Sexy Comics & Laying Eggs with Erika Moen & Matthew Nolan!

Welcome to Reading Smot, where we read horny books and talk to the people who love them. I'm Mallory O'Mara here with Bria Grant, and this month Very exciting. We are talking about Smut as Sex Ed with Erica and Matt from O Joy SexToy. Folks, I've been such a big fan of these two for so long. I'm so excited that we're having them on the show. But before we smut it up, let's hear some pillow talk from our listeners.

Hannah wrote in to say, Hi Briant Mallory, I absolutely agree that a lot of why billionaire romances are popular is that we crave financial security and all the relief of stress and decisions that come with that. However, I hate the billionaire romance trope. What I find interesting lately is that romance authors are trying to make billionaires ethical now because I think they know their readers are starting to turn tide on billionaires. However

Any book I've read where they try this, it does not work. And that just makes me angrier. If you're gonna make him a billionaire, then have the Hutzpa to make him ethically and morally grey. Anyway, I've been loving the show and I'm recommending almost every episode to one person or another because I know it'll have something that interests them. Hannah, first off, thank you so much. Also, I completely agree. It is really funny to have an author be like, he's a billionaire.

But he's good. Maybe just make him make him a shit make him just make him a piece of shit. Make him a piece of shit or make him you know, you don't have to be billionaire. Billion is so much money. It's so much money. It's so much money. It's too much money. Even now. Even now when when eggs cost five thousand dollars, that's still so much money.

Way too much money. A millionaire's plenty. Y'all, you can just have if you really need this as your kink, like Then yes, just make him a make don't you don't have to go full billionaire. Never go full billionaire, you know? That's just a big thing. Never go full billionaire. Um Emily wrote in and said, I love you both, but Bria

This one is this one's about hockey, so feel free to go get a snack. Yep, Mallory's making it. Although Bria's all in on hockey now. Bria's Bria's into hockey now. I've never I will never be all in on any sport, but I have a I have a slight interest in hockey. I have a slight peaked interest in hockey is what's happening. Slight slight and Mallory's trying to give me to go to a game, but I don't know if it's gonna happen.

Um, I'm writing to thank Mallory for mentioning Luke Prokop, the first openly gay high level hockey player. I'm a queer Milwaukee Admirals fan and was so proud to see Procop make AHL history when he debuted with my team. He also served as a Grand Marshal for Milwaukee Pride earlier this year. I had hoped other players would follow his example and help make men's hockey a safer place for queer people, but sadly that hasn't been true so far.

For now, I'll have to make do by escaping to my MM hockey romances. My library hold on heated rivalry just came in. I'm so excited to read a romance with Mallory-approved hockey action that will keep me fully immersed. Thank you for the podcast. It's been so fun to see you both explore the all the places Smut can take us, both fantastical and familiar. That is great. And hey

Stay tuned because we're about to record a heated rivalry follow up to our heated rivalry episode to talk about the show. Because we have been watching the show like a lot of people my entire Second Instagram feed is just heated rivalry memes. The amount of texts I get about heated rivalry from people who don't watch hockey is amazing. This is a bonus episode you're not gonna wanna miss because if you think we're unfiltered on this show regularly, oh man.

During the bonus episodes. We're gonna be we're gonna be taught we've all we've all four of us have finished the show. Some of us have watched every episode multiple times. And we got we got a lot of fun, exciting thoughts. So check that out. Also, folks, if you are excited about heated rivalry, if you are proud of Luke Pro Cop, he's on the Bakersfield condors right now. So if you are in Bakersfield, go see him play. Go show him some love.

And remember you can always email us at reading smut podcast sixty nine at gmail dot com. You can sign up for our monthly newsletter. There's a link in the show notes and we're gonna get into some smut culture after a short break. Hi, I am Jordan Cruciola and I host Feeling a Scene. I'm here with Maximum Fun, member of the month, Khalil Goodman. Hi Khalil. Hi Jordan. Thank you for having me. So great to see you.

I gotta know what's made you feel scene if you I figure you've thought about this if you've listened to the show a bunch. I read X-Men when I was six. When you're a a kid who makes art, which I am and you're a queer kid, like there's this feeling of like something is different but you don't know what it is.

