The creators of Ms. Piglet, an inflatable blow-up sex doll, probably had many uses in mind when they conceived of her, but chances are they never thought she’d grace the floors of an Attorney General’s office—at least not as a political ploy.
But in November 2007, Ms. Piglet was sent to Troy King, the Alabama Attorney General, as part of the “Sex Toys for Troy” campaign. The brainchild of Loretta Nall, a former libertarian gubernatorial candidate and political activist, the campaign is in protest to the state’s Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act, which prohibits the sale of any device that is used “for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
Yes, that’s right dear lovers of Rabbits, Magic Wands, Power Dancers, and Ms. Piglets, the Heart of Dixie wants to make the electrical orgasm illegal.
Were it not for the punishment, you’d think the Alabama law was a farce. But in the same state where selling a gun to a kid gets you a $500 fine, selling a sex toy can run you up to $10,000 in fines and up to a year of jail time. And the law is not a relic from yore; it was put on the books in 1998.
Not surprisingly, the ban on sex toys hasn’t gone without significant legal protest. The American Civil Liberties Union and local sex shop owners filed suit in 1998, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional. A federal district court overturned the law, and King’s office protested. Lower courts upheld the law, and in February 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to the vibrator ban. Another bill recently passed by the house seeks to repeal the ban once again.
While anyone within spitting distance of a Good Vibrations might question the priorities of the Alabama government, they aren’t the only state where politicians feel the need to act as moral arbiters for the masses. Similar sex toy statutes exist in Mississippi and Virginia. Courts have only recently repealed laws in Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado, and Georgia barring “obscene” devices.
Most recently, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Texas law prohibiting the sale or promotion of sex toys violated the right to privacy by the 14th amendment. But this was not before a well publicized enforcement of the ban. In 2003, Joann Webb, a Chamber of Commerce member, wife, and mother of three, was arrested for selling vibrators to two undercover cops at a Passion Party in Texas; her case was dismissed after an eight-month legal battle.
Webb’s story is profiled in Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm, a documentary that tracks the origination of the vibrator, from its use in women’s medicine to a tool for female empowerment. (Betty Dodson famously quips: “Independent orgasms, I guarantee, will lead you to independent thought.”) It is therefore not surprising that women are at the forefront of protesting the sex toy bans. Alabama sex shop owners Sherri Williams and B.J. Bailey were two plaintiffs in the ACLU case. Nall is sending pigs to politicians and Lisa L. Lawless, founder of the National Association for Sexual Awareness and Empowerment, has assisted both Sherri Williams and Joanne Webb.
And while the sale of Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs is perfectly legal, visitors to sex shops in Alabama can purchase a sex toy only if they sign a waiver stating it’s for a medical purpose. Ironically, the good doctor first used vibrators for just that—inducing hysterical peroxisms (a.k.a orgasms) in women. But at least in the 19th century we didn’t have to sign a waiver.
Photo Source: wokka on flickr (cc)
