Article: Sam Wilson from women24

"How last season," commented Rachel. "Although, I suppose it does have some quaint retro value, maybe… you know, what if I bought some flavoured condoms and made a bit of a 90s evening out of it? As opposed to just stripping down to my egg or playing hunt the rabbit again?"

A far cry from giggling over Scope and its starry nipples, isn't it? There is no doubt about it, SA women are raising their game in the bedroom.

"It is not so much that they have become more sexually demanding," remarks Rick (no, not his real name), the owner of a male escort agency of over 12 years standing. "It's that they are becoming more open and playful with their sexuality. Young SA women have become much more comfortable getting a stripper for a party, or ordering some arm candy for a big night out. Obviously sex is always the underlying issue here – but fun and playfulness are becoming more and more important."

Add the pole, lap and belly -dancing lessons which have sprung up all over, and it seems the SA ladette has indeed arrived.

I did the kind of research only columnists get away with – I got together a table full of 20 and 30-something women drinking Belgian beer to tell me what they thought of the rising ladette phenomenon.

"Well, I don't think there is any factual basis in this," says Kate. "I am certainly not getting laid, playfully or otherwise."

There was a strange gurgling noise as a lot of women suddenly gulp their Leffe beers at the same time.

"Ah, no…" said Kate, crestfallen. "Really just me?"

"Well, I am only getting a lot of action because I am registered on a lot of different online dating sites," said Siobhan, reassuringly. "And I have decided I am going to act like that chick in The Bachelorette, you know, when you get to sleep with all the maybes without being labelled a slut?"

More significant gulping.

"It's NOT sluttish. It is thorough," said Siobhan, a little less confidently.

"Does playing with my iBuzz while I work on my laptop alone at night count as being sexually playful?" asked my lawyer friend, Sarah.

"Yes," said Kate. "Unfortunately it also makes you a sad, workaholic tech-nerd."

So. There we have it. A beery cross-section of ladettes, plus Kate.

And what about you? What do you think represents the latest in sexual savvy? Do you see yourself as playful, sexually confident and pretty hang-up free? Have you perhaps found the ultimate sex toy or come-hither move and want to share with us?

Or do you think all this is just a magazine ploy to make winter flannel-jammied folk feel like dried up prunes?

Please send your comments, as smut-free as possible, to editor@women24.com.

Sam Wilson is Editor-in-Chief of Women24.com and, due to a recent bout of meningitis, has now had a bona fide headache for eight weeks. Her husband has yet to appreciate the irony.