March 29 :: VIBRATOR NATION: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure



vibrator nationVibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure

a book talk with Lynn Comella, in conversation with Julie Scelfo
March 29, Thursday
7 to 8 pm

Lynn Comella, Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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.
The Strand Bookstore
828 Broadway

For more information about this event, please contact the Strand Bookstore at 212-473-1452 ext. 380.
Facebook event page here.
Co-Sponsored by the NYU Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality; and by Babeland.
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 CommunicationPorn StudiesFeminist Media StudiesThe Feminist Porn BookCommodity ActivismSex 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.



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