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The disabled man who changed the sex toy industry

Vixen Author Photo
By Vixen Temple

If it weren’t for Gosnell Duncan, a disabled man of colour, sex toys would not look, smell and feel the way they do now.

  • The disabled man who changed the sex toy industry
    Vixen Temple
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  • Dildos are most predominantly marketed towards non-disabled people. Sex in general is a conversation that folks living with disabilities are excluded from. But what if you were to learn that one of sex toys' greatest innovators was a man who created dildos with the disability community in mind? Let's talk about Duncan's Dildos!

  • Gosnell Duncan was an attractive ladies man and an extremely talented dancer. In 1965, while welding the back of a truck, a car fell on top of him, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. This event would change the course of his life. He could no longer obtain an erection, and this caused him great frustrations. He became involved in the disability rights movements taking place during the late 1960s, and it was here that he realised he was not alone. There were many other folks living with disabilities who were struggling to get their sexual urges met. They expressed feelings of being left out of the sexual revolution that was taking place during this era.

    During the early 1970s, Duncan attended a disability conference which hosted a seminar on sex and disabilities. While many discussions took place about how people living with disabilities still experience sexual desire, there was seemingly no solution. Dildos had already been invented by this point, but they were not accessible for people living with disabilities. Duncan left the seminar inspired to change this narrative.

  • While many discussions took place about how people living with disabilities still experience sexual desire, there was seemingly no solution

  • The standard dildos available in the 1970’s were made with heat-treated rubber that would melt in the heat. Because of the material used to create them, these dildos often had a strong chemical odour that was off putting to people with scent sensory issues. As well as this, the dildos were sold in a pinkish white referred to as “flesh coloured” reinforcing white skin as the default and further ostracising and othering anyone who’s skin did not match this tone.

    As a disabled man with Caribbean heritage, Duncan knew what needed to be done to make his dildos stand out amongst the rest. By using silicone, Duncan’s toys were now hand washable. This meant that his toys could be used between sexual partners. He created toys in a range of colours and for varying needs, including a toy for people with limited hand mobility that could be held with someone’s legs. These were all groundbreaking steps that would positively alter the sex toy industry.

  • As a disabled man with Caribbean heritage, Duncan knew what needed to be done to make his dildos stand out amongst the rest

  • Duncan’s dildos were also revolutionary for the feminist sexual movement, as his dildos did not always resemble a penis. This was thanks to a woman by the name of Dell Williams, the founder of America’s first feminist sex-toy store Eve’s Garden. “Why did a dildo have to look like a cock at all, I asked Duncan,” wrote Williams in her 2005 memoir Revolution in the Garden. “Did it have to have a well-defined, blushed-pink head, and blue veins in bas-relief? The dildos that were on the market were all of such poor quality. Their manufacturers went to such great lengths to make them look like real penises that they just ended up looking deformed - a penis is a penis and plastic just won’t cut it.”

  • And so with this advice in mind, Duncan created the Venus dildo. It came in pale pink and chocolate brown, and it resembled a large crooked finger. Venus became the first “feminist dildo” marketed to the American public through Eve’s Garden.

    History has been largely told through a cis, white, able-bodied lens. So it’s no wonder that Duncan’s legacy has sadly been forgotten. And this reality is unfortunately notable in the way that many sex toy companies market their toys, because you rarely (if ever) see disabilities portrayed in sex toy marketing. It’s extremely unfortunate that the very community who had such a positive impact on the sex toy industry has now been largely excluded from sex toy discourse. But now you know that if it weren’t for a disabled man of colour, sex toys would not look, smell and feel the way they do now. Thank you Gosnell Duncan for your work!

    If you’d like to learn more about Duncan (and the history of sex toys), I highly recommend reading Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy by Hallie Liberman.

    References: 
    Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy - Hallie Liberman
    Revolution in the Garden - Dell Williams

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