Yeah. You can be different, but it can be a superpower. What would you say to others who might be considering supporting the show? What would be your sales pitch to them? If you love this thing, if you are getting all of this.

joy and comfort from this thing. Make sure that this thing that you like will continue. Thank you so much, Khalil, for taking the time to talk to me today and for listening to the show. My God, it means a lot to just know people are really listening and and valuing what they're hearing. Become a Maximum Fun member now at maximumfun.orgslash join.

And we are back to Reading Smut. This month we're talking with cartoonist Erica Mowen and creative director Matt Nolan from OJoy Sex Toy. I have been a big fan of the two of these people for a very long time, so I'm so excited that we've got them on the show. But before we get into all these questions I do have to ask, Erica, Matt, what are your smut reading origin stories? What is the what was the first time you encountered some smut?

I think for me it would have been Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction in like the late nineties. That is so beautiful. On the internet? You're finding this on the on the internet or where where is the Where's this store? I do like the idea of finding a Sonic the Hedgehog smut under the highway in a bush, like a lot of people would find.

Um, no, I I I was just looking for fanfiction and then it was like a regular fanfiction that just like randomly took a sexy turn and I'm reading, I'm like, am I supposed to be reading this? And I was probably like thirteen, four. Okay. That is that's very beautiful. Can I just ask, can you do you remember Sonic who Sonic and who? Do you remember? Uh no, it it wasn't Sonic. It was I mean, it was uh I think it was Tails Fox.

And I think him and Bunny bunny rabbit. How do you remember this? Because it was very good. I was gonna say this this is the kind of stuff that really brands itself into your mind. Well also'cause like it just hadn't even occurred to me that you would make Tails and Bunny Kiss. Right, that that's not okay. That's I mean there's an age gap. Oh

Okay, sure. Yeah. Right,'cause Tails is very young, right? Tails is essentially a child. Yeah, that's right. I think I think maybe he was eight I don't think he like in real life, in in canonically, Tails is I think maybe Ten years old. But in the story he was aged up he was aged up to be like a young teenager. Okay. So it was like

kind of appropriate. He would be at that stage of life where you're experimenting and Oh my god Bunny Rabbot was right there. Okay. All right. I really love that even at this young age you were thinking about ethics of sex. I think that's quite beautiful.

But that w All right. Matt Matt, you've got to top that somehow. What was your your your first exposure? I I can't. I I mean it was probably fanfiction too. I I mean I've I've always really enjoyed fanfiction, but I can't tell you where it all started. My memory's so shot. I I yeah. Uh I don't think archive um Archive of our own? I don't think that existed back then. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure what I'm saying.

All right. So no actually I do have the memory uh because it used to be before the internet. Teenagers would find their first pornography either in their parents' room or they would be out in the woods and they would find like a satchel of porn. Surely just a bag under a bush. That I actually had that experience where my school at my high school we had uh these cleaning crews that we were all high schoolers, we were a part of the cleaning crew.

And uh and they were led by seniors in high school who when I was a freshman, of course a senior seemed like an adult. And uh and I remember my cleaning crew was out and one of the eighteen year olds found a satchel under a bush, pulled it out, and it was full of porn and Like that was uh I I feel like I'm one of the last people who got to have that experience of finding a corn under a brush. That is

The last porn under a bush. This is the this is the next Indiana Jones movie that we're all gonna write. Yeah. Uh okay, so knowing Indiana Bones knowing about the lasonic thing that kind of

Which uh gives me a picture of the next question. So Ojoy Sextoy has been doing sexy comics for a very long time. What brought you both? there? What what like why sexy comics as opposed to prose, more video game fanfiction? Like where what why would why was comics the medium that you picked? Well, I mean you looked at me, but it comics is your your your zone. It all came from doing a lot of autobiographical comic work that you sort of naturally started to do a little bit of

sexy focus on and that kind of was the basis for O Joy's sex toy. Oh wait, w w your question were I interpreted that to mean like why do we feature sexy comics? On our site? Is that Oh no, I just like what what made you interested in creating sexy comics? Oh, oh yeah. No, what Matt said. See this is why you get married to someone so they they they can remember stuff about you. So you were so you were making these autobiographical comics.

