“…the overall focus on education makes a visit to Toys of Eros a great way to spend an hour, whether or not you end up buying anything.”
Toys of Eros opened in 1996 as a gay male counterpart to Wild Hearts, a lesbian separatist shop owned by anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Maxine Kroll; the two sites consolidated in 2011. Kroll’s academic research into the “amusing and horrifying” history of sexuality led to the museum at the store’s entrance: here is a wealth of artifacts and information, from the reproduction of a 5000-year-old dildo to a penis ring made from the eyelid of a goat that dates from 2 CE to coins minted specifically to pay Roman prostitutes. Vibrators take center stage, presenting the history of a device born out of ignorance and repression—and used today in versions costing between $12 and $5,000. Staff members are trained as sex educators rather than retail salespeople, and the overall focus on education makes a visit to Toys of Eros a great way to spend an hour, whether or not you end up buying anything. But you’ll want to: “The first two decades of the 21st century,” says Kroll, “represent the largest leap not only in technological advances of sex devices, but also in the most sexually educated populace in history,” and no matter what your sexual preferences, there is sure to be something here for you.
Toys of Eros
200 Commercial St.
508.487.6977
toysoferos.com
