You never forget your first vibrator. According to a 2009 study by Indiana University, almost 50 per cent of American women have played with the pulsating devices. That number has undoubtedly climbed thanks to pop-culture phenomena such as Fifty Shades of Grey and marked changes in the “adult industry”. Gone are the days when all sex shops were dives hawking crotchless polyester knickers and sticky men’s magazines, with a dodgy peep show in the back. The sex-toy business has boomed into a purportedly $15 billion (£11.5 billion) a year trade that is increasingly high-end, sophisticated in design and aggressively courting female consumers.

Porn is everywhere. It's on people's mobile phones, laptops, hard disks and it's all over the internet. There are now thousands of free clips just a click away, but despite the ubiquity, porn is an industry in upheaval.

Political attack ads typically stick to the same ol’ stuff, like voting records and candidate positions. That can’t be said for the jabs in Henderson, Nev., where voters in one state Assembly district are getting smacked with attacks on a pornographic level.

A sex toy that links up with a smartphone app may be innovative, but the makers of popular app-enabled vibrator We-Vibe might have just stumbled upon a critical issue: One woman in Chicago is suing We-Vibe's manufacturer, Standard Innovation, for collecting and transmitting her information, including her email address and the vibration settings she used, without her consent.

Sex toy shops abound in Las Vegas. But you don't have to go to a specialty store anymore to buy some of these items. Vibrators are sold behind the counter at Walgreens, too.

Positive HIV tests of adult film stars have repeatedly rattled the pornography industry in recent years, amplifying calls to better protect performers.

One of the charges leveled against pornography, and there are a lot of them, is that it is fundamentally bad for women. Porn commodifies women's bodies, certain feminist rhetoric goes. It trains viewers to see women as nothing more than objects.

Delany*, a 22-year-old college student, tells all of her female friends to get on Tumblr, not for the body-positive memes or feminist art projects, but for the porn.