Yep. And and as I became interested in sex, like obviously I was gonna translate that and process it through making comics about it and uh just understand it better by Like some people will journal, um, their thoughts and what I do is I comic them basically and Yeah, uh and and also it came from a place of when I was learning about sex, it was uh early days of the internet, so that really wasn't where you would go to to get all it was wasn't that readily available.

Um, and so I could not imagine what a lot of this sex stuff looked like. I could not uh put together how these things fit together, what you were supposed to do. And so as I started to learn, I I took it upon myself to be like, I'm going to draw this so it makes sense.

And um and I want other people to be able to l hear about this and to look and have a diagram of like this is what it looks like. Uh'cause to me comics is just how you explain things. It's how you make things really crystal clear to everybody. Yeah, and and building on that, we you know, we we were doing Ojoy for maybe about eight years.

And we were like, Oh, that's a lot of autobi. We were doing a comic every week and we were trying to do one educational piece maybe each month because the e education took a lot of work. So it was like, Well, we can we can get one hard comic done in in in the month. We'll do a few reviews, we'll do a few little stories.

But eventually we were like, Oh, we need to start hiring other people, yeah, getting other stories in. And when you start reaching out to other cartoonists, they they have they're the the most creative people in the world. They'll have the coolest, sexiest comic ideas. And so we had a lot of fiction and uh um just little fun short comics pitched to us and it was like, okay, well we can't have too much of that. We would like to keep the same order bio mix and education mix.

So it became like a real like trying to find a good balance between the occasional sexy comic and You know, a comic about H P V V or something. Mm-hmm. Wow. So that I man I also, Erica, I do love that even at an early age you'll you were both concerned about the ethic ethics of sex but also concerned about sex education. You're like I gotta I gotta share this knowledge. I have to I have to I gotta tell the people about all of this how this works.

No, it r I I really felt that strongly. I mean, I didn't think of it in terms of like this is sex education. It was just like Uh'cause my the household I was raised in was h very fear mongery and scary about sex and it was just like this constant like this terrible thing you have to hide and protect from. And then when I started to learn like, oh no, sex can actually be this positive thing.

I I was just like, Oh my god, does anybody does anybody else know? Like does does anybody else know that sex can actually be a positive nice thing? Yeah, I gotta tell everybody because I just assumed everybody had the same education I did.

Um so yeah, that that's And it i it was early day internets too, where where a lot of the stuff wasn't being posted or shared yet at all. Like now it's like there's just so much of it. Yeah. But like back then it was like, Oh, you wanna do a little comic about uh you know uh getting on with a girl, like that there really wasn't anything like that. Um so it was all new ground at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Um when I was very very first getting with my first girlfriend, I uh

Like I I couldn't imagine what going down on her looks like. I didn't you know,'cause we all have a picture of what a blowjob is because we have cartoons of it everywhere, like, you know, graffiti, whatever, blah blah blah. And it's just like, what does what do you do with your mouth with the bits? How what does that even look like? And so

My first sex education comic I did was in college and I I d illustrated like this is this is some of the things that you can do. This is some of the places where you can put this and put that and try this and um yeah,'cause I just I just I didn't want it to be a secret. I wanted people to know. You're I mean you're an American hero as far as I'm concerned. Not all heroes were paid. So there are so many romance and erotica readers out there. It is, you know, probably for many, many years has been

keeping the publishing industry alive. It but there's a lot of romance and erotica readers who would never even think to think about comics in that way. Why do you think people should read more sexy comics? Is it just because you can la there's always these jokes on on the bookish internet of people trying to like

act out scenes from romance novels'cause they're not sure how they work, but in comics you don't gotta worry about that. So like what what do you think is the benefit for readers or the draw maybe?

I it's it's like the coolest medium in the world. Like i it it sits right between where you read something and you have to imagine and it sits in your brain and uh you know, uh a visual m movie thing where y you you're being shown frame to frame. And it sits in that perfect place where you can spend time looking at a panel, you can spend time reading something, going back and reading it, uh uh seeing intent behind what's being shown. Um and

Y it just it it's it's just a wonderful little place. I think there's nothing quite like it. Um Yeah,'cause like when you watch a movie, you're literally seeing things in action, in motion. And when you're reading a comic, it's it's basically taking a still. And in one image it has to convey the motion and the movement. So like that's what y your brain is filling in those uh those moments in between.

