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 Sharevibe double-ended dildo from Fun Factory, sent to us by Babeland.

• Size: 8″ long by ~1.5″ diameter
• Materials: silicone, plus a removable ABS plastic bullet vibe
• Color: purple, pink, or beige
• Price: $130

The Sharevibe double-ended dildo from Fun Factory is an updated version of the classic Share with a firmer, smoother shape and waterproof bullet vibe in the base. On paper, it looks like way more fun. To hold, it seems like way more fun. So is it?

The main advantages of using a double-ended dildo are that two partners can experience simultaneous and theoretically hands-free penetration using the same toy. (A lot of double-ended dildos are compatible with many open-backed strap-on harnesses, for extra security, but they’re supposed to be a bonus rather than essential.)

There are lots of other advantages. Where partners aren’t fluid-bonded, or just want to be extra safe, they can sterilize a fully silicone double-ended dildo without worrying about lingering bacteria, whereas they can’t sterilize a harness made of something porous like leather (or a cloth harness without running down the fabric faster). You don’t have to worry about buying (or storing, or packing) a harness as well as the dildo. Regardless of partners, if you want a single dildo that is sometimes shorter and sometimes longer, boom, a double-ended dildo can make that happen for you. Used alone, the non-penetrating end can make the toy easy to grip, and kind of let you pretend you’re jacking off if you want.

But none of those advantages are enough to offset the bad if you can’t actually fuck with it. And I found the ShareVibe only okay to fuck with.

Aside from a hole to fill with a(n included) bullet vibe, the main advantage the Sharevibe has over the Share is that it’s firmer. It holds its shape more, it feels more substantial, it’s thrilling to clench around and it’s easier to grip internally. But that firmness has a downside: the joint between shafts isn’t all the flexible, so keeping the dildo inside both myself and my activity partner was a challenge. I have pretty toned Kegels, and so does she; we were both using the toy vaginally; and we both have relatively small bodies, but the Sharevibe made it feel like having bodies at all — instead of being two front vaginal walls with only a hair of space between them — was too much. I feel like that every day of my life. I don’t need a sex toy to reinforce it. The Sharevibe wasn’t comfortable in missionary, and it popped out enthusiastically with even a suggestion of fucking in other positions. I’m sure this was our combination of bodies (though another partner reported the same thing); I’m sure it’d be fine with a harness, or if I used less water-based lube (do not use less lube), or if I had an entirely different body or wanted an entirely different sex life. In two-person penetrative sex, the Sharevibe is not for me. (The bullet was too buzzy, too.)

Instead, for me the sleeper success of the Sharevibe came in butch-cock sucking. When my partner and I play with this, she’s usually strapped on in a Tomboi harness with something like the Mustang or Buck, which means that engaging her physical genitals as well as her metaphorical silicone ones is at best awkward, and that unless she’s super turned on she mostly benefits from the visual. With the Sharevibe, there was no cloth harness to have to reach under, no hard silicone base to mess around with and no barrier between my mouth or fingers and any part of her. It was awesome.

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