For most people, October signals the arrival of fall weather, apple cider, and Halloween parties.
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October → signal → weather
But for a section of the gay community and a growing number of straight people, the month goes by another name: Locktober, and its meaning is most definitely R-rated.
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meaning → grow → name
Locktober is an annual month-long celebration around chastity, observed by many in the BDSM and kink communities.
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Locktober → observe → communities
Participants wear a chastity cage around their penis that prohibits them from having sex, often under the stewardship of a dominant partner who holds the key.
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who → wear → key
The annual chastity kink is one of the fastest-growing fetishes, according to Clips4Sale, which named it its 2025 Fetish of the Year after chastity content sales surged 71%.
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sales → grow → Year
Dan Berman, founder and CEO of KINK3D, a company that makes the cages and charges upwards of $220 for one, claimed that it’s not actually about repression or constraint.
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it → make → repression
“For people who are in the world of BDSM (bondage and discipline) or kink, chastity actually has the opposite effect,” he explained to The Post.
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he → have → Post
“It really ramps up and intensifies sexuality.”
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It → ramp → sexuality
Basically, it does mean locking up the penis and metaphorically throwing away the key (there is a hole to urinate), and it is possible to still get an erection, sort of.
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it → mean → erection
“You get, what I would say is, a partial erection,” Berman said.
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Berman → get → erection
“It will redirect it downward; it will restrict how hard you can get.
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you → redirect → it
You will still get aroused, but there is definitely a feeling of compression and not being able to get a full erection.
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You → get → erection
Even though it’s called Locktober, practices vary on how long you wear the cage, and Berman advises newcomers to corral their chastity yearnings.
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Berman → call → yearnings
“Some people like to go into it with the dream that they will put the cage on at midnight on Oct 1 and not take it off for the next 31 days.
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they → like → days
There are some people who do that, but we think it’s probably not the best plan for most people.
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it → be → people
Realistically, taking some breaks for hygiene is important,” he counseled.
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he → take → hygiene
“A lot of people have trouble sleeping at night in their cage, and we have done a lot of work making cages a lot more comfortable.
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cages → have → work
Even with that, it’s still challenging for a lot of people.
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it → ’ → people
Nighttime erections are involuntary; they can wake you up.”
He advises people to view them as contact lenses or glasses — something you take off before you go to sleep and you put back on the minute you wake up.
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you → wake → sleep
Berman estimates his clientele is split evenly between gay and straight customers, and says the item also serves as a fashion accessory at sex parties and fetish clubs.
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item → estimate → parties
In the gay hookup world, it can serve as a deterrent for men who pressure others to be ‘tops.’
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who → serve → others
“So, for people who really want to emphasize that they’re bottoms, they really like wearing the cage to sort of take their penis off the table, symbolically and practically,” Berman expounded.
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Berman → want → table
He shared that straight couples use it often to spice up their sex life.
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couples → share → life
“It inverts the discourse over what is typically masculine,” Berman said.
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Berman → invert → discourse
“It lets couples do that in a way that is playful and fun and a little bit kinky.
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that → let → way
It can also put more emphasis on a woman’s pleasure and orgasm.
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It → put → pleasure
“We hear about that all the time,” he revealed.
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he → hear → that
“Sometimes it can reinvigorate the spark in relationships by taking the men’s orgasm off the table for a little bit and making the woman the center of pleasure.”
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woman → reinvigorate → pleasure
Tom, who asked The Post to refrain from using his real name, has been in a relationship with a woman for the last 2 years, and agrees with that assessment.
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who → ask → assessment
“My girlfriend has said to me that she has never had so much confidence,” he explained.
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he → say → confidence
“Having that power over me boosts her confidence and makes her feel stronger.”
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her → have → confidence
Tom laughed when asked if his girlfriend has been having more orgasms this October than any other month before acknowledging that it was true.
“It’s really interesting how it changes something in my brain,” the 37-year-old explained.
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old → laugh → brain
“All I do is focus on her pleasure while we engage in sexual activity during Locktober.”
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we → do → Locktober
And when it comes off, Tom said everything is heightened.
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everything → come → ?
He even pointed out that being aroused during the abstemious annual — it’s his second time around — is pleasurable.
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it → point → annual
“If anything, I kind of lean into it,” Tom shared, “and enjoy the arousal.
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Tom → lean → arousal
What I’ve learned is going into an entire month without orgasms is [that] it kind of turns into extended foreplay.
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it → learn → foreplay
In a way, everything becomes sexualized.”
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everything → become → way
Sebastian, who also refrained from giving his real name, a gay man in his 30s who has done Locktober for the last six years, sees the experience as more spiritual than sexual.
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who → refrain → experience
“It’s more of a challenge, a test of willpower, learning to deny what would be a base urge,” he told The Post.
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he → learn → Post
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
