Liberation comes courtesy of a circular bed at AEE

At the back of Maxim magazine every month are the low-budget adds, not the full-page, highly produced numbers, but tiny ones for silly sex toys, hotlines and other ambiguousness that might appeal to the horny American male.

Among these is the Liberator.

Photo: Sarah Feldberg

The Zeppelin comes in a wide range of colors to match any decor.

A foam wedge that is placed under the woman’s bum during sex like, perhaps, a pillow, the liberator always made me laugh because it bore such a noble title and because I had a college friend who bore the same title as a last name.

I hadn’t thought of the angled wonder in a long time, until there it was in the middle of the AEE exhibition hall, and apparently the company has expanded.

The Liberator has literally grown. No longer a one-shape-fits-all bedroom fixture, the product’s parent company, Liberator Sex Furniture, now makes a slew of foamy pieces designed to yank your sex life out of the bed and onto another soft, cushy piece of furniture. There’s a curvy number akin to a small half pipe, an over-sized floor pillow, a flat bench that looks remarkably like a bed and the Zeppelin, a large circular bed full of polyurethane foam.

When I stepped up to the Liberator booth at AEE on Thursday a black microfiber Zeppelin was getting quite the test drive. Bound at the wrists and ankles with red satin straps, a volunteer lay across the wide surface in a forced spread eagle. Soon another volunteer was found, a bouncy blond in panties and pasties, who, despite not seeming to fully understand the purpose of the exercise, plopped on top of the Zep and the expectant man lying on it.

With cameras flashing and video lenses trained, she gyrated her way all over the bound man, who seemed to be enjoying the surprise coupling.

Though no one seemed willing to shell out the $252 to take the 3-by-8 foot Zeppelin home with them, it might have been the most effective product demonstration I’ve ever witnessed.