Thinking Sex Toys: Pleasure and Danger of Feminist Commodities

• In Event: 456 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Paper Session. The Joys of Sex: Pleasure and Desire in Sexuality Studies

Abstract

Gayle Rubin’s (1984) article, “Thinking Sex,” which was included in the landmark volume Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, mapped the hierarchical organization of sexual behaviors, and called for sexual progressives to counter oppression by developing a radical theory of sexuality. At that time, sex toys were included in the “bad” outer limits of sexuality. Notions of sexual pleasure and danger have changed significantly since then.
The paper draws on participant observation at two companies and 40 interviews with professional sex toy makers (17 women and 23 men) employed across the industry. The results find that the map of sexual hierarchy has been largely redrawn so as to admit sex commodities into the “charmed circle.” Vibrators in particular have emerged as a feminist commodity and companies focus on the woman consumer. However, new dangers have arisen, in particular the persistence of a “domino theory of sexual peril.” Makers consequently prioritize sanitized sex and uphold a relational imperative that implies and reproduces fear of a “taboo of replacement.”

Author

• Shelly Ronen, New York University