{"id":4859,"date":"2003-12-17T07:08:07","date_gmt":"2003-12-17T14:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4859"},"modified":"2003-12-17T07:08:07","modified_gmt":"2003-12-17T14:08:07","slug":"sell_a_vibrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/17\/sell_a_vibrator.html","title":{"rendered":"Sell a vibrator — go to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, in Texas at least<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.
\nWebb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.<\/p>\n

Aside from what sounds like the remarkable (and oddly intriguing) innovation of home parties centered around, not food storage containers or cooking gear or cleannig materials, but “marital aids” …<\/p>\n

For the past year, Webb has sold the company’s line of vibrators, gels, lubricants, strawberry-flavored nipple cream and “edible passion puddings.” The merchandise is offered for sale in private, Tupperware-style parties to women who may be reluctant to visit an adult novelty store.<\/p>\n

… does anyone else think it must have been an extremely slow crime day (week, month) in Cleburne? I mean, so slow that they could allocate a couple of narcotics officers (guess there’s no narcotics to buy there, either) to case like this?<\/p>\n

Webb suspects she got in trouble because she ruffled feathers in town by daring to join the Chamber of Commerce with her sex toy business.<\/p>\n

Ah. There’s no politics like small-town politics.<\/p>\n

Volokh notes two interesting bits of Texas state law <\/a>on the matter:<\/p>\n

Texas is one of only three states (Colorado and Kansas are the others) that actually has the word “dildo” occurring in its state statutes.<\/p>\n

That would be Penal Code sec. 43.21<\/a>, where we learn that “‘Obscene device’ means a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” Per se.<\/i><\/p>\n

(It’s worth noting that the Colorado version <\/a>of this, which hits a bit closer to home, is in Title 18 (Criminal Code), Article 7 (Offenses Related to Morals), Part 1 (Obscenity Offenses), 18-7-101, Definitions, Section 3. It reads identically to the Texas definition.)<\/p>\n

We also find out:<\/p>\n

Texas also provides that “A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same.” (Penal Code sec. 43.23<\/a>.) If you’ve got six or more, you’re not just a user — you’re a pusher!<\/p>\n

As opposed to, say, someone who prefers a bit of variety, or has generous friends.<\/p>\n

(Interestingly enough, Colorado, too, has the same six-items-or-more restriction, in 18-7-102.)<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that you can duck out from under these laws if you have “a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose.” Personal preference for what you do in your own bedroom, with nobody presumably being forced to view the proceedings (that’s already covered by other laws), or selling items to that end to folks who ask for them, evidently does not count, according to the state of Texas. (Or Colorado. I blame all the Texans who’ve moved here.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, in Texas at least. Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1422,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/09\/just_the_facts.html","url_meta":{"origin":4859,"position":0},"title":"Just the facts, ma’am","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Jan-02 4:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"For birthday, Margie gave me two of the books from my Amazon wish list: Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb (Moyer and Alvarez), and My Name's...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11044,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/18\/yet_another_daylight_savi.html","url_meta":{"origin":4859,"position":1},"title":"Yet another Daylight Saving Time story","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Apr-07 10:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"School gets a bomb threat on the school info hotline. 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