Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing
This paper explores the changing spatiality of the sex retail industry in England and Wales, from highly regulated male orientated sex shops, pushed to the legislative margins of the city and social respectability, towards the emergence of unregulated female orientated ‘erotic boutiques’ located vis...
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| Format: | Article |
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SAGE Publications
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33964/ |
| _version_ | 1848794744760565760 |
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| author | Martin, Amber Crewe, Louise |
| author_facet | Martin, Amber Crewe, Louise |
| author_sort | Martin, Amber |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper explores the changing spatiality of the sex retail industry in England and Wales, from highly regulated male orientated sex shops, pushed to the legislative margins of the city and social respectability, towards the emergence of unregulated female orientated ‘erotic boutiques’ located visibly in city centres. This is achieved through an exploration of the oppositional binaries of perceptions of sex shops as dark, dirty, male orientated, and ‘seedy’ and erotic boutiques as light, female orientated and stylish, showing how such discourses are embedded in the physical space, design and marketing of the stores and the products sold within them. More specifically, the paper analyses how female orientated sex stores utilise light, colour and design to create an ‘upscaling’ of sexual consumerism and reflects on what the emergence of up-scale female spaces for sexual consumption in the central city might mean in terms of theorisations of the intersectionality between agency, power, gender and class. The paper thus considers how the shifting packaging and presentation of sex-product consumption in the contemporary city alters both its acceptability and visibility. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:21:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33964 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:21:04Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-339642020-05-04T17:59:14Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33964/ Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing Martin, Amber Crewe, Louise This paper explores the changing spatiality of the sex retail industry in England and Wales, from highly regulated male orientated sex shops, pushed to the legislative margins of the city and social respectability, towards the emergence of unregulated female orientated ‘erotic boutiques’ located visibly in city centres. This is achieved through an exploration of the oppositional binaries of perceptions of sex shops as dark, dirty, male orientated, and ‘seedy’ and erotic boutiques as light, female orientated and stylish, showing how such discourses are embedded in the physical space, design and marketing of the stores and the products sold within them. More specifically, the paper analyses how female orientated sex stores utilise light, colour and design to create an ‘upscaling’ of sexual consumerism and reflects on what the emergence of up-scale female spaces for sexual consumption in the central city might mean in terms of theorisations of the intersectionality between agency, power, gender and class. The paper thus considers how the shifting packaging and presentation of sex-product consumption in the contemporary city alters both its acceptability and visibility. SAGE Publications 2016-07-28 Article PeerReviewed Martin, Amber and Crewe, Louise (2016) Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing. Urban Studies . ISSN 1360-063X Consumption; Retailing; Sex shop; Brands; The city; Space; Gender http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/27/0042098016659615 doi:10.1177/0042098016659615 doi:10.1177/0042098016659615 |
| spellingShingle | Consumption; Retailing; Sex shop; Brands; The city; Space; Gender Martin, Amber Crewe, Louise Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title | Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title_full | Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title_fullStr | Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title_short | Sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| title_sort | sex and the city: branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing |
| topic | Consumption; Retailing; Sex shop; Brands; The city; Space; Gender |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33964/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33964/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33964/ |