The V word.

Kim and Amy Sedgwick, founders and co-owners of Red Tent Sisters have urged Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett to contact the federal health minister.

Bennett, a medical doctor, wrote to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq this week, asking the government not to "shy away from legislation that protects us just because the topic of sex toys make us uncomfortable. [...] "In Canada, we are not yet doing enough to protect women against very high concentrations of materials linked to reproductive and other health issues."

Vibrators and other plastic sex toys contain chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates, which make plastics soft and flexible. Canada has banned BPA in baby bottles, and in June, Health Canada proposed a ban on phthalates in all children's toys.

More here, here and here.

Bennett's initiative is likely doomed to failure as the only dildoes and dickheads palatable to ReformaTories are the ones in Stevie Spiteful's cabinet.

And now for something completely different: a feel-good story from Silicone Valley North.

An Ottawa couple who works together helps others play nicely together. Very, very, very nicely together in fact.

Standard Innovation Corp.'s first product, the We-Vibe vibrator, has sold 55,000 units worldwide since it was released last spring.

Bruce and Melody Murison, both former Nortel employees, launched their "research and design" company after Murison was laid off from the now-struggling telecommunications technology giant five years ago.

Bruce Murison, who worked as a Nortel engineer for more than a decade, said the We-Vibe was designed from an engineer's perspective. The 60-gram silicone device is U-shaped and is the product of six years and $500,000 worth of research and development.

"This is, to me, not a sex toy. It's an electromechanical device," he said. "We truly look at it from a scientific point of view; in terms of plotting the x-y charts of power versus performance, versus the third dimension of the human dynamic: What frequencies do women like?"

Indeed. The buzz about the We-Vibe from local erotic emporium Venus Envy is glowing. Last December Diva Magazine pronounced the We-Vibe one of the essential items for today's well-equipped, technologically-savvy woman. Even a New York Times story about sex toys leads with a glowing endorsement of the We-Vibe.

Let me emphasize, for the benefit of the reading and/or comprehension-impaired gals at ProWomanProLife that unlike the meaning they twisted from Joyce Arthur's words, sex for pleasure includes (though not limited to) married couples (same sex or hetero).