Consuming Sex: Socio‐legal Shifts in the Space and Place of Sex Shops
| Author | Baptiste Coulmont,Phil Hubbard |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2010.00501.x |
| Date | 01 March 2010 |
| Published date | 01 March 2010 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2010
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 189±209
Consuming Sex: Socio-legal Shifts in the Space and Place of
Sex Shops
Baptiste Coulmont* and Phil Hubbard**
Materials defined as pornographic have always been subject to regula-
tion because of the potential of such items to `corrupt and deprave'. Yet
the state and law has rarely sought to ban such materials, attempting
instead to restrict their accessibility. The outcomes of such inter-
ventions have, however, rarely been predictable, an issue we explore
with reference to the changing regulation of sex shops in Britain and
France since the 1970s. Noting ambiguities in the legal definitions of
spaces of sex retailing, this paper traces how diverse forms of control
have combined to restrict the location of sex shops, simultaneously
shaping their design, management, and marketing. Describing the
emergence of gentrified and `designer' stores, this paper demonstrates
that regulation has been complicit in a process of neo-liberalization
that has favoured more corporate sex shops ± without this having ever
been an explicit aim of those who have argued for the regulation of sex
retailing.
INTRODUCTION
Objects and media designed to sexually arouse have always circulated in
society, yet it was as recently as the 1970s that the sex shop emerged in the
urban West as a recognizable space of sex consumption. In effect, such shops
brought together various items that had previously been sold elsewhere (for
example, through specialist bookshops, in pharmacies, lingerie shops or by
mail order), offering them in an environment that left little ambiguity as to
their sexual nature. Emerging in the wake of the 1960s `sexual revolution',
189
ß2010 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2010 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
*Department of Sociology, University of Paris at Saint-Denis, Universite
Â
Paris-8, France
coulmont@ens.fr
** Department of Geography, University of Loughborough, Loughborough,
Leicestershire LE11 3TU, England
P.J.Hubbard@lboro.ac.uk
such spaces attracted considerable press interest, much of it discussing
whether the widespread consumption of sexually-explicit materials was
desirable.
1
Occasionally integrated into discourses of national moral decline,
for most pro-censorship groups such spaces were, however, less of a
preoccupation than the increasing depiction of sex on television and in film.
2
Nevertheless, locally, the opening of such stores prompted considerable
disquiet, with residents' groups, religious communities, and business leaders
often opposing them on the basis they would attract incivility, decrease
property prices, and lower community standards. Accordingly, the emerg-
ence of such stores prompted the introduction of new regulations concerning
the sale of sexual materials. As this paper describes, these subsequently
created the `sex shop' as it is currently understood: a space forbidden to
minors offering a fairly standardized repertoire of goods (videos, DVDs,
magazines, vibrators, condoms, lubricants, lingerie, fetish-wear, and
`poppers').
Despite growing academic interest in pornography ± and especially
women's increasing use of pornography and sex toys
3
± there have been few
studies of the sex shop as a social setting,
4
and even fewer considering its
legality.
5
In this paper, we therefore detail how the state and law have
attempted to clarify what constitutes a sex shop and impose particular
conditions on its existence. Here, we focus on sex shops in Britain and
France, using judicial, police, and media archives to detail the varied legal
and extra-legal practices that have allowed the opening of particular types of
stores in certain spaces, but repressed others. Given that the French and
British legal systems are substantially different, it might be anticipated that
the regulation evident in the two nations would also diverge. To the contrary,
we suggest that in both jurisdictions there have been similar shifts from
police repression and surveillance to more diffuse forms of commercial
regulation. Making this argument, we note the legal ambiguity about what
constitutes a sex shop, and suggest this lack of clarity has allowed for the
emergence of shops whose legal status remains unclear but which adhere to
certain shared styles of management. In demonstrating this, we argue that the
190
1B.Coulmont, Sex-shops: une histoire francaise (2007); T. Kent and R.B. Brown,
`Erotic retailing in Britain 1963±2003' (2006) 12 J. of Management History 199±211.
2
C.E. Greek and W. Thompson, `Anti-pornography campaigns: saving the family in
America and England' (1992) 5 International J. of Politics, Culture and Society 601±9.
3F.Attwood, `Fashion and Passion: Marketing Sex to Women' (2005) 8 Sexualities
392±406; C. Smith, `Designed for pleasure: style, indulgence and accessorized sex'
(2007) 10 European J. of Cultural Studies 167±84.
4M.Stein, The Ethnography of an Adult Bookstore: Private Scenes and Public Places
(1997); D. Berkowitz, `Consuming Eroticism: Gender Performances and Presenta-
tions in Pornographic Establishments' (2003) 35 J. of Contemporary Ethnography
583±606.
5C.Manchester, Sex Shops and the Law (1986); A. Goudie, Local Authority Licensing
of Sex Shops and Sex Cinemas (1986).
ß2010 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2010 Cardiff University Law School
To continue reading
Request your trial