Sex shop
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A sex shop is a
An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in Paris in the 1920s by Léon Vidal, the founder of the lingerie manufacturing company Diana Slip. His shops sold erotic books and photographs as well as lingerie.[1]
Terminology
Sex shops may also be called adult shop, erotic shop, adult entertainment store, or adult book store. In some jurisdictions, polite euphemisms are used such as "marital aid store" or "adult novelties store".
History
Australia
Sex shops have operated in
Sex shops in Australia are regulated by state laws and are subject to local planning controls. While laws differ between states, licensees must abide by strict conditions that commonly require premises to be at least 200 metres from schools and churches. Windows are often required to be blacked out and admission restricted to over 18s, with offences prosecuted by police under section 578E of the Crimes Act.[4]
In the state of New South Wales (NSW), sex shops cannot trade at street level and are required to trade either above or below ground.[citation needed] Under NSW law, non-contraceptive sex products can be sold only in shops that have been granted a restricted premise licence by local councils. Nevertheless, by 2013 a number of NSW lingerie stores had begun selling adult toys and books in shopping malls without being granted a licence.[4]
China
Mainland China's first sex shop opened in Beijing in 1993[5] and by 2013 there were over 2,000 sex shops in the city. Most of their products were made in China.[6]
Canada
The first sex shop in North America was called The Garden. It was opened in October 1971 by Ivor Sargent on
There are no specific laws against using or buying sex toys at any particular age, but there are laws restricting the purchase of pornography. Although the age of consent is 16 in Canada, an age of 18+ is required to purchase or view pornography. Most sex shops sell adult videos, which means that most sex toys are on sale only to adults.[citation needed]
Germany
Beate Uhse-Rotermund started selling contraception information by mail order in 1946, and she opened her first shop in 1962. Legal restrictions in West Germany dating back to 1872 were tightened in 1968. Pornography was legalized in West Germany in 1975, although this never happened in East Germany.
Hungary
The first Hungarian sex shop opened on 15 November 1989, before the end of communism in Hungary, at 14 Károly Boulevard in Budapest, under the name Intim Center, which still exists today.[9] At that time, the three T-categories were so suddenly moved from the forbidden to the tolerated that even the press of the time reported the administrative uncertainties surrounding the sex shop in this way.[10]
Italy
The first sex shop in Italy was opened in 1972 in Milan by Angela Masia and her husband Ercole Sabbatini.[citation needed] This was the first "official" sex shop. Since then more sex shops have opened, mostly in Rome.[citation needed] In 2018 the city of Pistoia in Tuscany banned the opening of new sex shops in the city's history centre.[11]
Japan
In Japan, sex shops contain hentai magazines, adult videos and DVDs.[citation needed]
The Netherlands
The first sex shops in the Netherlands were opened in the early 1970s, by entrepreneurs like
Russia
In Russia, sex shops are often criticized by public and political figures, often of a conservative nature.
In May 2017, State Duma Deputy from United Russia Vitaly Milonov addressed the head of the Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, with the initiative to equate intimate products with medicinal products.[13] According to Milonov, it is necessary to introduce control over the distribution of intimate goods: "The use and application of such products will occur exclusively as prescribed by a doctor."[14]
In 2018, Milonov proposed closing all sex shops in Russia. In his opinion, all sex shops in Russia should disappear along with advertising since only "sick people" shop there.[15] This is in contrast to his position in 2013 when he only called for reducing the number of sex shops in St. Petersburg.[16]
Singapore
Sex shops are extremely rare in Singapore. A few had been opened by 2005,[17] but only about 1–2 currently exist. These shops mainly sell lingerie, condoms, BDSM tools, genuine enhancement pills, tenga items and various sex toys. Their goods can be seen through a store window.[citation needed]
South Africa
After Nelson Mandela backed the anti-discrimination law that legalised sex toys,[18] "Adult World" was established in 1994 as South Africa's first sex shop. Adult World came to operate a total of 52 shops within South Africa and 15 shops in Australia.[19] Many religious Christian communities believed that the use of these adult lifestyle centres would lead to higher crime rates and attempted to organise mass demonstrations at their opening to force the closure of Adult World.[20]
In July 1998, Adult World opened their largest adult lifestyle shop in
As Adult World grew more popular, a focus on the development of adult shops within Australia took place.[19]
Spain
Sex shops in Spain did not appear until after the end of the
United Kingdom
Almost all licensed adult stores in the UK are forbidden from having their wares in open shop windows under the
In London, few boroughs that have licensed sex shops. In the district of Soho within the City of Westminster a handful of sex shops were opened by Carl Slack in the early 1960s, and by the mid-1970s the number had grown to 59.[23] Some had nominally "secret" backrooms selling hardcore photographs and novels, including Olympia Press editions.
