“I’m pretty sure the sluts are gonna save us.” Those were the words posted by Instagram influencer Jess Olivia Fox. She was talking about The Smitten Kitten, a Minneapolis adult retailer and former nominee for SE’s Independent Retailer of the Year. Faced with an increasingly dangerous situation in that city, the store has become a de facto community hub for those resisting the current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deployment in the Twin Cities.
Right now, the vibrators are on silent mode. Instead, Smitten Kitten is acting as a drop-off site for groceries and essentials, rallying neighbors and helping those in need.
Smitten Kitten didn’t just post a statement on Instagram and return to stocking their lube display. They didn’t settle for being labeled a “brave voice” by influencers. They activated in a way they felt would be most useful, not just to their customers but to everyone in the area. They transformed their retail space into a community center, working with nearby businesses like Wrecktangle Pizza to feed affected families and to create a hub for mutual aid.
For adult retailers everywhere, is this also your cue?
Stores that sell intimacy, pleasure and bodily autonomy already exist outside our hermetically sealed, vanilla social norms. You are unapologetic champions of consent and choice. So if something like what’s currently happening in Minneapolis comes to your town, your community is going to look to you for leadership.
What will you do?
Adult stores already make political choices every day, from sourcing sex-positive vendors to advocating for reproductive rights. Look at your social media feeds. Look at your customers. Kinksters. Queers. Sex workers. LGBTQ+ twenty-somethings. These are people long marginalized by conventional politics. But they can’t afford to simply “opt out” of politics, as it shapes their daily lives. They don’t want to choose between sex toys and social justice — they want both.
Even if your store is pulling numbers like it’s 2015, something is still off if your brand voice only talks about product. Your customers deserve better. They deserve stores that see them — all of them — as whole, human and American.
Kristofer Kay
Managing Editor
