U.S.—”Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact,” said late German-American actress Marlene Dietrich. You find the obsession even in American politics where, ideologically, political parties hold strong sex-related views. America is a country where sex is portrayed as nothing serious, yet whole careers can be burnt to the ground on the slightest wrong move on sex.
Perhaps nothing proves America’s sex fixation more than the story of OneTaste, that company which debuted “Orgasmic Meditation” in 2016: where a female client could walk into the firm’s office and have a “professional” stimulate her clitoris for 15 minutes, a session of which can cost up to $200. The service was a global internet sensation at launch, and many wondered why anyone would pay that much to get “fingered.”
Take Snifffr for instance, an American website where (especially) women can sell used panties to buyers who love to sniff. Panties soaked in pee, female cum, or workout sweat. The costs range from $15 (excluding delivery charge) to $200. Quality of the underwear or its sexiness; how long it was worn; and how wild a buyer’s specification, can scale up the cost. (Cotton panties might be ugly, but they have a capacity to hold and retain scent and fluid—and can therefore cost more). For men with a fetish for menstrual stain, cotton is also a great candidate.
Sometimes an underwear can be dirty and sexy with evident discharge, but without quality copyrighting, the ad might fail to rouse things. “It’s almost wash day,” one underwear ad on Snifffr reads. “Why don’t you grab these before then? These have been between my huge ebony cheeks for days.”
Ad copies with compelling captions, one seller tells Nigeria Abroad, can make all the difference. She says many are earning livable incomes from the business, others just supporting their regular livelihoods. The market is safe: you don’t meet your buyers, they pay before delivery and, if your product is great, some buyers can get addicted and you cash out more.
There are also women offering manhood rating services on the site: men send them images or videos of their equipment, and they give “honest rating” as to the size, length, color, shape, and other ego-boosting frivolities about manhood. Only a few jobs in life can be that stressless yet rewarding—some will say amazing. And perhaps only in a few countries would men pay to be told, by some stranger, how pathetic or world-changing their genitals are.
If you think the foregoing is crazy enough, consider Belle Delphine, the American Instagram queen who once sold out her bathwater at $30 for each tiny cup. Many American ladies auctioned their virginities for a lump sum and that may be small news, unlike ladies on Snifffr selling cups of saliva to buyers who wish to simulate kissing. Dirty socks are on sale as are sweaty bras and yoga clothes. Scat shows too: men on the site paying to watch women poo! And because kink-shaming—shaming people for their kinks—is often condemned on American cyberspace, everyone does their thing so long as they’re hurting nobady.
In all of these comes a question: did the beauty and hygiene industry fool the world? Studies show that a lot of men are drawn to natural scents—female armpits, natural smell of the female genitalia, etc. In other words, sex is smell-driven for many, and that smell is not of deodorants but of pheromones and other natural secretions. There can be extremes in what humans consider normal sexual smell, or perhaps everyone is just on a low or high fetish spectrum.
While Nigeria’s population attests to its upward-looking national libido, sociocultural mores help to keep a rising sexual liberalism in balance.
Bringing all this back home, can the Nigerian sex market ever get to this point? “So many coded sexual services exist in Nigeria, but you won’t know,” a Nigerian sex therapist told Nigeria Abroad. “Toys are doing well, and sex parties are happening. But women selling underwear and all this other intimate stuff can’t happen because of superstition and fear.”
Despite the hold of cultural and religious conservatism, cybersex is equally booming in Nigeria, albeit at a shallow level. Nigerian pornography exists, and social hookups are thriving. While Nigeria’s population attests to its upward-looking national libido, sociocultural mores help to keep a rising sexual liberalism in balance.
Unwashed female panties may arouse Nigerian men behind closed doors, but they may never sell at the rate of minimum wage, nor will a cup of female spit cost more than 10 bottles of beer.