Sex & Relationships

Straight NYC men probe ‘submissive’ side as surprising sex act has them hot and bothered

The straight men of NYC are really opening up this summer.

Big Apple bros are leaning into their submissive side — and expanding their sexual repertoires — by attending classes about a once-taboo act: pegging.

Pegging — in which a woman penetrates a man anally using a strap-on dildo — has been growing in popularity in recent years.

vibrators and dildos
Pegging is an anal sex act in which a woman penetrates a man’s anus with a strap-on dildo. Shutterstock / BeataGFX

The Taillor Group, a Brooklyn-based kink collective that teaches BDSM practices to the kink curious, revealed that informative pegging gatherings called Pegfest have become some of the collective’s most popular, being attended by a breadth of interested participants — mostly cisgender men in their 20s to 60s from a range of backgrounds.

Pegfest has become so in demand that it now runs three times a month. Those who don’t snag a space in time often request private lessons.

Last year, Clips4Sale, the largest online platform for kink and fetish content, named pegging the Fetish of the Year, while the more vanilla Pornhub revealed that “pegging” and “strap-on” were among the highest trending search terms of 2022, per the platform’s Year in Review report

And as the sex act has become more mainstream — it was even mentioned in a trailer for the Disney-distributed “Deadpool & Wolverine” movie — men in NYC want to make sure they get it right and tight.

Passionate couple kissing with female on top
The Taillor Group, a Brooklyn-based kink collective that teaches BDSM practices to the kink curious, revealed that informative pegging gatherings called Pegfest have become some of the collective’s most popular. Shutterstock / bezikus

The classes hosted by the Taillor Group are led by dominatrices who work with each attendee to guide them through how to penetrate or receive penetration safely.

Pegging stimulates the prostate, the sensitive small gland that can be reached through the anus, and triggers the anal canal and anal entrance’s nearly 4,000 nerves — about the same amount the penis has.

If done correctly, it can result in a full-bodied orgasm, similar, physiologically, to the female orgasm. If not performed properly, the act can have some undesirable and painful effects.

Many people wrongly associate prostate-play with homosexual interests, but the act is usually conducted by heterosexual couples.

Mistress Red, who leads pegging workshops with the Taillor Group, told the Cut that she’s tired of misconceptions “that you’re gay or weak or not a man if you want to get f–ked in your a–. It’s like, no, it’s just a normal thing to want to feel.”

“There’s this sort of very fun gender switch that happens,” she said. “It’s crazy, the physical and mental transformation putting in a dildo will do. You have totally changed as a person.”

Experts have attributed the rise of pegging to a long list of cultural changes, including shifting gender identities, relationships and sexual preferences.

“It’s helping break down stigma about sexuality, gender, power, mental health, vulnerability, and the list goes on,” certified sex educator Sunny Megatron, who’s Editor-in-Chief of Zipper Magazine and co-host of the “American Sex” podcast, told Cosmopolitan.

“And that’s not even factoring in the earth-shattering orgasms!”

But Mistress Red warned of jumping right in, and highly recommends doing your research and practicing. “It’s a muscle you have to work at,” the dominatrix cautioned.

“You can’t just be sticking big things in your a–.”