For so long, the 1960s have been credited for changing how sex is viewed but we’ve since entered a renewed sexual renaissance – only this time with a deserved focus on female pleasure. 

Writing for Vogue last year, journalist Maya Singer reported that the world – the pre-pandemic one no less – was at “some kind of tipping point“. Singer was referring to the sudden uptick in female intimate products including women’s vibrators, body massagers, chic personal lubricant and even vibrators that also functioned…as wearable jewellery? For all of the sex, drugs, and rock-&-rolling that ensued during the ‘free love’ movement of the ’60s, could the counterculturist hippies have boasted owning a necklace that also achieved clitoral climax? 

Along with the introduction of the Pill and an influx of newer, more risqué fashion, the ’60s had an indisputable impact on our sexual mores and how we’ve come to understand human intimacy as a whole. But as author Virginia Nicholson notes, men rather than women stood to gain from this newfound freedom. It would take decades more before rightful attention turn towards women, their pleasures, and their desires.

It would appear to have taken us a global pandemic to get serious about female pleasure. And though conversations around female sexuality have been commonplace for some time now, with so much alone time in 2020 and left to ones own devices (literally), the trend of sexual wellness has reached a pinnacle.

More than ever, leading sex experts are providing inclusive education on topics such as physical intimacy, boundaries, and the complexity of our bodies. Spurring from the pandemic, isolation also digitalised the second sexual revolution with erotica apps like Dipsea and sex tech companies at the helm of female founders. More recently, A-lister-endorsed intimate brands such as Maude and Lora Dicarlo have become something of the new celebrity fragrance. It follows that after interminable lockdown, everyone – regardless of gender or preference is ready to embrace sex more enthusiastically.

Sexual wellness views sex not only in aspects of pleasure but health too. Because for as much as pleasure is an entitled right to willing individuals, it is also the basic building block of our health. Within this new pleasure revolution is a fundamental reminder that can best be summed in the words of internet darling and Maude co-founder Dakota Johnson: “Taking care of your body in a sexual way should be the same as taking care of your body in terms of nutrients, skincare [and] exercise.”

If you’re looking for a starting point to explore your sexuality, we pull together tips and advice from Hong Kong’s leading sex expert, Vera Lui of Sally’s Toy.

In matters of the body, knowledge is pleasure 

The Internet holds a minefield of sexual knowledge. Still, the female body is often viewed as some sort of an enigma, near impossible to understand. It isn’t just partners who report being unable to identify a woman’s body part. You are almost bound to have come across a woman or vulva-owner, confused over whether or not they’ve experienced an orgasm before. And coupled with the limits of conventional sex-ed, this mystery around the female anatomy is perhaps why we still view exploring it as something to be ashamed of.

Founder of Sally’s Toy, a female-founded sex toy shop with locations across Hong Kong, Vera Lui believes that knowledge is “the key to unlocking sexual pleasure”. Lui advises vulva-owners to embark on a journey of self-discovery, adding that self-exploration is crucial in knowing what the body likes during sexual intimacy.

Consider the mighty sex toy, an ultimate form of self-care