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by PATRICK BABCOCK
Lifestyles Reporter
“I have a friend who had a party, and he bought a ton of vibrators and gave them to everyone,” freshman graphic design major Laura M. P. Taylor said. “Which I thought was just the strangest party favor you could get. I actually ended up selling mine to someone else for $30, which I thought was an interesting turn of events. That sticks out in my mind.”
Amidst the lull of Creedence Clearwater Revival playing over the speakers, Expressions sales clerk and night manager Donnie J. Lee spoke candidly about the store’s sale of sex toys.
“It’s pretty funny
because a lot of girls will come in here and be like ‘this is for a
friend,’” Lee said. “They’re pretty embarrassed. ‘We’ve got a friend
having a birthday party and we’re giving her this!’”
However, he said, due to their popularity, the purchasing of sex toys is not something that requires the stigma it carries.
Still,
many disagree. In 1998, the state of Alabama enacted a law citing the
commercial sale of certain sex toys as a criminal offense. The Supreme
Court overturned this law in Williams v. Pryor.
More
recently, The Supreme Court ruled to overturn a Texas ban on the sale
of sex toys in the 2008 case Reliable Consultant Inc. v. Earle.
“Yeah, we sell a lot of them,” Lee said. “We sell a lot of sex toys.”
Also, Lee said, only occasionally do Appalachian State University students purchase sex toys.
“Honestly, older folks. Mature, older folks,” he said.
Night
Secrets sales associate Anna E. Ritchie echoed Lee’s sentiment, saying
although students are a part of the consumer demographic, they are not
the only target audience for sex toy purchase.
“It’s a
mixture of both [students and residents],” Ritchie said. “We get a lot
of young and a lot of older [customers]. More girls,” she said.
Many Appalachian students, including Taylor, see nothing wrong with using of sex toys.
“I guess
it’s sort of just a personal choice,” she said. “I’ve never used one
personally, but I know a lot of people who seem to enjoy it.”
Despite the prevalence of novelty sex toys in shops, the most popular product remains the vibrator.
“Usually
it’s the rabbit style vibrator [that is purchased], the one that’s got
the vibrating bullet in it and it rotates and vibrates too,” body
piercer at Expressions Erin L. McClung said. “The Wascally Wabbit down
there is one of the most popular ones. That one was on an episode of
‘Sex and the City.’”
Ritchie admits, however, some individual products produce plenty of laughs.
“The
basic vibrators, like the Jack Rabbit, sell really good. Then you have
some that people look at and laugh at,” Ritchie said.
Other products produce almost nothing but laughter, like the lollipops and other candies that are modeled after genitals.
“People
mostly laugh [at the candy],” Ritchie said. “Some people will buy some
of the mints and stuff like that, but most of the time it’s for gag
gifts.”
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