Good Vibrations And The Clitoris Saving Alien Cult

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Even among casual observers of businesses that call themselves "adult", there is an expectation that these companies, on occasion, will do some pretty weird things. It is sex, after all. Companies that sell purple plastic bunnies for sexual gratification are bound to do some pretty nutty things to sell their wares, and thus live in a twilight of edgy conversations, inappropriate humor and occasionally desperate logic.

It is also a business built by both shady transactions and cults of personality -- outsider heroes, the risk-taking underdog champions, sexy rebels. Also because the subject is sex they are no strangers to attack. When criticism is leveled, it is an industry known to circle the wagons, and unquestionably protect their own. Which is exactly how San Francisco's leading adult retailer Good Vibrations got themselves in trouble with an anti-Islamic religion presenting themselves as a humanitarian organization.

The furor boiled to the rim when in late March, Good Vibes got angrily and publicly called out by a feminist Facebook group, a professor of African politics at USF, feminist email lists and a significant number of sexual health professionals and sex educators in multiple countries. Why? It seems that the venerable retailer, with its reputation and history for championing empowered female sexuality, had publicly aligned its brand with, and intended to raise money for an organization called Clitoraid.

The March 24 press release (since removed from Good Vibes' website) explained that as part of GiVe, their donation and sponsorship program, they would be donating to the Clitoraid organization, which was said to be working to provide restoration surgery and orgasmic therapy to African women who had experienced Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM),sometimes called female circumcision or clitoridectomy, is a religious and cultural practice performed on female minors that involves removal of part or all of the external female genitalia. FGM is practiced by both Christian and Muslim communities; concentrated in Africa (28 countries), it is also practiced thoughout a number of countries in the MIddle East. It is often incorrectly assumed to be an Islamic practice; it is against Islamic law, though conventional wisdom suggests that it comes from native traditions that pre-date both religions. All three - Christian, Muslim and tribal faiths - continue the ongoing practice of FGM in modern times. Because consequences include sexual, psychological and medical damage ranging from moderate to severe, the World Health Organization and The United Nations have organized campaigns and concentrated efforts to stop the practice.

As exclaimed in the press release, Good Vibes was excited to join forces with Clitoraid, sending a box of bath products and sex toys to patients at a hospital in Colorado where Clitoraid-sponsored surgical treatments had been performed. But products out of Good Vibrations' pockets, press outreach and publicity resources wasn't all GV intended to spend in supporting Clitoraid. They also announced that Good Vibrations customers would be asked to make a donation at the point of purchase, the money ostensibly going toward Clitoraid's planned "pleasure hospital" in Africa (Burkina Faso), where Clitoraid planned to offer reconstructive surgeries - and post recovery "pleasure therapy" with the help of Good Vibrations' pal Betty Dodson -- to African women free of charge.

Dodson, a controversial figure known for her hands-on sex therapy for women, masturbation workshops, and outspoken activism about the clitoris, was responsible for bringing Good Vibes and Clitoraid together. Was Dodson's testimonial enough to get Good Vibes to unquestioningly back this organization? Apparently so, as an even cursory googling would reveal that Clitoraid was not all that it seemed.

Clitoraid is backed, founded and staffed by a religion called The Raelian Movement, which believes that space aliens created the human race and that evolution is a myth. The name "Clitoraid" followed in the Raelian naming tradition, following other Raelian projects such as Clonaid and Stemaid. Whereas Stemaid promises the cure of such diseases as Hepatitis C and "advanced AIDS" with Stemaid's stem cells, Dr. Petra Boyton summed up both Raelianism and Clonaid, saying:

"Clitoraid is funded by an organisation called the Raelians. Depending on who is defining, this organisation can either be described as a religion or a cult. It is notorious for a number of reasons (including its view of sexuality and believing in intelligent design), but most famously for claiming it has cloned a baby human through a venture called Clonaid."

