What is pegging? Married At First Sight bride baffled by ‘off limits’ sex act

The dating experiment series, Married At First Sight Australia, has hit the headlines after one contestant was left bemused by the mention of an off-limits sex act.

In the programme, two match-made strangers meet for the first time at the altar, and get married at first sight.

On Tuesday night’s episode, groom Andrew Davis was outlining his extensive experience between the sheets, with a supposed “body count” - 350, in case you’re wondering.

When talking with his wife Holly Greenstein, he set some boundaries about what he was not prepared to do in the bedroom.

He said: “There are some things off-limits. Like, no pegging. There’s no going down that road with you.”

Holly was left bemused at this reference, and replied: “I don’t know what that is. I have to Google it.”

Of course, she’s not the only one.

“I’m old so I had to google pegging. Husband said no,” one viewer joked on Twitter.

Someone else wrote: “Google number one search in Australia tonight - ‘“what is pegging”’.

Another agreed: “I’m so sorry to everyone out there that has just Googled ‘pegging’ and is now shamefully clearing their browser history”.

Pegging refers to the act of wearing a strap-on dildo, in order to have penetrative sex with another person.

All genders and sexualities can have anal sex using a sex toy, but the term pegging usually refers to anal penetration of a cis man by a cis woman.

The sexual act of pegging is pleasurable for the man because it stimulates the prostate gland.

Alicia Sinclair, a certified sex educator told Men’s Health: “The prostate is an erogenous zone that’s often overlooked.

“... Pegging allows a woman to actually be inside a man, navigating the pleasure (which is a thrill in itself).

“It’s often one of the few times in sexual play that women get to do that.”

Google searches for ‘pegging’ in Australia reportedly went up by 1,200 per cent in the 24 hour period following the episode - and the sex position is rising in popularity.

The term pegging also entered popular consciousness in 2021, when the model and actress Cara Delavigne wore a vest saying ‘Peg the Patriarchy’ to the Met Gala.

It proved a divisive statement, but by Cara’s understanding it was about “subverting a system of oppression that impacts all genders and is upheld by the behaviours and ideas of [white] colonial masculinity.”