Preventing Hysteria 

The Supreme Court declined to review the constitutionality of an Alabama ban on the sale of sex toys:

Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling that said Alabama had a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the challenge on behalf of merchants and users seeking to overturn the 1998 state law. They say the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which decriminalized gay sex on privacy grounds, protects sex toy users from unwarranted state intrusion in their homes.

"The sexual devices covered by the statute have many recognized beneficial uses and are used by consenting adults in deeply private acts that are beyond the reach of government regulation," argues the filing on behalf of Sherri Williams, an adult novelty retailer, and seven other women and two men.

A divided three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. It said in a ruling last July that siding with the sex toy merchants could open the door to the legalization of undesirable sexual behavior such as prostitution.
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The state law bans only the sale of sex toys, not their possession, and it doesn't regulate other items including condoms or virility drugs. Residents also may lawfully purchase sex toys out of state for use in Alabama, or use them if the devices have other recognized medical or therapeutic uses.

Let's just hit this stupid law point by point. First of all... the law of course doesn't include "virility drugs". Heaven forbid that the men in the legislature be prevented from having their viagra, but they're going to take away a woman's vibrator. Second, they're doing this to prevent prostitution? What the hell do vibrators have to do with prostitutes? It seems to me that if you take away someone's vibrator... they're going to be more likely to go to a prostitute instead, not less. Finally, they can sell them if they're a therapeutic device? How much do you want to bet that OBGYN's in Alabama start prescribing vibrators for women? Apparently the Alabama legislature is unfamiliar with the medical condition known as hysteria (probably not a work safe link):

Physicians employed vibrating devices in the treatment of "hysteria," which they viewed as the most common health complaint among women of the day. Hysteria was a medical term developed to describe a woman's display of mental or emotional distress, behavior then considered a disease in need of treatment. Though the existence of hysteria as a disease was debunked by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952, medical experts from the time of Hippocrates up to the 20th century believed that hysteria expressed the womb's revolt against sexual deprivation. Genital massage was a standard treatment for hysteria; its objective was to induce "hysterical paroxysm" (better known as orgasm) in the patient. Such treatment demanded both manual dexterity and a fair amount of time, so turn-of-the-century physicians were delighted with the efficiency, convenience and reliability of portable vibrators. In light of hysteria's historical legacy, we can see that classifying hysteria as a disease was a refusal to acknowledge female sexuality as a human trait on par with male sexual functioning, as well as a refusal to recognize orgasm as a normal function of female sexuality.

If you follow the link above, you can actually see pictures of some antique vibrators... many of which were actually sold in the Sears Roebuck catalog! It's actually pretty funny when you think about it.

In reality... this is just a cheap shot at morality... which is stupid since there is nothing immoral about a vibrator. When you go after vibrators, exactly how many women do you think are going to protest out in the street about that... especially in Alabama? Granted we're not in the 1950's, but this is still a pretty private topic for people, and not something many women are willing to admit to. How many women are going to come out and say publicly... "I use a vibrator... don't take away my right to buy one?" Realistically not many will, which means the legislature is taking advantage of that silence. It's actually similar to when they have a referendum on marijuana use. Pot smokers aren't exactly the type who make it to the polls on a regular basis. "Dude... I thought it was super Wednesday". So how many do you think actually make it to the polls to vote for legal marijuana?

Maybe what the women of Alabama ought to do is start a bumper sticker campaign. Slap one on your car, or minivan that simply says "I use a vibrator". Keep what goes on in the bedroom, in the bedroom I say... and stop trying to legislate what people do there.

Update: Miss Macy asks an excellent question... and I'm curious about that too now. Have they also banned the sale of back massagers? If not... Sharper Image is going to have a quite a run at their stores.

Update II: More here at Classical Values. Is there anyone out there besides the impotent legislators in Alabama who thought this was a good idea?