Editor’s note: This new column, “Retailer Roulette,” has a simple premise. We pick a handful of our readers (erotic retailers/buyers)—completely at random—and tell them we’d like to interview them for an upcoming issue. The first to respond was Ellen Barnard of A Woman’s Touch in Madison, Wisconsin. Be sure to check your email—you could be next for SE’s “Retailer Roulette”!
Run by two women—a physician and a sex educator & counselor — A Woman’s Touch is a female-owned and operated sexuality boutique based in Madison, Wisconsin offering products and sexual health information for all ages, identities, orientations and bodies.
Storerotica got in touch with Ellen Barnard, one of the owners of A Woman’s Touch, about the store’s business dyanmic, the Madison community and her suggestions to the industry’s leading manufacturers.
SE: Tell us a bit about A Woman’s Touch Sexuality Resource Center. What are some of the store’s defining characteristics?
BARNARD: We are a unique business because the owners are a physician and a social worker. This allows us to provide scientifically accurate information in our education as well as provide both sexual health and sexual pleasure playthings that will truly meet the needs of our customers. Our referrals come from sex therapists and health care providers and we routinely answer questions that many doctors feel incapable of handling. At the same time we offer a beautiful environment that looks and feels like a lingerie/gift shop which allows our customers to feel comfortable exploring their interests without shame or embarrassment.
SE: How do you feel you’ve been accepted by the community there in Madison? What is the range of your clientele?
BARNARD: We experienced full acceptance by our community from day one. Once the health care community heard there was a doctor on staff our credibility was instant and people who would have never walked into an “adult entertainment store” felt safe coming to shop here.
We have customers who range from teenagers to 98 year olds (at least that’s the oldest person we know of!) and all genders and identities. Our core clientele ranges from 35-70 in age.
SE: If you could change one thing about sex education in your area (or in the country at large), what would it be?
BARNARD: We would want a sex education environment that minimizes shame about sexuality and was more accurate when it teaches both sexual anatomy and physiology.
SE: What brought you into the adult retail industry?
BARNARD: When I was burned out on being a social worker and ready for a career change, I happened to read an article in “Ms. Magazine” about several woman-friendly shops that had recently opened: It’s my Pleasure in Portland, Babeland in Seattle, and Good Vibrations in San Francisco. I had always been the go-to person for addressing sexuality in my population (I worked with people with intellectual and physical disabilities) and I was an advocate for women’s pleasure at a time when it wasn’t widely talked about (this was right before “Sex and the City” debuted). I noticed that there wasn’t anything that was women- and couples-friendly in the Midwest and decided to open such a place.
SE: If you could address all of the adult retail industry’s product manufacturers in a room at the same time, what would you tell them/ask them?
BARNARD: Make sure you have numerous real people test your products before you bring them to market! We get so many toys and lubes and other “stuff” that clearly is not functional for most real human beings. If a woman didn’t design a toy for women, make sure you have at least 20 women of different ages and abilities test things before you decide it’s a go. And choose body-safe materials for toys, lubes and edibles.
Finally, less packaging, especially plastic. The world doesn’t need more plastic (or even more boxes) and we would be so happy to see them minimize the packaging.
For more information, visit sexualityresources.com.
