Joani Blank (July 4, 1937 – August 6, 2016) was an American entrepreneur, writer, videographer, cohousing enthusiast, philanthropist, sex educator, and inventor in the field of sexuality. Brimming with ideas, she broke ground using her publishing, sex store, and other endeavors to promote a sex-positive feminism. Her papers are part of the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University Library.
She founded Down There Press, a publisher of sex-related books, in 1975. In 1977, she opened Good Vibrations, the second feminist sex toy business in the United States (the first having been Eve's Garden in New York City, which was founded by Dell Williams in 1974). Prior to her opening Good Vibrations, she was hired at the University of California, San Francisco to screen candidates who had difficulties achieving orgasm. This study influenced her business model for Good Vibrations. Lynn Comella wrote that Blank turned "her small vibrator shop into a sexual resource center for anyone who might wander in. She felt that talking about sex should be as casual as talking about the weather; she also believed that sexual information was a birthright and that no one should be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed for wanting more pleasure in their life."
She collaborated with photographer Honey Lee Cottrell on I Am My Lover, and Down There Press published it in 1978. In this book, she paired Cottrell’s photographs of individual women with the subject’s written reflections on masturbation and on learning to give themselves pleasure. It joined Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971) and Betty Dodson's Liberating Masturbation: A Meditation on Self Love (1974) as second wave feminist books aiming to educate women about their bodies and empower them to have a positive sexual life.
She was one of the first volunteers at San Francisco Sex Information and has served on the Board of Directors of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Blank is also known for her inventions of the Butterfly vibrator and Titattoos (now Intimate Art Tattoos).
She lived in cohousing since 1992 and served for eight years on the board of the Cohousing Association of the United States.
Blank had one daughter, Amika, and three grandchildren. She lived in Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California and co-founded her final home community, Swan's Market Cohousing in Oakland, California, where she volunteered her time to social justice issues such as prison reform, economic equality, and the Cohousing Association of the United States. She remained active in the field of sexuality, and many of her old books and videos are available through her Web site.
Blank held a masters degree in public health education.
Blank died of pancreatic cancer on August 6, 2016, less than two months after its diagnosis.
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