VIVA LA RESISTANCE!
Get to know us
Our Guiding Priciples
Make love,
wage war
Women-forged since 1992
Self-love is
our superpower
Pleasure is power
We know that sexual-fulfillment, and the strength and liberation it instils, starts from within.
We challenge a world that tells us who or how to love.
Our Sexual Fullfillment Department has been delivering the goods for 30+ years.
We claim our right to pleasure. In so doing, we we can take on the world!
Sh! in Pictures
Pioneers of Pleasure
First, let's set the scene...
London in the late '80's and early 90's is a very dark place indeed.
'Section 28,' brought into law in 1988 under Margaret Thatcher's ultra-conservative government, forbade schools & local authorities from 'promoting the acceptability of homosexuality.'
At the height of the AIDS epidemic, institutionalized homophobia was rubber-stamped and rife.
Government commercials warned us that sex could kill and we were instructed to 'not die of ignorance'.
No internet to hop onto, only IRL.
The sex shops of Soho were dark and sleazy. They were owned by men, staffed by men, and catered to men only.
It was within this environment that Ky Hoyle, a liberated young woman, went shopping for a sex toy...
1992: Sh! is born...
What Ky experienced during her sex-shop foray was alienating, intimidating and sleazy.
Huge phallic toys behind grubby glass. Being followed, stood too close to, leered at... (a woman in a sex shop was 'fair game')
She stomped home toyless, determined to make a change.
Three months later, Sh! was born.
With just £700 and a huge vision, Ky opened the doors to the UK's first women's sex shop in April 1992.
A place for women to explore, discover and celebrate their sexuality, on their own terms.
Ky named it Sh! as a playful comment on society's silencing of women's pleasure (with the exclamation mark sticking its tongue out to that!) and initiated a unique door policy - men were welcome, accompanied by a woman only.
'It was the most comfortable experience coming into the store and purchasing my first toy!'
YELP REVIEW
1993: Dildo Stand Down
Just as Sh! started manufacturing its own (non-phallic!) silicone dildos, Ky is visited by the police.
She'd already had a shopful of counter terrorist officers after receiving a bomb threat, which in London 1993 had to be taken seriously.
This time it was the local bobbies, who advised her to display dildos lying down, rather than standing upright - something to do with the axoim that a penis couldn't be portrayed more erect than at a 45-degree angle.
'They're not penises' she said (unaware that this would become a pattern in her life)
Still, it was good advice. Her DIY shelves weren't really stable enough for upright display, and she had enough to do without forever picking up fallen dildos.
1994: Taken to court
Ky is threatened with prosecution for running an unlicenced sex shop, unless she pays £17.5k licence fee (an impossible ask of boot-strapped Sh!)
Ky spends her life in the library (no internet!) researching archaic legal definitions;
- "SEXUAL ARTICLES": “Anything with the purpose of stimulating or encouraging sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with it.”
- "SEX SHOP" must hold a "significant proportion" of "sexual articles."
Sh! range was always non 'realistic' - our ethos being that toys are just toys, not replicas or replacements.
She's already argued with council officials that the handful of small, incongruous vibes she'd managed to source may as well be electric toothbrushes (as many an ever-resourceful woman of the time could testify to their 'stimulating' effect;) , asked why condoms were not deemed "sexual articles" ... and what about this wand massager?
She knew that health and sex are intertwined. Isn't it all just context, she asked?
"I'll see you in court," she said.
Terry Munyard (a civil rights lawyer, instrumental in decriminalizing gay relationships) defended the case by challenging the very definition of a "sexual article."
Waving a feather tickler at the magistrate, he demanded to know, “Is this a sex article, Madam?”
("it could be", Ky whispered under her breath;)
The case was thrown out. Sh! could carry on.
1996: Charity donation: X refused
Raising money through catalogue sales, Ky calls the most prominent Breast Cancer Charity in the UK at the time to find out how to donate it.
'Where's the donation from?' she was asked.
'The UK's first sex shop for women - it's been donated by our customers.'
"A SEX SHOP!' '...no, sorry, we can't accept it'
Sex can stir up such strong, judgemental attitudes. The mission is to face and challenge always.
PS. Ky found a willing home for the donation in Breakthrough Breast Cancer :)
1999: 1st sex class in UK
Education. Empowerment. Confidence. The key principals of Sh!
In 1999, we hold the first sex education class for women in the UK.
Ever salacious, the tabloids had a field day. And we're bombarded with dirty phone calls (which, despite the ease of this technological era, STILL carry on to this day), but our customers sign up in their droves, such is the need for good, honest conversations around sex.
Since losing the shop to the pandemic, we've taken our most popular sex classes online.
2001: Heighlights danges of sex toy materials
It's becoming clear that chemical softeners used in PVC jelly sex toys are potentially dangerous.
(Remember, this was before mainstream silicone toys existed - there were precious few toy designs we're happy to stock.)
We begin advising our customers to use condoms on these toys.
When female-focused brands like Lelo (Est 2002) and Je Joue (Est 2008) come to ask our advice on 'what women want,' we're happy to give it.
And even happier, once these and similar brands started creating great toys in body-safe silicone, to stop selling PVC toys for good.
We wish other retailers would follow our lead on this - we see too many dodgy toys around still, with no information for customers to make an informed choice.
Consent is KEY in every aspect!
2002: Fosters Links with NHS
Our first connection with the UK National Healh Service is stealth.
Providing rabbit vibrators to an oncology nurse, self-funded, as the NHS couldn't possibly be associated with (* inset Lady Bracknell voice) a SEX shop! This amazing nurse realises the massaging beads of a rabbit vibe can help with scar tissue.
