At an Instagrammable storefront in Brooklyn last night, complete with dim lighting and 4-foot-wide Chinese paper lanterns, a bunch of millennial-aged people gathered to celebrate healthy sexuality and self-love. They were each invited to the party to sit alone in a phone-booth-sized box and listen to erotic stories.
Lined with pink fur, the sex booth loomed at the back of the room. Walking past the open bar, holding a vibrator-shaped mini ice-cream cone full of guacamole, an unassuming party guest opened the door and found one pair of Beats headphones waiting inside.
“How are those noodles?” asked a sexy gentleman’s voice, which quickly escalated to “He licks me with quick little flicks of his tongue” and “Do you have to be really wet to use it?” The lone seat faced a mirrored wall that became a little steamier every hour as the night progressed.
With less than two weeks to go before Valentine’s Day, the party was sponsored by Beats, Maude, and Dipsea to celebrate self-pleasure for all people. Maude, which hosted the event in its Williamsburg storefront, sells discreetly packaged condoms, lubricants, and vibrators. Dipsea is a new subscription-based app with erotic audio stories that intend to make listeners “feel more alive,” among other nice things. “I even give my parents the products!” Maude’s social-media editor proclaimed.
One party guest emerged from the booth and remarked, “I want it in my room now!” Another called the stories “refreshing,” explaining: “Porn is tricky for me, aesthetically.” When three people boldly entered the booth together and stayed long enough for a line to form, a person boozily exclaimed, “They’re probably fucking in there!”
The night came to a close after someone knocked the booth’s story-playing cell phone into a drink, and the perpetrator exclaimed, “I Dipsea’d all over!”