So it's like your brain is still being active. It's not just passively absorbing this information. You still between panel to panel, your brain has to fill in and make the connection between what happened in between the space that I'm not actually seeing. So it's still like this. creative little thing going on in your mind.

And um and and just for people who like visual stimulation, uh the there it is. It's visual. It's stimulating you. Um and and going back to like reading just purely prose text. If you don't know what things look like, if you don't know how things fit together, like okay, you can read this description, but like you don't still don't really know what that like what is Tails doing with me? Um oh sorry. Um whereas

with a comic, uh yeah, you're you're seeing it. And it can like it it can give you fresh brand new ideas about how things can go together. Cause you know, you can describe missionary sex. But if somebody's drawing it, maybe they show it from this different angle. They can show this different I I don't know. It just it can give you brand new ideas about things that you think you already know.

And with comics you can be really playful with it and you can be really creative and you can get like metaphorical in the images. You can Um you know oh we did uh we we published a comic about somebody who has Cynthia. Oh, the hearing one. Yeah. Was it what oh didn't she have visual stuff too? Oh uh maybe sure. Okay. Well I w we we published a comic from somebody whose name I am embarrassingly blanking on. But when she uh orgasms, she has this visual

thing that happens. Whoa. She sees colors. And yeah, and I I have that a little bit too. Um and it uh and and sh in the comic she could show that. She could show us what she sees when she comes. And like e I I mean, I guess you could describe that in text. Like that that is possible. But like or you could just look at it. That's cool. That is so there's like there's stuff you can do that's really fun in comics where you you you can break the walls, you can you can play outside panels.

You can choose your own paneling, you can you know you can show the pacing of how somebody dictates and speaks. by breaking things up into balloons, you know, um but it still invites a lot of creativity on the reader's part where they get to read those voices in the ways they want. They get to sort of fill in in between panels. I don't know, dude. It's like the best

format a medium in the world and like I agree. Don't don't speak on it. Like for it's it's it's it's really good comics. Have you heard of comics? Have you heard the good news? Uh no, they're great. Uh it's you know, and it works fantastic for reading sexy comics too. And I uh another example I have is um the first comic I ever did talking about my first orgasm that I had.

Uh I I started it by showing just regular Erica drawings. I'm it's like from the shoulders up, and there's these three panels showing me. shoulders up, kind of looking confused, and then being like, huh. And then the final panel, my eyes like bug out. And then the drawing melts. It melts through the panel and it melts into this my my what my body felt and it's my body twisting into these curves and and liquid and blah blah blah. And like

Uh i like it's a very visual image, right? And I could describe that in text, but through comics I could show you how I I broke from it was reality, reality, reality to suddenly melting and you could see the journey that my whole body and brain went on in a Cool way. And so So cool.

So for someone who is looking like someone listening right now is like, wow, this sounds amazing. How do I how do I get some of this? Like are there besides yourself, are there any writers, cartoonists, comic artists that you recommend that do sexy work that would be good for someone to seek out?

Oh yeah. Yeah, I I go to to catch all places. Places that will do we'll hire lots of different artists so that way because you you'll see one comic and you'll you'll it won't click with you at all, the visual won't be your your cup of tea. But you'll find somebody else that you'll be like, wow, that's really, really great. So I generally like to try to encourage people to sort of go to places where you you'll see a different comic every uh every post or whatever.

Uh Slipshine is really good at that. You have to pay for it, but it you they hire a lot of different artists. Similarly is um Uh filthy figments, which um they're both small, independent little publishing houses. Very queer, very but you get some indie. Really wonderful, amazing stories. Um and it's a really great way of having a lot of exposure.

But then just I I don't know, s going onto social media and being on like Blue Sky and just looking at people's different posts or finding an artist you like and then seeing who they post. If you just spend an hour doing that you'll run into like twenty different new artists that you'll be really keen on and you know, you'll find out that they've drawn a comic and it works out great. And also uh like yeah this is self promotional but

It's legit a good resource. Um, if you go look at the the sexy erotica comics that we publish on Ojoy, we have a really good collection of very diverse cartoonists who have. very different styles and you can get this nice smorgasboard of different artists to sample and then their contact information and their links are are in the blog post below. So like that's that's a pretty good place to check out.

