Blank founded
Down There Press, a publisher of sex-positive-related books, in 1975.[2] 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).[3][4][5] The idea to create Good Vibrations stemmed from her work with sex therapist Lonnie Barbach, in which the pair worked with women who had difficulty reaching
orgasm.[6] 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.[7] 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."[8]
Blank 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[9] (1974) as
second wave feminist books aiming to educate women about their bodies and empower them to have a positive sexual life.
Blank had one daughter, Amika, and three grandchildren. Blank lived in cohousing from 1992 until her death and served on the board of the Cohousing Association of the United States.[12] She spent many years in Doyle Street Cohousing in
Emeryville, California, and co-founded her final home community, Swan's Market Cohousing in
Oakland, California. Blank volunteered her time to
social justice issues such as
prison reform and
economic equality.[13][14] She held a
master's degree in public health education[2] and remained active in the field of sexuality.
Blank died of
pancreatic cancer on August 6, 2016, less than two months after her diagnosis.[15]
The Playbook for Kids About Sex, Down There Press, 1978
The Playbook for Men About Sex, Down There Press, 1976
Good Vibrations: Being a Treatise on the Use of Machines in the Indolent Indulgence of Erotic Pleasure-Seeking Together with Important Hints on the Acquisition, Care, and Utilization of Said Machines and Much More about the Art and Science of Buzzing Off, Down There Press, 1976
The Playbook for Women About Sex, Down There Press, 1975
Films
Orgasm: Faces of Ecstasy, Blank Tapes and Libido Films, 2004 (with Jack Hafferkamp and Marianna Beck).
Carol Queen's Great Vibrations: An Explicit Guide to Vibrators, Blank Tapes, ~1997.
^Blank, Joani; Cottrell, Honey Lee; Corinne, Tee; Down There Press (January 1, 1978). I am my lover. Burlingame, Calif.: Down There Press.
OCLC33394222.