A Ladies Guide To Condoms: Part II

A Ladies Guide To Condoms: Part II

So what don't women like in a condom? Bumps and ridges, for one. Anything which might conceivably add stimulation can also add irritation, and those little nipples and pimples have little to offer as far as the good stuff goes, bringing only the possibility of a truly annoying sensation to the party.

Like I said in my previous posts on the subject, women seem to like condoms thin and strong!

Friction in sex is a funny thing: in one sense, it's pretty much nothing but friction ("90% of sex is fantasy + friction," an old colleague of mine used to teach. I don't remember what he said the other ten percent comprised but we tend to be designed to very strict tolerances as far as friction goes: this much is nice and indeed necessary; this much is annoying, this much is a "Get the hell off me right now" deal-breaker.

We'll get on to lubricants in my next post but in the meantime, avoid condoms with unnecessary bits and bobs. A possible exception is the Inspiral and Pleasure Plus types with extra "headroom" so your gentleman friend doesn't' feel so crowded in there. And these types may carry some slight advantage for women, especially extremely sensitive women who are able to feel the difference between circumcised and not without looking first. But again, if you can feel the extra material for good, you may just as easily feel it for evil. Still, as my friend Mae points out, a condom isn't much of an investment. If you want to try one, try one. What have you got to lose?

Well, spermicide, for one. After a brief career as a potential anti-HIV agent, the standard spermicide, Nonoxynol-9, crashed and burned. It doesn't kill viruses, it turns out, and as a condom additive it does nothing to reduce unwanted pregnancies. What it can do is cause infections and skin irritation and increase the likelihood of disease transmission, so it's pretty much lose/lose as an additive. Best avoided.

So what should you buy? My own aesthetics dictate that simple is best, strong but thin, unflavored, lightly lubed if at all (you can always add lube), inoffensively colored. Yours might lean more toward the festive but keep in mind that the more ingredients something has the more likely somebody is to react to it. (For those who react to latex, period, cutting down on ingredients won't help but switching materials entirely, to the Avanti polyurethane models, will).

Crowns are nice. Kimono makes excellent products, with the fringe benefit of running a bit snugger, as they say, while being very discreet about it. In fact, Kimono's smallest condom, says Mae, may even suffer slightly from a presentation problem, so eency-weency does it look straight out of the package, but the vast majority of men can wear them just fine once they get over the blow to their dignity.

Most men can wear just about any condom, really, but this being what you might call a personal decision, and going back to the stocking stuffer idea, all the nice sex-supply purveyors (my favorite condom place is condomania will sell you a sample pack for under $10, which will run the gamut from basic basics (Skinless Skins) to baroque fancies (Trojan Twisted Pleasure) and if you and he can't find something to agree on amid the bounty, somebody isn't trying.

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