Monday, January 14, 2008
Finding a Home at AEE
The Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) is divided into two rooms. Upstairs in the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, there is a large room dedicated to all of the porn studios. Loud music blares from various booths and images of naked women scream from prominently perched televisions. This part of the show is also open to fans during certain hours, so the loud noises and images are further amplified while throngs of oglers stop in their tracks to stare and have various pieces of anatomy and articles of clothing signed by a wide variety of porn stars. This part of the show is always a little overwhelming for me. I find myself wandering towards the back of the room where I can admire customized photo bed sheets and knock-off Gucci handbags. While I am mesmerized by all the sights and sounds, I feel a bit out of place here; I am wearing jeans over my g-string, and my small breasts are, quite obviously, lacking in the silicone department.
Downstairs is my oasis. Downstairs is why I go to this show in the first place: The B2B Market Place. Here, various vendors and creators of adult novelties show their wares (yes, sometimes underwears, too). When I first attended AEE two years ago, it took me a while to find this special place, but once I did, I didn’t want to leave. This year I made sure to give myself plenty of time to wander from booth to booth and explore all of the exciting products.
When I think about my preference for sex toys and novelties to actual pornographic media, I think of my mother. My mom worked as a preschool teacher for some time, and she was always decrying the evils of television and movies. She argued that with a book a child could imagine the level intensity and violence that he personally could handle. TV and film, on the other hand, presented those images fully developed and outside of the child’s control. I hate to agree with my mother, but maybe she had a point; it suits me better to use my imagination than to be bombarded by a myriad of provocative images that are often beyond me. This certainly doesn’t apply to everything I saw upstairs at AEE, and I will review some of the happy exceptions over the next few days.
I will also review some of the very exciting new products that I was thrilled to encounter in the B2B Market Place. I am giddy with the thought of all of the novel goods that are now available. How lucky we are to be living in a time of such unprecedented innovation. These are not your mothers’ vibrators! Stay tuned; more to come...Labels: pornography, toys
tidbit posted by Mosa @ 12:31 PM
