Moms in Babeland

May 6, 2010 7:14 PM

Perhaps it's not surprising, given their intrinsic connection: sex and parenthood come together in Moms in Babeland, a blog run by the eponymous sex toy boutique (NSFW, obvs).

Some posts:

Vibrating Pediatric Pain Relief by Claire Cavanah (co-owner of Babeland)

As a vibrator aficionado, I’m quick to notice the intentional use of vibration wherever I find it. Imagine my surprise when I found the latest, great use for a vibrator at the dentist’s office. . . . So I ask my dentist, "Are you saying that if I take a vibrator to my son's appointment with his pediatrician and I use it near where he gets his shots, he won't feel them?" Of course I had to try it.

Glee's Madonna Tribute: My Sex Ed Moment by Anne Semans (author of Sexy Mamas: Keeping Your Sex Life Alive While Raising Kids)

One minute I had been anxious about my thirteen-year-old watching three characters lose their virginity in the span of three minutes, and the next minute I was happy that she was going to see them do it with joy in their hearts and springs in their steps! First-times are not routinely depicted as fun events, and I was downright grateful that this was how the writers chose to play it.

Adult Sleepover Etiquette by Shannon Solie, Babeland employee

This week my partner and I are about to take a big step. He is going to stay the night on a school night while my son is home. . . . There are so many questions about our behavior as a couple as we take this next step, "Do we still shower together or do we need to shower separately?" and "Do we have sex if we are in the mood?"

posted by ocherdraco (17 comments total)

It's mostly just an ad, though.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:19 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, but it's a dirty one.
posted by jonmc at 7:24 PM on May 6, 2010

Her secrets. Unlike my generation, who embrace the concept of “family bed” (much to the detriment of many couples’ sex lives), my parents never let us anywhere near their bed, which lent a certain mystique to what went on behind closed doors.

This also did not happen in my house while my parents were married (to each other or to others). You simply did not sleep with your parents back then. It was your own bed or you could cry yourself to sleep and get over it.
posted by Malice at 7:28 PM on May 6, 2010

Anne Semans is one of the founders of Good Vibrations. I often recommend her book The Mother's Guide To Sex to new/impending parents.
posted by padraigin at 7:42 PM on May 6, 2010

I'm intensely disappointed that it's not "Toys in Babeland" - a play on words apparently only used by an episode of Bewitched.
posted by thesmophoron at 7:59 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Actually, "Toys in Babeland" is the original name of the store.
posted by the jam at 8:19 PM on May 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

I really think people who are out to "cure" the world of not having enough sex are fascinating. In this post, one of the bloggers writes, with no trace of irony, about how she made a New Year's resolution to never turn down sex, whether she was in the mood or not. Once she powered through, she realized she enjoyed it.

Isn't it clear that the sex-positive movement has a deeply repressed moralizing streak that thinks it's our duty to have as much sex as possible, and bombards us with workshops, self-help books and support groups to help us overcome our sinful, unsexual natures? There's a perverse resonance with Christian fundamentalists, who use this exact approach to teach abstinence. Their blog posts constantly stress how they don't intend for anyone to feel bad, precisely because this moralizing judgment for not having enough sex or being kinky enough threatens to overwhelm their writing. Maybe it's time to be liberated from the liberators!
posted by AlsoMike at 8:52 PM on May 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

I find the idea of a blog devoted entirely to selling products at a particular store somewhat pepsi bluish.
posted by delmoi at 9:19 PM on May 6, 2010

>I really think people who are out to "cure" the world of not having enough sex are fascinating.


College Sophomore Thinks She Would Make A Good Sex Columnist

"Lizzie would make an all-right sex columnist, I guess," fellow sophomore Lisa Wong said. "She sure talks about that stuff a lot."

Wong said that Gilchrist starts off nearly every conversation by asking her if she has a boyfriend yet.

"I usually say that it's not a priority of mine right now, because I'm concentrating on getting through pre-med," Wong said. "Then she says I'm denying myself the pleasures of orgasm because of my sheltered upbringing. Last week, she sent me a link to a web site about frigidity."

Another friend of Gilchrist's, Leo Beck, said he has been dating the same girl for nearly two years.

"Lizzie says Jenny [Kroll] and I must have an unsatisfying sex life because we've been going out for so long," Beck said. "Maybe if I made something up about Jenny and me using ripcord beads, or seducing the pizza-delivery boy, she'd drop it."

When she isn't encouraging her friends to be more promiscuous, Gilchrist urges them to play hard-to-get.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:25 PM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

ZOMG MILFGASM
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:54 PM on May 6, 2010

How to be liberated from the liberators:
1. Ignore people who try to get you to do stuff you don't like
posted by LogicalDash at 12:13 AM on May 7, 2010 [5 favorites]

Blue Pepsi blue?
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 4:50 AM on May 7, 2010

Ignore people who try to get you to do stuff you don't like

Ah, so it's fine for sex-positive types to critique society, but don't you dare shine the light back on to them? Nice double standard you got going there!
posted by AlsoMike at 10:11 AM on May 7, 2010

Mike, you just haven't found that lover who gives you the universe. Just keep looking.

Although Lacan may have despaired of such, I believe he was regarded as quite the ladies' man in his day. Do as I say, not as I do?
posted by Crabby Appleton at 10:26 AM on May 7, 2010

OK, but Lacan said that the sexual relationship does not exist. So whatever he was up to with the ladies, it couldn't have been having sexual relations with them ;)
posted by AlsoMike at 2:27 PM on May 7, 2010

Actually, he said "il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel". C'est vrai.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:09 PM on May 7, 2010

AlsoMike, no, I didn't say you shouldn't shine a light back on them. The Onion article linked upthread did just that, and that is fine. Doing so won't liberate you, though. It's a source of humor, and possibly enlightenment, and an interesting topic if you're into that sort of thing; but you can't be liberated if you weren't constrained to begin with.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:28 PM on May 7, 2010