Sh! Dilators come about through our association with a Ph.D. project (Royal United Hospital Bath Gynae Oncology department) to research the possibilities and implications of using vibrators in the post-surgery dilating process for women.
We've worked with hundreds of health professionals, sometimes still on a stealth level and mostly for free; giving talks to women with HIV and women & vulva owners born intersex; training junior doctors to talk comfortably about sex; helping to write pleasure and intimacy guides for people living with cancer...
Because pleasure is every woman's right. And we won't stop until every institution sees it that way.
2015: Co-founds "Cafe V''
We receive this letter about sex after rape. (TW)
It's one of the most powerful, shocking, and inspiring letters we've ever received about a life-changing visit to Sh! (and we've received a few).
We know we have to do more to help.
In March 2015, in collaboration with My Body Back Project (the pioneering support space set up for survivors of sexual violence), we host Café V.
Cafe V is the UK's first-ever physical support group to help female survivors of rape regain positive, pleasurable relationships with their bodies and sex.
Because pleasure is every woman's right. And we won't stop until every woman has that right.
2017: Creates Vaginismus Awareness Day '
We know that painful sex affects a lot of women.
Through the years of talking with our customers, we come to believe that it's a LOT more than the 2 in 1,000 statistic.
Because so many times they come to talk to us, but not to their doctors.
It's time the conversation came out into the open. Because all the women we talk to feel like they are the only one...
So, we establish 15th September as Vaginismus Awareness Day.
And set up VaginismusAwareness.com
Because everyone who owns a vulva has the right to pleasure.
And we won't stop until EVERY one has that right.
2020: Lockdown
C19 shakes up the world order - along with Sh!'s world.
With unsupportive landlords, Ky knows she has to make the heartbreaking decision to close the shop.
In order to survive, Sh must down scale and move online-only.
Not easy during a national lockdown. We find new premises with studio space to make our dildos and harnesses.
Never have so many sex toys been shifted in a Smart car!
Being online is different. We're still able to offer 1-1 guidance through chat, email and phone. But we're up against it with socials often shadow-banning our posts, making it hard to connect.
We needed to do more.
And then Ky receives a LinkedIn message out of the blue...
'Hi Ky, My name is Tiffany. I spent my late teens and early 20s living in London. I'd been raised Catholic in a home where sex wasn't discussed. Sh! was my first venture into anything erotic. The fear I felt outside the door immediately dissipated as I walked in. I loved it there. It's been over 20 years since, and the experience has stuck with me.'
'She get's it', Ky thinks.
'She's the one.'
2025: Setting the Scene
What we're facing in 2025 is shocking, dismaying, and frankly terrifying.
The ‘manosphere’ is driving extreme misogyny. 40% of all men say they trust one or more 'men’s rights,' anti-feminist, or pro-violence voices (in younger men it's nearer 50%).
Meta’s new policy (announced 7 Jan '25) permits women to be described as ‘‘household objects or property”, gender or sexual orientation as "a mental illness or abnormal”, and trans or non-binary people as ‘it’.
A self-proclaimed sexual assaulter is running a superpower.
Tech billionaires control the voices of trillions of people.
Our rights to body autonomy, sexuality, and gender expression are all under attack.
We must fight. Are you in?
From Sh! To Shebang!
The American sister of Sh! is born on the day of Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
The Stateside mission is led by feminist entrepreneur and activist Tiffany Freisberg, who never forgot the way she felt walking into Sh! as an 18-year-old in 2001, going shopping for a vibe in London…
“Shebang!” is here to break the stigma and taboo around female sexuality, scream it from the rooftops and inspire the women of the US to fight like hell. One orgasm at a time.
We're in the news!
November 23, 2021
August 16, 2023
June 28, 2023
My London
The Body
Vice
'It's not about flogging sex toys, we help women find their sexuality':
Ky Hoyle Speaks About Founding the U.K.’s First Women’s Sex Shop
Inside a Secret Lesbian Sex Toy Smuggling Ring
The team at Sh! help women orgasm, to reclaim their sexuality after sexual assault, and to learn to love themselves for who they are
Ky Hoyle founded Sh! Women’s Store, the United Kingdom’s first-ever sex shop for women, in 1992.
In the late 80s, Lisa Power was making her way back from San Francisco when she got taken aside by customs at Heathrow Airport.
August 1. 2024
DAILY STAR
'I run a female-only sex shop and help 500 women a week to orgasm'
Ky Hoyle is the founder of Sh!, Britain’s first women-only sex shop. Over the years the brand has been involved in controversy, intrigue and scandal - and Ky has shared some of her most scandalous stories
APRIL 21. 2022
Mirror
Woman opens UK's first female sex shop after 'worst experience you could ever imagine'
Ky Hoyle set up the Sh! Women's Emporium in 1992 after realising there were hardly any options out there for women's sex toys - and as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary she's reflecting on how things have progressed
August 1. 2024
NONCHALANT MAGAZINE
Interview: Ky Hoyle, Founder of Sex Shop Sh!
You walk into a welcoming, secure environment. Darkened windows but a bright space. Everyone within is knowledgeable and warm, they offer you a cup of coffee. Not picturing a sex shop, are you? But this is the atmosphere Hoyle conjured within Sh!
August 1. 2024
MEDIUM
Pride to the High Street: Interview with Ky Hoyle from Sh! Women’s Store
In her interview with TENGA, Ky Hoyle shares her journey and the evolution of Sh!, offering insights into how the store has continuously supported and advocated for diverse sexual identities.