, leather, latex, sportswear and lace). Tickets for the first event, a snip at £5, sold out in 24 hours.
Sasha, 36, and her husband Christopher, 40, attended Killing Kittens’ first online bash at the weekend. The party featured warm-up performances by ‘fire, bath and cage’ erotic artists, and guests wore masks to conceal their identities. It was the couple’s first sex party and they prepared as if they were heading out for the night.
‘I wore hold-ups and heels and waxed my legs, while my hubby wore a nice suit,’ says Sasha. The pair partied into the small hours. The event started with all the guests watching the performance artists. Guests could see each other on the Zoom party main screen, and were then able to invite each other to message or hive off into separate video groups, via a chat thread.
Christopher and Sasha enjoyed some sub-dom play, giving other couples instructions via messaging, and exchanged naughty pictures with fellow guests. Doing sexual things in front of other couples felt very ‘fruity’, says Sasha, and was ‘quite a rush’.
It was a great way to experiment with our sex life in a low-stakes introductory way
‘It was a great way to experiment with our sex life in a low-stakes introductory way,’ Christopher says. ‘Plus it really alleviated the lockdown boredom.’ They have since signed up to the next event.
The web, of course, is chock-a-block with sexual content: from porn shorts to live cams of gyrating women. ‘Online sex is not what you’d call feminist,’ admits Emma.
‘It’s typically about men’s needs and it’s difficult for women to have any sense of control.’ Killing Kittens addresses these shortcomings with women ‘community kitten’ moderators, a rule that women make the first move and strict (electronic) non-disclosure agreements.
Single Londoner Gemma recently signed on to Feeld’s Quarantine Core. In her pre-quarantine life, the 35-year-old City solicitor was an occasional attendee of high-end London swingers’ clubs Nights of St Francis and Heaven’s Circle (neither of which is planning online parties), but she’s taken to the online ‘kink world’ with gusto since the coronavirus crisis began.
‘Let’s face it, dressing up for your laptop isn’t the same as going to a nightclub, but online is coronavirus-safe,’ she says. ‘Plus it gets rid of some of the pesky aspects of sex parties, like the men I refer to as the “hopeful danglers”, who swing their “equipment” in your face.’
Like many expressions of the emergent Covid-19 economy, from online facials to streamed yoga classes, Zoom sex parties could continue long after the lockdown has lifted.
‘There are surprising benefits, like helping with first timers’ nerves and having members from different cities around the world – New York, London and Sydney – at the same party,’ says Emma.
In the meantime, she adds, Killing Kittens will do its bit to keep isolating Britain’s pecker up.
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