Home Sex Toy Parties: A Non-Traditional, Uniquely Situated Venue of Sexuality Education for Women

Abstract

Shaped by Western, patriarchal attitudes, sex education is a contentious issue. Sex education for adults primarily focuses on health promotion and prevention for ‘at risk’ audiences. This approach contests progressive calls to ensure that sexuality-related interventions focus more on positive constructions of individuals’ sexual lives. The popularity of home sex toy parties creates a unique opportunity to provide education that includes information on sexuality, sexual functioning, and pleasure, in support of lifelong sexual wellness. This autoethnographic study examines my journey as a home sex toy party facilitator and a novice researcher and explores nine bioethnographies of female sex toy party guests. The combined data illustrate a cultural study of sexuality, grounded in history and moving into contemporary times, and provides the context to examine home sex toy parties as political and pedagogical sites where adults can build knowledge and understanding about sexuality in transgressive and potentially transformative ways.