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Sex During Pandemic: Panic Buying of Sex Toys During COVID-19 Lockdown

Authors:
S.M. Yasir Arafat
S.M. Yasir Arafat
S.M. Yasir Arafat
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Sujita Kumar Kar at King George's Medical University
Sujita Kumar Kar
Nikhilesh B Shirahatti at King George's Medical University
Nikhilesh B Shirahatti
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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost every part of human life which reveals several peculiar human behaviors. Panic buying is one of the erratic phenomenon that has been observed in many countries of the world during this COVID-19 pandemic. The selling of online sex dolls, lingerie, and sex toys was increased during the COVID-19 lockdown in several countries like Australia, UK, Denmark, Colombia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, India, North America, and Ireland. The increase in sex toy market turnover has several implications such as customization of recreational facilities, limitations in alternative sources of pleasure, need to have sex and unfortunately, and unavailability of a partner. We speculate that people may buy sex toys in response to perceived scarcity, perceived short supply, the anticipation of price hike, or to get control over the environment. However, there could be other factors such as an extra time to explore sexuality, and being apart from the partners. There is a need to study the sexual behavior and sex toy use among people in the post-pandemic era and their repercussions on the intimate relationship.
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1 Department of Psychiatry, Enam Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka,
Bangladesh
2 Department of Psychiatry, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh, India
Corresponding author:
S. M. Yasir Arafat, Department of Psychiatry, Enam Medical College and
Hospital, Dhaka 1340, Bangladesh.
E-mail: arafatdmc62@gmail.com
Sex During Pandemic: Panic Buying of
Sex Toys During COVID-19 Lockdown
S. M. Yasir Arafat1 and Sujita Kumar Kar2
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost every part of human life which reveals several peculiar human behaviors. Panic
buying is one of the erratic phenomenon that has been observed in many countries of the world during this COVID-19
pandemic. The selling of online sex dolls, lingerie, and sex toys was increased during the COVID-19 lockdown in several
countries like Australia, UK, Denmark, Colombia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, India, North America, and Ireland. The
increase in sex toy market turnover has several implications such as customization of recreational facilities, limitations in
alternative sources of pleasure, need to have sex and unfortunately, and unavailability of a partner. We speculate that people
may buy sex toys in response to perceived scarcity, perceived short supply, the anticipation of price hike, or to get control
over the environment. However, there could be other factors such as an extra time to explore sexuality, and being apart from
the partners. There is a need to study the sexual behavior and sex toy use among people in the post-pandemic era and their
repercussions on the intimate relationship.
Keywords
Human sexuality, race, class, gender, and sexuality, sexual medicine, sociology of sex and gender
Received 18 February 2021; accepted 3 April 2021
Journal of Psychosexual Health
1–3
© The Author(s) 2021
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/26318318211013347
journals.sagepub.com/home/ssh
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost every part of
human life which reveals several peculiar human behaviors.
Panic buying is one of the erratic phenomenon that has been
observed in many countries of the world during this COVID-
19 pandemic.1 In response to the virus as well as the safety
measures, lockdown panic buying has been noticed to
stockpile necessary goods such as toilet tissue, important
medicines, masks, hand sanitizers, gloves, groceries, fuels,
food grains, and other perceived necessary goods in excess
amount.2,3 The panic buying behavior also involved the
purchase of sex toys, as reported by several reports.4-7
The selling of online sex dolls, lingerie, and sex toys
has been increased during the COVID-19 lockdown.8 It got
doubled in Australia on March 22, 2020 when the impending
shutdown of bars was declared.9,10 It was also noticed in the
UK after the declaration of the same on March 21, 2020.9,10
Denmark and Colombia have also experienced similar
phenomena in their respective countries.9 The boom of sex
toys has been tripled in New Zealand after the declaration
of a month-long lockdown in the country.10 It was prompted
during the immediate 48 h before the lockdown which was
imposed on March 25, 2020 in New Zealand.10 Sex toy
sales in Italy, Spain, and France have outpaced the projected
targets by 124%, 300%, and 94%, respectively, only in March
2020.11 An analytical survey was done by ThatsPersonal.com,
a sexual health and wellness product retailer, titled “India
Uncovered: Insightful Analysis of Sex Products’ Trends in
India,” revealed the sex toys and other adult products have
been increased 65% in India after the lockdown.12 The survey
studied over 22 million visitors resulting in about 3,35,000
sex product orders and a little below 5,00,000 products sale.12
A 30% increase in online sales in March and April of 2020 in
North America, in comparison to the same time period last
year, has been reported by Adam and Eve.13 The sex toy sale in
Ireland during the coronavirus lockdown has been increased
by 177% compared to the same time period of the previous
year.14 The sex toy export of the Chinese sex toy exporters
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction
and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 Journal of Psychosexual Health
has been increased by 50% to the biggest consumers like US,
France, and Italy.15 We-Vibe, a sex toy company, reported that
“we see no other explanation for the increase in sales other
than the coronavirus,” while attributing the increased sales.11
Interestingly, it was noticed prominently in the countries
where lockdown has been implemented stringently.11
It has been reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has
affected various domains of life signicantly, including
sexual life.16-19 The increase in sex toy market turnover has
several implications. Many people were not able to meet
their partners or were away from home due to the lockdown.
