this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2026

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Owner Of Adult Store Stunned After Pentagon Demands She Stop Shipping Butt Plugs To Soldiers In Middle East (www.comicsands.com)

submitted 5 days ago by 1.ceramics926@kopitalk.net to c/canada@lemmy.ca

81 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apparently the US Department of ~~Defense~~War thinks that they can order non-US citizens not resident in the USA to cease and desist from mailing things.

Uh…

Hilarity of the items involved aside, the gall of the US military postal service to give orders to civilians not under their command and not even of their nation is shocking.

(page 2) 31 comments

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[–] jonsnothere@beehaw.org 2 points 4 days ago

If only there was a way to smuggle them past airport security...

[–] malle_yeno@pawb.social 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

So what I find interesting is that this exact story was reported in CTV like a week ago, but in this one, the reasoning has changed somehow?

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/stop-sending-butt-plugs-to-bahrain-toronto-sex-store-receives-letters-from-us-department-of-war/

Originally reported, the problem was that Bahrain does not allow adult items to be shipped to them. But the adult shop said that it actually doesn't ship to Bahrain and most of Asia because of rules like that making it more complicated to do business. Owner said that it was likely forwarded to a base (so a third party shipper, ~~something the shop has zero control over~~.)

But in this one, the rationale has changed to "these objects are dangerous", and I don't see focus being placed on the third-party ~~seller~~ shipper.

edit: shipper, not seller. We don't know if this was after market, just that it's not directly shipped. They might actually have some amount of control over that, if that's the case, because they would have needed to label the original package as being shipped to Bahrain.

The more I think about this story, the more I think that it's being ramped up as a "look how the US military is interfering with canada on behalf of a middle eastern country!" instead of like "someone made a mistake by ordering something not allowed in Bahrain, and the business didn't check whether they were allowed to ship it there or not." I dont get what the big deal here is. This actually kinda looks bad on the business now that I take a second look at it.

[–] grey_maniac@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Why would it look bad on the business? You, yourself, said earlier:

the adult shop said that it actually doesn't ship to Bahrain and most of Asia

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[+] unmagical@lemmy.ml -16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (15 children)

Apparently the US Department of ~~Defense~~War thinks that they can order non-US citizens not resident in the USA to cease and desist from mailing things.

It's not to stop mailing things. It's to stop mailing things to them. That should be a basic right. I want nothing more than to be able to tell my grocery store to stop mailing me anything, and I'm sure most employers don't want their employees having dildos delivered to their work, especially in places where possession of such items is illegal.

If you're engaged in international business you do actually have to respect the laws of the countries you operate in.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Why is it her obligation to not fulfill these orders? Why is it not something that is handled between the military and their employee? She isn't sending random flyers, someone stationed there, who should have been told isn't allowed at that posting, ordered it nonetheless. If I break the rules by bringing a lighter onto my work premises (fire hazard restrictions), my boss doesn't call Zippo, he talks to me. It would be a bigger deal if I had one shipped there, but they still wouldn't be calling Zippo.

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

She's doing business internationally and failed to comply with local regulations and courier terms of use for her products' destination.

There're agreements that govern how mail transits from Canada to the US and agreements that govern how the US moves mail to military bases in host countries. To facilitate the hundreds of different permutations of local laws USPS provides a portal where you can check if what you intend to mail is permitted.

Bennett had no idea her business's products were going to a country where they would be illegal.

She should have known. The military member would have given her their address including "APO AE 09837." She should have then visited the USPS APO restrictions portal and typed in "09837" whereupon she would have seen the following:

E2. Any matter depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic, or sexual items are prohibited.

At that point she would have known that sending one of her products to that address was illegal in the destination country she was doing business in and a violation of her couriers terms.

She didn't do that, Bahrain notified the recipient (technically the US Military) and asked them to notify the sender, and they did.

It's her choice to support APOs, but if she does support APOs she's doing business all across the world and is subject to the local restrictions. If she just wants to deal with the US and Canada and not have to deal with other countries' customs than she shouldn't support APOs.

It's illegal to mail someone alcohol in the US. It's also illegal to mail someone alcohol in Bahrain. Regardless of if someone orders alcohol online it's still illegal to send alcohol. If you disregard that and mail alcohol anyway then you are breaking the law.

Though it's legal to mail sex toys in the US, it is illegal to mail sex toys to Bahrain--even if to a US military base. Regardless of if someone orders sex toys online it's still illegal to mail sex toys to Bahrain. If you disregard that and mail sex toys to Bahrain anyway then you are breaking the law.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 3 points 5 days ago

I stand corrected. She certainly could have determined this was illegal. But as far as I know, it is still illegal for someone to order prohibited items online, and it seems the military could stop a lot of those things on their side if they enforced the laws with their employees, as well.

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