# Why is Taboo taboo in Texas?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 1, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799 "2003-04-01T21:30:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/21 "2003-04-02T20:27:03Z")
Ummm, hell yes you can buy dildos in Texas…they do have the ‘for novelty use only’ label on them, but I PROMISE you they sell them all the time in some very nice stores actually…
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/22 "2003-04-02T20:52:10Z")
And I’m sure your use of them is highly novel…
There was recently a [dildo case](http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/dildo2.htm) in Alabama after the state enacted a ban on the commercial distribution of “any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” The district court overturned the law but the 11th Circuit reversed, stating that the law “is rationally related to the state’s legitimate government interest in public morality.” My cite indicates the case was remanded to review the claims of users of dildoes instead of dildo sellers but I couldn’t find the result. I seem to recall reading that the law was again overturned as a violation of dildo users’ privacy rights but can’t confirm it with a cite.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/23 "2003-04-02T20:53:47Z")
Does Texas think this kind of enforcement will **prevent** people from seeking out these kinds of magazines?
[Wiggum]
What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?!"
[/Wiggum]
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### Author:  [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/24 "2003-04-02T20:58:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _originally posted by El Elvis Rojo_
> Here in Austin (and I assume the rest of Texas) there’s apparently a law that one can’t own more than five vibrators. The only reason I know this is because one of my friends suddenly got a little concerned once she bought number six. It’s funny what people get paranoid about, and even funnier what kind of laws some places make up.
Your friend doesn’t have it exactly right. Texas outlaws wholesale promotion or intent to possess for wholesale promotion obscene devices. What you friend is getting confused about is that possessing six or more obscene devices gives rise to a rebutable presumption that the possessor has an intent to wholesale promote.
> [@](#):
>
> [§ 43.23. Obscenity](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe/pe0004300.html#pe008.43.22)
> (a) **A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device**.
> (b) An offense under Subsection (a) is a state jail felony.
> © A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he:
> (1) promotes or possesses with intent to promote any obscene material or obscene device; or
> (2) produces, presents, or directs an obscene performance or participates in a portion thereof that is obscene or that contributes to its obscenity.
> (d) An offense under Subsection © is a Class A misdemeanor.
> (e) A person who promotes or wholesale promotes obscene material or an obscene device or possesses the same with intent to promote or wholesale promote it in the course of his business is presumed to do so with knowledge of its content and character.
> (f) **A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same**.
> (g) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the person who possesses or promotes material or a device proscribed by this section does so for a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose.
> [@](#):
>
> _originally posted by Hostile 17_
> Yeah, in TX, you can legally buy vibrators, but you can’t buy dildoes. Go figger.
I would like to see a cite for that. Texas outlaws [obscene devices](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe/pe0004300.html#pe007.43.21), and defines them as “a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/25 "2003-04-02T20:59:31Z")
Oh, the case is WILLIAMS v. PRYOR, No. 99-10798.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_17)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/26 "2003-04-02T21:37:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Robb \*
> \*\* Texas outlaws [obscene devices](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe/pe0004300.html#pe007.43.21), and defines them as “a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” \*\*
That’s what I’ve always heard. Dildoes, no. Vibrators, yes. And for the record, I’ve never seen dildoes sold in Texas, labeled for “novelty” or otherwise.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/27 "2003-04-02T21:51:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by pravnik, in the Texas definition of obscenity_
> **"covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state"**
Waitasecond. I can think of at least one movie in which a male character obviously has a boner, but we don’t see it because there’s a hat hanging on it.
Would movies like that be banned in Texas?
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### Author:  [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/28 "2003-04-02T22:05:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Would movies like that be banned in Texas?
Look at the whole definition:
> [@](#):
>
> § 43.21. Definitions
> (a) In this subchapter:
> (1) “Obscene” means material or a performance that:
> (A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;
> (B) depicts or describes:
> (i) patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or
> (ii) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs; and
> © **taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value**.
The last sentence likely saves the movie, particularly if the hat trick is only one scene.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/29 "2003-04-02T22:07:38Z")
Beat me to it, **Robb**. I was formulating a joke about how the movie must have been a black and white art-house flick.
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### Author:  [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/30 "2003-04-02T22:17:02Z")
Sorry **pravnik** , it’s just one of the advantages of not having a sense of humor.
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### Author:  [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/31 "2003-04-03T03:45:49Z")
Goddamn is anybody here an adult living in Texas currently. Yes you can buy dildos and just about anything else you can think of. Why is Taboo not for sale in Texas?
Because there are laws against sodomy in Texas.
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### Author:  [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/32 "2003-04-03T04:03:11Z")
Somebody above listed quite a few states where they wouldn’t deliver to. Why bash only Texas?
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/33 "2003-04-03T04:12:29Z")
Perhapse the OP lives in Texas and not any of the other states
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### Author:  [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/34 "2003-04-03T05:11:44Z")
Oh, ok. That being the case, he should feel better knowing that Taboo isn’t just picking on his state, or that Texas isn’t the only state affected.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/35 "2003-04-03T06:24:09Z")
The thing with any obscenity case is that law enforcement rarely seeks things out to prosecute people for, with the exception of child porn. Pretty much all obscenity cases get started because a private citizen sees something they don’t like, and they complain to someone. Then law enforcement can decide to take action.
Yes, Larry Flynt is a well-known opponent of censorship and has the court victory to prove it, but courts have upheld time and again a jurisdiction’s right to keep out something it doesn’t want (which was not the issue when he was sued by Jerry Falwell).
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/36 "2003-04-03T06:33:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by t-keela \*
> \*\*Because there are laws against sodomy in Texas. \*\*
In 1973, Texas legalized heterosexual anal and oral sodomy.
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### Author:  [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/37 "2003-04-03T11:36:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hostile 17 \*
> \*\*Yeah, in TX, you can legally buy vibrators, but you can’t buy dildoes. Go figger. \*\*
don’t you mean go finger? 😃
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/38 "2003-04-03T13:26:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hostile 17 \*
> \*\*Yeah, in TX, you can legally buy vibrators, but you can’t buy dildoes. Go figger. \*\*
What the hell is the difference?
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_17)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/39 "2003-04-03T13:40:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \*
> \*\*What the hell is the difference? \*\*
Because 1) the law specifically mentions dildoes as verboten (see cite above), and 2) vibrators are sold as “personal massage devices” with non-sexual, theraputic affects.
The logic seems to be (and I’ll admit, it’s pretty freakin’ shaky logic): if it just lays there, then the ONLY thing it could be used for is to get yourself off. But, if it buzzes and wiggles, well, then, I guess you _could_ use it to, I dunno, relax sore muscles.
I’m not saying it makes sense, just that that’s how it is. Now, IANAL or a “adult novelty” seller, but I am an adult living in Texas, and that’s how it’s always been explained to me. YMMV.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_17)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-taboo-taboo-in-texas/165799/40 "2003-04-03T13:41:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scm1001 \*
> \*\*don’t you mean go finger? 😃 \*\*
Luckily, fingers are still legal.
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