For F☆ck’s Sake. The Political Narrative of Sex Toys in the Communication of MySecretCase

Abstract

AbstractIn the last 20 years, the industry of sex toys has grown exponentially within the Western online market, giving life to new forms of communication regarding topics such as sex and sexuality. However, if on one hand the online sale of sex toys and its related communication allow (once again) the spread of political narratives, on the other they seem to reinforce an individual and self-determining conception of sex and sexuality which preclude its broader understanding within societal norms and omit forms of collective and shared practices related to such topics.To understand the consequences of this paradox, the paper will focus on sex toys as carriers of political narratives related to sex and sexuality, reflecting especially on the role of that online communication might have on their diffusion. To achieve this, the paper will take into consideration the visual communication of MySecretCase as a case study and analyze it through the visual methodology proposed by Gillian Rose [1, 2]. Through the analysis of the communication design strategies adopted by MySecretCase, we aim at interrogating whether—if confined in the virtual space—sex toys can still be considered as carriers of political and collective values, reflecting on the role of communication design in shaping the symbolic narrative around these objects.