Last Tuesday, Haluk Murat Demirel opened what he believes is the first Muslim sex toy shop online. The concept of sex shops for the faithful isn’t new, however. In 2012, Poland saw the first Roman Catholic sex shop. The previous year, Orthodox Jews welcomed the first kosher sex shop. And Christian sex shops have been a thing even longer. Come explore how the faithful spice things up within the boundaries of their beliefs.
Most people who end up in the adult industry don’t dream about it since they were little kids, and Dave Levine was no different. Growing up in Boston, his father had his own business, and Levine grew up with similar aspirations. When the web came around, Levine knew it was the right platform, if he found a way to harness it. “Everyone said I was stupid,” he recalls. “In their defense, my original idea to use the internet to sell high-end art wasn’t that great. But I was willing to try a bunch of stuff and see which one worked.”
“Adam and Eve” conjures all manner of Judeo-Christian imagery, none of which particularly arousing — with the exception, perhaps, of the idea of the apple as a metaphor for sex. It’s somewhat surprising, then, that Adam & Eve should be one of the largest names in porn and sex toys. The story begins in 1971 when Phil Harvey sent out the company’s first condom mail-order catalog, taking a stand against restrictive Comstock laws that preventing the sale of condoms over the mail. What followed next would be a defining moment for the U.S. Come with us.
“If Steve Jobs made a vibrator, this would be it!” tech talking head Robert Scoble told me, adding a few moments later: “The NexusQ team could learn a lot about hardware design from this. The NexusQ was totally over designed. This is not. The NexusQ was way too heavy. Way too large. Was way too complex. The Revel is none of those things.”
Mixed martial artist Michael Waylon Lowe is suing the sex aids company Kama Sutra after a night of pleasure went horribly wrong. The complaint involves Kama Sutra’s Prolonging Gel Pleasure Balm, the use of which has — according to the lawsuit — resulted in penile scarring, loss of sensation and function, and nerve and tissue damage.
A few weeks ago, the line of sex toys inspired by the runaway erotic best-selling Fifty Shades trilogy finally landed in the U.S., and they’ve taken up at almost every imaginable retailer online and off. The toys, called the Pleasure Collection, are, of course, named with the books in mind — oh yeah, just what you always wanted! Inner Goddess Silver Balls and Twitchy Palm Spanking Paddle!
What makes the Revel Body so special? It’s the vibe — and by that, I’m not talking about the spherical design, but the actual vibrating portion of the piece. “We decided to innovate on vibration motor technology when we observed that all of the existing battery-powered vibrators use the same vibrating motors and that these motors operate in a very small fraction of the range that people can feel,” the creators write. Ignoring the preferred motor of the sex toy industry, the team focused on the resonating technology that power sonic toothbrushes.
The best part of knowing Dave Levine is the access. Specifically, access to information regarding what people want in the bedroom. A few days ago, I chased him down and badgered him with questions about what people were buying at his toy emporium, Sextoy.com. I wasn’t surprised to see a Rabbit among the top sellers, given its iconic status, but I wasn’t expecting the American Whopper to be number one. The Whopper is a 6.5-inch dildo. A very realistic looking dildo.
It’s summer. Hot days and hot nights. And they’re about to get a lot hotter. Our editrix got back from a party in New York celebrating the launch of two new Durex products designed specifically to get couples synced up in the sack. It’s the holy grail of sexual relationships. Anyway, as soon as she walked in the door, we did what we always do: jumped all over her luggage looking for swag. This is what we found and here’s how you can get it (free, of course. You’re welcome).
Like we didn’t envy the public transportation system enough, or the fact that you can have a decent meal no matter what ungodly hour of the night it is. No. Now we have to also be jealous that New Yorkers don’t even need to leave bed to get a sex toy delivered. How wrong is this?! Sometimes it takes so long when we order takeout, we wonder whether it wouldn’t be faster to have the Chinese place down the street mail our beef-broccoli. It might even still be warm when it arrives!
