In 58 posts with close to 100k words, we shared a lot in 2024! Explore 2024’s biggest geopolitical shifts, cultural battles, and bold insights with Drishtikone’s year in review. See you in 2025! Happy New Year! Be safe!
When you see Russia get into existential war over Ukraine, or Israel bomb Syria or India battle with Pakistan or Bangladesh, it is not because of some whim. It has a historical and geographical context. That is critical to understand for analyzing geopolitics.
Dive into the shadowy world of the Deep State—its hidden structures, powerful networks, and the far-reaching impact on global events and control.
Lockdowns fueled a global surge in sex toy sales, sparking a shift in intimacy, self-care, and mental wellness as people explored connection in solitude.
The world has been stockpiling toilet paper as Corona scare hit everywhere. Apparently, the nightmare of being stuck on the pot with your pants down and the last piece of the magic paper being out has been haunting people from US to Europe to Australia. In Hong Kong, armed robbers stole pallets of toilet rolls!
But toilet paper is not the only thing that people are buying in hordes. There is another set of products whose sales have sky-rocketed. Sex Toys.
New Zealand when on a month-long nation-wide lockdown from March 25th. And since then, the sales of sex toys for the nation’s largest retailer of sex toys have tripled! The sales took off in the 48 hours before the lockdown on the 25th.
This time of being at home with not much to do has prompted many an adventurous soul to take on new frontiers. Some who had never gone this path earlier have cautiously wandered into it. That is why perhaps “beginner toys”, like a ring gag or perhaps bullet vibrators, were the biggest draw.
It would be fair to assume that sites like xxxvideor.com probably saw more viewers as well with those customers enjoying some saucy content alongside their new sex toy.
“We’re selling a lot of beginner toys … all our beginner ranges are very popular,” said Emily Writes, a spokesperson for the business. “It definitely looks like people are saying: ‘I’ve got time, I might try something new.'”(Source: The Guardian)
Products like Adult board games, condoms, lubricant, and menstrual cups and even sex toy cleaners (lest one catches the virus off of the most unlikeliest of the body parts since it may have been lingering in public perhaps?).
This rush for sex toys has also been witnessed in Scandanavian countries.
Danish-based Sinful, the biggest retailer of sex toys in Scandinavia, reported a 110 percent spike in sales in Denmark during the first six days of April, compared with the same period the previous year. In Norway, which also imposed strict measures, the growth reached a further 121 percent.(Source: Sputnik News)
It is interesting that sales of Adult Toy Megastore, the sex toy retailer tripled in three countries – New Zealand, Australia and Britain on the day World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Corona or COVID-19 was a pandemic!
The impact on Sex toys sales is seen globally!
Of course, another item that has been going off the shelf has been the condoms. They have been disappearing from the store shelves around the world.
Malaysia’s Karex Bhd, a company that makes one in every five condoms globally, was forced to shut down production for more than a week after the government imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. During this time, not a single condom was produced in any of Karex Bhd’s three Malaysian factories, reported The Guardian, resulting in a shortfall of 100 million condoms. (Source: Health.com)
Many have been speculating a resultant baby boom accompanying the lockdowns globally and some have even started coining words for what this lockdown resultant generation may be called. Options circulating on social media have been – Coronials, Quaranteens and Baby Zoomers.
Just as the sex toys sales were impacted by the lockdowns by different countries and WHO warnings, they also were impacted by closing of bars.
So Corona sex toys sales went up twice when Australian and British PMs announced the closure of bars. If one cannot go out to drink or pick up or dates, it may stand to reason that one may want to enjoy some “self-love” bit at home. And this coincides with increase in porn viewing.
PornHub, for instance, has seen a significant uptick in viewership from Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. Meanwhile, the badly hit countries like Italy, France and Spain saw huge surges after the audience there were offered free subscriptions. In US, Washington state, one of the worst hit states saw a significant rise as well. This surge has other sites like broxxx.com also benefitting from the increasing demand for adult content as well. A boost for the entire online adult entertainment industry, many think.
People are looking for enjoyment, distraction and entertainment. Some go out and seek that thrill in other partners and some seek it in their work. When both the options are closed to people, they yearn to turn their home into something exciting. But with a month of being stuck at home with no option to go out, even sex between two people may need a change in scenario. That is why sex toys, porn viewing and movies have such an attraction. That is why perhaps Adult Toy Megastore was part of “essential services” in New Zealand!
Adult Toy Megastore was deemed an essential service by New Zealand’s government and was allowed to continue operating during the shutdown because it sells condoms and medical items. All staff are working from home.Source
With mental health of many in the Western countries being at stake by being confined at home, it is no wonder that a sex toy store was deemed an essential service. It is what our inability to handle our loneliness has brought us to. After all, even Khajuraho shares the most imaginative sex scenes (Why Khajuraho temple has explicit sex scenes) outside before one can venture inside the temple.
This time of being at home with not much to do has prompted many an adventurous soul to take on new frontiers. Some who had never gone this path earlier have cautiously wandered into it. That is why perhaps “beginner toys”, like a ring gag or perhaps bullet vibrators, were the biggest draw.
It would be fair to assume that sites like xxxvideor.com probably saw more viewers as well with those customers enjoying some saucy content alongside their new sex toy.
“We’re selling a lot of beginner toys … all our beginner ranges are very popular,” said Emily Writes, a spokesperson for the business. “It definitely looks like people are saying: ‘I’ve got time, I might try something new.'”(Source: The Guardian)
Products like Adult board games, condoms, lubricant, and menstrual cups and even sex toy cleaners (lest one catches the virus off of the most unlikeliest of the body parts since it may have been lingering in public perhaps?).
This rush for sex toys has also been witnessed in Scandanavian countries.
Danish-based Sinful, the biggest retailer of sex toys in Scandinavia, reported a 110 percent spike in sales in Denmark during the first six days of April, compared with the same period the previous year. In Norway, which also imposed strict measures, the growth reached a further 121 percent.(Source: Sputnik News)
It is interesting that sales of Adult Toy Megastore, the sex toy retailer tripled in three countries – New Zealand, Australia and Britain on the day World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Corona or COVID-19 was a pandemic!
The impact on Sex toy sales is seen globally!
During the COVID-19 lockdown, India saw a marked increase in discussions around intimacy and sexual well-being. According to India Today's 18th Sex Survey, interest in sexual activity, as well as the use of sex toys and adult games, spiked significantly as people looked for new forms of connection and stress relief during isolation. Data revealed that 47% of survey respondents acknowledged an increase in personal intimacy-related purchases, while 34% explored new intimate products as a result of prolonged restrictions on social interactions (Source: India Today)
The survey found that married couples and singles alike experienced shifts in their intimate lives, with a rise in "self-discovery" and relationship-focused products among younger demographics. This surge aligns with global trends where the market for adult wellness products saw a multi-fold rise, reflecting both a pivot in consumer behavior toward self-care and a cultural shift in open conversations around intimacy in India.
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