As an engineer, Jak Haines never expected to find herself in the sex business – she was just looking for an opportunity to practise conscious capitalism.
“I looked at different sectors … but I decided the sex industry was ripe for change,” she says.
Haines launched her website, Vävven, in November to sell sex toys and accessories that are “body safe”, ethically sourced and are marketed without objectification.
As a social enterprise, Vävven will donate 30% of its profits to causes for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Haines had a 20-year career in heavy industry (turnaround management) before she closed down her business last year and decided to put her ideals to work. Conscious capitalism aims to use ethical business practices to elevate humanity. “Business can change society,” she says.
Launching a business in the sex industry appealed to her because of its challenges of managing standards (sex toys are required to meet lower safety standards because they are usually sold as novelty items), stigma and objectification in marketing. “There are a whole lot of things you could change within the industry without even linking it to a cause,” she says.
But she enjoys the irony of using the sex industry to fund the cause of sexual and reproductive health and rights. “It is also a bit of ‘stuff you’ to society,” she laughs.
Once it turns a profit, the organisations Vävven will support include Marie Stopes International (family planning, sexual health and abortion) and Oxfam and its gender justice program.
Vävven will also donate to Women on Waves – the Dutch non-profit that offers a floating sexual health and abortion clinic to women in countries where abortions are illegal. Last year Women on Waves used a drone to deliver abortion pills to two women in Northern Ireland.
There are few social enterprises that operate in this area but two are the UK Family Planning Association’s “pleasure shop” and the Denver-based online sex toy shop Vibrant, which donates all profits to Planned Parenthood.
Haines says the taboo nature of the sex industry means she has faced difficulties in getting her new business going. Firstly, it has been hard to find products that are safe to use and made by people who work in fair conditions. “If you are purchasing something for love, you shouldn’t be causing harm to others,” she says.
Although she sources her products from all over the world, most sex toys are made in China, where manufacturers are not accustomed to being asked to provide products at a higher safety standard. As a very small business, her requests are often swept to one side.
Haines has managed to find ethical manufacturers who “tick all boxes”, except for the stipulation that they must have freedom of association (the ability to join independent unions, for instance), which is not available in China.
Advertising her website also presents some trials. For a start, consumers are used to seeing sex products advertised with objectifying images of women and men, so catching their eyes without those images can be difficult, says Haines.
“You are attempting to change the way society thinks at the same time as you are marketing to them – and that is a ludicrously hard line to walk,” she says. “A woman can still look sensual, that is fine, but if they are just there just as a sexual object, that is not fine.”
She quotes feminist erotic filmmaker, Erika Lust: “Sex can stay dirty but the values have to be clean”.
Haines has also come up against what she describes as an unwritten moral code, which means that some businesses and banks are unwilling to deal with her because she is considered part of the sex industry.
Facebook, for instance, will allow Vävven to have a page,but will not allow it to “boost” its posts as paid advertising. “Selling of an intimacy product is considered immoral,” she says.
Dealing with a bank or getting access to PayPal can also take an “extraordinarily” long time. “There are a number of the big four [banks] that won’t even touch you because you sell sex toys. They say there is high risk with them – what that actually means, I am not sure.”
Building mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses is also a very slow process. “One of the things I discovered about the industry is that it is cagey, they are not necessarily interested in collaboration, which is a big problem. They need to learn how to collaborate”.
The Australian condom manufacturer Glyde Health is an exception with the managing director, Clive Woodworth, keen to join forces around the issue of sexual health.
Glyde Health supplies condoms and lubricants in bulk to brothels, male sex premises, the Aids councils and clinics for sexual health and family planning.
Woodworth started the business 27 years ago when he saw an opportunity to supply higher quality condoms than those that were being imported into Australia.
The company sells between 8m to 10m Malaysian-made condoms per year (Australia imports close to 60m per year).
Woodworth says it is still rare to find businesses in the sex industry that are mindful of objectification and operate under ethical lines.
He would like to see uniform legislation across all the states and territories to protect sex workers and says the stigma around the industry means that issues such as this are not properly dealt with.
He says there is room in the sex industry for businesses such as Vävven: “an operation that allows people to enjoy their sex life but not objectifying women as sex objects”.
Glyde Health also does not use objectifying images, marketing itself as a supplier of “sexual health products”. Like Haines, Woodworth’s entry into the sex industry was a business decision, rather than a personal interest. Before starting Glyde Health, he imported perfume.
“I went from French perfume to French letters in one fell swoop,” he says.
Good vibes: selling sex toys online to fund sexual health programs
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