Malta is quite a unique country in the European Union with its peculiar combination of religion and social liberalism. In the areas of sexual proclivity, the country is very far behind when compared to other similar countries such as Austria and Spain where the Catholic faith is predominant. In fact, there are absolutely no sex shops on the island at the moment although there have been sporadic attempts over the years for an adventure in this regard.

The only sort of sex shops which are available in Malta are the long list of gentlemen’s clubs that dot the seedy enclave of Paceville. There are also a few of these outlets in St Paul’s Bay which boats the highest population of foreigners in the entire island at around 20 per cent. You could also add the massage parlours where lots of sex is performed if you wanted to broaden the category of sex shops.

Another anomaly regarding sex shops in Malta is that it is still not possible to buy a pornographic magazine from off the newsstands. There was a feeble and quite half-hearted attempt to introduce a porno magazine into Malta which was called Playpen but this folded after just one issue. Apart from its avante garde title where you could imagine all sorts of scantily clad women jumping around in close proximity to each other, the magazine contained nothing apart from a bad interview with a Maltese woman who decided to pose topless to no great effect.

There is a crying need for a proper sex shop to be opened which will no doubt do a roaring trade. With liberal tendencies increasing almost by the day, a shop with bondage implements, vibrators, magazines, films and all sorts of other sexual implements will no doubt be hugely successful. Attempts by some forward minded individuals to open such an outlet have always met with resistance from the authorities with the Catholic Church forefront amongst the opposition. So it looks like we will have to stay with houses of ill repute and gentlemen’s clubs for the time being in their classification as sex shops. In the meantime pharmacies sell condoms and other sexual aids such as lubricants and orgasmic vibrators off the counter so there does not seem to be much of a moral dilemma here.