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Texas housewife busted for selling vibrator.
26 replies
Ferdan said on December 17, 2003 21:24:
A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an “antiquated place” with more than its share of “prudes.”
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.
Webb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.
“What I did was not obscene,” Webb said. “”What’s obscene is that the government is taking action about what we do in our bedrooms.”
The arrest of Webb in Cleburne, a small town 50 miles southwest of Dallas, was the first time that any of the company’s 3,000 sales consultants have been busted, said Pat Davis, the president of Passion Parties. She said the company was outraged by the charges and stood behind Webb.
“It makes you wonder what they’re thinking out there in Texas,” Davis said. “They sound like prudes, with antiquated laws. They must have all their street crime under control in Texas if they’re going to spend tax money arresting us.”
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.
Among the company’s top items are a $12 jar of passion pudding in chocolate and strawberry flavors (“apply head to toe, wherever you want your lover to linger”), a $9 jar of nipple cream in strawberry, raspberry and watermelon flavors, and battery-powered vibrators that sell for $17 to $140. The company also offers such lubricants as Slippery Stuff ($13), Lickety Lube ($12) and Lucky Stiff ($11.50), and a $22 battery-powered item for men known as Jelly Julie (“with soft jelly silicone lips”).
“Our products are not obscene,” Davis said. “All we’re trying to do is help people build loving relationships.”
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. She said her arrest had caused her husband of 20 years to suffer a nervous breakdown.
Webb said she was amazed that the town’s narcotics squad would be put on the case.
“We have a real problem with drugs in our schools,” she said, “and they’re using our narcotics officers to entrap me for selling a vibrator.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/16/MNGEA3O52...
Ferdan said on December 17, 2003 22:26:
aparently
http://www.dumblaws.com/states/states.php?State=Texas&Ad=Read
Ferdan said on December 17, 2003 22:28:
Law: Up to a felony charge can be levied for promoting the use of, or owning more than six dildos.
Country: USA
State: Texas
Citation: CHAPTER 43. PUBLIC INDECENCY
SUBCHAPTER B. OBSCENITY
§ 43.21. Definitions
(a) In this subchapter:
(1) “Obscene” means material or a performance that:
(A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;
(B) depicts or describes:
(i) patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or
(ii) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs; and
(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.
(2) “Material” means anything tangible that is capable of being used or adapted to arouse interest, whether through the medium of reading, observation, sound, or in any other manner, but does not include an actual three dimensional obscene device.
(3) “Performance” means a play, motion picture, dance, or other exhibition performed before an audience.
(4) “Patently offensive” means so offensive on its face as to affront current community standards of decency.
(5) “Promote” means to manufacture, issue, sell, give, provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise, or to offer or agree to do the same.
(6) “Wholesale promote” means to manufacture, issue, sell, provide, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, or to offer or agree to do the same for purpose of resale.
(7) “Obscene device” means a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.
(b) If any of the depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct described in this section are declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unlawfully included herein, this declaration shall not invalidate this section as to other patently offensive sexual conduct included herein.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1975, 64th Leg., p. 372, ch. 163, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1975; Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1974, ch. 778, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.
§ 43.23. Obscenity
(a) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device.
(b) An offense under Subsection (a) is a state jail felony.
(c) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he:
(1) promotes or possesses with intent to promote any obscene material or obscene device; or
(2) produces, presents, or directs an obscene performance or participates in a portion thereof that is obscene or that contributes to its obscenity.
(d) An offense under Subsection (c) is a Class A misdemeanor.
(e) A person who promotes or wholesale promotes obscene material or an obscene device or possesses the same with intent to promote or wholesale promote it in the course of his business is presumed to do so with knowledge of its content and character.
(f) 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.
(g) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the person who possesses or promotes material or a device proscribed by this section does so for a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1975, ch. 778, § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1979; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.
Denstandigaresan said on December 17, 2003 22:58:
Wow, wonder what they’d make of the shops we have in Plymouth... sex toys in there that could blow your head off... LITERALLY!
Wow, that’s intense. Learn something new every day!
coyboyusa said on December 17, 2003 23:28:
in america there are alot of laws that date back to the founding of the country that are antiquated but still legit. there was a law in iowa that you could beat your wife on a sunday but only if it was with a switch and not your belt....
LittleSpooky said on December 18, 2003 03:04:
*rolls around laughing*
I’m sorry... no I’m not. THAT’S FUNNY!!!
Like here in Utah (Salt Lake City):
It is illegal to operate a motorized vehicle south of 3300 South (That’s the street #). Because at the time, it would scare the horses that were pulling carriages and what not. btw.. It IS still a valid law on the books, but not enforced (Thank Goddess).
It is illegal to spit on a side-walk (women’s dresses used to go all the way down and pretty much sit on the ground, so NO SPITTING)
LittleSpooky said on December 18, 2003 04:36:
Welcome to America:
Sex is illegal, but you can decapitate, mutilate, maim, destroy, blow up, swear, and cause as much violence as you want.
