The President of Yale has cancelled Sex Week at Yale, a student organized week with all sorts of events promoting sexuality. Babeland participated in Yale Sex Week a number of times, and there is a special frisson at bringing Babeland’s style of feminist sex positivity to such a bastion of establishment power broking.

People, especially young adults need sex education. Some folks like to think that sexual knowledge leads to sluttiness. But that’s not true.  Sex information helps people have more satisfying sex and happier lives. Good adult sex ed. goes beyond procreation and disease prevention, it teaches the anatomy of pleasure and the physiology of arousal. It also encourages people to notice their feelings, communicate their desires and to expect sex to be pleasurable. Chaste or promiscuous, the sex they have will be better. Encouraging people, especially women, to insist on their right to sexual pleasure helps undermine a culture of drunken groping that leaves women feeling used.

One of the concerns of Yale President Richard Levin is that sex week is overly commercial. Babeland, for example, has offered workshops and discussions on the G-Spot, Oral Sex Tips, Sex Toys etc.,  and of course we always mention babeland.com. The fact is there are still very few resources for adult sex education, and Babeland is a good source of the accurate sex information and encouragement that is so needed. Although there are a few new academic programs in sexuality studies (SF State has a great one) and a handful M.D.s who have focused their practices on sex, there isn’t a large credentialed professional class of sex educators at the college level. For the most part today’s sex educators come from a grass roots movement of pleasure activists who have trained each other in non-institutional settings.

Sex education is a big part of our mission at Babeland and we do tons of outreach and in-store workshops that teach various aspects of human sexuality. Helping to empower folks around their sexuality is the juice that makes selling vibrators a thrill. Going to Yale has been a fun part of that. But if Yale wants a less commercial sex week, I hope they pay that forward with a program to train those educators at Yale. I’d love to see a pleasure focused Sexuality curriculum in every college and medical school in the country.

Until that happens the students at Yale are regrouping and are planning a new SWAY- Sex Week All Year. If they invite us we’ll be glad to be a part of it.

We’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our customers who really went the distance for our sex education fundraiser this summer. You helped us raise $22,000 for SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, which exceeded last year’s amount by $4,000. Give yourselves a hand! With this donation, SIECUS will continue to promote comprehensive sexuality education across America.

Many thanks to our co-sponsor Jimmyjane for donating the fantastic products that helped support this effort.

And since October is Family Sex Education Month, here are a few things you can do to help pay your own sex education forward to the next generation:

• Be prepared. If you’re wondering how to approach the topic, pick up a book like Third Base Ain’t What it Used to Be: What Your Kids Are Learning About Sex Today and How to Teach Them to be Sexually Healthy Adults by Logan Levkoff or Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids- A guide to sharing your beliefs about sexuality, love, and relationships by Amy Lang. Learn how to make sex education a normal part of life rather than one big scary talk.
• Be available. If your child asks you a sex question, even if you can’t answer it in the moment, make sure you circle back around to it later so you don’t leave a curious child in the dark.
• Be supportive. If you see a child of any age struggling, offer your support in a non-judgmental way. Helping teens find a useful website, a clinic, or a place to talk can make all the difference.
• Help other parents tackle sex ed—post a comment on the Moms in Babeland blog about your experience talking to kids about sex! Offer an open mind and friendly advice. Come to our next Talking With Your Kids About Sex event at a Babeland store in New York City or Seattle.

Through the Come for a Cause philanthropy program, Babeland donated $115,000 to 300+ organizations in 2010 and will exceed that in 2011. Look for your next opportunity to support organizations doing fantastic work in the community during Pink October. Babeland is partnering with Young Survival Coalition again to raise money for their work with women under the age of 40 with breast cancer. Let’s keep up the good fight!

Have you ever wondered where your Minna Ola or Gigi came from, technically speaking? Sex toys have been found in the world since prehistoric times when they were carved out of rocks. The toys we know and love today are evolutions of basic shapes that fueled the fantasies of our ancestors. The history of vibrators has some fascinating high points and tells the story of the social movements that have brought us to our hedonistic contemporary view that sexual pleasure is our birthright.

Babeland’s social history project debuts online at www.vintagevibrators.com. History buffs, techies, collectors, and sex toy fans should all enjoy these novel antiques.

Scroll through the exhibits, imagining yourself being treated for “hysteria” by one of the more tortuous looking devices, or marvel at the beauty-aid imagery used to market early-model vibrators to consumers. Wow your next dinner party guests with vibrator history anecdotes, including the ultimate proof that necessity is the mother of all invention: doctors experienced repetitive motion stress from manual stimulation of their patients, which ultimately led to the invention of this labor-saving device. You can even trace the lineage of your vibrator to its nineteenth century predecessor in the entertaining Modern Classics section.

One thing we learned during this project is that vintage vibrators come with stories. What’s yours? Did you find one in Grandma’s closet? In the attic of your new house? Share your story with us here or email a photo and the backstory to us at marketing@babeland.com and we’ll post it. We want to start a collection of your vintage sex toys, so if we post your photo, we’ll send you a coupon good for $10 off your next order.