The recreational facilities are compromised. Limitations
in alternative sources of pleasure, need to have sex and
unfortunately, unavailability of a partner, might be the major
factor for buying sex toys online.
Although there is a dearth of studies, researches have
been coming out exploring the perspectives of panic buying.
One study assessed the online media reports to ascertain
the responsible factors for the behavior and found that
increased demand, the perceived importance of the goods,
the anticipation of price hike, and the COVID-19 pandemic
along with its related factors are the important deciding
factors. The study also revealed other factors mentioned as
psychological factors comprising of safety-seeking behavior,
due to uncertain environment, a way to reduce anxiety, and
taking control over the surroundings, herd behavior, lack of
trust, government action, and past experience.1 Other studies
also mentioned that perceived scarcity, gaining control,
uncertainty, insecurity, social learning, primitive behavior,
media inuence, coping behavior.20,21 Studies are warranted
to explore the psychological underpinning of buying sex
toys during the lockdown. We speculate that people may
buy sex toys in response to perceived scarcity, perceived
short supply, the anticipation of price hike, or to get control
over the environment. However, there could be other factors
such as extra time to explore sexuality, being apart from the
partners, and the absence of other entertainments. Excessive
buying and bulk buying of sexual accessories indicate that
people are having a long plan, strong need, and safe need as
there has been a popular dictum during this pandemic which
is “yourself is your safest sexual partner.” As there is an
increase in panic buying of sex toys, the business houses have
also invested in several-related accessories like ultraviolet
sanitizer for the sex toys for their safe use.6
Another perspective of this changing scenario is that
this pandemic has introduced sex toys to a larger population,
who never used it in their life. Such buying behavior may
popularize the use of sex toys and the increasing demand may
lead to expansion of the sex toy industry. It can be anticipated
that the adoption of sex toys during the pandemic may also
likely to inuence subsequent sexual behavior. There is a
need to study the sexual behavior and sex toy use among
people in the post-pandemic era and their repercussions on
the intimate relationship.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no nancial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iDs
S.M. Yasir Arafat https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0521-5708
Sujita Kumar Kar https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1107-3021
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... For example, a research conducted on the Italian population [3] showed that couples experienced negative mood associated with the discrepancy between their high sexual desire and the scarcer possibilities of actually engaging in sexual activities. On the other hand, an increase in the frequency of sexual intercourses was also reported [4], which may be explained by the fact that some couples may have kept seeing each other in person, despite social restrictions. Indeed, the presence of restrictions has damaged the sexuality of noncohabiting couples as they have not been able to meet for weeks or even months [5]. ...
... Indeed, the presence of restrictions has damaged the sexuality of noncohabiting couples as they have not been able to meet for weeks or even months [5]. The days spent at home, in the absence of external stimuli and the necessary privacy (either due to the constant presence of other family members or to the forced prolonged cohabitation), also influenced the relationship of cohabiting couples [2,4,6]. In general, most couples resorted to alternative ways of experiencing their sexuality, especially those couples who were at a distance [7]. ...
... These results are in line with those of the studies by Cito et al. [54], Cocci et al. [55] and Pascoal et al. [52], who report an increase in sexual activity during the lockdown, which could be due to the fact that some of the new couples have not complied with the restrictions by continuing to see each other in person. The increase in post-quarantine sexual activity is in line with the results of Arafat et al. [4], which showed couples in the post-lockdown period conducted more intense sexual activity than before the pandemic. ...
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... Widespread appearance of sex dolls and sex robots in mass media (Björkas & Larsson, 2021) and the sex tech industry's recent boom (Hanson, 2022a;Yasir Arafat & Kar, 2021) have increased attention on sex dolls, with some scholars speculating that hypergendered and hypersexualized designs may influence people's sexual desires (Hanson & Locatelli, 2022). The primary aim of this brief report is to empirically assess sex doll designs and compare them to human bodies so that scholars can better understand to what extent sex dolls exaggerate human characteristics. ...
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... A similar decrease in partnered sexual activities but no change in the frequency of masturbation were reported in a study conducted in Spain (Rodr ıguez-Dom ınguez et al., 2022). Possible explanations for the increase in sexual behaviors not requiring the physical presence of a partner might be due to being apart or to gain control over the environment (Arafat & Kar, 2021). However, some studies also reported a reduced frequency of solo and mutual masturbation during lockdown (Lehmiller et al., 2021;Luetke et al., 2020). ...
