So I'll start by saying I'm a First Amendment hawk. Sounds like I'm about to shit on free speech, but give me that premise.

So here's a question i'd love to see talked about in this thread: You (and I) celebrate that "sex workers aren’t cowering in their shame-filled closets." But there's a truck that spends all day and many evenings driving around downtown New Haven, CT, where I call my humble home. It's basically a two-sided billboard on wheels, advertising "VIP" - Very Intimate Pleasures, a sex shop up the highway. A stroll to a class downtown yields at least one come-hither look from the surgically-enhanced, scantily clad woman on the side of the truck. Spices up an afternoon.

Now I'm not suggesting that the government seize the truck or that angry mothers do their covert sex-shop-shopping elsewhere. But for the partisans of free and realistic discussion of sexuality, is this what we want? Out of the closet and into ... where?  It doesn't help that the woman on teh truck isn't exactly a positive role-model for healthy body image or sexuality. And it's interesting that VIP is the only local business that advertises this way. Will this lead to acceptance of sex in daily life or a backlash?

Curious for thoughts.

I think tacky advertizing a feature of daily life that Target and Yahoo are just as guilty of as Dildo Shack.  As the sex industry becomes more socially acceptable, you'll see it using more of the means that other companies do to promote itself.  Am I ra ra for this?  Not really.  Big ugly ads are lame, no matter who pays for them.  But I don't think it's a problem worth existential consideration either.

Hey Molly, thanks for continuing the dialogue and hi! You're right about Ariel's barbaric treatment of American culture. Yeah, what about jazz? And ragtime?

As for thongs, they've been around for years (g-strings anyone?) and lots of times are worn for practical reasons! But Raunch Culture is a book that shows very little appreciation for cultural history -- odd, given the title.