What Etsy's Sex Toy Ban Means For Buyers and Sellers

According to Etsy’s new rules, “Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that are: Inserted into the body Applied to the genitalia Designed for genitals to be inserted into them This includes adult toys such as dildos, vibrators, anal plugs, sex dolls, fleshlights, and mouth gags.” Previously, crafters could list those products as long as their photos didn’t depict nudity and they marked their products as mature. Many also skirted Etsy’s rules by labeling items as novelty products. However, the rules became increasingly strict, and sellers could no longer use Etsy’s ads to connect to buyers. Since the rule change, Etsy has removed products en masse, and store owners who attempted to re-add them have had the listings removed or faced other punishments. Not only does this mean there is one less place to easily find interesting–and often handmade–sex toys for shoppers like you and me, but this rule change has serious questions for sellers. With the shutdown of competitor Artfire in 2021, Etsy is one of the few marketplaces of its kind–indeed, the only one that allowed adult products after Konfettie’s short life. Some store owners made all their income from Etsy, while others viewed it as a side hustle. Regardless, this will mean a big change for those who dabble in handmade sex toys.

In response to this announcement, the website Spicerack invited Etsy sellers to list their wares in its marketplace. However, a dearth of glass dildos, something that could be made by individual glassworkers, indicates that few Etsy sellers have made the jump over the last three and a half months since the policy went into effect. This might reflect a previous controversy that Spicerack’s parent company was involved in. Spicerack is dissimilar to Etsy and doesn’t focus on handmade items, which may also put off buyers and sellers alike. Some sellers have been forced to shut down completely, while others have moved to their own sites. However, running a site comes with its challenges. Many crafters appreciate how Etsy took care of the technical side of things, including website hosting and coding and payment processing. Owning your website means you’re responsible for marketing because you can’t easily be searched from the same bar as thousands of other sellers on a popular craft marketplace. Talking about sex on social media can get your content removed and your account banned, making it that much harder to reach the people who want your goods. It seems like Etsy’s decision has led to a drastic decrease in the number of folks selling handmade sex toys. This is really no surprise, but it is frustrating. When it’s hard for small businesses to operate, our options as consumers are limited. Plus, creativity is stifled when artists like those who made sex toys to sell on Etsy have nowhere to go.

You can still head to Etsy for some sexy goodies, however. Some makers have remained under the radar, listing their products under veiled codewords like “wand.” But it’s only a matter of time before they’re found out and get the boot, too. You’ll also find a lot of BDSM gear, too, from leather restraints to sex furniture to colorful rope. These things are considered “narrow exceptions” according to the new rules as long as they’re not modeled by humans showing “genitalia, anuses, gluteal clefts, [or] female nipples/areolas.” Read closely, and you’ll see Etsy prohibits any hint of these body parts through tight clothing, so a woman wearing an opaque but tight top that shows where her nipples are would ostensibly break the rules. Leggings might also fail to make the cut. Etsy encourages sellers to use mannequins or take pictures of items lying flat, but that just doesn’t work when trying to show how certain kinky gear works.

But consequences aside, why is this happening? There are several factors, most of which involve a prudish attempt to control others’ sexuality. This includes credit card companies not wanting to process payments for adult content. And because you can download the Etsy app from the iOS and Google Play stores, Etsy has to abide by the stores’ rules regarding adult content and nudity. Additionally, ten U.S. states also require residents to verify their ages when viewing porn online, which has led to PornHub blocking visitors from those areas unless they use a VPN. Other states may follow suit, and it’s not a stretch to assume that other websites that potentially deal in adult content or products want to avoid the legal and technical mess of these laws. Not all of the sex toy listings on Etsy played by the rules, however. The website had to contend with nudity in product photos despite banning it. Many sellers censored their product images in various ways, but some only changed the main product image to indicate the listing included adult content or nudity.

It’s also important to recognize that, like other goods, many of the sex toys on Etsy weren’t handmade. Instead, they were drop-shipped directly from the manufacturer to the buyer after purchase. The store owner–and Etsy, by extension–was simply the middleman that made these interactions possible. These practices flooded the handmade market with cheaply made and priced products, detracting from Etsy’s point. Still, Etsy could have worked around some of these issues by creating a heavily monitored NSFW section that requires users to be logged in and cracking down on drop shippers. The marketplace clearly isn’t interested in making it easy for sellers to continue earning income. And while kinky gear might be okay according to Etsy’s current rules, many people are waiting with bated breath for the marketplace to change its rules yet again. I can’t help but agree with them. Unless Etsy loses so much income that they’re forced to roll back this decision, things will likely only get worse from here.

What can consumers like you and I do in response to Etsy’s sex toy ban? You might expect me to tell you to reach out to Etsy or put them on blast on social media. That’s your right, but I don’t expect it to do much good. I think it’s more important to support makers and crafters, including those who remain on Etsy and those on other platforms. If you can afford it, spend your money on handmade and sometimes custom goods. If you can’t, follow them on social media and interact with their posts. Recommend them to your networks. You’ll regret not doing it when your favorite sex toy artisan goes out of business.