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  • Jun 2020
  • J MED INTERNET RES
Background: In the past few months, the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic has caused extensive economic and social damage. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures on partner relationships, sexual and reproductive health. Methods: From May 1 to 5, 2020, we recruited 3,500 young Chinese online. Aspects of sexual and reproductive health obtained using a study-specific questionnaire. Results: 967 participants were included the sexual health analysis. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures, 212 out of 967 participants (22%) reported a decrease in sexual desire; 41% (n=396) participants experienced a decrease in the sexual frequency; 30% (n=291) participants reported an increase in the frequency of masturbation; 20% (n=192) participants reported a decrease in consumed alcohol before or during sexual activities and 31% (n=298) participants reported a deterioration of partner relationship during the pandemic. The logistic regression analysis indicated that accommodation during pandemic (P = .046; OR=0.59; 95 %CI = 0.30~0.86), in/not in an exclusive relationship (P <.001; OR=0.44; 95 %CI = 0.27~0.73), sexual desire (P = .016; OR=2.01; 95 %CI = 1.38~2.97) and sexual satisfaction (P <.001; OR=1.92; 95 %CI = 1.54~2.50) were closely related to partner relationships. COVID-19 also caused disruption in reproductive health services such as prenatal and postnatal care, safe childbirth, safe abortion, contraception and the management of sexually transmitted infections. Conclusions: Our results show that due to COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures, many young participants have wide ranging issues affecting their sexual and reproductive health. Measures should be put in place to safeguard the sexual and reproductive health of young people during this pandemic. Clinicaltrial:
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The Psychological Causes of Panic Buying Following a Health Crisis
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Attributed to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, panic buying is now a frequent occurrence in many countries, leading to stockouts and supply chain disruptions. Consequently, it has received much attention from academics and the retail industry. The aim of this study is to review, identify, and synthesise the psychological causes of panic buying, which is a relatively new and unexplored area in consumer behaviour research. A systematic review of the related literature is conducted. The review suggests that panic buying is influenced by (1) individuals' perception of the threat of the health crisis and scarcity of products; (2) fear of the unknown, which is caused by negative emotions and uncertainty; (3) coping behaviour, which views panic buying as a venue to relieve anxiety and regain control over the crisis; and (4) social psychological factors, which account for the influence of the social network of an individual. This study contributes to the literature by consolidating the scarce and scattered research on the causes of panic buying, drawing greater theoretical insights into each cause and also offers some implications for health professionals, policy makers, and retailers on implementing appropriate policies and strategies to manage panic buying. Recommendations for future research are also provided.
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Characterizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Men Who Have Sex with Men Across the United States in April, 2020
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2020
  • AIDS BEHAV
The COVID-19 pandemic is reinforcing health inequities among vulnerable populations, including men who have sex with men (MSM). We conducted a rapid online survey (April 2 to April 13, 2020) of COVID-19 related impacts on the sexual health of 1051 US MSM. Many participants had adverse impacts to general wellbeing, social interactions, money, food, drug use and alcohol consumption. Half had fewer sex partners and most had no change in condom access or use. Some reported challenges in accessing HIV testing, prevention and treatment services. Compared to older MSM, those 15–24 years were more likely to report economic and service impacts. While additional studies of COVID-19 epidemiology among MSM are needed, there is already evidence of emerging interruptions to HIV-related services. Scalable remote solutions such as telehealth and mailed testing and prevention supplies may be urgently needed to avert increased HIV incidence among MSM during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
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Public Health, HIV Care and Prevention, Human Rights and Democracy at a Crossroad in Brazil
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Full-text available
  • Jan 2020
  • AIDS BEHAV
On January 2019, Brazil’s new far-right president Jair Bolsonaro was sworn into office. Bolsonaro’s administration supports downsizing the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), while increasing the size of the private health sector. The new administration might leave millions of Brazilians without medical care, including hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS. Bolsonaro’s administration, allied with a highly conservative Congress and sharp decreases in federal funding for public health, education and research, could jeopardize key health and human rights strategies focused on women, LGBTQ + individuals, Indigenous populations, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
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Panic buying: An insight from the content analysis of media reports during COVID-19 pandemic
Article
  • Jul 2020
  • NEUROL PSYCHIAT BR
Background Panic buying is an emerging phenomenon observed during, but not restricted to, pandemic. Aim We aimed to evaluate the nature, extent, and impact of panic buying as reported in the media. Methods This study was conducted by collecting the information from the English media reports published till 22nd May 2020. A structured format was developed to collect data. Searching was done by using the keyword “panic buying”. We have excluded the social media posts discussing the panic buying. Results The majority of media reporting was from the USA (40.7 %), and about 46 % of reports highlighted the scarce item. Approximately 82 % of the reports presented the causes of panic buying whereas almost 80 % report covered the impact of it. About 25.7 % of reports highlighted the rumor about panic buying and only 9.3 % of reports blamed the government. Only 27.1 % reports described the remedial measures, 30.8 % reports conferred the news on the psychology behind panic buying and 67.3 % news displayed the images of empty shelves. Conclusion A high proportion of reports on panic buying have been found from the developed countries discussing the causes & impact of panic buying on the basis of expert opinion.
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