The religion founded Clitoraid in 2006, as the group made plans to expand their empire into Africa to advocate their concept of a "United States of Africa." To save Africa for Rael apparently meant to "decolonize" it. This concept, they said, followed what they viewed as a more honest and complete decolonization that would involve the disbanding of corrupt rulerships -- as a result of Africans returning to their non-Christian ancestors.

However, this expansion seems contingent on donations from folks like Good Vibes' unsuspecting customers. Veteran porn journalist Darklady reports from Clitoraid's first public fundraiser, where she was told,

"'What we're doing is raising funds so (women who have had FGM) can have the operation for free, and the equipment and the hospital constructed. We, I think, have purchased the land upon which the hospital will be built, but the building has to be constructed and the land cleared and all that.'"

"In other words," Darklady says "it's possible there's some land in West Africa where, if it's been paid for, a hospital may be built where doctors, who may be trained in a local-anesthesia based procedure which may or may not exist, may be able to return some sensation to women brave enough to stay in their own country and face a life where their reconstructed bodies would make them social outcasts who will hopefully campaign against the various forms of female genital mutilation. Maybe."

The story of one religion's intent to decolonize Africa by way of clitoral restoration and FGM politicking is a curious one. According to one of the hundreds of Raelien owned and operated websites that share a web server with Clitoraid's site, the prophet Rael re-named Africa into "Kama," even as it sells a book called "White Poison: A Black Christian is a Traitor to His Ancestors."

Most interesting when applied to Clitoraid's narrative is their website There Is No God. In writing dated February 2006, the year Clitoraid was established, Rael published a screed against Islam and the Muslim faith. Targeting Muslim countries, Rael calls for the prohibition and criminality of the Muslim faith, and that to this end "modern societies should protect their values and fundamental rights, without making the slightest concession, if necessary by the use of force, arming themselves by developing new technologies so as to preserve sufficient advance to remain invincible, in the face of all the primitive and obscurantist forces of the planet."

But no one involved in the growing Good Vibrations, anti-Clitoraid scandal seemed to know any of this. University of San Francisco professor of African politics Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, who has blogged extensively on the issue, says she began trying to contact Good Vibrations around April 5th; before approaching Good Vibrations Kamau-Rutenberg was initially upset by Clitoraid's years-old "Adopt A Clitoris" campaign soliciting individual sponsorships of African women's genitalia.

At the same time a storm was brewing on Facebook and Twitter about GV's marriage with Clitoraid. On her blog, Kamau-Rutenberg describes a phone call with the retailer's publicity manager, who expressed excitement about the partnership, but when asked about due diligence on Clitoraid and for comment about the online tempest, became quiet. Watching the saga from afar, UK sex educator Dr. Petra Boyton expressed concern upon reading that the phone call concluded with the PR professional telling Kamau-Rutenberg that Good Vibrations would need to see "scientific evidence" supporting the anti-Clitoraid argument.

Shortly thereafter, Good Vibes re-affirmed their support and strengthened their position with Clitoraid, adding that Clitoraid was the only organization of its kind. They also re-issued their press release. The community responded with blog posts and an online petition, publicly supported by Dr. Petra Boynton (UK), Cory Silverberg, Dr. Elisabeth Wood, Matthew Greenall, Darklady/yNot, and Kudzai Makombe (Manila). Meanwhile, a high-profile organization backing Clitoraid (Do Something / Celebs Gone Good) withdrew its support in light of the public questions being raised around the organization's intentions, and the ethics of intervention.

Pressure on Good Vibrations for transparency was high. Kamau-Rutenberg and Dr. Boyton blogged pointed questions about GV's statements and Clitoraid's claims on their own blogs. Kamau-Rutenberg  posted that a quick Google search returned an article reporting that in Burkina Faso (the proposed site of Clitoraid's "pleasure hospital") the government had been performing restorative FGM surgery since at least 2001 -- and was not the only organization GV had to choose from, as they claimed. Dr. Elisabeth Wood wrote that she had discovered several hospitals that which had performed hundreds of surgeries (noted in many news articles), but were in desperate need for equipment. Matthew Greenall blogged that he'd found an instance where Clitoraid officials openly bragged about misrepresenting Clitoraid's intentions to the local government by way of re-naming their hospital "The Women's House." Clitoraid responded -- by threatening to sue Greenall's website host.

