>Our banking partners recently notified us that they are no longer willing to support the sales of realistic sex toys. I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures, and we have indicated this to our banking partners in an effort to advocate for continuing to support your business here on Stripe. As a result of these discussions, our banking partners have agreed that they are willing to continue supporting your business as long as you are not selling products that are colored such that they might be mistaken for human flesh.

What is the threat model, exactly? What eventuality is the bank seeking to avoid?

Are there edge-case regulatory issues at play? Are there moral-consumer groups out there that run public pressure campaigns against banks that transact on adult toys that look too realistic? Is a corporate lawyer somewhere worried about photos of a realistic-looking appendage used explicitly being tied back to the bank -- but if it's painted green they can plausibly argue "hey it's definitely not real, look it's green!"?

This just feels like such a spectacularly arbitrary line that I'm fascinated by the thought process.

<golf clap>

The boss ten years ago now dead said if it looks like a penis and is the right color of a penis then we can't sell it. Therefore, you gotta change the color. - Wells Fargo, probably.

- pretend to fuck a human? No. Don't want to encourage that.

- Fuck a unicorn/dragon/Dionysus? Sure, why not...

Who is conservative enough to want to discourage the one thing literally required for humanity to survive; and yet is OK with mythical creatures?!?

Someone on a moralizing crusade would probably label the company as supporting bestiality.

The threat is that someone in compliance or legal doesn’t have enough real work to do so has to do “something” to keep their cushy job.

I wonder if this would ever happen in Europe. I somehow feel that we’re more... open to these things. Do you know about Klarna?

Dalenys ( https://www.dalenys.com/ ) -> natixis belgium -> natixis -> bpce group ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_BPCE )

I've had awkward talk with them (mostly around the fact that I should not point out their parent group brand much near the adult content), but never in a million years would they tell me what color a dildo should be.

Adyen lists "Adult entertainment, websites & content (such as)" as not allowed. https://www.adyen.com/dam/jcr:47f292a9-c9e2-4a69-8592-2e15ff...

Klarna lists "Adult, sexual or pornographic products and services, including live web cam" as not allowed. https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/policy/ethic/en_gb...

Both of them expand it more to cover everything possible around adult content and the like.

Whether they fly under "novelty items" or not, idk.

Well, I think it might be the opposite of that:

> I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures

Not that it matters, but reading the comment you replied to, it sounds like they are not shaped like human genitalia...

I'm crying. This is so ridiculous it crossed the line from appalling into hilarious.

You haven't sued over this which is a shame. Think of the comical email threads that would've been unearthed during the discovery process!

Texas, for example, still has an idiotic law on the books that possession of more than 6 dildoes is illegal.

Because of that, many online sex toy shops simply will not ship anything to Texas.

The law has been struck down in US Federal court, but there have been convictions in state courts despite that.

Talking about the raid on Forbidden Fruit in Austin, TX (Caution: NSFW): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15365042198306...

...the confiscated items were paraded in front of a Grand Jury tasked with determining whether they were obscene...

But when I think of people pretending to have sex with dragons ... that’s kinda messed up.

I guess “acceptability” is like pornography... you known it when you see it.