ABSTRACT
Sex toys, like sexual practices in general, only acquire meaning within the context in which they figure. The situations in which dildos appear differ widely. In a talk show on sexuality in Amsterdam in which I participated in March 2011, sex toys including dildos were readily available for show and discussion. My butch friends in Jakarta regularly ask me to bring dildos for them, either to please their girlfriends or to strap them on to emphasise their erotic prowess. In other circumstances and past times, dildos were used in initiation ceremonies. In present-day Cameroon, big mamas are said to use dildos to exercise power over younger women and to underscore their own political and economic success. Clearly dildos are located in multiple ways on the power–pleasure nexus.