It can confirm. Can confirm. So I love my copy of Drawn to Sex so much and as two people who have been doing such a sex education work for a very long time, do you think Like what what listeners are doing. They're reading smart, they're reading romance novels. Do you think that has a place in learning about sex and sexuality? I mean obviously you l you learned about sex through through tales, but

for you know, right now the w m ki people come people growing up have the internet. Do you think maybe reading about it also has a has a place in that sort of in that sort of galaxy? Yeah, it helps broaden horizons. It's not like a must do, right? Like you I don't I don't feel like you have to go read three smut books in order to say your sex education is done, right? Like but it's it's

It it's a great way of exploring things and there's no shame in that. There's no I don't think it is a must do. I don't know. Well and also like for fun, uh we've we've had sexy comics submitted to us where they've talked about featured things that I didn't think I was into and then like reading the comic and seeing how the artist portrayed it.

and how they they literally show what they find appealing about this thing that I would be like, that that's not sexy. And then reading the comic I'm like, Oh that's Oh, like that is kind of sexy. Oh, I kind of get it. And even if you're not personally gonna be like, I wanna try that, it can still humanize and uh En and translate the appeal of certain sexual practices.

That might be considered kind of weirdsies. Or or even if they're not out there, just like stuff that you didn't think you would be into, and you can see, oh, this is what somebody is getting out of it. This is the appeal of it. Because you've got an artist.

pouring their love and putting their perspective and literally showing you what they find magical about it into an image that you consume. So I think it's a really great way to Empathize and with other uh sexual practices that are different to your norm or outside your norm, um yeah. Just adding a little bit of, you know, adventure and exploration I think is just part of learning about sex. You know, uh go expose yourself to a bunch of different things and see what sticks and don't be too

worried about you know, n not having everything stick or anything like that. Just just And a little bit of exposure's good. Also o on the other side of it, like people uh being told like, Oh, well you you have to you if you're gonna be in a sexual relationship, you you have to perform these certain sex acts and you can like

see examples here and be like, actually, I know for a fact I do not want to try that. Um and I think it can help give you an idea of like maybe what you don't want to do while still being respectful. Like I get why other people would be into that. But like I I just When you can see and sample these things from a distance, I think it just builds your

uh mental vocabulary of what you're interested in, what you are not interested in. And then should you find yourself with somebody else, it kind of just gives you a starting point to know what's on the table, what what you're what's not on the table, blah blah blah. Uh uh and to balance it out though, I I would say that bringing a level of a little bit of caution to or or at least uh conscious thought to your fiction when you when you're reading fiction can be really healthy too.

Like I I would never point at fifty shades of grey and say that is good education or that's a good way of having a a relationship. Because it's not. You know, it's it's not well done. But if you go into it knowing it's a little bit of fiction, it's a little bit of you know, sugary treat. Mm-hmm. That's fine. But it shouldn't be like the basis or foundation for your sex education, right? Like it should be a

I'm I'm having a look at this and I'm finding some of it really interesting and maybe I'll go explore some of that later. Or maybe it's just I'm I'm enjoying reading it and finding it really titillating right now. But it it might not be like Right. Like it's not how you should move forward in the world. Right. So just because you're reading something and enjoying it isn't make it a a

a guide map for what you're actually gonna do in real life or how you actually wanna approach a real life situation. Like there's a place for fiction and there's a place for fiction that absolutely should not exist in real life. And it's okay to still consume it as fiction, as an escapism, as a a as something illicit, as something that pushes a hot button.

In fiction and then you go back to real life where you are respectful and consensual and blah blah blah. Yeah, unfortunately, no no sexy fairies, no minotaurs. No, uh none of that exists in real life, unfortunately. Yeah, I mean something we talk about, Bria. It's like when we did that um that demon book.

And it had all that like BDSM scenarios and those are the kind of things that you might think that are really sexy until you are in the place of a character and you're like, actually, this is not for me. I really don't like this So uh I think uh thinking about it as sampling things I think is a really healthy, fun idea. It's just a bottom. Yeah, taking and I think taking the mystery out of it, like and like this is like and having open conversations about what

works and what doesn't and what is fantasy and what is not. I think that's a that's just extremely healthy and something we're not doing a lot of people I used to have a friend who owned um a line uh or a franchise of like um sex toy shops in New Hampshire and he told me the amount of people at when Fifty Shades of Grey that came in and had never bought anything before, never done any sort of kink or anything and came in and he was like

You cannot just read this book and jump into this stuff. This is a terrible idea. I don't want to lose money. I do want to sell you something, but maybe not this stuff. is uh yeah, there's th we gotta we gotta conversations and education uh have to go with all of it, I think.

