A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an "antiquated place'' with more than its share of "prudes.''Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.
Webb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.
God, I want to live someplace the cops have nothing better to do than bust people for selling fucking toys.
Pardon the pun.
And come to think of it, no I don't.
Link courtesy of Atrios.
Update: See also: I got pulled over in west Texas so they could look inside my car.
Also added a link to Passion Parties, Inc. because giving free publicity to sex shops is one of the things I live for.
Passion Parties is the premier sensual party plan company in the United States and Canada. We are celebrating 10 years of bringing quality sensual products to multitudes of people. Our exclusive line of products are designed to encourage intimacy between partners.People have used sensual aids and toys dating back as far as recorded history. Today, sensual aids and toys are more popular than ever. Yet many people need or want to be discreet about purchasing such products. So, what greater venue for bringing sexual products to people than one of the most personal and educational environments available in 21st century marketing: the in-home party.
As a direct selling party plan company, we are able to bring the value of product knowledge, education, and confidentiality simply not found in the retail environment. In addition, the business model of direct sales offers generous rewards for the consultants who bring these products to their customers.
So. . . it's the Avon of sex stores? Or the Tupperware?
Mary Kay, maybe?
Actually, I could use some extra mon-- no.
No need to try to compete with early to bed.
Not that I could.
Ah yes, time for another Reason Why Karin is Embarrassed to Live in Texas.
This reminds me of the time I overheard someone asking a saleswoman at Forbidden Fruit if FF carried dildoes. "No," the saleswoman said, "we don't carry dildoes, but we do carry condom demonstration models."
Because, you know, everyone needs a condom demonstration model with strategically placed nubbly bits, at 8" long and 1.75" diameter.
The things we go through to keep from being arrested.
God, I want to live someplace the cops have nothing better to do than bust people for selling fucking toys.
Pardon the pun.
And come to think of it, no I don't.
Exactly right. You don't. However, I'll delurk for moment to suggest that what you do want to do, is check out the documentary Dildo Diaries, which I had the pleasure of discovering a few months ago. It covers the creation of this law and the impact that it has on lots of people, not just those who sell toys. The film includes interviews with the asskicking Molly Ivins, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, and Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) who is one of the legislators who have tried their level best to get this law killed. There's a very good segment with the Forbidden Fruit owner, and some lovely candid stuff with the lovely candid Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Planet Neptune) that painfully highlights just exactly the kind of phobic mentality that keeps this and other bedroom-invasion laws on the books in the state that was once a nation. ('Cept when the Supreme Court says otherwise, damn those non-marriage-defending bastiges.) Of course, as we know, that mentality is hardly limited to Texas, it just seems to do especially well in the soil in some areas.