So! Welcome to this month’s obscenity law/burlesque thread!

This month, I’m introducing you to....

The Braille Playboy.

So, the Braille playboy is interesting for a couple reasons.

1) usually disabled people aren’t given access to sexy materials

There’s a pretty big assumption that disabled people don’t have sexy thoughts.

2) the table of contents here gives you a sense of what’s in here.

I think it’s interesting that there’s both Braille and text on the page. I guess sighted readers could also read it to you.

3) it’s printed (as most Braille materials provided for free to blind citizens are) by the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

Which means that depending on local laws uh... the US government might have broken obscenity laws when mailing this.

4) and this is the part that kills me.

Friends. There are no images (of course not, you say!) not even embossed ones so blind people could enjoy what playboy was made for.

This makes the Braille playboy the ONLY playboy you can legitimately read

just. for. the.articles.

But let's unpack this a little more: See, it's interesting to me that this even happened. Like I said, disabled access to sex related materials is thin on the ground.

Porn, erotica etc, is primarily written for an able bodied audience with able bodied bodies in view.

Disabled bodies aren't objects of desire, but they're also not the intended audience.

So the fact that Playboy, a magazine that had a prime focus on a centerfold that a blind reader couldn't see (and wasn't given access to via embossing) got printed in braille? That's a huge gap to cross.

Happy Blindness Awareness Month!

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