Sex toys for boys

It took the erotica industry a decade to turn the sex toy from seedy gadget to sassy lady's accessory, from vibrating rubber ducks to dolphin-shaped dildos. But men were largely left out of the fun - until now that is.
Once the stuff of garish sex shops, vibrators underwent a small revolution in the mid-2000s, as quirky, colourful playthings flooded the market and the rotating Rabbit was immortalised in the US series Sex and the City.
These days dildos in cheerful hues of pink or blue, picked up in lingerie shops or department stores across the West, nestle in the bedside tables of suburban pensioners or trendy urban singles - barely raising an eyebrow.
But now the industry's creative labs have taken on a mightier challenge: the male sex toy.The market has really opened up in terms of sex toys for women - and now it's opening up for men too.
A woman who uses a sex toy is a woman who is exploring her body. But a man using a sex toy is seen as someone who can't get a woman.
This where sharp design comes in.
Blazing the trail is a Japanese firm that has pledged to "revolutionise the realm of adult goods".
The revolution's weapon of choice looks for all the world like a man's shower gel tube, in the same bold hues of striped red, black or white.
But don't be fooled by the tame design: flip the cup upside down and it reveals a soft, lubricated silicone chamber, whose intricate ridges and curves promise to deliver the user "never-before-experienced" sensations.
This is the Tenga Masturbation cup, or Onacup for short, launched in sexually-adventurous Japan in 2005 and now sold in over 40 countries - with global sales of 13 million units including 1.5 million in Western markets.
Its creator Koichi Matsumoto - a car mechanic by training - says he wanted to help male toys shed their "nasty" image, and promote pleasure-for-one as a healthy activity and "nothing connected to obscenity".
The firm, which recently launched a more environmentally-friendly reusable version, expects international sales to exceed those in Japan within a few years.
Pruvot started importing the Tenga 18 months ago, and now sells 1000 per month from his three Paris stores.
The Tenga is not the only toy in town: another is the German-made Cobra Libre, a rechargeable gadget shaped like a futuristic toy car, with a two-inch deep vibrating socket at one end.
Or for pleasure on the go, there is the Egg, also by Tenga, a ribbed, stretchy rubber sleeve that fits in the palm of the hand and is billed as the perfect travel toy - promising its users "knee-trembling sensations".
And the same applies to smells: for the scent of his latest massage oil Palix hired a professional perfumer, who chose unisex notes like ginger and rosemary instead of the feminine vanilla or passion fruit.