The Smitten Kitten: Guilty of Pleasure
By: Hazel Schaeffer, Features Editor
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Features
Ever been or heard of a sex shop that considers itself a "community organization"? The Smitten Kitten, a boutique-style sex shop located in Uptown Minneapolis straddles the line between business and pleasure, striving to be profitable while promoting a sex-positive culture. From prostate massagers to wooden dildos, and books on sexual trauma to BDSM porn and safer-sex pamphlets, the Smitten Kitten provides a tremendously diverse selection of sex products. The store is progressive for its feministic politics and its focus on education and pleasure.
After the 45-minute bus ride from Macalester, I had difficulty finding the store. I was looking for a big awning with a sexy logo and a provocative display window. I had no such luck, and was instead directed to a store that looks more like a health food store then a strap-on retailer with its forest green sign, potted plants and a display of awards.
The inside of The Smitten Kitten is spacious, well organized, unthreatening, and comprehensive. The exposed brick walls feature a cork bulletin board with ads, a mounted piece of art featuring a dildo, and graphic-novel/comic book style paintings. The store is very hands on. You can taste the lube, feel the dildos and browse the books.
The store is organized into sections. There are separate shelves for vaginal and anal vibrators, an antique-looking cabinet of lubricants, a coat-rack like hanger of BDSM accessories, a library of books and porn and a display of dildos of all colors, textures, widths and lengths, both realistic and more fantasy inspired, and a back wall adorned with strap-on harnesses. The counter, reminiscent of a jewelry store, features high-end dildos of glass, ceramics and wood.
Clare Jacky '07 is the business manager and education coordinator of Smitten Kitten. She is one of two store managers and handles all the business, accounting, education outreach, and in-store education.
We spoke for half an hour the morning of Halloween on a comfortable couch by the windows next to large bookcase. If it hadn't been filled with porn and books on a wide range of sexual topics from basic Kama Sutra how-to's to menopause, the area would have felt like a café or small bookstore. In a thick grey sweater and wearing little or no make-up, Jacky does not seem like a typical person to be involved with the sex industry, but then again the Smitten Kitten is not your average sex shop.
After the 45-minute bus ride from Macalester, I had difficulty finding the store. I was looking for a big awning with a sexy logo and a provocative display window. I had no such luck, and was instead directed to a store that looks more like a health food store then a strap-on retailer with its forest green sign, potted plants and a display of awards.
The inside of The Smitten Kitten is spacious, well organized, unthreatening, and comprehensive. The exposed brick walls feature a cork bulletin board with ads, a mounted piece of art featuring a dildo, and graphic-novel/comic book style paintings. The store is very hands on. You can taste the lube, feel the dildos and browse the books.
The store is organized into sections. There are separate shelves for vaginal and anal vibrators, an antique-looking cabinet of lubricants, a coat-rack like hanger of BDSM accessories, a library of books and porn and a display of dildos of all colors, textures, widths and lengths, both realistic and more fantasy inspired, and a back wall adorned with strap-on harnesses. The counter, reminiscent of a jewelry store, features high-end dildos of glass, ceramics and wood.
Clare Jacky '07 is the business manager and education coordinator of Smitten Kitten. She is one of two store managers and handles all the business, accounting, education outreach, and in-store education.
We spoke for half an hour the morning of Halloween on a comfortable couch by the windows next to large bookcase. If it hadn't been filled with porn and books on a wide range of sexual topics from basic Kama Sutra how-to's to menopause, the area would have felt like a café or small bookstore. In a thick grey sweater and wearing little or no make-up, Jacky does not seem like a typical person to be involved with the sex industry, but then again the Smitten Kitten is not your average sex shop.
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