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While looking online for a replacement for a vibrator that died recently,* I discovered that Good Vibrations is no longer a worker-owned cooperative. I got their catalog in the mail for ages before I finally bought my first sex toy from them about ten years ago. And their coop business model was a fantastic example of feminist anti-capitalism in
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I think "sex is dirty" is pretty firmly associated with the kinds of sex stores where you have to hold your nose. And for good reason. I'm not saying those spaces were/are fun or even safe places for women to shop. When Good Vibrations opened in the mid-70s, they were a bricks-and-mortar (funny that has to be specified now) store trying to provide an alternative to the grotty porno shack. The Silverberg abstract I linked to goes into a little more detail on that history. I'm less clear on the context for the start-up of their mailorder business. I know it came much later but became the big moneymaker.
Obviously there are multiple things going on over the history of the store. Norms shift, there are multiple norms that contradict one another, etc. Vibrators are pretty standard fare (if not without controversy) in the pages of women's magazines and on shows like Sex and the City, I think it's fair to say that there's a normative discourse around them. Mostly that it's ok for straight women to use vibrators with their partners. And many, many women-friendly sex toy stores cater specifically to this crowd. Looks like Good Vibrations is explicitly going that route too, even as they maintain policies of sexual diversity and social equity in their corporate mandate. Hey, straight women need sex toys too! But a "clean, well-lighted place" might also readily become a place where "good girl" straight sexuality is reinscribed even as they attempt to do otherwise. It's hard to enact radical social change through retail.
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