The launch of the sex toy series to match
In the Comedy Central series, "the vast city," one thought of another connection between sex toys and women on TV.
In Episode 1998 of Sex and the city, Carly Bradshaw and her friends visited a sex shop to buy a "rabbit" vibrator.
Several women I interviewed in the women and sex shopping study mentioned that this incident was a watershed in the normalization of female sex shopping.
Sex shops targeting female customers are now part of the consumer culture from high street to online shopping and designer boutiques.
Jacquieline Gold, CEO of Ann Summers, said entering one of her stores is now "just part of a regular shopping trip" and the study seems
But the idea of a female sex store as "normal" can come at a price.
Going shopping to "increase" your sex life, improve your orgasm, look sexy in your underwear, and it takes a lot of pressure to be a "capable" modern woman.
At the same time, when I interviewed women, I was struck by ordinary and unglamorous sexual consumption.
On 1974, Eve's Garden, the first sex store "serving women", opened in New York.
The owner, Dell Williams, described the store as a political space and extension of the women's rights movement.
In the UK, the feminist magazine Spare Ribs, along with regular mail-order vibrator ads, published articles about the use of the vibrator to release the climax.
One of them, in 1975, said that the harmonious vibrator could be "purely for personal benefit if we dare to suggest it ".
However, in the event that not all feminists agree that the sex store is in the interest of the movement during this period, it is time to ask consumers what they really want.
On 1980, groups against violence against women led a protest night at targeted shops, pornographic cinemas and strip clubs in Leeds.
The activists gathered, closed the doors, threw paint and smashed the windows.
Despite this objection, the concept of purchasing sexual goods for women was further established in 1981 when the Ann Summers party was planned.
Women can buy sex toys and underwear from the hostess of Ann Summers party in their comfortable living room.
So when sex and the City aired in late 1990, the female audience was ready to take on the idea of vibrators as the latest fun, fashion accessory.
But when normalization becomes the norm, saying that women's sex shopping has been "normalized," what exactly does that mean, anything outside these boundaries can be seen as abnormal and unhealthy.
When sex stores are mainstream, they start to decide what is normal and what is not.
Women I 've interviewed don't always feel comfortable visiting sex stores, but they almost always see awkward, uncomfortable, or reluctant feelings as "problems" they need to address ".
Sex shopping is considered at the heart of the happy, healthy, confident sexual femininity that women today are told they can and should achieve.
The sex store for women has sold us a narrow idea of "good sex.
This means endless "hearts --
Blow "the climax, role-playing sessions, and underwear to drive the partners wild.
But not all women can accept the idea of this female sex, and not all women want to do so, and should not.
One might think that this stress is an easy thing to avoid, but even the woman I interviewed who had never been to a sex store thought she should "add fuel to the marriage ".
Without ignoring the problems caused by the normalization of female sex shopping, there is another way to deal with rational consumption.
When talking to women about their use of vibrators, what impressed me was that women performed regular masturbation with their favorite vibrators.
Away from the "five incense" view of female sex, using a vibrator is more of a quick solution that is completely disgraceful, a way to ease tension or boredom, or a kind of lodging
When these items become part of women's ordinary sex life, they are no longer in line with the vivid, stimulating ideas of "good sex" advocated by the sex store.
Continuing the tradition of "feminist" sex shops, some sex shops have more inclusive ideas about women's sexuality.
These spaces provide women with the possibility to buy sex toys without being bombarded with restrictive information about the gender she should have and the women she should have.
Rachel Wood, a sociology researcher at the University of Durham, Sheffield, the article was originally published in the conversation.
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