Döring Nicola, Mikhailova Veronika, Noorishad Pari-Gole
Faculty of Economic Sciences and Media, Institute of Media and Communication Science, Technische Universität Ilmenau, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany.
School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2022 Jun 1;12(6):563-578. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe12060042.
Sex toys are widely marketed on the Internet. Browsing for, buying, and reviewing sex toys online are popular cybersexual activities. The aim of this study was to investigate consumers' experiences with different types of realistic sex toys via online product reviews on Amazon.com. Toys were categorized in a 2 × 2 design regarding their representation of the human body (genitalia sex toys representing reproductive organs only versus torso toys representing larger parts of the human body) and their depiction of gender (toys representing female versus male body parts). Informed by feminist discourses on sex toys as well as sexual script theory and consumer research, the study explored the overall evaluations (RQ1), most frequently addressed characteristics (RQ2), usage patterns (RQ3), and perceived effects (RQ4) of the four groups of sex toys. A quantitative manual content analysis of = 778 online sex toy reviews showed that 79% of consumers gave popular realistic sex toys positive ratings (RQ1). The most frequently mentioned characteristics were quality, material, and shape (RQ2). Most reviewers were men and used sex toys for solo sexual activities (RQ3). An additional qualitative analysis of = 69 reviews addressing the perceived effects of sex toy use revealed that consumers predominantly mentioned positive effects (RQ4). Genitalia sex toys received better evaluations than torso sex toys and were perceived to be complementary tools to enhance sexual arousal, whereas the use of torso toys entailed anthropomorphization and symbolic social interactions. Implications for future research and design of different types of sex toys are discussed.
性玩具在互联网上广泛销售。在网上浏览、购买和评价性玩具是常见的网络性活动。本研究的目的是通过亚马逊网站上的在线产品评论，调查消费者对不同类型逼真性玩具的体验。玩具根据其对人体的呈现方式（仅代表生殖器官的生殖器性玩具与代表人体较大部分的躯干玩具）和性别描绘（代表女性身体部位与男性身体部位的玩具）进行2×2设计分类。受关于性玩具的女权主义话语以及性脚本理论和消费者研究的启发，该研究探讨了这四类性玩具的总体评价（研究问题1）、最常提及的特征（研究问题2）、使用模式（研究问题3）和感知效果（研究问题4）。对778条在线性玩具评论进行的定量人工内容分析表明，79%的消费者对受欢迎的逼真性玩具给予了正面评价（研究问题1）。最常提到的特征是质量、材料和形状（研究问题2）。大多数评论者是男性，使用性玩具进行独自性活动（研究问题3）。对69条关于性玩具使用感知效果的评论进行的额外定性分析表明，消费者主要提到了正面效果（研究问题4）。生殖器性玩具的评价优于躯干性玩具，被视为增强性唤起的辅助工具，而躯干玩具的使用则涉及拟人化和象征性社会互动。讨论了对未来不同类型性玩具研究和设计的启示。
