Six straight men explain why 'pegging' is the best sex they've ever had.

Thanks to TV shows like Broad City, the act of ‘pegging’ is slowly making its way into popular culture, albeit still in a whisper.

Nothing to do with your clothes line, pegging is the term for receiving for receiving anal sex with a strap on and more and more straight men are enjoying it – or at least finally being more open to admitting it.

In the latest episode from Triple J’s sex and relationships podcast The Hook Up, host Hannah Reilly and sex therapist and relationships counsellor Giverny Lewis took a deeper look into why heterosexual men and women are drawn to it.

"It's something that a small proportion of people engage in actually, but more generally I certainly see people who enjoy having their butts played with in lots of different ways so it's not entirely uncommon," says Lewis.

She attributes the increased availability of different sexy toys online, that eliminate the need for embarrassing visits to the adult store, to its growing popularity.

Andrew* is straight and has been doing it with his partner for nearly eight years.

"It's one of the more fun things to do, it's a bit of a role reversal," he told the program.

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"It feels so good so why not do it? Honestly don't knock it 'til you try it."

For Steve who "loves" being pegged, the practice started from his rule that he wouldn't ask a partner for something he wasn't prepared to do himself.

"So when an ex-girlfriend and I were talking about anal, she suggested I try it. We did it right, slow, with plenty of lube and lots of relaxation and I was hooked," he said.

As Hugo Schwartz has argued previously in Jezebel, pegging your partner might actually be a good way to make them more thoughtful and empathetic.

"Culturally men are thought of as the dominant partner sexually and pegging allows them to experience what it is like to be penetrated and gives them penetration empathy which they can then pass on to their receptive partner as well," agreed Lewis.

Still for many men, there's a fear caused by internal homophobia or societal pressures that anything to do with the bum "makes" you homosexual.

"There is a hypocrisy,  men are really happy to have anal sex with their female partners and its almost a badge of honour yet they are not willing to be the receptive partner," said Lewis.

"Some of that is immature homophobia which is a little disappointing. Sexuality has nothing to do with the sexual acts you enjoy, its who you are attracted to."

Travis, 44, is relatively new to pegging but was keen to dispel the myth that enjoyment of the act had any link to masculinity.

"I'm a construction worker, I'm six foot one and over 100 kilos so I'm not a little fella. I go out in the mines, it's nothing to do with your masculinity. I'm a country boy, I can do anything with cattle or machinery. It's who you are. All blokes should do it. Get your girlfriend to stick their finger in your ass and have a go at it," he told The Hook Up.

He admits the first time was weird and he was "nervous".

"I've had partners play with my genitals then slide down when they're playing with them and get near my asshole and I'm like "Ooh, that feels good. Maybe you can go a bit further"," he said.

"Then I had a partner that did put her finger in and it felt good... so I gave her my credit card and she went to a sex shop and buy pegging gear. We started small and went to medium. It is amazing. I am 44 now and been thinking about it for years. It is the best sex, it is amazing."

He says he's always wondered what it feels like to be penetrated.

"It's like "Oh my god" and it stimulates you inside and when you cum it's so much better," he said.
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Dan also doesn't see anything wrong with it.

"It is awesome, there's nothing else to say, It's a good feeling. I enjoy it and there's nothing wrong with it. I don't find males attractive in that sense, but I'd be lying if I said a dick up the bum feels bad," he said.

In fact, men have much more to gain from anal sex than women. The prostate - aka the male G spot - is located in the butt, about three inches in. This makes it hard to reach with fingers, so a dildo or toy is the only thing that's going to stimulate it.

It's also a great option for men who suffer from erectile dysfunction, taking pressure away from the penis.

Nick* says he was always curious about his prostate so found it "cool" when his partner brought it up and showed she was open to it.

"But there's a stigma, for sure," he told Reilly.

"You talk to a lot of people and they say "Urgh no", there's a lot of homophobic comments that come out but I'm pretty open about it, proud to say we have a prostate and it's amazing when it's stimulated so people need to get on that."

The infamous pegging scene in Broad City. Image: HBO

In a post on Quora, user Tom Phillips said despite initially being sceptical, pegging had become he and his partner's favourite tip of sex.

"We use a double sided strap on so as she thrusts it pleasures her vagina too. For me, I just enjoy the whole body experience that you get from anal penetration - whereas normal sex is just focussed around the penis for men," he wrote.

"With pegging, it's what I imagine is closer to the orgasms that women experience. It is prolonged, rather than the five second orgasm when you ejaculate."

The Hook Up also spoke to a number of women who enjoy pegging with their partners.

For caller Skye, pegging was a natural progression from the 'prostate play' she did with her partner which gave him "really intense" orgasms.

"He could cum for half an hour. Seriously, shaking for half an hour orgasms," she said.

She believes that it's first important to use your finger before jumping to any type of toy to know what you're doing.

"We don't default to pegging for our prostate play and you need to know exactly where it is first to do it well. You need to know what button you're pushing," she said.

"I'd much rather be able to serve my partner and bring them pleasure than have them feel restricted or worried about anything."

Kate says she likes it a lot.

"I've always been interested in giving men pleasure in their ass. It started when I met this bloke and went down to give him a blow job and thought 'While I'm down here..." and rimmed his asshole and he went absolutely insane. So it all started from there," she said.

After they developed a closer relationship, fingers followed before they started talking about strap ons. They went to the sex toy shop bought a few and tried them.

"Being the penetrator was really weird because normally I'm so submissive in bed and very domineering in life. So for me to take on that role was really interesting but I found it to be really fun," she continued.

She said she was also surprised by how much you can feel.

"The amount you can actually feel through the dildo, I never thought you could feel anything but I can, and to hear his response as we're having sex and then to have those explosive ejaculations which is quite funny and it's a lovely connective thing," she said.

"The pleasure he gets out of it is more the driver for me."

Have you ever tried pegging?