I have just stumbled upon an odd new American euphemism. Having already been acquainted with the dubious concepts of restrooms in which you cannot rest, bathrooms ill-equipped for bathing, pants that you wear over your pants and pee-pees that boys pee with, my discovery of the week is the "novelty store".
Over here in the States, what you or I would call a sex shop is umschrieben not merely using the more discreet term "adult", as one might expect, but by the bland expression "novelty store".*
That may be fine for the puritanically afflicted members of society, but like so many other euphemisms ends up making a simple concept somewhat ambiguous. Taken at face value, for instance, it would suggest that sex is a novelty in the US, although given that Americans haven't all died out by now, I expect that this is untrue.
What's more - and more amusingly (at least to purile minds like mine) - adopting the term "novelty" puts sex shops in the same Yellow Pages category as magic shops, Hallmark gift-card outlets, musical instrument and joke shops. And this in turn paves the way for plenty of opportunities for eye-popping experiences for grandmothers seeking birthday cards and children out to buy whoopie cushions.**
Over here in the States, what you or I would call a sex shop is umschrieben not merely using the more discreet term "adult", as one might expect, but by the bland expression "novelty store".*
That may be fine for the puritanically afflicted members of society, but like so many other euphemisms ends up making a simple concept somewhat ambiguous. Taken at face value, for instance, it would suggest that sex is a novelty in the US, although given that Americans haven't all died out by now, I expect that this is untrue.
What's more - and more amusingly (at least to purile minds like mine) - adopting the term "novelty" puts sex shops in the same Yellow Pages category as magic shops, Hallmark gift-card outlets, musical instrument and joke shops. And this in turn paves the way for plenty of opportunities for eye-popping experiences for grandmothers seeking birthday cards and children out to buy whoopie cushions.**
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* This also reminds me of the time when, at the impressionable age of 19, I noticed a "private shop" with white-painted windows by Brighton railway station. For months thereafter, I wondered whether this was some sort of exclusive shopping club only open to members - until someone explained that it was a sex shop.
** I had one such experience in Berlin when I went into a video rental store in a middle-class area of town hoping to pick up a nice film for the evening. Seeing how naively I was seeking membership, the owner though it was only fair to inform me he only had porn on offer.
** I had one such experience in Berlin when I went into a video rental store in a middle-class area of town hoping to pick up a nice film for the evening. Seeing how naively I was seeking membership, the owner though it was only fair to inform me he only had porn on offer.
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