“Our work has made us keenly aware of society’s fears around sexuality” -Andrea Dobbs, Womyn'sWear

As the retail design and display manager of Womyns’Ware I wear a lot of hats. Sometimes I’m buried under a pile of catalogues trying to select tasteful, safe, quality sex toy amidst a sea of cheap, tacky, or disturbing products. Or I’m trolling industrial design sites in Europe looking for innovative approach to sex toys design. I support customers and staff, collaborate with our founders to design and produce fixtures and displays that support our wares, and I participate in the communication efforts. When all is said and done, I feel I’ve developed the skills of a researcher, an educator, and an artist.

So when Womyns’Ware was asked to participate in the MOV Sex Talk in the City project I was overjoyed! Helping to create a visual and tangible feast for Vancouverites to engage in with the goal of enlightenment at its core is right up our alley. What can we bring to the table? How about 17 years of front line work with women and their partners in search of sexual empowerment. Our customers have fundamentally informed our approach to what we do and have given us an understanding of just how vast an arena sex and sexuality is.

As an organization we’ve faced censorship, unwarranted legal barriers, black listing, and fear mongering — and it’s left us keenly aware of society’s fears around sexuality. We’ve encountered wonderful allies over the years such as Options for Sexual Health, midwifery clinics, progressive faith organizations, sex educators in North America and abroad, cottage industry proprietors, and physicians in private practice. Through these welcomed (and even the not so welcomed) engagements we’ve enjoyed an exchange of ideas and information that has made for layers of knowledge difficult to parallel under any other circumstance.

And yet there is so much to learn! We have experiences to share and artifacts to loan —we arguably have a collection of vibrators that rivals even the best sex toy museums! From the early 1900 Hamilton Beach New Life Vibrator donated to us in the very early days of our business by an aged man who understood right away that we’d be the place to appreciate and display his family heirloom to the 1956s Sonoid Spheroid Action vibe (complete with packaging and instruction manual) donated to us by a lovely woman whose mother had passed away and who couldn’t bring herself to sell it at the yard sale!

We’re very much looking forward to seeing the first iteration of the exhibition design concepts, and to continuing this discussion of sexuality and sex education over the upcoming year.

Andrea Dobbs has worked as Design and Display Manager at Womyns’Ware since 2004.

Join in the conversation on Twitter: @xtalkinthecity #xtalkMOV

They may not stick around forever, but these three “P” words are helping me to think through the exhibition concept and zoning. I want to start imagining how we will divide up our 3600 square foot gallery space into zones that will focus on key ideas. It definitely helped to fuel conversations at the meeting last week with the Sex Talk in the City advisory committee:

• Pleasure: Everybody agrees (at least in our committee) that sex is good, fun and healthy and that sexual pleasure will mean different things to different people. As Scarlett Lake suggested at one of our meetings: “Sex should be understood like a buffet at a restaurant: you pick and choose what you want. Some people will have adventurous tastes whereas others will come back for  the same thing every time!

• Politics: This is really about how power is acquired and applied by groups of people to make collective decisions. And there are plenty of examples where groups in position of power make decisions that affect the way we express our sexuality publically and privately. The committee wants to further explore the private/public nature of sexuality.

• Pedagogy: It may not be the most fitting term to capture my idea but I really wanted to stay with the “P”! This theme has to do with identifying ways in which we talk about sexuality to people of all ages in ways that enable and empower them to critically engage with the mass of information (good and bad) that’s out there and make educated decisions about their sexuality.

These are interconnected themes that could be emphasized or intersected in different areas of the exhibition. Take sex toys for instance: they accessorize our sex lives to support sexual exploration and pleasure; they can increase our understanding of our own sexuality – real teaching moments— and they have recently been at the centre of heated debates over legislations (or lack thereof) surrounding the manufacturing and distribution of sex toys.

I’m in the process of negotiating the loans of some interesting “antique” artefacts with other museums and local stores. I‘ll let you guess what they are . . .

A huge MERCI to Andrea, Janna and Otter co-founders/owners of Womyns’Ware for a most inspiring afternoon conversation about the poetics and politics of locally designed and manufactured sex toys.

Read more on the  Sex Talk in the City Project

Join in the conversation on Twitter: @xtalkinthecity #xtalkMOV