AUTOSTRADDLE ANONYMOUS SEX TOY REVIEW #52:

It’s our 52nd Autostraddle Anonymous Sex Toy Review! Over the last few years, sex toy companies and stores have asked us to review their toys in exchange for, you know, their toys.

This week, one of our anonymous reviewers tried out the Fusion by Wet for Her. (You can also get it from Amazon.)

• Material: medical-grade silicone
• Color: black, purple, or pink
• Size: small (6.93″ long, 1.14″ diameter), medium (6.93″ long, 1.37″ diameter), or large (7.40″ long, 1.50″ diameter)
• Price: $56 to $76, depending on the size

via wet for her

Here are the good things about the Fusion, a dildo designed for use with a harness: it comes in a sexy matte silicone, it’s firm but not too firm, it’s sized like the perfect everyday cock — big enough to be interesting but not big enough to intimidate activity partners — and it was designed by Wet for Her, which has lesbian owners and product testers (and occasionally advertises with Autostraddle). I really, really wanted to love it.

I did not.

The silicone is firm, definitely too firm to pack with even if the base made packing possible, but still a bit softer than other firm silicone dildos I’ve tried. The texture is also the best matte silicone I’ve ever encountered — smooth and not shiny without being tacky or sticky or picking up every particle of dust in the air, fun to touch and really visually sexy. Like with most silicone toys, I needed a fair amount of water-based lube, but I didn’t feel like the Fusion was eating it the way some VixSkin or Fun Factory toys seem to.

The end is just bulbed enough to be irritating if you hate g-spot stimulation and angle it in the wrong place, and not bulbed enough to really hit your g-spot if you want it to. I personally hate g-spot stimulation, and found it pretty easy to avoid hitting anything I didn’t want to during masturbation, but needed to adjust constantly with a partner.

During masturbation, I found the toy a little weird to grip — I ended up cupping the base in the palm of my hand, which was awkward at first but great when I wanted to have most of the toy inside of me. The smallish base also left me a lot of room to use a vibrator or fingers on my clit.

The point of the toy isn’t masturbation, though. It’s explicitly intended for strapping on. And as a strap on, it just doesn’t hold up.

via wet for her

The thing that’s supposed to make the Fusion unique, and the thing that is ultimately its downfall, is the base. Wet for Her says:

“Fusion sex toy, designed by us, is the one you have been waiting for, letting you give and get pleasure at the same time. Its ergonomic base looks surprising but you can be sure that with WetForHer surprises are always good things. The dildo base has been specially designed so the partner wearing the harness gets plenty of sensation, especially on the clitoris. Add one or two bullet vibes to your harness and you will both get off at the same time. An end to taking turns.”

Part of the base curves in and then protrudes. Reading between the marketing copy lines and given the shape, it is meant to line up with the wearer’s labia/clit. (The idea that all women have vulvas is also implicit.)

Here’s the thing – having a hard bit of silicone jamming into your labia while you’re trying to fuck your activity partner with even a moderate degree of enthusiasm does not feel good or sexy or orgasm inducing. It feels awful. It feels like, fuck I wish I’d used my other cock. Literally any other cock. Or that I had gloves within reach except I really don’t want to stop moving except oh fuck that hurts not in a good way. I had to reach my hand into my harness to hold the base away from my body because having my own knuckles dig into me at a terrible angle felt better. It left me with bruises. It did not make me come.

My first experiences with the Fusion were so uncomfortable that I actually asked Wet for Her for a new harness to try it with. In the end I tried it with three – one harness with straps and an o-ring, and two similar underwear-style harnesses. In each, the dildo just didn’t sit in the right spot for my body to feel anything but uncomfortable. (I tried holding the Fusion against myself with my hand and fucking an activity partner that way, to see if maybe the way harnesses fit my body was the problem, and even then the silicone base just didn’t feel right.)

The shaft also leads really gently into the smallish base, and as a result the Fusion popped out the front of each harness I tried it with. (On a related point, this toy is not safe for anal sex unless you add your own flange, and even then I would hesitate.)

I have come just from fucking girls while strapped on in the past, but always while using dildos with large, flat bases. As both a harness wearer and appreciator, I am really, really intrigued by the idea of the shape of a toy making that more likely, but for me, the Fusion wasn’t the answer. Instead of a larger, flat base applying consistent pressure across my bits, I felt like I was being stabbed. (No matter how softly curved parts of the base are, the bottom edge of that flare feels pretty sharp when it’s at the wrong angle and there’s rhythmic pressure against it from both sides.) An activity partner and I tried several angles, and I messed around with my harnesses to have it sit higher or lower, and I couldn’t find a way to make it feel good. This might just be my body or pelvic tilt or preferred positions or harnesses, and it’s possible you might have a great experience with the Fusion, but I did not.

The Fusion made me feel like there is something wrong with my body or my harnesses or even the ways I fuck. Instead of fusing effortlessly with my body, it felt like something was wrong, not with the toy but with me. This is the exact opposite of how I want a sex toy to make me feel.

I have never spent so much time reviewing a sex toy because I have never encountered a toy I wanted so badly to like and just didn’t. The idea behind the Fusion is really good — but it will take some updating before I’m willing to try it again.

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