A Century of Great Sex...

It hasn’t always been candy flavoured condoms and contraceptive pills! Bedroom antics in the 30s were a mark away from the kinky-sex-toy antics completely acceptable today.

Shaping our sex lives throughout the century, Ne

w Zealand women have had to fight for our bedroom accessories and our rights as new products are introduced and more services put in place. nzgirl walks you through a century of great sex…

The end of the 1920s was a big time for sex in New Zealand as women started to find their legs and better options than keeping them closed. Not only was the Durex brand name registered in 1929 but The Family Planning Association (FPA) was set up by a small group of women concerned about lack of access to information about birth control.

It was a bit of an unpopular cause at the time but these troopers ran a postal service delivering information and contraceptives as well as referring women to sympathetic doctors. You owe a lot to these strong ladies because while it may not seem like much today, they risked prosecution for distributing “obscene” material.

In the 1950s Durex came through for us ladies and made things a bit more comfortable in the bedroom with the first lubricated condom. The 50s also saw the opening of the first Family Planning clinics – we were

making progress.

The sixties were all about sexy, fun-loving times which is just as well the oral contraceptive pill was introduced. Women now had greater control over their fertility to keep those buns out of the oven.

The 70s were all about choice. For those batting for the other team, Gay Liberation was set up by a lesbian woman and the first national lesbian conference held. Abortion was also a hot topic with lobby groups campaigning for greater choice for women.

People were starting to realise the dangers of unprotected sex and condoms became (quite conveniently) more widely accessible. Those vending machine deals in your local pub came into play (one of the places the more likely to pick up a seedy man) as well as in the dairy and supermarket next to your tampons.

The 90s saw New Zealand women expanding their horizons with the introduction of new and different condoms to try. Going down South became tastier with the launch of the flavoured Durex Select range and things got a bit more exciting with ribbed condoms. Durex was also ahead of the rest to release non-latex condoms. With all the selection, things were definitely on the rise in the bedroom.

Of course, it wasn’t just condoms we were experimenting with and 1998 saw the opening of sex shop d.vice. Directors Wendy and Ema opened shop after becoming frustrated about not being able to buy good quality sex toys in a comfortable environment. A lot of women must have agreed because it’s still going strong 10 years on.

Sex is no longer taboo, in fact our society is now full of exhibitionists – think ALT TV’s Naked News (a bit of a different expose to regular news journalism) with your well endowed presenter Lisa Lewis, if you want to flash your tits down Queen St you can jump on a bike for an annual joy ride and then tottle off to the Erotica Lifestyle’s expo. Things have also raunched up a bit on TV (a la the rough and tumble sex scenes from Outrageous Fortune) so at the very least we’re a tad more accepting of sex as something normal in society rather than the devils work.

Of course the 00’s have also brought us such treats as Durex’s Performa condoms. Perfect for those girls suffering from the premi or who just want that bit more, the trick here is the special lubricant at the tip of the condom which will delay the spray and keep things harder for longer. Failing that, there’s some pretty high tech toys available now which almost renders the need for a man redundant – now that my dear girls, is a good place to be.