Toronto Sex Shop
I have always had some strange qualms with the sex shop. It is not the regular kind of qualm that all people have–the one that makes them dislike sexuality and attempt to avoid it at all costs. On the contrary, I am glad that things like the sex shop exist, and I hope that they flourish in every location all over the world.
My problem is that I dislike how the sex shop and their toys are kind of forced to hide in plain sight. We should already be living in a time when sexual ideas are something that we are no longer afraid of. Mainly, I am talking about how sex toys are treated. Even the word “toys” is attempting to hide what they really are. Sure they are items that used for fun and pleasure, but to call them “toys” is giving them some connotations that simply do not belong there.
Even further, the sex toys are actually made to look like children’s toys–they are colorful, decorative, and they even have strange themes to them like political satire and pop-culture. All this is doing is covering up the true nature of these toys by dressing them up as something else entirely. As long as someone doesn’t understand the true nature of these toys then the mission has been accomplished. What are we so afraid of in these stores that we have to refer to these clearly adult items as “toys”? We do everything that we can to hide sex from our children, yet when we become adults we are constantly using “toys” during the most adult activities that we can think of.
As children we are supposed to not know anything about sex, and when we are adults we treat sex as though we are children playing a game. Are we just not supposed to be taking sex seriously, or is our childish behavior as adults derived from the fact that we are only just beginning to experience it, much in the same way that a child experiences everything in their life? At least sex toys are allowed to be sold.
I live in a state where sex might actually not even exist. There are people here who prevent sexy billboards from going up, schools that enforce strict modesty laws and honor codes, but also has the highest rate for downloading pornography (this is true). Is this not telling anyone anything? When something is taboo, it is a natural reaction to figure out why, and then become obsessed with it. The fact that people are trying to hide sex from the public eye is not doing anyone any favors–now people just have to find it in private, and then feel horrible about it because their society has trained them to think that it is something to be shameful of.
Whether it actually is shameful is not the question–that is solely opinion. The question is whether or not hiding something and refusing to talk about it is something that helps or hurts the issue. There are no pornographic billboards where I live, but there are billboards everywhere offering help for pornography addiction. What pornography? Even quiet places have sex shops that are not hidden away. There is a Toronto sex shop that is flourishing, as far as I can tell. Sex is just another thing in life, and acting like it is something to be feared and avoided as a child just builds up a strange anticipation for it as an adult. We all just need to learn to relax and take a few deep breaths every now and agian. Let people live their own lives.
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