In the 1970s a group of pioneering feminist entrepreneurs launched a movement that ultimately changed the way sex was talked about, had, and enjoyed. Boldly reimagining who sex shops were for and the kinds of spaces they could be, these entrepreneurs opened sex-toy stores like Eve's Garden, Good Vibrations, and Babeland not just as commercial enterprises, but to provide educational and community resources as well. In Vibrator Nation Lynn Comella tells the fascinating history of how these stores raised sexual consciousness, redefined the adult industry, and changed women's lives. Comella describes a world where sex-positive retailers double as social activists, where products are framed as tools of liberation, and where consumers are willing to pay for the promise of better living-one conversation, vibrator, and orgasm at a time.
Lynn Comella is Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and coeditor of New Views on Pornography: Sexuality, Politics, and the Law.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. The Making of a Market 1 1. The Business of Masturbation 15 2. Out of the Therapist's Office, into the Vibrator Shop 43 3. Living the Mission 63 4. Repackaging Sex 88 5. The Politics of Products 113 6. Sexperts and Sex Talk 136 7. Selling Identity 161 8. Profitability and Social Change 188 Conclusion. Grow or Die? 211 Appendix. Studying Sexual Culture and Commerce 229 Notes 235 Selected Bibliography 257 Index 267
What People are Saying About This
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure - Constance Penley
"No one is better placed than Lynn Comella to take us on a journey through the evolution of feminist-owned sex-toy stores. Through years of interviews and participant-observation, she brilliantly traces how the difficult conversations about race, class, and gender among feminist sex-toy store owners, their workers, and customers created a new kind of sexual public sphere. Vibrator Nation will brilliantly inform all future efforts to address the difficulties of blending progressive politics with capitalism, social change, and profit making."
Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy - Jiz Lee
"Sex shops were my entry into a brazen new world of gender and sexuality, eventually channeling my career in adult film. Lynn Comella's masterful book documents the 'sex-positive' ethos of gender and sexual progress and its complex junctures within capitalism, feminism, and education. Recounting a pivotal moment, Vibrator Nation is a fascinating history lesson for the uninitiated, a gift to all who were there, and a love letter to those who call these sex shops home."
