For most people, October signals the arrival of fall weather, apple cider, and Halloween parties.

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.

Locktober is an annual month-long celebration around chastity, observed by many in the BDSM and kink 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.

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%.

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.

“For people who are in the world of BDSM (bondage and discipline) or kink, chastity actually has the opposite effect,” he explained to…