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The owner of Britain’s first-ever women-only sex shop has lifted the lid on some of her most scandalous stories – from flogging dildos to helping 500 ladies a week reach climax.
Ky Hoyle is the founder of Sh!, which first launched in April 1993 with the brick and mortar store Sh! Women’s Emporium in London.
It was the first of its kind to focus exclusively on women’s sexual rights and pleasure and thirty years later, the female-focused business has grown into a pioneering, multi-award-winning brand that has forever changed the face of the British sex industry.
Over the years the brand has been involved in controversy, intrigue and scandal.
Ky has spoken exclusively to the Daily Star about being taken to court, police officers as customers and introducing the Jessica Rabbit vibrator to the world.
“In the 90s I was charged with running a sex shop without a licence and taken to court”, she revealed.
“A sex shop license was a massive £17,500 per year and it meant having a sign on the door, stating there were ‘offensive’ products inside, which there most definitely weren’t.
“It also forbade Sh! from allowing anyone under the age of 18 through the door – meaning that women couldn’t come into the shop with their babies.”
She says that at the time, the council believed health and sex to be intertwined.
Ky continued: “This court case highlighted the ridiculousness and untenability of the law. Condoms weren’t considered ‘sexual articles’, I’m very sure condoms are used for sex, whilst vibrators were deemed to be ‘sexual articles’. This was 1994, the case was thrown out and Sh! effectively won."
This wasn’t Ky and her team's first run-in with the law.
In May 1993 they were told by local law enforcement that they shouldn't display dildos upright.
Ky recalled: “The local police stopped by and we took the opportunity to check if everything in the shop was in order in the eyes of the law.
“We were advised to display dildos laying down rather than having them stand upright, in order to avoid breaking old obscure rules still on the statute books.
“It wasn’t terribly serious but of course, police visited regularly after that – but it was usually the woman police constable’s coming shopping!”
Ky decided to open the country’s first sex shop for women with a £700 budget after visiting a seedy Soho sex shop aimed only at men.
When Sh! first opened its doors in 1992, the conversation surrounding women’s sexual rights was very different.
Rape within marriage was still legal, domestic violence was not classified as a crime, there was no law banning discrimination against transgender people, and same-sex couples were not allowed to marry or adopt children.
While Ky loves her job and everything it’s achieved, it hasn’t always been easy.
“There have also been bad times in our history such as the outrage when our donation to a breast cancer charity was refused, because they couldn’t accept it from an ‘adult’ business,” she explained.
“This is why being invited to work with Macmillan & Sex with Cancer today is such a testament to how times have changed.”
This being said, there are a variety of wild and fun memories Ky has thanks to Sh!.
”One standout story is the absolutely fabulous private bash we held for the cream of British comedy and the spanking class we gave for a WWI meeting where 80-year old Mary was laughing so hard, she almost fell off her chair,” she said.
“As well as the glee of being asked to Downing Street for an AIDS Awareness event and even more so of getting the toy we took as a pressie through security.
“The annual sex-positive event at Positively UK is also a joy, where there’s always lots of giggles as we show plush vulvas, talk about vibrators and lube, and ask the women to share their favourite words for ‘vagina’.”
As Sh! celebrates its 30th year, everything has changed, especially attitudes towards female sexuality.
On average, British women now have twice the number of sexual partners in their lifetime as they did in 1992, and they are four times more likely to have a same-sex sexual experience.
Today, Ky and her team are credited with helping an average of 500 women per week to have better orgasms.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this huge milestone. For three decades we’ve been helping women of all ages, backgrounds and sexual preferences to understand that they have the right to sexual pleasure, and showing them how to achieve it without shame or blame,” she said.
“We’ve had many triumphs and battles along the way. Notable moments include introducing sex toys to the NHS, visiting Downing Street bearing a special ‘gift’ for the prime minister’s wife, being taken to court for supposedly breaking outdated obscenity laws – we won, and discovering the Jessica Rabbit vibrator that became a global sensation”.
Sh! has also been at the forefront of several campaigns to improve women’s sexual health and wellbeing.
These include creating Vaginismus Awareness Day every September, and co-founding Café V, the UK’s first-ever support group for survivors of sexual violence to regain their enjoyment of sex. Sh!’s current collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support aims to help women enjoy full sex lives while living with cancer.
Sh! continues to operate as an online business since closing its London premises in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ky added: “Incredible progress has been made over the past 30 years. But there’s still work to be done to achieve the goal of ensuring all women, transgender and non-binary people can enjoy safe and healthy sexual pleasure – and Sh! will be there to do it.”
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