Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium

Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium is a woman-run British business selling sex toys, strap-on dildo harnesses, books on all aspects of sex, and accessories. Founded in 1992 by Kathryn Hoyle and Sophie Walters, the company also manufactures dildos and harnesses, and commissions BDSM playthings, lubricant, massage oil, toy cleaner and vibrating toys (Vibrator (sex toy)).

The Sh! shop is located in Hoxton Square, London, but the company also runs a mail order business via the company website and has its HQ in Forest Gate. Sh! employs 18 women locally and in 2007 had an annual turnover of £500,000, which has remained stable over the last six years, but peaked in 2003 at £560,000.

Founder's biographies

Kathryn Hoyle was born in Ilkley, West Yorkshire and grew up with a feminist mother, a free-thinking father and one brother. She attended her local school, Ilkley Grammar, before going on to complete a foundation art course in Bradford and graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Brighton University. After graduating Kathryn spent the mid-late 80s floating from job to job. She taught English in Japan, spent time as a nanny in London, had her own sandwich round before starting Sh!.

Sophie Walters was born in Bracknell, Berkshire and went to Marist Convent Catholic School in Sunninghill, Berkshire. At 17, she started a Business & Commerce course at Windsor College. Upon completion of the course Sophie worked for Securicor Heathrow, Air Courier Division and later on for Roy Bowles Transport & Cargo. In 1989, she took up the position of Logistics Manager at Sony Corporation Air Cargo and then, after meeting Kathryn in 1991, transitioned into devoting all her time to Sh!.

Cultural Impact

Sh! was the first sex shop in the UK focusing solely on women. It has been instrumental in making sex shops accessible to women customers, who previously were marginalised in this area of the consumer market. Sex shops were created to cater to men as female desire and pleasure was assumed to be non-existent in line with prevailing cultural attitudes about women. One of the effects of the sexual revolution was that women took charge of their own sexuality and with that have pushed into the sex business. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0DA113DF933A15751C0A9629C8B63|title=Women Tailor Sex Industry To Their Eyes - New York Times ]

Illustrating the sexual non-existence of women is for example the fact that vibrators were first developed as medical equipment to help cure women of hysteria by inducing hysterical paroxysm, aka orgasm. Despite this fact, many medical practitioners working with sexual dysfunctions have limited or no knowledge of vibrators or dildos. So Sh! has been working to educate practitioners and has been receiving orders from many NHS Trusts around the country. [cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/sep/29/health.publicservices|title=Women to get sex toys on the NHS]

In order to make women more comfortable with the idea of shopping for their sexual pleasure and ease their access to sex toys, the Sh! website provides advice and guidance and the shop offers customers to opportunity to handle various toys or have talk with the shop assistants. The company is the only sex shop which offers a 30-day warranty, all of which combines into a tactic aimed at legitimising women paying attention to their sexual needs and desires and providing a safe environment in which they can experiment. It is also avoiding turning sex toys into a fashion accessory or selling a lifestyle which might provoke feelings of inadequacy. [cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/jul/20/features.magazine27|title=A Woman's Touch]

Sh! founder Kathyrn Hoyle discovered the Rabbit vibrator in a sex toy warehouse in 1993. It was named “Roger Rabbit” and generally overlooked; the renamed toy "Jessica Rabbit Vibrator" has since gone onto fame, starring in numerous television shows including Sex and the City. However, it was in 1999, when Cosmopolitan ran an article on female masturbation, that the "Jessica" really started to enter women's homes.

In late 1990, the first striptease class for women was held at Sh!, preceding mainstream cultural interest the body art form by more than a decade.

Pornography and a Sex Shop license

As a sex-positive feminist business, Sh! makes woman-friendly, pornographic material, such as films by Anna Span, available to its customers. Woman-friendly means depicting female desire convincingly and realistically as opposed to mainstream pornography which embodies the male gaze and objectifies women by making them into a tool for both the male pornographic actor's sexual gratification and the viewer's purposes.However, the company does not sell R18 certificate films, because shops doing so are required by the UK Obscene Publications Acts to register a license for being an adult store. Under this sex shop license, persons under the age of 18 are prohibited from entering the store, which would effectively prevents new mothers and their babies from accessing Sh!. As a store focusing on a female point of view, Sh! opted to continue being legally allowed to welcome mothers and their small babies.

Projects

Sh! runs a number of educational workshops and collaborates with various National Health Service Trusts in providing sex toys for women with sexual difficulties.

Sh! Training Kit The Sh! Training Kit is comprised of 4 size-graded vibrators with lube sachets and full instruction menus. It is designed for women with vaginismus or who need a dilating kit to help get them back into shape. The Kit was developed through links with over 20 different NHS trusts and now recommended by many doctors and sex therapists. The Sh! training kit is also part of a PhD project, at The Royal United Hospital Bath Gynae Oncology department, [cite web|url=http://www.ruh.nhs.uk/documents/research%20_and%20_development_documents/current_research_projects.pdf|title=www.ruh.nhs.uk/documents/research%20_and%20_development_documents/current_research_projects.pdf |format=PDF] to research the possibilities and implications of using vibrators in the post-surgery dilating process for women.

2003 International Sexology Conference In 2003, Adeola Agbebiyi from the Barts and the London NHS Trust, Kathryn Hoyle and Angel Zatorski both from Sh! Women's Emporium, part-took presented two papers exploring the relationship between women and sex toys. [cite web|url=http://www.worldsexology.org/doc/abstractsCuba.pdf|title=www.worldsexology.org/doc/abstractsCuba.pdf |format=PDF]

Sh! Sex Toy Workshops Sh! has a Sex Toy Workshop aimed at student, LBGT and youth groups and wrote the introduction to sex toys and safer sex for the Oxford University Student Guide.

Art at Sh! The Sh! shop also hosts exhibitions of art work centring on erotic and/or sexual themes.

Books Sh! is also one of three remaining women's bookstores in London and is the store with the most comprehensive selection of women's erotica and books dealing with women's sexuality and related issues.

Awards

Sh! has been awarded Ethical Consumer status (by ethicalconsumer.org) for their informed and information-giving standpoint on sex toys. Sh! has also won the 2005 Erotic Awards Special Judges Award [cite web|url=http://www.erotic-awards.co.uk/2005/|title=Erotic Awards 2005] for being 'the best sex shop in town ~ possibly the world!' In 2007, Sh! won the g3 magazine Readers Poll 'Best adult store online' and 'Best LBGT friendly business' [cite web|url=http://www.g3mag.co.uk/joomla104/content/view/148/52/|title=g3 Magazine Readers Poll 2007 results] and in 2008 the business was awarded the Readers Poll 'Best online retailer' award. [g3 magazine, June 2008]

References

External links

* http://www.sh-womenstore.com
* http://www.ethicalconsumer.org