Yeah. Yeah, but how great is it that it it still brought those people in the store in the first place. And that your friend was was good enough to be like, Whoa, hold up. Let's have a conversation here real quick. Let me point you in the right direction. Or let me point you at, you know, beginner BDSM toys, right? Like let's let's do that first.

Um that's really rad. That's really wonderful. I see that all as a win win. Yeah. It's really that's what's so fun about this genre. Um okay, we have more fun questions, uh, but before we finish talking to Erica and Matt, we're gonna take a quick break.

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And we are back to reading smut Okay so Erica, Matt, the two of you have been professionals in the world of sex toys for a very long time. Do you think the rise of romanticy and monster fucking books and these horny fairy books has affected the sex toy industry or have fantasy themed toys always been popular and the book world is th the little the smut readers are just catching up.

Uh, I think uh this I I don't have facts or anything, but my feelings tell me that i it's the readers who have influenced the sex toy industry and specifically um indie sex toy makers. Uh so we've uh it's the indie sex toimakers who are the ones who are who m led the way on making monster cocks and uh like tentacle dildos and stuff.

Uh and I think they were responding to seeing the the want from the readers who are reading this fantasy stuff. And uh and then they're like, Hey, I I can make this and now Are there Are there big time toy makers that are getting into making more fantastical? Yeah, yeah, there is.

I mean i th it's all kind of grown in tandem. I I don't know if one, you know, preceded the other, but I think you've got more people who are like uh ru enjoying their fiction, enjoying, you know, porn, getting more and more imaginative. And then like at the same time you've got like m small independent people who are becoming more uh um Like they they've able to get access to like three D modeling software and three D printing.

And so they're able to actually create things from their imagination rather than just buying something from a toy store and then, you know, m not being able to m uh you know, make your own custom thing. So you've got all these thousands and s thousands of small time Lil' bespoke toys. Or sometimes very big bespoke toys. Yeah. Well yeah, for some but they uh but like it's it's all just sort of feeding each other. Um I think

The sex toy industry is kinda changing and growing with that. And I think fiction is also growing with that too. Where now it it's starting to understand that, you know, people have an appetite for Really, really crazy creative toys. That's so beautiful. Listeners You have the power. You have the power is in your hands. You can change the industry yourself.

But so for listeners who have never tried one, is it just like is it just the aesthetic of it or like the tentacles, do the knots, do they actually make a difference, or is it just like is it the fant the mental fantasy of it? Ah, it's gonna be both different strokes for different folks. Like everybody's body's real different. So y somebody's gonna be like, Oh, I I just can't get off unless mine is a a three headed tentacle something. Like that that is what does my body right.

But the but another person will be like, That's completely wrong. It doesn't I I need mine to be this, right? So It it it really depends on the person. the amount of choice that we have now is just out of this world. Like you really can find something, try it and be like, oh, it's not quite right, but I'm I'm getting a better bead for what my body wants. Um but then the visual side and the aesthetic like that's really important too. Like you you wanna know that you're having a

toy that you're connecting with or that that excites you when you look at it, like that's really that's important too. Mm-hmm. I I'm just thinking that there's ones that'll like lay eggs in you. Oh the overpositories yeah you've got little Excuse me, what please explain. What do you mean? What where do they go after? Where do they go after? A tentacle tube And then you have like a little silicon egg. Or gelatin. Oh, they dissolve inside.

Okay. Bria, your whole new world out there for you, my friend. The world is I you know what? And I appreciate it that people are going out of the way to make these things. It's very it's very good. It's good a whole new world out there. Imagine we you we went from porn under a bush to tend to eggs in your body. The world has changed.

So do the two of you have I mean you're talking about really fun indie bakers. Do you have any particular like uh indie indie sex toy makers that are your favorites. I mean I every I always read your best toys of the year reviews and it's always fun. Even if I'm not gonna look at stuff, I I I like seeing what you you pick as your favourite. So if there are any There are any uh makers that you'd like to highlight, we'd love to hear them.

