Joy toy store gets a good vibe from Park Slope
parents
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Chances are it's the only sex shop in the city with a baby-changing table in the bathroom.
Babeland, the city's upscale erotic toy retailer, is coming to Bugaboo Central - also known as Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The booty-call boutique opens Thursday on Bergen St. near trendy Fifth Ave. next to a maternity shop, down the road from a Gymboree outlet, and around the corner from a more - ahem - traditional toy shop.
Babeland owner and Brooklyn mom Claire Cavanah said the feedback has been mostly positive.
"My wife is so excited," neighborhood resident Ed Oliver, 40, shouted at her as he passed by the blue-and-white storefront Tuesday.
Pushing her 5-month-old daughter, Dora Guttierrez, 39, gave the new business the stroller mom's stamp of approval.
"It's normal. It's healthy. I might visit it myself," she said. She had one caveat: "As long as it's sort of tasteful."
In a nod to neighborhood sensibilities, Cavanah said her first Brooklyn shop - she has others in Seattle and Manhattan - won't have any sex toys in the window.
"We don't want to make anyone uncomfortable," she said.
Still, the thought of a store full of vibrators and erotic DVDs inflamed the passions of a few passersby.
"I don't think it's a good idea. There are so many kids in the neighborhood," said one mother of a 12-year-old boy, who did not want her name used.
"I think they have enough exposure they're not ready for. We don't need any more right here."
Marie Shriver, 78, who lives in Midwood but shops in the area, called it "shocking."
"You don't need to bring them into the neighborhood," she said.
When a Pink Pussycat Boutique opened across the street from a middle school in Park Slope, there was a bit of an uproar.
Cavanah is quick to point out her shop has a different vibe, so to speak - more vegan lubricant and less fuzzy handcuffs.
She plans to run workshops for new moms and classes on having a "sex-positive" family. And yes, "I'm putting a changing table in the bathroom," she said.
Fellow merchant Hannah MacDonald, who runs the mom-to-be shop Bump next door, said Cavanah's track record should allay any fears about sleaze.
"She's taken a lot of the stigma away from it. It's not a secret, behind the curtain business any more," she said.
"We're in the maternity business, so we're in the business of sex, too. One leads to the other."
Strange....if u dress up sex in a friendly fashion..its ok...regardless if its a vibrator or strapon.....or soft porn video
