Sex toys come out of the closet.

last updated 8 January 2015

Netherlands

Christa Van der Hoff

Thanks to the influence of American TV, vibrators have gone mainstream, said Christa Van der Hoff in Amsterdam’s Algemeen Dagblad. The drugstore chain Etos has begun stocking sex toys—found in the “small household goods” aisle—in Amsterdam and a few other Dutch cities. The first product, the Durex brand vibrator, hit the shelves in January and proved so popular it was impossible to keep in stock. Etos is now ordering a whole line of “intimate products.” Marketing managers say the American television series Sex and the City, which now runs on Dutch television, is largely responsible for “making sex toys a fit subject for conversation.” Certain episodes are devoted to the pros and cons of sexual aids and almost function as infomercials. Etos employees say customers will ask specifically for the brands mentioned on the show (which, alas, are not yet part of the Etos product line). Until quite recently in the Netherlands, such items were only available in sex shops in red-light districts—not an area most housewives willingly frequent. Finally, a shopper can pick up a vibrator along with her “toothpaste and aspirin.” Now that’s progress.