What did us Babes dress up as for Halloween? We had a very naughty nurse handing out candy meds, a sexy Pirate girl whose puffy costume went perfectly with the pink Orchid G vibe, a pimp daddy gangstah, a ghoul and a zombie or two, a hot Babeland field hockey team left wing, a Salem witch (who won nipple clamps and a mini-vibrator in our contest), and a dominatrix Bard. What a spooky crew! And then there were more than a couple of Babes who dressed up like our favorite thing: PUSSY. Meow!!

In a time long, long ago, sex toys could only be bought in obscure, seedy areas of large cities or in unmarked buildings in the middle of nowhere in suburbia. Ok, so it wasn’t that long ago. A sure sign of how far we’ve come is a recent announcement by Drugstore.com that they now have a “sexual well-being” section on their website. This section, in between the “baby” section and the “contact lens” section (???) carries vibrators, games, educational videos and more.

I’ve spent much of the past two years around sex toys and yet, if you’d asked me, I wouldn’t have believed that we’d see a time when Duane Reade and Drugstore.com would carry sex toys. It seemed like their customer base just wouldn’t allow it. It’s a sign of the increasing acceptability of sex toys that mainstream drugstores have started to carry them.

This didn’t just happen all on it’s own, however. Places like Good Vibrations and our very own Babeland were the first to assert that sex toys didn’t belong hidden away but instead belonged down the street from your shoe store or next to your favorite restaurant. Why? Because our sex lives shouldn’t be something we hide. They should be celebrated and talked about as much as your favorite appetizer or newest pair of high heels. It was time for sex toys and healthy, informative conversations about sex to come out of hiding.

While I’m glad that places like Drugstore.com are introducing people to sex toys, I still believe that stores like Babeland are vitally important to improving people’s sex lives. As good as the customer service reps are at Drugstore (I have a friend who is one), they can never match the knowledge of Sex Educators at places like Babeland and Good Vibrations. It’s what we’re trained to do and we love doing it. Plus, until you’ve actually held the the Rabbit Habbit in your hand, you can’t truly understand its glory.