One of my favourite parts of visiting Mexico City was all the wonderful people I got to meet. Cheyenne and I had a slew of people welcoming us into their stomping ground, each who showed us to their favourite places around the city. One of those people was the infamous Izzy Voodoo, an Australian model, artist and DJ, who was the person who connected Sugarbones to the Drink N Draw event that got us to Mexico in the first place.
Izzy is cool as fuck for many reasons, one being her kawaii goddess aesthetic which incorporates rave and fetish wear. Standing next to her makes you feel underdressed in the best way possible. She’s currently serving looks in Berlin this week, living the life and visiting all types of fetish clubs and dungeons (so jelly). When I was in town, we quickly bonded over non-monogamy and kink stuff, and she agreed to take Cheyenne and me on a tour of the Mexico City sex stores!
Visiting sex stores in different cities and countries is always an entertaining way to pass the time. You get to tour the city of your choice with a purpose, and you get to see what’s up with the sex toy selection in your destination. Mexico City is the largest city in North America, so I was interested to see what the sex climate was. Could it rival other cities I’ve been to? Were there any feminist sex stores there?
We visited about four different chains, Erotika Love Stores, Gold Dreams, and two whos names were unknown to us (they had no store sign). We ended up visiting around five different locations for the Erotika stores because they were all over the queer district; that shit was the Stag Shop of Mexico. Almost all the stores had the same stock, so I won’t do a breakdown store by store, but of things, I noticed and picked up on while touring.
The Stock
Much like some of the big chains here in Canada, all of Mexico City’s stores were filled with unsafe toys. However, their representation in the stores compared to the quality products was concerning. Toxic toys, anal toys with no flared bases, and all sorts of shady materials were the main (and almost the only) focus of the stores. Most of the toys were ones I had never seen before, but that doesn’t make them any better than the jelly toys we have back here. There were only a small handful of silicone toys amongst the selection.
When it came to international name brand sex toys, each store did carry an assortment of We-Vibe, Fun Factory, Tenga and Satisfyer Toys, but these toys weren’t advertised over the rest of the stock. They were typically kept behind the glass countertops at the cash, which isn’t accessible to nervous first-time buyers who just want to wander around the store on their own. To be honest, I almost missed the brand name toys most times, so I’m assuming the average Mexican consumer might not be given the best options up front.
The Branding
All of the sex stores I visited in Mexico City had such a welcome and open air to them. Their doors were open to the streets, giving any passers-by a look into the sex store world. None of the stores felt greasy, or unfriendly, making it a really enjoyable time for me. The Erotika stores, in particular, were very boisterous stores amongst the streets they were in. Each was completely decked out in their pink and sparkly branding, one of which even had boob wallpaper all over the outside of the store. They were not there to blend in.
All of the stores didn’t gender their product selections. Even some “feminist” stores still divide their stores into gender sections so I was pleased to see it was completely gender neutral. Another awesome thing I noticed was one of the Erotika stores featured a model with a prosthetic leg in promo image on the outside of their store! I’m always a fan of seeing typically marginalized bodies in sex store promotions.
To wrap it up, I found that the sex stores I visited in Mexico City had some serious similarities to the ones we have here in Canada, although I do think that the chains here tend to feature the higher quality toys more so than the toxic ones. It would have been really nice to see a local feminist sex store there, but for now, it seems like that’s an open market. My trip to the CDMX sex stores definitely put into perspective how often times the work we do online doesn’t translate into other countries local economies and business practices. Hopefully, some Mexican sex bloggers will start popping in up in the next couple years and work with those stores to improve them for all consumers.