Michael’s heart raced with nervous excitement as midnight approached on September 30th, at which point he voluntarily slid his dick into The Vice, a plastic chastity cage with an “anti-pullout” device. The 28-year-old from Washington, D.C., had been pursuing his next frivolous nut online when he stumbled upon the website of Goddess Summer, a Canadian woman specializing in “chastity and keyholding.” She was offering a promotion for #Locktober, during which men spend the month of October locked in chastity cages.
Ever since — a total of 30 days and counting — Michael’s penis has been locked up. All the while, he receives daily tasks from Goddess Summer. They range from “writing on himself” to completing “tease and denial” sessions; throughout, he sends her pictures that prove his servitude. (Michael and Goddess Summer declined to elaborate on the details of both tasks.) During another “truth or dare” challenge, Goddess Summer obligated Michael to take a picture of a woman with her hand wrapped around his cage. “This required telling a female about what was going on and hoping that she’d be on board,” he tells me. (He completed the demand with the aid of a stripper.)
But where others would only see pain and suffering, Michael sees relief and rebirth, explaining that Locktober has “made life worth living” since he’s no longer “blindly going through the motions of each day.” I heard roughly the same thing from the other Locktober inmates I spoke with over the last week. For example, James, a 32-year-old married man in Durham, North Carolina, says he and his wife have “a strong domination/denial angle” to their sex life, and without a penis to work with, they’re forced to “get creative.” Meanwhile, Steven, a 33-year-old gay guy from Northern Kentucky, loves the anticipation of a penis behind bars. “It builds the entire month until the final release,” he notes. For Geoff, a 42-year-old gay man in Texas with a “really low libido,” Locktober is a Viagra of sorts. “Being locked makes me actually want to meet people and seek out sex,” he explains. Fifty-three-year-old Matt, a bisexual, says it’s all about community. “It’s a way to share experiences with novices, or those rarest of creatures: Females looking to get into keyholding.”
Such female keyholders are elusive enough, though, that they’re a constant source of consternation. “I don’t have one,” sighs Jay. “Maybe someday.” When I press Matt on his difficulty finding a woman to put a key to his chastity cage on her keychain, he says he asked his ex-wife and was crushed when she wrote back: “I wasn’t interested in that when we were married, and I don’t want to be involved in your sick shit now.” (James, it turns out, is one of the lucky ones: “My wife is hella into it,” he brags. “At least as much as I am.”)
Thus, many resort to virtual solutions. “An online friend is my keyholder,” Steven explains. “I let him know if I need to remove the cage for whatever reason, which keeps me honest. Really, the challenge is self-control.” Geoff opts for a long-distance arrangement, his keyholder two hours away. “The lock on my device has two keys. He keeps one, and I keep the other locked up in a safe that only he knows the combination to. We do it like that in case of emergencies.”
The scarcity of keyholders is likely what led Michael to Goddess Summer. “The only reason I’m so heavily committed is because I found a goddess who listens to me when I have concerns and doesn’t try to push me further than I’m willing to go.” He repays her in the form of a $200 Amazon gift card.
As you might expect, padlocking your penis for a month isn’t without its challenges. “Taking a shower at the gym the first time was difficult, and a doctor’s visit was a little scary,” say Tom. Not to mention, the agony of morning wood — “I woke up with an unusually vigorous erection [on October 12th], which caused enough pain to make me short of breath,” says Jay — or sexual satisfaction of any kind, which obviously is the point, but something that’s difficult to persevere through nonetheless. In fact, by the third week or so, Geoff says he was “using a dildo on a regular basis just trying to get some relief from the constant horniness.” (Per usual, James is the outlier: “Having that level of control drives my wife crazy, and we’re at it three to four times per week. It’s a fair bit of oral and me wearing a strap-on so she can have penetrative sex and still deny me.”)
Still, at least a few of the guys are planning to stay caged once November 1st strikes. “Now that we’re close to the end of the month, I’m considering extending it till the end of the year,” Matt explains. “Part of me wants to make this permanent.” For his part, Geoff doesn’t feel as though he has a choice since his keyholder is demanding it. “I have no idea when I’m going to be let out,” he says. “I think he’s going to keep me locked indefinitely.” The rest, though, expect some kind of release. Steven, for instance, plans to have “lots and lots of sex” with his husband while Tom anticipates having “one hell of an orgasm” — but not before his wife tortures him further by scheduling a swingers party and “playing with a friend” while he watches. James’ wife is a fan of ending his chastity with a blowjob — after, of course, taking care of some requisite business first. “A month in chastity means I’ll need to ‘freshen up’ before she gets too close, so we’ll likely unlock in the shower, scrub-a-dub-dub, and then it’s on with the show.”
Michael’s reprieve, however, will only be momentary. After all, he’s imprisoned as much by his devotion to Goddess Summer as he is a chastity cage. “Goddess has another game coming up that sounds just as fun and exciting as Locktober that starts on November 2nd and runs all the way until Christmas.”
C. Brian Smith
C. Brian Smith writes hard-hitting gonzo features for MEL, whether it be training with a masturbation coach, receiving psycho corporal treatment from a spank therapist, or embarking on a week-long pleasure cruise with 75 Santa Clauses following their busy season.
