As US troops carry out high-stakes missions from Venezuela to the Middle East, the Pentagon has waged an unlikely new battle at home: the war on sex toys.
In its latest culture-war skirmish, the Daily Mail can reveal military officials recently blocked the delivery of sex toys to troops overseas, igniting ridicule and debate over how far the military should police private life.
First came prohibitions on piercings and nail polish for male military members. Then followed a ban on books with LGBTQ+ and anti-discrimination themes in military libraries.
Then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sniped at overweight troops, those with religious beards and chaplains embracing what he deems as new-age beliefs.
Now the Department of War, as Hegseth has renamed the Defense Department, is taking aim at a new target – adult toys.
In a glaring display of sweating the small stuff, Hegseth’s Navy sent two testy letters to an adult emporium in Toronto slamming it for fulfilling an order to American personnel on a US base in Bahrain.
The items in question: a bullet vibrator and butt plug.
‘Pornographic materials or devices are not allowed into the Kingdom of Bahrain,’ warned one letter sent from the base with the subject line: ‘Adult item identified during X-ray mail screening,’ along with the returned pleasure goods.
Secretary of War Pete Hegsethis now facing ridicule after his Navy blocked sex toys mailed to US troops overseas in the name of discipline and cultural sensitivity
Adult pleasure devices, like vibrators and butt plugs, have long been used by deployed troops as stress relief during long and isolating overseas postings. Pictured: Stock image of a sex shop
Another letter categorized the items as ‘posing an immediate danger to life or limb or an immediate and substantial danger to property.’
The Pentagon has declined comment on the letters, sent over the summer, which the Navy framed as acts of cultural sensitivity meant to avoid offending the conservative Muslim majority in the Persian Gulf island kingdom.
But official customs lists published by Bahrain’s government don’t explicitly list sex toys as forbidden, although they do prohibit the sale and importation of ‘obscene or immoral materials’ that – by either Bahraini or Hegseth’s standards – could apply to personal pleasure devices.
A Navy instructional publication for trainees explicitly states that ‘possession of adult sex toys in the barracks is prohibited’.
The letters have triggered a host of playful social media posts, including sex-toy war stories about which dildos, penis pumps and anal beads current and former US service members have been using to pleasure themselves on overseas bases.
Troops deployed to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries face strict social restrictions and limited interaction with locals.
One of our Pentagon sources notes that maintaining mental health among troops has been a challenge in the region, pointing most notoriously to the 2018 suicide of Vice Admiral Scott Stearney, the commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and the Fifth Fleet based on Bahrain.
Grace Bennett, co-owner of Canadian sex toy business Bonjibon, claims the US Navy sent her a letter warning that ‘pornographic materials or devices’ are not allowed in Bahrain after intercepting a vibrator and butt plug during mail screening
General views of the US Naval base in Bahrain, where adult pleasure devices mailed to American troops were intercepted and returned over ‘cultural sensitivity’ concerns
Meanwhile, items considered obscene or pornographic to some are seen by others as healthy self-care essentials, especially for troops stationed in socially isolating regions.
Service members on long deployments on remote bases and in ships and submarines have long been known to bring sex toys for pleasure and stress relief when away from their partners.
‘My God, you’d never take toothbrushes or combs away from sailors, so why take away their dildos?’ one Navy chaplain told us.
‘Some things are basic necessities when it comes to morale.’
Rebecca Karpinski is the interim president and CEO of the American Sexual Health Association, a group promoting sexuality as ‘a normal, healthy and positive aspect of human life’.
As part of its work, it pushes for stigma-free access to information, services and products that keep Americans sexually healthy.
Vibrators and butt plugs, in her view, are neither obscene nor pornographic.
‘Obviously, I believe in respecting other countries’ laws,’ she said.
Bonjibon, which fulfilled the sex toy order, has turned the Pentagon’s reprimand into a viral marketing moment. The items in question were a bullet vibrator and butt plug
‘But what’s uncomfortable for me is when our own military makes it difficult for people who are serving to live their whole and complete lives.
‘Sexuality is normal and healthy, and that shouldn’t end when you enlist.’
Karpinsky sees limiting access to sex toys as akin to other sexuality-related restrictions imposed by Hegseth’s military, including decreasing the availability of abortion and certain contraceptives.
‘This feels like an expansion of those restrictions even further,’ she told us. ‘Our troops should have full access to rights that the rest of us – the people they’re fighting for – are free to enjoy.’
Bonjibon, the Toronto-based business whose products were shipped to Bahrain, has in the meantime parlayed the Pentagon’s wrist-slapping into a marketing opportunity.
The company bills itself as ‘an every-person sexual wellness shop and online magazine’ that offers ‘pleasure, for every body’.
Grace Bennett, co-owner of the company, posted an Instagram reel of herself framing one of the Navy’s letters in a pink sequined frame to the tune of ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’ by Natalie Cole.
Her post snagged 144,572 likes, largely among Canadians who lately love to hate anything related to the Trump administration.
Hegseth has already come under fire for allegedly trying to impose a narrow brand of Christian nationalism within the military
The president famously has mused that Canada could become the 51st US state, and for the past several months has been using economic force – tariffs and trade policies – to strong-arm that country.
Bennett’s proud act of defiance prompted one follower to write, ‘How do I nominate you for the order of Canada?’
She told CTV News Toronto that the increased exposure following her run-in with the US military is much needed during a particularly tough time for her company.
Trump’s tariffs and scrapping of the de minimis exemption – which allowed people one duty free daily shipment worth less than $800 – has caused Bonjibon’s products to be held up at the border or shipped back to its warehouse, she said.
She wondered why the Navy took aim at her business in Canada rather than the service member who ordered the vibrator and butt plug in the first place.
‘This sounds like a you problem,’ she said.
Meanwhile, pundits are having a field day blaming Hegseth for the butt plug story
‘I suddenly feel an urge to order one and ship it to him,’ wrote a Reddit poster named Raynafur.
Vinay Menon, a columnist for the Toronto Star, proposed a national Canada-wide effort ‘in which our sex shops flood every US base with free bedroom toys to gum up the foxholes’.
