Butt plug

What is a butt plug?

A butt plug is a toy that is inserted anally and stays in place. The shape is a cone with a rounded tip that narrows to a waist at the level of the sphincter, with a wide base that stays outside the body. That base is there to stop the thing from disappearing inside.

Why the shape is the way it is

Every part of a butt plug does something. The encyclopedic description lays it out: the rounded tip eases the insertion, the narrowed waist lets the sphincter close around it, and the flared part stays outside the body to keep the plug from disappearing into the rectum.

For material the same logic holds. Silicone is used most because it can be sterilized in boiling water; metal and glass are recommended because they are non-porous and so hold nothing.

What to watch for

That wide base is not a design detail but the whole safety story. In International Journal of Colorectal Disease, Dahlberg and colleagues counted that sex toys, plugs among them, were involved in 41 percent of the cases of objects left behind in the rectum, with a 17 percent chance of abdominal surgery against 4 percent for other objects. Their conclusion: a safety cord or a big enough stop would probably have prevented it.

So don’t buy a plug with a narrow stem instead of a base, and use plenty of water-based lube with silicone. If you’d like to build up to something like this calmly with someone there, that fits an intimate togetherness, where taking the time is the starting point.

Sources

• Retained sex toys: an increasing and possibly preventable medical condition. Dahlberg, Nordberg, Pieniowski, Boström, Sandblom & Hallqvist-Everhov, International Journal of Colorectal Disease 34(1), 181–183, 2019. Gives the share of sex toys among retained objects, the surgery risk, and the advice on a stop of sufficient size.
• Butt plug. Wikipedia. The description of the shape with rounded tip, waist, and flared base, its function, and the material choice of silicone, metal, and glass.

Related terms

• Anal beads. The same principle but as a series: sensation per bead instead of constant fill.
• Figging. The same shape, but cut from ginger root and meant to burn.
• Fisting. Where stretching with a plug leads for some people.
• Pegging. The step this plug is the build-up for, for many people.
• Petplay. The roleplay the tail version of this plug exists for.
• Prostate massage. What the curved version of this plug is made for.
• Anal hook and anal sex are the other closest neighbors.