Sex toy boutiques thrive in Chicago

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Don't think of dark, sleazy smut peddlers in run-down areas of town. The owners and employees of a new generation of self-described sex toy "boutiques" are marketing their wares as tools of sexual health and empowerment.

"We're more than a sex shop. We're about making women feel good," says Cheryl Sloane, co-owner of The Letter G Inc., which runs G Boutique, a lingerie and sex toy store in Wicker Park.

Sloane claims that her business grew 30 percent a year between 2002 and 2005, though sales have hit a plateau in the past two years. Plans are in the works to expand G Boutique's online presence at boutiqueg.com, says Sloane.

Sex shops in the Chicago area have benefited from a municipal code that does not explicitly mention sex toys. The language is vague, prohibiting some practices such as prostitution but leaving much else to community standards of decency. This has provided a way for sex shops to open in more centralized locations.

Dr. Laura Berman, director of the Berman Center, a sexual health clinic, sees the opening of stores like the G Boutique as part of a national trend she calls the "final frontier of the women's movement - stepping up and believing they have a right to a good sex life."

Hilda Hutcherson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, sees the growth of female-oriented sex shops as an extension of what she calls the "Viagra movement".

"It became easier for men to talk about their sexual problems and easier for women to talk about theirs," says Hutcherson. "We realized it's good to be talking about it."

Berman prescribes a visit to a sex shop as part of her client's therapy. While she practiced in Los Angeles, she wrote out sex toy "prescriptions" for female clients. Though she recommends that clients pay an actual visit to a store, she concedes that Web sites are a good start for the faint of heart.

Online sales have allowed area sex shops like The Pleasure Chest Ltd. in Lakeview to increase sales without having to increase space in their brick-and- mortar stores. The Pleasure Chest revamped its image when it moved from Broadway to its current location on Lincoln Avenue.

Pleasure Chest owner Brian Robinson says most of the company's growth stems from online orders.

Sex boutiques are also marketing their own brands. Berman has a line of sex toys euphemistically described as "intimate accessories."

Tulip, a sex shop in Lakeview and Andersonville owned by Smart Girl Squared Inc., carries a line of house brand skin products and candles. The Pleasure Chest is trying to break into the hotel market by stocking minibars with a kit containing sex toys, condoms and lubricant.

While these stores see themselves as purveyors of sexual health, the communities into which they settled were less than enthusiastic at the outset.

"Daily, I was talking to mobs of people," says David Ballows, national manager of operations for The Pleasure Chest.

Tulip's initial window display featuring a painting of a naked man next to a chalkboard saying "masturbation"produced a community uproar that was short-lived but had a lasting effect on the store. Alease dispute stemming from the window display has engendered legal expenses large enough to deny the store a profit.

"I was making more in corporate America than I ever will here," says owner Keely Dinero, also known as Keely Newman. Dinero quit a six-figure job at Citigroup Inc. to open Tulip, the fruition of a business strategy she drew up while getting her MBA at the University of Chicago. She plans on moving to a new location at the end of her five-year lease.

Though Dinero contends she was trying to be "open, not provocative", Bennett Lawson, deputy alderman of the 44th ward,doesn't buy it. "I think part of her whole business plan is to be provocative," he says.