Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-toy Stores Changes the Business of Pleasure

Lynn Comella | Vibrator Nation In the 1970s a group of feminist entrepreneurs pioneered a movement by reimagining the sex shop industry. They questioned who sex shops benefited, what type of customer visited them, what potential could they achieve, and through their brainstorming and research created companies such as Eve’s Garden, Good Vibrations, and Babeland. These weren't mere commercial enterprises, but places of education and providers of community resources. They changed how sex was discussed, how it was had, and even how it was enjoyed. In Vibrator Nation Lynn Comella shares how these sex-positive retailers raised sexual consciousness and doubled as social activists, having redefined the adult industry and changed the lives of women everywhere. Lynn Comella, Ph.D. is an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies in the department of interdisciplinary, gender, and ethnic studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. An expert on the adult entertainment industry, her research explores a number of broad sociological themes, including the relationship between sexual politics and consumer culture. Her work on the history of the women’s market for sex toys and pornography has been published in the International Journal of Communication, Porn Studies, Feminist Media Studies, The Feminist Porn Book, Commodity Activism, Sex for Sale, and New Sociologies of Sex Work, among other venues. She has also published more than 50 articles about sex and culture in local and national media outlets, including Bitch magazine and Pacific Standard. Julie Scelfo is a former staff writer/current contributor to The New York Times, where her stories about society and human behavior reframe popular ideas and ask us to rethink our basic assumptions. She has written about transgender pronouns; the intersection of campus suicides with social media and perfectionism; the human health risks from synthetic chemicals in consumer products; homelessness; and how the collapse of Lehman Brothers led to “trickle-down home economics”—thousands of domestics and other low-wage laborers losing their jobs. Recorded March 29, 2018