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Sex Toy Safety Q & A

Questions asked by nationally known columnist Josey Vogel of My Messy Bedroom

What prompted you to include consumer beware information on your website? The BuyerBeWomyns'Ware Caveat Emptor info evolved from our general outrage as sex toy consumers with the "last bastion of deceptive advertising and shoddy merchandise mentality" of the sex toy industry. We were tired of being treated like fools just because we wanted devices for the stimulation of our genitals.

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How do you do your research? We research our Beware articles by tapping into a network of resources for legal (case law and statutory) research, Chemistry composite analysis, reviews of analogous science from other industries, and manufacturing standards to name a few. The president of the company is a Canadian lawyer, our webmistress is a U.S. attorney, and our network of staff, significant others, friends and acquaintances include doctoral candidates in Chemistry, Sexual Health educators, Pharmacists, Industrial designers, and even Encarta researchers so the sweep of knowledge base is wide. To come up with a final essay, the usual practice for us to make several trips to the library to pour over academic journals, go to industry web sites (i.e. Health Canada), and send the draft out for review by experts in the particular field. In our spare time, we read, read, and read to stay alert to emerging consumer issues. For example, a recent New Yorker article on hormone therapy was helpful in tracking down information on the dangers of hormone based "erotic creams" - for an upcoming article.

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Do you have set guidelines that a toy or product has to live up to, to get your endorsement? Our "Particularly Precise Purchasing Policy" - see the Womyns'Ware Philosophy page at for in-depth details - sets our our guidelines for product endorsement. In a nutshell, our threshold guidelines are design, safety, quality, customer satisfaction, origin, and compatibility with our mission statement for the "celebration and empowerment of women's sexuality". So if a product is going to make it on to our shelves, the product design must be suitable for the purpose, materials safe for use, quality sufficient to stand up to at a minimum our two month warranty, satisfy customer's expectations, manufactured in an appropriate labour environment, and not contrary to our mission statement.

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What are some of the most common things consumers should be aware of/look out for when buying toys or products? Consumers should be aware that Womyns'Ware Inc. is the only retailer to raise the bar so high with respect to endorsement guidelines. If the product isn't available at Womyns'Ware, the consumer should presume that most claims on the packaging are bogus and intended to be deceptive. If a product has a "Novelty Purposes Only" label, consumers should equate that label with either horrific substandard quality and/or unsafe materials. See our essay on the Novelty excuse so frequently employed by the sex toy industry for full disclosure on how the typical sex toy packaging and presentation for sale works to cheat the consumer.

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What questions can a consumer ask to ensure they'll end up with a product they like? Consumers should ask themselves what they're hoping to gain from a sex toy before they venture out to look for one. As our retail manager so succinctly puts it: 'Which buttons do you want to push and how hard?' The more a person knows about what they want the product to do, the less they'll be led astray by 'staff favourites' and other popularity contest methods of selling sex toys and the more likely they'll be able to focus on whether the product they're looking at could possibly accomplish what they want it to accomplish. That's why we start every product category with a tutorial instead of a list of products. For example, with vibes, start by asking yourself whether you want clitoral or penetrative stimulation (or both) way before you decide you must have the Mini Pearl or the oft written about Hitachi Magic Wand - see the full vibe tutorial.

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What are the pros/cons of different materials used to make sex toys? Plasic? Plastic's pro is that it's cheap. Its con is that the material becomes brittle over time, can never be cleaned sufficiently to allow for sharing between users or uses, and is rarely comfortable enough for penetrative use.

Jelly? Jelly is toxic and in a constant state of off gassing, absorbing every thing it comes in contact with, and impossible to clean. There's nothing pro about it. The packaging is worth more than the toy, for gawd's sake!

Consider the truth behind the price in our "From Factory Floor to XXX Shop Door" essay.

Silicone? Silicone is one giant pro. It's the longest lasting, easiest to clean material for making toys for vaginal, anal, and, depending on design or accessories, clitoral stimulation. Silicone is hypoallergenic, warms to the touch, sterile, odour free, and resilient. Several manufacturers offer lifetime replacement warranties against defaults in construction or materials. Some retailers describe its price as a con but we think that's a cop out. Silicone dills retail in the $40 to $100 range depending on the design and volume of silicone while jelly dildos go for $10 to $150 depending on the marketing niche and enormity of the profit markup - the jelly quality is uniformly low regardless of price. You get what you pay for is an important adage when you¹re looking for something to use with the ones you love!

Others? Some acrylics (i.e. Lucite) and stainless steel offer the hypoallergenic benefits of silicone sufficient to be its equal in external-use products. Unless you're a big fan of unforgiving rigidity, though, these materials lack the flexibility necessary for comfortable penetrative use.

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What are some of the health hazards consumers should be aware of when buying sex products/toys? Stay clear of jellys, nonoxynol-9, and "lotions and potions". Using Jelly products for oral, vaginal, or anal stimulation is going to introduce Phthalate and other toxic solvent absorption into the mucous membranes of the body. These chemicals provoke eye, respiratory, skin, and mucous membrane irritation. Headaches, cramps, and nausea are some of the side effects that result from exposure at the levels found in the study.

Even if you don't give a crap about consequences, the Jelly's are just plain gross. Regardless of whether you sheath the thing in condoms every time you take it out of its box, it's still going to degrade and fragment, off-gas so that it leaves an oily stain behind, fuse to its packaging and stink like an old car tire. Is any part of that sexy?

Nonoxynol-9 is a harsh detergent. You wouldn't use Borax for lube so don¹t use a lube with N-9 either.

If the pitch for a lotion or potion sounds like a hoax, it probably is. We haven't yet investigated an anal desensitizing cream, orgasm lotion, or stay hard potion that hasn't turned out to be a bogus joke along the same vein as balding hair grow tonics and breast grow miracle pills. Being pro-stimulation of the genitals shouldn't turn you into a gullible fool. Our tenacious inquiries into the clitoral creams eventually led to Health Canada issuing an import ban. See our BuyerbeWomynsWare for more details.

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What are some of the most shocking discoveries you have made in your research about the sex toy industry? Health hazards, deceptive sales practices, and price gouging.

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Can you list some of the biggest rip-offs out there? The entire inventory of the average mainstream sex shop. We could (and when you publish this we'll be motivated to do so ;) write a gimmick a day warning on our site with no shortage of husksters.

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Can you list a few toys/products you would happily endorse and recommend? Clit Lane, Mini Pearl, Butt Really ... , Eroscillator, Hathor lube...