Ooh La La!

Matt and I were interviewed by the French site Le Tag Parfait and it's such a trip to see my words translated in Actual French, instead of my broken joke of an attempt at French. 

Like, oh my god. I love the French language so much. I studied it through High School and College, lived in France for a semester. I got my French proficiency to a level of "I can communicate with you" and I really fully intended to get myself fluent. I had aspirations of moving back to France after I graduated, but I rooted down hard in Portland and life just... happened real fast.

For a while I was trying to keep those French muscles active; listening to French podcasts, watching movies with the French dub tracks on, weekly French classes and conversation groups, practicing with my French Mother-in-Law when we'd visit Matt's family, writing letters to my French Host Mom from when I lived with her in Aix-en-Provence. 

But bit by bit I let them slide and now I'm 34 and my French is so very, very painful/hilarious. Painfully hilarious. Hilariously painful.

Getting into my third decade, it's interesting to see what passions and loves of mine I maintained and which ones I let slide, however unintentionally. It's like, when I was in my teens and twenties, I could just... make it all work? Maybe not perfectly, but whatever I was interested in, I found a way to squeeze it into my life, no big deal. Now my energy and attention feels like such a finite resource and it depletes so quickly. 

I miss French, but I just don't have any time and energy to keep it maintained in my life. I mean, I still write letters to my French Host Mom in painfully, hilariously broken French and I have conversations (Well, that's putting it generously. "Talks" would be more appropriate. Or... "Basic Exchanges") with my Mother-in-Law in hilariously, painfully fractured French when we visit her once a year. But ultimately, this is a love of mine that I didn't tend and now it's... it's not a part of my life any more. And I miss it.

Anyway. 

If you can't read French and don't wanna bother with one of those French-to-English translator sites, here's Matt and my answers in their original English! 

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- What is the concept of Oh Joy Sex Toy and how did you get the idea?

Matt: Sex and comics are some of our favorite things, so we set out to make a free webcomic about sex!  Erika was already working on a sex education book, and after a year of hard draft, we eventually decided it was better to do it as a free webcomic, with reviews and all sorts of extras. We've not looked back since.

Erika: Sex and sexuality has fascinated me my entire life, it’s such an incredibly vast subject with so many different aspects to it. I’m also an enormous comic book nerd and have been a cartoonist for almost two decades now. Using my preferred medium, comics, to talk about my favorite subject, sex, was a completely natural path for me to follow.

- How do you work together?

Matt: I run the business side of things and do all the web stuff. I also write about half the scripts, color the comics and hire guest artists. Erika does the other half of the scripts and makes all the art. Our week starts out with a back and forth on a script. Then it gets put into pages and sketched out. Inked, colored, and finally made web ready. We regularly work weekends but love the job - it's incredibly rewarding.

Erika: We’re a really good team. In the beginning I was afraid that working with my spouse might put a strain on our marriage, but it turns out we’re natural collaborators and our individual strengths balance out the other’s weaknesses. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it can be challenging and we don’t always agree! But I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else. We make our best work together.

- Who are your readers?

Matt: Anybody and everybody! We get a lot of people looking for sex toys and a lot of others in need of sex education. Oh Joy Sex Toy has grown into a community hub for people on the hunt for anything sex-related. Our flavor is friendly, sex positive, and earnest: attributes that are in rare display nowadays.

- How important is it for you to show all sexualities, genders and bodies types?

Matt: Super important! Diversity is one of our key personal mandates. We want to showcase humans having and enjoying sex.

Erika: It’s very, very important. People need to see people who look like them in the media they consume, especially sexual entertainment and sex education. When you don’t see your type of body in media about sex, it sends the message that this subject is not meant for you, you are not supposed to participate in it. But seeing people that share the same traits as you taking part in this kind of stuff sends the message that “This IS for you, you are welcome here.”

- Your illustrations and characters are happy; humor is omnipresent in your strips: you show a positive image of sex. Why did you choose this editorial line? How does this contribute to the "pedagogical" aspect of your work?

Matt: There's a lot of content out there that focuses on the negative, and it kinda sucks, that stuff really brings you down and is just generally unhealthy to consume. Being positive can be hard, but is much more rewarding for us to make and for others to read. We want sex to be portrayed in a positive and fun light - sex IS fun, so let's treat it that way! We want to encourage people to smile and think of sex in a good healthy natural way. 

Erika: Humor and friendliness are such powerful tools for education and especially for talking about difficult subjects. When people can laugh, their natural defensiveness comes down a bit and they’re more receptive to learning about challenging topics that may make them uncomfortable. Also, I just really love terrible puns and “Dad Jokes” in real life!

- Is it easy to talk about sex and porn in the US in 2017; why?

Matt: For us, yes it is easy! We've become a bit numb to talking about sex after 4-5 years of making sexy-comics: it feels very natural for us now. But I think the US is still developing, and what we find comfortable to talk about might not be everyone's level. I think things are getting better though, the new generations seem more open and sexual than the previous ones. With more effort toward sex education, I think we'll see some real development.

Erika: It depends on who you’re talking to. Personally, I have no problem talking about these subjects, but there are many, many people who are uncomfortable hearing others talk openly about them and can react with hostility. For me, talking about sex is the easy part, dealing with the backlash from others is the hard part.

- In your intro, you say you like sex toys and want us to love them too. Do you think these toys are an expression of sexual emancipation? How do you analyze the evolution of their image over the last ten years?

Matt: Sex toys are amazing tools, they help people take control of their own sex lives. What's not to love?

There's certainly been more growth in the world's perception of sex toys in these past 10 years. They've been showing up in mainstream media a lot more, and with the prevalence of internet porn, it's all feeling more normal. As objects with very little negatives, and so many positives, they've become hard to ignore in today's world. Everybody deserves to try one or two - it's not so much of a stigma anymore.

Erika: Yes, I do feel that sex toys can be an expression of sexual emancipation for some people, but of course not everyone! But generally speaking, it’s such an incredibly powerful thing to have the ability to make your body feel good without depending on somebody else to do it for you. It’s especially important to know what your body specifically needs in order to feel pleasure if you’re going to engage in partnered sex. How can you expect somebody else to make you feel good if you don’t even know how to do it yourself! 

- What will the sex toy of the future look like? How would you draw it?

Matt: No idea! And that's half the fun. People keep coming up with such clever new toys. The Nova for example, helped re-design the rabbit, and blew our socks off: http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/nova/ 

It's so exciting that toys like this can still show up and change the game.

I think the future of sex toys will be in the details - just like how the food industry had a surge into organics and shoppers became more aware and conscious of where there food comes from and how its treated, I think we'll see something similar in sex toys. I think consumers will want to know where and how their toy's are made, and the conscious efforts manufactures put into making them world friendly. Selling the story of how a toy was made and the team behind it will become more important than RPM's and App features. Personally I LOVE hearing and seeing how my sex toy was made, and who built it and why and how. All that stuff carry's over to my masturbation - if there is a toy I feel proud of owning I'll be happy to use it over something that seems generic and soulless.