Yeah, uh it's it's it's tougher nowadays'cause we've not been doing as many reviews, so we've not been as looped in. Um but we we've got some old favourites that we we do really still enjoy the companies and the people who work behind them. I think that's half half half the victor well, half the important part for me is like

finding out that the people who are making that toy are generally really interested and invested in those toys and are nice people, like to me m really makes a toy feel really um I I get really proud of having it, right? Um But so I I've got a few I've got uh undercover creations creates really cool grinder toys that um are are the sort of in vogue right now that

What's a grinder toy? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, there you go. That's it. Um so they make really cool creative ones where y if you want to grind up against I don't know, s tentacles. Tentacles with a beak on it, like cool. Uh uh Dread the Empire makes tiny little bespoke.

Well, not tiny, they're huge, but they're but they're bespoke fancy alien toys that uh are made even better because they do these very limited drops that you have to be following them on their socials and you have to wait for them to be like, Oh, we have we have a a small collection that we're putting out there and then you'll you'll buy them and they're just the coolest looking

freakiest toys. Um I've always really enjoyed that company. They're really, really great. Um Then Fun Kit Toys, which is like a small guy, I wanna say, who has a few in a regular size. His name is Tom Thumb. He makes great sex toys. It takes him a really long time, but they are great. Well they so fun kit toys make really very basic toys. So it's like um rather than going the full extreme, this is an alien perfectly um laser. Lase eggs perfectly sort of designed. This is more um

I I don't know, uh simpler shapes, um and but really stunning and really pretty and really thoughtfully done. And that's it's I feel like it's on par. Th there's like w one of those does one job, the other one does the other. Um Then Twilight Meadows and Strange Strange Bed Fellows. Which they both just make wild wacky fantastical creature toys. Um and then uh Werdog and North Northosaur, which I can't think of.

N O Northasor. Northrosaur, which make really good bestial ones. Um they're th they'll make really interesting fantasy creatures. Um I have a lot of recommendations. That's you you'll put'em on the hit O Joy Sex Toy. And we have a have links to a bunch of them. Yeah. Reviews, we've got reviews of stuff. But uh you really can't go wrong. Like you just if you start exploring and having a look and

Mm-hmm. You know, sometimes if you find a performer you like, the performer will have recommendations for toys or little companies. And that's always just really exciting to go have a look at. Fantastic yeah, we we this this is gonna be maybe our l our most link heavy episode ever. There's gonna be so many links in the show notes.

So something we see a lot is there's so much discourse, there's so much commotion from husbands, spouses being irritated or jealous that their wives are reading so so so much smut, especially the horny fairy books, which are the big buzzy thing right now. Do you think that reading smut alone or together can actually be a good thing for couples? Yeah, uh absolutely. Like I I I want to respect people feeling jealous, having their negative emotions, because we're all entitled to our feelings. Um

But also like what are you what what are you thinking? Like your spouse is being horny. How is that a bad thing? Like if you're If your spouse is reading these titillating things and they're getting titillated, like maybe they'll want to be titillated with you. Like w come on, this is a fun thing. This is a win win. And even and even if it

It it doesn't invite dilation between you and your partner. It's like why would you want to deprive your partner of some joy? Like let them let your partner enjoy something, right? And and if it's if it's porn and it's getting them off and they're really interested and really excited. I don't know

Encourage that. Like that's that's a really wonderful thing that your partner's enjoying. Like Well and also like if if if maybe you're physically not getting involved with that, like as as the partner Uh, who okay, we've got partner who likes to read the porn, we've got partner who's insecure about the porn.

Uh insecure partner. Like what if you went out and you found some sexy books to give to your partner that you know they're going to enjoy? Like then you still get to kinda be a Or you could just ask your partner, like, hey.

What if what of these books which ones are interesting you and like you together could maybe go out and research books together? What if you read the same horny book that your partner was reading and then you guys could talk about it together? Like This is something that is a a together activity, even if it doesn't lead to you having sex, like it can still be something you're connecting to your partner over.

I think. Yeah, I think that's very beautiful. As uh as Bria says, put on your elf hat and fuck your wife.

