Sex toys at Sainsbury’s? That’s a VERY unexpected item in the bagging area

... and it’s left most of these star Femail writers blushing (but not all!)

THE news this week that family supermarket Sainsbury’s is to start selling vibrators alongside its groceries has caused a real furore. Some angry customers are disgusted that children could see the sex toys during the weekly shop and insist they’ll never visit again. Others say it symbolises a welcome end to British prudery. Here, our writers wade into the debate . . .

NO SUPERMARKET SPICES UP MY LIFE By Julie Burchill

When I hear ‘sex toys’, I reach for my metaphorical sickbag. Talk about an oxymoron! how can one ‘toy’ with sex? They’re sex aids and, yes, that was a judgmental tone. I refuse to call them ‘sex toys’, as it brings a creepy air of infantilism to this most adult pastime. An unnerving number of sex aids are made in the style of children’s playthings.

And it’s pitiful that two people — presumably equipped with the usual supply of hands, mouths and sex organs — need to set about each other with bits of garish, cut-price plastic to reach the realms of ecstasy.

now, Sainsbury’s has seen fit to delight us with a range of vibrators to ‘boost the nation’s sense of wellbeing’. It’s that laughable, fake- Scandinavian pursuit of carnal wholesomeness that has been used by condom maker Durex in its icky ‘Play’ range — the sexual equivalent of those joyless waiters and waitresses who say ‘enjoy!’ whenever you’re about to eat anything.

It totally ignores the fact that sex is — despite all attempts to render it comical with unattractive words such as ‘bonk’ — still the most primal, wild instinct.

So, when I tut in disapproval at Sainsbury’s range, it’s not from any Puritan reticence, but the disdain of the life-long libertine.

Really, if your sex life is so substandard you need to resort to a supermarket sweep of plastic playthings to spice it up, maybe you need to give up the dirty deed and embrace embroidery?

SPARE US SEX WHEN SHOPPING By Sarah Vine

I hAve no objection to the notion of sex toys per se. What people do in the privacy of their love lives is no business of mine, or anyone else’s, and, if gadgets are your thing, then who am I to argue? But, lately, it seems, sex has become less an intimate act between two individuals and more an oppressive — seemingly inescapable — spectator sport.

From people watching pornography on the bus (yes, really), to tawdry Tv and sex education for primary school children, society seems to have lost all sense of decorum about when and where sex belongs.

Doubtless, many will hail Sainsbury’s decision to stock an own-brand range of budget sex toys as a victory for freedom.

Lots of ‘liberated’ Instagram influencers will post them on their ‘feeds’. Loose Women will probably feature them on their Tv show. The Guardian may even do a Reader Offer — who knows!

But, if you ask me, it’s another example of how the norms and aesthetics of online pornography are invading our everyday lives.

You might have thought the one place you’d be spared would be among the weekly groceries.

not any more. Still, I suppose it will make for some interesting conversations at the checkout.

CIF, SAUSAGES AND ER . . . NO THANKS! By Linda Kelsey

AS SOmeOne who is fascinated by what’s in people’s trollies, I’m quite sure I wouldn’t want to pop a vibrator into my basket alongside the Cif and the sausages.

I’m all for happy sex lives, sexual openness and whatever gets you through the night, but, given that I bump into people I know at my supermarket, I’d rather not be announcing to the neighbours what I get up to in the bedroom.

And, being absent-minded, it’d probably end up in the fridge and way too chilly for comfort if I ever got round to using it.

If Sainsbury’s wants to provide customers with the ultimate in pleasure, it would be better off improving its self- checkouts or the selection of fresh produce.

This move strikes me as a tad desperate. And, given how many substitutions its home delivery service is prone to, I blush to think how the exchange with the delivery chap might go — ‘no, I don’t want a Rose Blush Bullet vibrator, it’s the Aura Silver one I asked for. Please take this back.’

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? By Sandra Howard

mY huSBAnD, michael, was just walking in the door when I broke the news to him. ‘Forget Brexit — here’s a much more up-to-the-minute story,’ I said, looking up from the paper.

‘I can remember being keen on a song called Good vibrations,’ he said, glancing at it, grinning. ‘The Beach Boys, wasn’t it?’

I can’t feel too po-faced about Sainsbury’s new venture. There are far worse things to worry about. And if, as Sainsbury’s says, a good sex life increases people’s ‘sense of wellbeing’, it’s hard to see much harm in the sale of vibrators.

We’ve grown accustomed to such things: sex toys have been around for years ( the oldest known examples date back some 30,000 years!) — and Sainsbury’s is not the first to sell them. I was queuing in a Boots in London recently and the woman in front of me was buying one called a Swoon. I hope she did!

TROLLEY FOLLY IN TACKY SEX TOYS By Bel Mooney

YOu may think there’s no connection between the fact that pornography is (at last) being recognised as a public health danger and the latest news that Sainsbury’s has decided to stock sex toys.

Trust me, there’s a strong link. As a society, we’ve become obsessed with sex to a worryingly unhealthy degree and I believe it is damaging real relationships.

I know from my Saturday advice column in the mail that people worry about sex when what they need to do is to learn to talk. In 2003, I gave a lecture at the university of Bath called Beyond Freedom, which warned about the effects of pornography and the widespread sexualisation of society. Of course, people like me were dismissed as prudes. now, a supermarket giant thinks it fine to stock a sex toy you’d once have had to buy at a specialist shop. I rest my case. Sainsbury’s claims customers have asked for this and that it will ‘increase their sense of wellbeing’. What hypocritical bilge! It’s all about money — yet the chain bleats about its ‘values’, claiming to help people ‘ live healthier lives’, make ‘a positive difference to the community’ and take care of the environment. What about the moral environment? If one child sees a prettily packaged vibrator in someone’s trolley and asks what it is, that’s one too many. A vibrator can be fun in the bedroom, but has no place in a family supermarket.

LET’S LIVE IT UP IN THE AISLES By Kitty Dimbleby, Bel’s daughter

LeT’S face it, it’s normally us mums on the weekly shop, so why shouldn’t we, ahem, be able to pop something in our basket to liven us up? I know I’ll feel a lot more enthused about my least favourite domestic chore if there are such temptations in store.

In all seriousness, it’s high time we got less prudish about sex and women’s pleasure.

Psychology Today says 75 per cent of women never reach orgasm through penetrative sex alone, compared to 98 per cent of men who always do. So we should all — men and women — welcome help in that department.

I’d definitely be temped by this new range — it’s affordable and looks great, not to mention the extra nectar points. The packaging is tasteful and subtle, so I wouldn’t worry about awkward questions from my children.

my six-year- old daughter and two-year-old son wouldn’t have a clue what they were.

I’M NO PRUDE, BUT KEEP IT PRIVATE By Rowan Pelling

AFTeR 20 years toiling at the coalface of erotic literature and writing about relationships and sex, I’m probably the least prudish person you’ll meet.

even so, I don’t feel comfortable with Sainsbury’s plan to sell sex toys. Why? Well, the chain’s main purpose is to flog groceries, and I don’t want to think about sex alongside my cornflakes.

erotic purchases are about escapism and getting in the mood. But how can you get in the mood and tap into your pleasure instincts under the strip lighting of a supermarket? I wouldn’t dream of buying sexy underwear at Sainsbury’s — and the same is surely true of a vibrator.