It's more than a buzzword. We break down what sex positivity really looks like — on our shelves and off.
“Sex positive” gets used to sell a lot of things. Underneath the marketing, it means something specific, and it's something this store has practised since 1983: the idea that pleasure isn't shameful, that consenting adults get to want what they want, and that good information beats judgment every time.
For us, sex positivity is practical, not just a vibe. It means stocking the toys and the books side by side and treating both as ordinary. It means staff who can answer a real question without flinching or making you feel like you asked the wrong thing. It means education — about consent, about safer sex, about anatomy and desire — offered plainly, because shame has never made anyone safer or happier.
It also means knowing the difference between pleasure and pressure. Sex positivity isn't “everyone should be having more sex.” It's “your body and your choices are yours,” which includes the choice of none of it, or less of it, or something different from what everyone else seems to be doing. Consent runs underneath all of it, always — with other people, and with yourself.
There's history here, too. This store fought the federal government for the right to carry queer material the border called “obscene,” and won at the Supreme Court. The principle we won on — that adults get to read, see, and choose for themselves — is the same principle behind everything on these shelves. Pleasure without shame isn't a slogan we picked up. It's the thing we've been defending, in one form or another, for forty-three years. Come in with questions. That's what we're here for.
