Joani Blank (July 4, 1937 – August 6, 2016) was an American
sex educator
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduct ...
, entrepreneur, author,
videographer
Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...
,
cohousing
Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark in late 1960s. Each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen. Shared spaces typica ...
enthusiast,
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, and inventor in the field of
sexuality
Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
. She used publishing, her
sex store, and other endeavors to promote
sex-positive feminism
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom.
Sex-positive feminism cen ...
. Her papers are part of the
Human Sexuality Collection at
Cornell University Library
The Cornell University Library is the library system of Cornell University. As of 2014, it holds over 8 million printed volumes and over a million ebooks. More than 90 percent of its current 120,000 Periodical literature, periodical titles are ...
.
Career
Blank founded
Down There Press
Down There Press is an independently run feminist book, DVD, and audiobook publisher that focuses on sexuality. It publishes both visual and literary erotica, and is known for its publications on youth and adolescent sexuality.
Down There Press ...
, a publisher of sex-related books, in 1975.
In 1977, she opened
Good Vibrations
"Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record c ...
, the second feminist
sex toy
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibrating ...
business in the United States (the first having been Eve's Garden in New York City, which was founded by
Dell Williams in 1974).
The idea to create Good Vibrations stemmed from her work with sex therapist Lonnie Barbach, in which the pair worked with women who had difficulty reaching
orgasm
Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling") or sexual climax is the sudden discharge of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, resulting in rhythmic, involuntary muscular contractions in the pelvic region charac ...
.
Prior to her opening Good Vibrations, she was hired at the
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...
to screen candidates who had difficulties achieving orgasm. This study influenced her business model for Good Vibrations. Lynn Comella wrote that Blank turned "her small vibrator shop into a sexual resource center for anyone who might wander in. She felt that talking about sex should be as casual as talking about the weather; she also believed that sexual information was a birthright and that no one should be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed for wanting more pleasure in their life."
Blank collaborated with photographer
Honey Lee Cottrell
Honey Lee Cottrell (January 16, 1946 – September 21, 2015) was a lesbian photographer and filmmaker who lived most of her life in San Francisco, California. Her papers are part of the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University Library.
E ...
on ''I Am My Lover,'' and Down There Press published it in 1978. In this book, she paired Cottrell's photographs of individual women with the subject's written reflections on
masturbation
Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combinatio ...
and on learning to give themselves pleasure. It joined ''
Our Bodies, Ourselves
''Our Bodies, Ourselves'' is a book about women's health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves (originally called the Boston Women's Health Book Collective). First published in 1970, it contains information rel ...
'' (1971) and
Betty Dodson
Betty Dodson (August 24, 1929October 31, 2020) was an American sex educator. An artist by training, she exhibited erotic art in New York, before pioneering the pro-sex feminist movement. Dodson's workshops and manuals encourage women to masturb ...
's ''Liberating Masturbation: A Meditation on Self Love'' (1974) as
second wave feminist
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
W ...
books aiming to educate women about their bodies and empower them to have a positive sexual life.
Blank was one of the first volunteers at
San Francisco Sex Information
San Francisco Sex Information (SFSI) is an organization that provides free sex information via the World Wide Web, e-mail, telephone, and online social networking. SFSI also offers a bi-annual sex educator training program and various continuing ed ...
and has served on the board of directors of the
Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS, or "quad-S") is a 501(c)3 non-profit professional membership organization "dedicated to advancing knowledge of sexuality and communicating scientifically based sexuality research and scholars ...
. She is also known for her inventions of the
Butterfly vibrator and Titattoos (now Intimate Art Tattoos).
Personal life
Blank had one daughter, Amika, and three grandchildren. Blank lived in cohousing from 1992 until her death and served on the board of the Cohousing Association of the United States. She spent many years in Doyle Street Cohousing in
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 as o ...
and co-founded her final home community, Swan's Market Cohousing in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
. Blank volunteered her time to
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
issues such as
prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes. ...
and
economic equality
Equity, or economic equality, is the concept or idea of fairness in economics, particularly in regard to taxation or welfare economics. More specifically, it may refer to a movement that strives to provide equal life chances regardless of identit ...
. She held a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in public health education,
and remained active in the field of sexuality.
Blank died of
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...
on August 6, 2016, less than two months after its diagnosis.
Books
* Contributing author, ''
That Takes Ovaries!: Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts'', Three Rivers Press, 2002
*Editor, ''Still Doing It: Men and Women Over Sixty Write About Their Sexuality'', Down There Press, 2000
* Co-author (with Ann Whidden), ''Good Vibrations: The New Complete Guide to Vibrators'', Down There Press, 2000 (see also 1976, below)
* Editor, ''I Am My Lover: Women Pleasure Themselves'', Down There Press, 1997
* Editor, ''First Person Sexual: Women and Men Write About Self-Pleasuring'', Down There Press, 1996
* Editor, ''
Femalia
''Femalia'' is a book of 32 full-color photographs of human vulvas, edited by Joani Blank and first published by Down There Press in 1993. A reprint edition was published by Last Gasp in 2011. The photographs were taken by Tee Corinne, Michael Per ...
'', Down There Press, 1993
* ''A Kid's First Book About Sex'', Down There Press, 1993
* ''I Am My Lover,'' Down There Press, 1978.
* ''The Playbook for Kids About Sex'', Down There Press, 1978
* ''The Playbook for Men About Sex'', Down There Press, 1976
* ''Good Vibrations: Being a Treatise on the Use of Machines in the Indolent Indulgence of Erotic Pleasure-Seeking Together with Important Hints on the Acquisition, Care, and Utilization of Said Machines and Much More about the Art and Science of Buzzing Off'', Down There Press, 1976
* ''The Playbook for Women About Sex'', Down There Press, 1975
Films
* ''Orgasm: Faces of Ecstasy'', Blank Tapes and Libido Films, 2004 (with Jack Hafferkamp and Marianna Beck).
* ''
Carol Queen
Carol Queen (born 1957) is an American author, editor, sociologist, and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such as ...
's Great Vibrations: An Explicit Guide to Vibrators'', Blank Tapes, ~1997.
Notes
External links
*
2003 San Francisco Chronicle profileCohousing Association of the United States
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Joani
1937 births
2016 deaths
American inventors
Women inventors
American relationships and sexuality writers
Oberlin College alumni
Writers from Oakland, California
American sex educators
Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area
Place of birth missing
American feminist writers
People from Emeryville, California
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American women