Life

Pegging Is the Newest TikTok Trend

#Pegallmen2020 is just one one of the hashtags going viral on the platform.
Pegging Tiktok trend
TikTok users James and Kinza. Photo: Giles Robberts / Alamy Stock Photo

Over the past few years some very serious discourse has erupted: to peg or not to peg?

Although the concept of pegging has been around some 300 years thanks to our boy Marquis de Sade – sadism’s founding father – recent references in Broad City and Deadpool have thrust pegging into the mainstream, with straight and bi guys increasingly welcome to the idea of a bit of silicone up the ass.

However, as with anything that becomes mainstream, it also becomes meme-able. It was only really a matter of time before the socially progressive and aggressively online Gen Z picked up on pegging, transforming the once-taboo sex act into a popular TikTok trend since mid-April.

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Young people – mainly bi girls and femboys, i.e. cis-het guys that present themselves in more traditionally feminine ways – are expressing their pining to peg or be pegged under the hashtags #pegallmen2020 and #peging (#pegging and #pegged are banned on the app, alongside other sex-related hashtags).

Videos range from genuine desire to tongue-in-cheek jests that lightly take the piss out of straight guys who find it emasculating. “Tough talk for someone within pegging distance” is just one of the popular “sounds” used by women and non-binary people on pegging TikTok, and normally accompanies a text description of something problematic a cis-het guy has said or done. Is it a threat? Quite possibly. But is it hilarious? Absolutely.

A lot of pegging TikTok is just for a laugh, but many users in the community have genuinely embraced it as a kink that normalises butt stuff and redefines traditional gender roles in heterosexual sex. Gen Z have previously been hailed as open-minded facilitators of social change, so I guess it comes as no surprise that they’ve welcomed pegging with open arms (and legs). Curious to know more about the trend, we spoke to a few Gen Z TikTok users about pegging.

“It gives me a sense of control and I find it to be fun and comfortable.”

Pegging interests me because I do take the dominant role in my current relationship with my girlfriend and also my general sexual relations. It gives me a sense of control and I find it to be fun and comfortable.

I think it’s pretty funny that pegging is becoming a trend. It’s fun to see the girls and non-binary folks getting into it and it’s just funny to see the edits some people use against hate comments they receive.

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I think the introduction of pegging on TikTok opens up the floor for destigmatisation of what a man and a woman’s role in a sexual relationship is. I think it allows men to show a more vulnerable side of their identity/sexuality and gives women the opportunity to take control in a way they might have not known of. It also allows people to seek out something they might be curious about in sex without being ostracised for it! Kinza, 19.

“It’s very easy to make fun of toxic masculinity while also empowering women!”

I was intrigued by the pegging trend on TikTok because of its rejection of “normal” relationships and dynamics during sex which we’ve accepted as standard.

There’s definitely a movement on TikTok of questioning traditional views on gender. Through pegging, it’s very easy to make fun of toxic masculinity while also empowering women!

I think pegging discourse has definitely destigmatised pegging as it’s allowed a more open conversation. The “pegging side of TikTok” has pointed out the power dynamic that predominantly cis-het men cling on to even in sex and makes people question why that exists.

I have had some very bizarre reactions though… One of the most extreme was “people who get pegged deserve to be shot”. I was generally intrigued by how dramatic some of the comments were as they obviously come from a place of insecurity about their own masculinity! James, 19.

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“Pegging discourse on TikTok helps conversations”

I'm much more dominant when it comes to sex so with that being said pegging gives me something more to establish that dominance.

I thought pegging becoming a trend on TikTok is funny, honestly. I really don't think most of the people talking about pegging or wanting to get pegged are really about it, but I could be wrong – I don't know their sex lives!

Pegging discourse on TikTok helps conversations because guys especially can become more comfortable experiencing more types of pleasure than what they’re used to, because at the end of the day it's all about experimenting! Also guys don't have G-spots in their butt for no reason. Tella, 18.