All About Ball Gags with Tawney for Betty's Toy Box
Curious about ball gags but don't know where to start? Let Tawney explain why people love to use gags, how to use one and why it can be a great new experience for your play time.
Tawney Seren is a product reviewer, toy expert, author, blogger, and performer with over a decade of experience. Reigning from the Pacific Northwest, Tawney enjoys educating about self-health, sex, and the adventures we go through to obtain sexual happiness. She is a lover of sweets, roller derby, and a great many nerdy fandoms.
Video Transcript:
Hey friends, it's Tawney Seren here with Naughty Betty's, and today we're going to talk about mouth gags. What are they, why do we want to use them, and what are the best ones for our personal experience and preferences?
So first of all, what is a mouth gag? It is what it sounds like. So a mouth gag is a device that goes in your mouth that is going to keep you from making a lot of noise. Now of course it's not going to restrain your breathing, just maybe the breathing inside of like, you know, coming into your mouth. You're still able to breathe outside of your nose. You're still able to kind of use your senses outside of that.
It's very important to know in BDSM and in any sort of situation where you are gagging the mouth of another, you need to make sure that you have a non-verbal safe word. So you clearly cannot speak very well, so using that fun intricate safe word that you made with your partner: it is not as realistic. So make sure that you've got something, whether it's like patting the side of the bed. But if your hands are, you know, kind of restrained, maybe it's, you know, being able to kind of alert through sounds.
Either way, make sure that you have something with your partner that you both agreed upon that is a way that you can let them know playtime is over. If you've got a gag in, it's important if you're stripping a sense, you need to make sure that you still have the power to say no, and you still have the power to end things now.
A gag is a wonderful thing that can be used in the bedroom to kind of allow for that restraint, so you've got that nice feel of being out of control while still being in control. It's a great way to do a multitude of different things, whether it's holding the mouth open for oral play, whether it is just for aesthetics, whether it is for that feeling of restraint and that, you know, kind of being able to be stripped of your senses, which can be a very very powerful tool to use, and that it can be, you know, that anticipation of what is happening, that ability to not be able to escape can be very exciting for some.
I know personally it's something that I really enjoy, but like I mentioned, there's plenty of different gags you can use. I recommend, if you are just starting, to use just cloth, to use something you can find around the house. They also have some great beginners’ gags that do not widen your mouth too much, because some of these when you just go into a store and grab them, you don't know how comfortable it's going to be to keep your mouth open over say a ball gag.
So it's important to understand that you should take this in steps. I recommend using something around the house, using the sleeve of a t-shirt, using, you know, a blindfold. Something so that you're practicing having something in your mouth. That drooling effect can be really really attractive, and you're gonna have some fun with that.
Then you can move up to say a small ball. So they've got sometimes the really smaller balls that you can use, or you can use a flat one. Now these have names that are a little bit more, you know, they can classify in a bit better. But I am going to assume that you are brand new to gags, and I'm glad I'm gonna give you these examples. I've also got links down below to some different types of gags that I have been explaining, so you can kind of put a picture to it and get a better idea.
Now they also have flat ones that you can bite down on that are softer, and they aren't gonna spread your mouth open and keep it open for a really long time. It can really ache, you know. You want to make sure that you get yourself a break, and sometimes it can become a frantic need to get it out of your mouth if things start hurting.
So you also have those, which is kind of, they they can look like dog bones. They can just be flat. It's absolutely fine; just keep in mind that you want to get a material that you can easily sanitize, especially if you are using this with more than one partner.
Now then you can move up to the larger balls. They have some that have breathing holes through them, and then there are some that are just large balls. Make sure that you understand this is a preference for the person who is wearing it. That's something that they should kind of explore alone or with you, to figure out what they enjoy.
Now there's also some with multiple straps that will hold it tighter against a head, that can actually make it into a full like face mask, things of that nature. So if you're looking into pet play, if you're looking into public humiliation, if you're looking to just further restrict, and you like the aesthetic of someone's face being kind of controlled in that, there are definitely some larger mechanisms with gags attached to them that you can use for this.
But make sure that you try it with your partner step by step, that you understand that this is a fun thing, this is fantastic. A lot of them are made with silicone so they are very easy to clean, and they're alright to be in your mouth there for a while. And oftentimes that means they're also waterproof, so you can really get in there and get it clean.
The fact of the matter is, gags are something fun. They are something that's very easy to bring into the bedroom, much like handcuffs, oils, things like that, where really it is not something that is so restricting or so advanced that you can't kind of try it out and take a look. Just again make sure that you have a full conversation with your partner. Make sure that you are taking this step by step, and make sure you have that non- verbal cue in place.
So again, check out the links down below for some awesome gags that we have available right now at Naughty Betty’s, and let me know what your experiences are, you know, what you enjoy. Love to hear from you!
Thank you again so much! I'm Tawney Seren here with Naughty Betty’s, and i've had a really fun time talking about gags. Bye everybody!