Large groups of screaming women passing dildos between their legs may sound like a scene straight out of a porno movie, but it is actually a sight that is becoming more and more common in suburban homes nationwide. While mothers and grandmothers had Tupperware and Mary Kay parties, sex-toy parties are the growing fad of the millennium, and the latest crop of 20-somethings booking them are not afraid to admit it.

“I’ve heard of a lot of people having these sex-toy parties,” said University of Wisconsin senior Angela Osthus. “I think they’re actually pretty common nowadays.”

The basic idea behind these so-called “pleasure parties” is the same as a Tupperware or Mary Kay party of old; a saleswoman comes to someone’s home and presents and demonstrates merchandise to a group of friends, which is then available for purchase after the party. The difference here is that instead of lipsticks and nail polish, pleasure parties present women with a wide variety of sex toys, which even include discreet vibrators disguised to look like lipstick and nail-polish bottles.

Spring 2003 UW graduate Katie Brandt is a part-time saleswoman for For Your Pleasure, Inc. and said she loves every minute of it.

“I went to another party at a friend’s house a while back, and after seeing the presentation, I was thinking ‘I could do this,'” Brandt said. “It doesn’t take up a lot of time, and it’s such quick, easy money.”

Brandt works full time as director of marketing at Freedom Speakers and Trainers, a speaking, training and development company. She holds the pleasure parties in her free time, often Friday and Saturday nights.

“Most of my co-workers at Freedom know about my ‘other job’ and a lot of them have even been to one of my parties,” Brandt said. “I even have one co-worker that calls them “f-ckerware parties.”

The parties are completely free, and though guests are offered the chance to buy merchandise, it is not mandatory. Typical parties involve games to get the guests warmed up, including “Pass the Penis,” an activity involving a double-ended dildo passed among guests using only the legs, resulting in a winner which is then rewarded with a free dildo, flavored massage oil or other toy. The majority of the time at the party is spent playing with and examining first-hand the extensive supply of vibrators, dildos, cock rings, lubes and lotions available for purchase.

Osthus, who has attended a pleasure party in the past, said, “It was cool because you got to actually sample the food items, like chocolate body paint and the different flavored powders, so it made me a lot more likely to buy it, because I already knew whether it tasted good or not.”

Guests are also given the opportunity to try on all the lotions and massage oils, as well as test out the large supply of vibrators and dildos. For obvious sanitary purposes, the toys are tested on the end of one’s nose because this is the second-most sensitive part on the body, after the private parts, according to Brandt.

Brandt usually has about one party a week, depending on the time of year. She said there is a definite peak in parties around Valentine’s Day, as well as during the summer, in time for summer-wedding bachelorette parties. Though men are allowed at pleasure parties, the guests are usually women in their early 20s, according to Brandt.

“I have had women who are in their 50s at my parties, though,” she said. “And we can arrange specific couple-themed parties upon request.”

Brandt said her parents are fairly approving of her side job, and her mom has even looked at the catalogue of merchandise with her.

“My mom’s pretty supportive of the whole thing, she just doesn’t really want to talk about it too much,” Brandt said. “She seemed a little startled when I first told her, but the majority of that was she felt bad that we had never had ‘the talk’ when I was younger.”

Brandt says she has a lot of fun running the pleasure parties and, for the most part, has never really experienced any weird occurrences.

“I did have one woman who was in her 30s who came up to me after a party and asked me whether I thought she should become a swinger or not, that was kind of weird,” Brandt said. “And sometimes people you would never think would will buy a double-dildo, and it always surprises me.”

For more information, Brandt is available at [email protected].