Popular Culture Review 30.1
many sex shops , as women-friendly spaces , have a long way to progress :
This was a business that traded in sexual opportunity , not sexual information . The video booths were the main event , the real selling point , and , most likely , big moneymakers . And while the clerk was chatty and friendly�even describing in unsolicited detail his experience using a penis pump� the business ’ s male customers ( and they were all men ) gave me quizzical looks , seemingly unsure about to what to make of my presence . Who was I and what was my purpose ? Was I sexually available ? And if not , why was I there ?
Comella contrasts this sleazy Sin City joint with the classier design and progressive credo of respectable retailers like Babeland ( Seattle ) and Good Vibrations ( San Francisco ). It ’ s an approach that has paid off , elevating sex shops�at least in those parts of the larger Trump-ravaged country�from the province of “ dirty old men ” and making them a comfortable place for landlords , the community , and shoppers themselves . Other absorbing parts of the book�like “ Retail-Based Sex Ed ,” for example�introduce us to the pioneering roles of Good Vibrations staff sexologist Carol Queen , while other sections show us what happens when a feminist sex-toy shop undergoes a change of ownership , moving from co-op status and into a corporate direction . Comella chronicles it all with care and precision ; the result is a must-read , a fascinating story about the mainstreaming of women ’ s sexual pleasure and how feminist sex-positive retailers made the world a better and more informative place for women ( and men and
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