In 1978 the businessman David Sullivan opened the "Private Shop", the first of his chain of sex shops which went on to expand across the UK. The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 required sex shops to apply for a sex establishment licence from their local authority. As a result hundreds of sex shops were closed.[24] There followed purges of corrupt police officers, along with new and tighter licensing controls by the City of Westminster, led to a crackdown on illegal premises in Soho. In the early 1990s, London's Hackney council sought to shut down Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium, because they did not have a licence. Sh! took the council to court and consequently won the right to remain open, as there were no sufficient reasons for the closure. In 2003, the Ann Summers chain of lingerie and sex toy shops won the right to advertise for shop assistants in Job Centres, which was originally banned under restrictions on what advertising could be carried out by the sex industry.[25] In 2007, a Northern Ireland sex shop was denied a licence by the Belfast City Council. The shop appealed and won, but this was overturned by the House of Lords.[26]
The licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops, along with cultural changes such as the substantial relaxation of general censorship and the ready availability of non-commercial sex, and the availability of sexual material online, have reduced the red-light district of Soho to just a small area. The borough has 15 licensed sex shops and several remaining unlicensed ones. Islington and Camden each have multiple sex shops; the former also has three pornographic cinemas.[citation needed]
Sex shops in Scotland are regulated under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.
United States
In the United States, a series of
On the one hand, there are stores resembling the UK's Ann Summers, tending toward "softer" product lines.[
See also
References
- ISBN 9781912740055.
- ^ Kashmira Gander (15 March 2017). "Par Femme: The Coolest Women's Sex Shop on the Internet". The independent. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ Are mainstream sales of vibrators threatening the viability of traditional adult shops? (PDF) (Report). The Eros Association Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
- ^ a b Eamonn Duff (6 October 2013). "Charge supermarkets for toy sales: sex lobby". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
- ^ "China is world's biggest sex toy producer". Asia One. 11 July 2010.
- ^ Kin Wall (6 June 2013). "Sex and the Law in China: 'The People Will Pull, and the Government Will Follow'". The Atlantic.
- ^ "First sex boutique opens in Montreal". The Montreal Gazette. 19 November 1971.
- ^ "The Sexual Revolution Hits the Boutique". The Palm Beach Post. 22 March 1972. p. 16.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Délmagyarország, 1989. November (79. évfolyam, 259-284. Szám) | Könyvtár | Hungaricana".
The first Hungarian sex shop opened in Budapest. It is called the Intim Center and is an Austro-Hungarian enterprise selling fake clothes, porn cassettes, inflatable and obedient pederasty toys.
- ^ "Dunántúli Napló, 1989. November (46. évfolyam, 302-331. Szám) | Könyvtár | Hungaricana".
A sex shop called Intim Center opened in Budapest, at 14 Tanács Boulevard. You can buy everything from videotapes to dildo. And it's legal! Or so we were led to believe, as the opening of the shop was reported with great acclaim in the main newspapers. But now, according to the Esti Hírlap, it turns out that there are no licences involved. A staff member of the newspaper called the Ministry of Culture and was told that the shop does not have the right to sell the malachagas that are on the shelves. The matter is being investigated, but the shop will not be closed for the time being.
- ^ Catherine Edwards (24 April 2018). "Tuscan city bans fast food, sex shops, and non-Italian shop signs". The Local. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
- ^ "First Muslim online sex shop". The Australian. 1 April 2010.
- ^ "Милонов призвал продавать интимные товары по назначению врача" [Milonov called for the sale of intimate goods as prescribed by a doctor]. Interfax.ru (in Russian). Interfax. 30 May 2017. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "Новая инициатива Милонова: закрыть секс-шопы и лицензировать интимные товары" [Milonov's new initiative: close sex shops and license intimate goods] (in Russian). BFM.ru. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "Скандальный депутат Госдумы РФ Виталий Милонов предлагает закрыть в России все секс-шопы! "Там отовариваются больные и маньяки..."" [The scandalous deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vitaly Milonov proposes to close all sex shops in Russia! "The sick and maniacs shop there..."] (in Russian). vedomosti-ural.ru. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "Милонов решил дать бой «противным» секс-шопам" [Milonov decided to give battle to the "nasty" sex shops] (in Russian). NTV. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ Margaret Safo, ed. (26 November 2005). "Sex exhibition under close police watch". The Mirror. No. 2658. Ghana: Graphic Communications Group. Reuters. p. 5.
- ^ "Nelson Mandela Legalized Sex Toys". Adultsmart Blog. 13 December 2013.
- ^ a b "A View into the Operations of Adult Smart". Adultsmart Blog. 21 December 2016.
- ^ "Sex shop faces wrath of suburban Christians". IOL. 3 August 2002.
- ^ "Porn Shops Gaining Approval". News 24. 27 October 2000.
- ISBN 9780140098082.
- ^ "Soho – A brief history of the area". Sixties City. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
- ISBN 9780813535197.
- ^ "Sex toys chain wins legal fight". BBC News. 18 June 2003.
- ^ "Lords back sex shop licence ban". BBC News. 25 April 2007.
- ^ Huntly Collins (30 July 1992). "Pa. Officials Shut Down Sections of Philadelphia Adult Bookstores Authorities Cited The Spread of Aids. Sex Acts Were Being Performed in Video Booths, They Said". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016.