Why Joy?

Hey new members! Thanks for joining us! I'm Erika Moen and eleven years ago I co-created Oh Joy Sex Toy with my husband, Matthew Nolan. Every now and then I interject between your regularly scheduled comics with my own posts here because who's going to stop me, huh? Today is just such a day! Hope you enjoy- and if not, sorry, no refunds U_U
-Erika
PS, the top image is from Porn Set Visit by Matt and me in 2016.

Sex is a scary subject.

(Trauma by Lux Alptraum and Erika Moen)

It certainly was for me when my mother taught me about it as a child. She didn't exactly explain what sex itself was, but she warned me about the dangers that come with it. It was this thing could strip you of your worth as a person, could be used as violence against you, and it was something you're required to do once you're married- which is the only context in which sex was acceptable.

Growing up, I was terrified of sex.

It was in my teen years that I discovered sex could be something... nice. Something lovely. Something wonderful! 

(Bullet Vibe review by Erika Moen)

Yes, the dangers my mother taught me had truth to them, but they weren't the only truth. I wasted so many years of my life actively terrified of this monster that I believed would inevitably catch me and destroy me, and then it turned out... I hadn't needed to live like that after all. As a young adult, I desperately wanted compassionate, patient, and lighthearted information on this subject that I found both terrorizing and irresistible.

That's where Oh Joy Sex Toy comes from.

That conscientious, expository, goofy tone of Oh Joy Sex Toy was chosen very deliberately when Matt and I launched with just the two of us in 2013 and the editorial team works hard with our cartoonists to emphasize those qualities in each story today, because you know what cracks through someone's defensive shield? Laughter.

(Chastity Cage review by Matthew Nolan & Erika Moen)

When you get somebody to snort at a pratfall or roll their eyes at a bad pun, you've just circumnavigated their first line of defense that naturally activates when they're exposed to a Challenging Subject that they may have complicated or negative feelings around. Laughter breaks tension! Laughter puts the reader in a position of power as they venture into uncharted territory with our comic's subject matter. Matt and I especially leaned into portraying our narrator-selves as overly-earnest uber dorks in our educational comics specifically so readers wouldn't find "us" threatening and could feel a sense of superiority to us, even as we were the ones acting in the teacher role. It's a way of communicating, "You may feel ignorant or uncomfortable with this information we're sharing, but at least you're still cooler than us two dorkwads". And then next thing you know? Bam! The reader is more receptive to learning a Challenging Subject.

(Attraction by Matthew Nolan and Erika Moen) 

Beyond straight-up education, Matt and I just wanted OJST to be someplace where sex was friendly and approachable. The world is already so full of depictions on the dangers of sex, the negative consequences, the shame and punishment. It's all valid! We definitely do not pretend otherwise. But we just wanted one place where the positive could be the focus, as a counterpoint to everything else. We wanted to make a place that showed how sex could be kind and ridiculous. We wanted a place where this Very Serious Subject could let its hair down and be... unserious.

We knew from the start that OJST would publish porn comics, because how could it not? We didn't even consider the 'Why?' of doing so, it was just natural, like selling croissants at a bakery. Why wouldn't we do so? I wasn't surprised that people enjoyed the sexy comics, but I was surprised for one of the reasons: Drawn sexual images are easier and more palatable for some people to see than actual footage of actual people actually fucking. That had actually not occurred to me! For some people, sweating, writhing flesh and the accompanying guttural moans and groans is just... Too Much. It's Too Much. But the sexy comics on OJST? For people like the above, the carefully illustrated depictions could bridge that gap for them, allowing them to enjoy the voyeurism, titillation, and arousal of sexy images without stomping into the "AHH, TOO MUCH, DANGER, SHAME, DISGUST" zones that photo and video of Real People provoked.

Cool :)  (Perfect Weather by Lena Let)

Hah, I have more to say about all of this- I always do. There's a couple paragraphs still in me about autobio stories and sex and narrative tone and etc., etc., etc., but. Here we are. It's the end of the post. Maybe I'll write some more later but for now I say:

Thanks for readin' this far!

XOXO,

-Erika