I kid you not. Movies here: Sex gets cut in favour of violence. Europe: Violence gets cut in favour of sex.
Who in the hell has it backwards!? (The US)
kachina008 said on December 18, 2003 08:47:
“It makes you wonder what they’re thinking out there in Texas,” Davis said. “They sound like prudes, with antiquated laws. They must have all their street crime under control in Texas if they’re going to spend tax money arresting us.”
Thats prolly coz they put all their criminals to death ;)
That’s a JOKE :P
coyboyusa said on December 18, 2003 13:22:
spooky do u actually live in america u dont know much do you
harriej said on December 18, 2003 23:17:
Unbelievable,
Which morans made up that law?
They must be living 3 centuries ago.
Glad I don’t live in a country with such horrible laws.
coyboyusa said on December 18, 2003 23:53:
i gaurantee that there are many other countries with just as obscure and absurd laws as well. many arab countries have made just being gay a crime punishable by death....if i rember right there used to be laws in europe passed around the ttime of the holocaust that being found walking the streets with a jew was punishable by death....sinagpore used to have a law that if you spat your gum out on the sidewwalk you could be incarcerated, ..the list goes on
LittleSpooky said on December 19, 2003 04:16:
Coy: I’d respond to you, but it’s unfair for me to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
kachina008 said on December 19, 2003 10:29:
Coy: the singaporean law didn’t stop anyone for chewing gum, but if they destroyed public property with it (ie, sticking it on buttons of a lift, or in the metro etc)..and caught, they were fined. certainly not incarcerated, which means jailed.
I am from Singapore, so I know.
In addition, isn’t Bush still backing a law that will not allow same sex unions? Aren’t many people in the States still against homosexuality in general? It is not fair then to compare that with Arab nations now is it?
Spooky: admirable as that sentiment might be, I can’t help but feeling like I have been robbed of that amazing spectacle ;)
LittleSpooky said on December 20, 2003 03:24:
Kachina: It’s more entertaining when it’s live... mostly because the tone of voice and inflections REALLY communicate more than actual words ;-)
sweet_stalker57 said on December 20, 2003 09:19:
always be aware of the laws in your area or areas
you are visiting and be careful when you break them. ;)
coyboyusa said on December 20, 2003 12:16:
kachina we dont execute or inprison peopel here for being gay they still do in many arab nations
LittleSpooky said on December 21, 2003 01:22:
No, we don’t. But we beat them and murder them because we’re too narrow-minded to accept differences from our own and because it “goes against God’s teachings”.
And to drag it up again: Mathew Shepard is the example.
So which is better, Coy?
coyboyusa said on December 23, 2003 15:52:
little ur talking about the minority bible belt section of my country which still believes in slavery and women as obedient servants...and as for the matthew shepherd story there are always 2 sides to a story not that it justifies hius murder...but why on earth would any right minded gay man accept a ride with 2 obvious homophobes ?
StillFar said on December 23, 2003 16:49:
coy, I have to disagree with you here. I know they struck down the sodomy law in Texas earlier this year. I think in other states it still remained (http://www.sodomylaws.org/usa/usa.htm)...
Punishments for sodomy in some states:
Oklahoma - 10years
Idaho - 5years to life
Michigan - 15 years
Mississippi - 10 years
The thing about Singapore, if you see pictures of how clean the city is, it does actually make sense!
LittleSpooky said on December 24, 2003 04:28:
Coy: I’m talking about WYOMING!!! That IS NOT in the “Bible Belt” in one way or another.
For those who are wondering what I’m on about:
Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and a couple of other states are considered “Bible Belt” states. To really explain would take a lot more bandwidth than this site has and is really not worth the debate.
Face it Coy, you’ve pretty much lost that one and I’d quit before someone other than me kicks more dirt in on you in the hole you have managed to dig for yourself with your ignorance. For it is people like you, that others are judged unfairly by.
And one of these days, you’ll get it through that tiny pea-sized shrivled up dust mote that you call a brain that Utah IS STILL part of the United States. YOUR country? Dream on princess. It is as much MY country as it is yours, so please refrain from slapping the Brush of Ignorance that you carry around any further. You insist on insulting other people by opening your mouth before gathering all the facts.
Right or wrong minded, Mathew Shepard is dead for the simple fact that he was gay. Whether he’s responsible for accepting a ride from those two or not, the outcome is still the same.
My apologies to those for getting too far off this topic.
coyboyusa said on December 27, 2003 00:59:
woyoming is a repentantly christian state with alot of close minded peopel in it you can’t deny that for gays libing out west and some parts of the south they can’t act like they live in a big city like ny or la.....I didnt lose anything this isn’t a contest ...this is just more proof that things need to be discussed and not argued.....the fact you’re treating this as a contest proves nothing changes
kachina008 said on December 28, 2003 11:47:
btw
Arab nations don’t advertise freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and the freedom to live the way you want to.
Denstandigaresan said on December 17, 2003 21:31:
So, is it like illegal to own a vibro in Texas? :S