A few more days went by and Good Vibes began to backpedal. An email from Carol Queen told Kamau-Rutenberg that the retail business now disavowed having a partnership with Clitoraid, stating that GV was not involved with the organization "beyond Betty's work." Dr. Petra Boynton, who had also been trying to communicate with Good Vibrations out of deep concern regarding Clitoraid also received a similar email. Boynton blogged that GV's new statements were at odds with their previous statements and that the retailer still stated they stood by Clitoraid. Perversely, Boyton simultaneously received an email soliciting her to be a Good Vibes affiliate; Boyton declined. A day later Good Vibes' CEO asked Kamau-Rutenberg out to lunch, and she declined.

The following day, April 14, news hit that Good Vibrations had withdrawn their support from Clitoraid. I'm no writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, but I do find it extremely disappointing that the hundreds of people who organized to bring public scrutiny and transparency to amend the situation and pry the good reputation of Good Vibrations away from Clitoraid -- many of them longtime members of Good Vibrations' community  -- only found out that Good Vibes ended their association via an editorial in that newspaper. None were contacted or informed directly; the blogging and Facebook communities whose loyalty buoyed the discussion were left to find news about the changes on their own.

In the end, Good Vibrations never gave Clitoraid any cash of their own. Carol Queen told me, "We planned (at the very beginning of the connection with Clitoraid, I think even before the package of vibrators went out) to make them one of our GiVe partners, and that would have happened in the summer. That was announced and then subsequent discussion let us to change our plan. The way GiVe works is that we ask website shoppers and store customers if they would care to donate to a particular charity at the time of checkout, then we forward those funds to the charity. Again, that won't be happening now with Clitoraid. No money is going to be solicited or change hands."

The reaction from Clitoraid, and Betty Dodson, was vitriolic -- and as Dr. Petra Boyton noted, very revealing. At publication of this article, Dodson stands by her association with Clitoraid, her support of the Raelian religion, and in her public statement articulated her issues with Christian and Muslim religions. Dodson's business partner suggested that Dodson's expertise and authority not be questioned in light of Dodson's reputation.

It's worth nothing that while Dodson focuses her blame on Kamau-Rutenberg for GV's withdrawal, Clitoraid is targeting the recent mainstream media item about the issue: the April 14 opinion piece in the Chronicle. This is a curious choice, considering the fact that questions about the organization have been steadily growing for at least four years, while hundreds signed the petition and joined the Facebook group against Clitoraid. Clitoraid's public statement in the aftermath says outright that opposition to Clitoraid is a show in support of FGM; Clitoraid stated that accusations of cultural insensitivity toward the Raelien organization were one and the same as showing support for "slave owners or Nazis."

"Slave owners in the American South thought Northerners were insensitive to their needs," [Clitoraid representative Nadine] Gary said. "And it wasn't considered polite in Nazi Germany to ask what was happening to the Jews. Both situations demanded blunt, effective, immediate opposition, not sensitivity toward the perpetrators and their supporters."

Wacky, pro-sex, libertine sci-fi flavored UFO worshippers who want to live forever through cloning is just the kind of thing that might not raise eyebrows around an industry that's used to its fair share of bizarre characters and fringe-y behavior. It is also, in the same vein, an industry that is unused to questioning itself, for fear of showing weakness - because the subject is sex, after all.

Perhaps because the subject is sex, these companies must be careful to level the same criticism at their detractors as at their own idols.

Illustration: the Raelian Model Embassy, from RaelPress