doctor scrumpy

DALLAS (Reuters) - Joanne Webb is a mother of three, a Baptist, a booster of the town of Burleson, Texas, and a former schoolteacher. She also faces trial for being a smut merchant.

Webb, 43, was arrested in November by two undercover police officers for selling sexual toys and charged with violating Texas obscenity laws. She could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 (2,138 pounds) if convicted.

Webb is a representative for Passion Parties, a California company marketing potions, lotions and sexual toys sold at gatherings that mimic Tupperware parties.

Women over 18 meet in a private home for what the company calls a "girl's night out of giggles and fun," during which products designed to enhance sex lives are sold.

It was not a secret in Burleson, a small town near Fort Worth, that Webb sold vibrators, edible creams and racy lingerie.

But not everyone was happy about it.

According to reports in the local media, police said a few residents, who they declined to identify, lodged complaints. A few prominent citizens with strong Christian beliefs were angered by Webb and her activities and asked police to investigate, local media reported.

Two undercover police officers posed as a couple trying to spice up their love life and Webb sold the woman a vibrator. Webb instructed her on its use and explained how it could enhance lovemaking.

That's where she got into trouble.

Texas law allows for the sale of sexual toys as long as they are billed as novelties, BeAnn Sisemore, a Fort Worth attorney representing Webb, told the Houston Chronicle before a gag order was issued by the judge presiding over the case. But when a person markets sex toys in a direct manner that shows their actual role in sex, then that person is subject to obscenity charges, she told the newspaper.

Webb said she turned to Passion Parties to supplement her family's income when her husband's construction business went into a slump.

"For women to become self-confident in their sexuality ... that's what I'm in this for," Webb told the Dallas Morning News before the gag order was imposed.

She added that because of her arrest, she has found herself in a role she never imagined -- a public advocate for allowing women and couples to make personal decisions about their sex lives.

SEX, LIVES AND PASSION PARTIES

Police and Johnson County prosecutors declined to discuss the case, even before the gag order was issued.

Gloria Gillaspie, a pastor at Lighthouse Church in Burleson, said she has met and counselled some women who had talked to Webb about the products she sold.

"It was causing problems with their marriages," she said.

Gillaspie said Webb and her family were asked to leave two churches in town. She did not name the churches.

"They didn't want to comply with what was really Christian conduct and that is why they were asked to leave those churches," Gillaspie said.

But James Brown, a member of the local chamber of commerce and an acquaintance of Webb's, told Reuters: "Most of the people in town support Joanne."

Sisemore said she wants to use this case to overturn obscenity laws in Texas and other states.

"I will fight this all the way with her," Sisemore told the Houston Chronicle. "This is the first time I have felt that my government has overstepped its boundaries."

Sisemore has said she plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging Texas obscenity laws, which she said are so vague that they could be used to prosecute anyone who uses or sells condoms designed to provide stimulation for sexual pleasure.

Patricia Davis, a 59-year-old grandmother and president of Passion Parties, said: "We are very proud of Joanne Webb. She believes in the mission of the company and she is doing a really nice job of representing us."

Passion Parties has been doing booming business. The company racked up $20 million in sales in 2003 and saw 30 months of consecutive growth above the 50 percent mark.

The company has representatives in every state and is doing some of its best business in California, New York and the Bible Belt, a section of the United States where Christian beliefs and clergy are influential.

"Women are looking for ways to enhance their relationship, enhance their sensuality and they have nowhere to go," Davis said.

When women get together at a friend's home to peruse body lotions, shower gels and battery-operated devices the company calls "passion toys," Davis said many are able to overcome embarrassment and talk openly about sex.

"We are doing a lot to help women, to help couples and to help families," Davis said.
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There is something extremely worrying about a woman being able to buy a gun easier than love aids.

Englishmum

Oh for Goodness sakes!

These are really just a US version of the Ann Summers parties that are commonplace throughout the UK, where you just get together over a glass of wine and have a giggle with the girls.

What do the authorities want this woman to do - sell chastitity belts instead?

Bah humbug!

NC Penguin

That might not be too far from the truth. Look at this page of links about abstinence-
http://www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/a...abstlinks.html

Patrick

So you can buy a vibrator as long as you don't stick it in your vagina, is that the law! Its like saying you can buy a sports car but you can't take it over 30mph!

Rev your engines

Patrick

NC Penguin

This story smacks of male hypocrisy. Men can go to establishments that provide lap dances, also peep shows, visit prostitutes without the American society getting into such a tizz.

Then, there's a woman providing parties for women to buy themselves sexual aids in the private home amongst other women. It's not like the parties promote unsafe sex (but I might be wrong).

Sounds like one law for men and another for women

doctor scrumpy

I am also worried about women shooting themselves whilst legally using a firearm instead of said illegal vibrators...

Pulaski

Yes, but remember that this a country where the whole population nearly died of collective appoplexy over a glimpse of one misshapen, slightly past its sell-by date, silicone enhanced, boob!

monster

So all we have to do is persuade the powers that be that guns can be used in a sexual manner and hey presto! gun control!

excpomea

Yes but it was a sherriffs boob.

Webbie

Next years half time show will be starring Leslie Nielson doing his homage to Janet's boob:

"Is this some kind of bust ?"

"Why yes it is."

Taffyles

Where in the bible does it say Thou shalt not sell sex aids??? This sort of thing doesn't surprise me anymore- been here too long and come from a State where they cut aid for teenage single mothers and cut the programmes supplying free contraceptives for teens to bring the teenage pregnancy rate down...suuure that'll do it Teenagers should practise abstinence, they say- yeah..right.

Isn't what the police did entrapment?

Patrick

Its strange isn't it, the whole of america, it seems, is up in arms over Janets breast and people get arrested for selling sex toys. Yet no-one seems to care that their president lies to them and invades foreign countries with no tangible evidence and it is costing them billions of tax dollars.

Just a thought

Patrick

Lion in Winter

And a good one, O Pagan Sex God.

Webbie

OK last word on this:



(wish I could take credit for this one but I can't.)

Brit'n'TX

So, Patrick, seeing that Saddam Hussein and his cozy regime systematically exterminated hundreds of thousands of people in his own version of ethnic cleansing (not to mention the "cleansing" of anybody who disagreed with him or his psychopathic sons), exactly what would you consider "tangible evidence" for replacing his regime.

If this were 1939-45, I take it you would put forward the same argument for taking action against Hitler?