I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but lube isn’t just for gay men.
Actually, I do know who needs to hear it: straight men, apparently. Goodparts founder Dave Shanfield has developed two new lube products designed with modern men — including straight ones — in mind, which he hopes will help break a lingering stigma surrounding what should be an extremely basic, non-threatening sexual wellness product. But masculinity, as we know, is very fragile, apparently leaving many straight men under the impression that lube is “a gay niche product, or just for butt stuff,” as Shanfield told GQ.
This infuriating misunderstanding ignores many realities — including the fact that lube far predates the era of “gay niche” anything and that straight men can and do have anal sex. Not to mention the fact that sex is often much better for women when lube is involved, but they are frequently shamed out of using it thanks to other weird lube stigma in the heterosexual community that suggests women should rely entirely on their bodies’ natural lubrication. (Unless of course they want to celebrate their abundance of natural lubrication in a hit song, in which case that is also bad and shameful.)
While Shanfield says he originally developed Goodparts with his own needs as a gay man in mind, he hopes the product will appeal to straight men as well, helping them overcome their lube aversion and become better partners in the bedroom.
“As a gay man, I never responded well to brands that played into stereotypical and commercial visual tropes — whether rainbow colors or muscled-up naked dues,” Shanfield tells InsideHook. “I wanted a brand that treated me as a modern, masculine-identifying consumer, sexuality aside. I essentially created Goodparts for me, and a lot of gay men seemed to agree with its premise. The added bonus is that we can also convert straight men to lube buyers, and improve sex for them and their partners, too.”
Enter Goodparts, lube for the modern man with a sleek, understated design. The product is available in two versions: the aloe-based Hydrating Organic and silicone-based Ultra-Smooth. Both are condom-friendly, though the aloe-based version isn’t compatible with polyurethane condoms. The Ultra-Smooth is longer-lasting and recommended for anal sex — which, again, is a thing that straight men can have with women.
Straight men getting over their weird, kind of homophobic hangups about lube is good for everyone involved — particularly the women they’re sleeping with. Lube is nothing to be afraid of, and it can come in handy during all kinds of straight guy activities, like masturbating, having sex with women, and yes, butt stuff too.
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