Yeah. Okay, so final question. So as two proudly horny folks, do you have any tips for readers who are shy about because we get fan mail from people who are like I I have a specific thing and I wanna go into a bookstore and ask about it. I wanna go I wanna talk to other people who are like this, but I'm very shy. How do people let their freak flag fly, basically? Do you have any tips about

You know, if you're a fan of all of this stuff, how do you get a little braver about finding community with it or a or talk or even or just getting a a recommendation from a bookseller? And also Advice for people who want to read this stuff in public. We get a lot of questions about reading in public.

Oh I well I w so my my whole thing was gonna be like, Oh, you know, just use the internet. That's where you can get good community and you can kinda go do this stuff. It gives you a level of anonymity, right? I don't know if I would be brave enough to go up to a librarian and be like, I need

I need the horniest. Give me it has to be this laying we're talking three inches of eggs laying tails and bunny. Point me in the direction and there's four librarians shaking. Um But reading porn uh in public oh that's it's very That's very brave.

Uh it it depends on what kind of thing they're reading it on.'Cause like if you're just reading it on your tablet then like I don't know, like that doesn't seem like such an issue unless you're looking at images, in which case like yeah, it is a little bit of an issue, um, depending on who can see behind your shoulder. But If you're thinking about like reading textbooks in public. I'm a really crafty person and I love like designing and making things.

So I I would go and like download a uh a book cover template. You could get like like your porn. Make a second cover to go around it and it can be like this is a boring book and um Definitely not smut that I'm reading right now. Right. Um yeah, uh so I think you could just like d search for book cover template. Uh and then and then download that and you can print out something to to hide your shame. Uh that I love that idea.

That is that's really cute. Um Okay, so please, uh we're finishing up this e the episode. Tell us about Ojoy Sex Toy. Where can people find you? Where can people find both of you on socials? How do how do people support you? Alright, well uh Ojoy Sextoy. Ojoy Sextoy.com. That's ohjoy sextoy.com. That's the main site. That's where you can find everything.

And in order to uh to support uh the the the publication and also get your own bonus extra stuff, we have a robust Patreon that we've had for over a decade now. And if you go to patreon.com forward slash ojoy sextoy, we've got behind the scenes posts and also it's like the majority of our posts are free in public, so you can just

follow us, join us for free. You don't actually have to pay. And it basically serves as our newsletter where you get a monthly wrap up where we send out a thing of like, here's all the comics we published this month and here's what the bonus posts were and Um so like that's a great way to support us whether you're paying for it or just doing it for free.

Follow us there, please. And we uh we we post a comic every week on Tuesdays. Uh it's normally Uh we hire another artist and it's a normally a brand new artist and they'll do a short comic and it's normally about autobio or education, uh sometimes as a toy review or uh uh talking about something that's important to them. Uh occasionally we'll have a little bit of fiction and uh we have little categories for everything and we've been doing this for about thirteen years, so uh like we have

had about six hundred and fifty comics on the site. Um and the the first eight years was just me and Erica talking about things from from our perspective the entire time. But it means we have like an archive that's like super deep. So if you if you're You know, if you've got like a medical question and you want something that's like maybe not

The most medically proficient if it was made ten years ago it might need to be updated educational piece. But if you want to learn about like what is herpes, we do a pretty good job of it. Um we've covered a great deal of things. And if you just want to find out what you're doing.

people's autobio and and their experiences with their bodies or or you know e their exploration. That's that's what we do. We're um you know we're we've been around for a while. We'll we'll keep sticking around with it and come read our comics. Support it if you like it. All right, folks, reminder that next month's book is A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare. We are finally diving into historicals for February.

We are so excited. This book comes highly recommended by a lot of folks. It's the second book in the Spindle Cove series. We've got a fake engagement. We've got Road Trip. Uh we got Force Proximity. Uh we got only one bed. It's only one bed, folks. You know what happens in that one bed. I'm really pumped about this book. I cannot wait to talk about it uh with all of you.

Uh again, that's A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare. And if you want to help the show and keep us reading smut, you can give us a five star rating or a lovely review on the podcast listening app of your choice. It will only take you thirty seconds. gotta open up that mobile app and on your phone and put it in there really makes a difference for us. Our smutty theme song is by Matt Glass. You can email us at readingsmut podcast69 at gmail.com and thanks for smutting it up.

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