Is it weird to buy this?

It's late. You're in front of your screen. A question is going round in your head: is it weird to buy this? You haven't talked about it to anyone. You're not even looking for a particular model. Above all, you want to know whether you're allowed to look. You are.

The question nobody asks out loud

Many people open a page like this one and close it again straight away. Not because they found what they were looking for. Because they felt embarrassed to be there.

That's normal. These objects are talked about very little. When they are, it's often to laugh about them. Or to make them something shameful. So the question stays in your head, and nobody asks it out loud.

So we're asking it here, once and for all. No, it's not weird. These are objects sold normally in France, in shops and online. Looking at them says nothing about you. Neither does buying them.

Why it comes back in the evening

It's no coincidence that you're reading this now. The day is over. The phone has stopped ringing. Nobody is looking at your screen over your shoulder.

It's often the only moment of the day when you can ask yourself the question calmly. It's also the moment when there's nobody to ask. No friend to call at that hour about this. No salesperson to talk to. Just you, a page, and some hesitation.

Many people stop there. They close everything and tell themselves they'll see later. Then they come back weeks later, to the same place. That's normal too. It doesn't mean you can't make up your mind. It's often that simple information on the subject is missing.

What you're buying, in very concrete terms

The simplest thing is to look at the object itself. Because, when it comes down to it, that's what it is: an object.

On a product page, you'll find four or five pieces of information. They're all very down to earth.

• The material. Most often silicone: a soft material that can be washed with soap and water.
• The size, in centimetres. The length, and the width at the widest point.
• The buttons, and what they do. Switch on, switch off, change speed.
• How to charge it. A USB cable most often, sometimes batteries.
• Whether it can go in water or not.

That's all. A material, a size, a button, a charging port. The rest is words the manufacturer puts around it.

Put like that, it sounds a bit cold. That's deliberate. You're not buying an idea of yourself. You're buying an object with instructions, a charger and a size written in centimetres.

There's no typical profile

There aren't some people who would have “the right” to buy this, and others who wouldn't.

You may not have been in a relationship for a long time. You may have been in a relationship forever. You can simply be curious, nothing more. You can come back to the subject after years without thinking about it. You can buy for yourself, or for two.

None of these situations needs explaining. People often imagine there has to be a good reason: something missing, a problem, a story to tell. None is needed. Curiosity is enough.

You sometimes hear the opposite: that it's a sign something's wrong. Nothing obliges you to see it that way. An object has no opinion about your life.

You can leave with nothing

This may be the most important part of this page.

You can close the tab now. It's an answer like any other, and it's valid. Many people do exactly that the first time.

You can also come back later. The site will still be here, and so will the same pages. Read once, let it settle, come back when the time is right. It's a perfectly normal way of doing things.

And if you want to move forward without buying anything, there's a step in between: reading. The Journal brings together guides on materials, sizes and cleaning. They also say what to look at before choosing. You can spend an hour there without ever opening a product page.

One last thing. You didn't need to talk to anyone about this to get here. You won't need to talk about it for what comes next either. It's your business, and it can very well stay that way.