{"id":262,"date":"2018-08-07T10:51:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T10:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/?p=262"},"modified":"2018-08-08T02:11:56","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T02:11:56","slug":"ean-alicia-sinclair-women-adult-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/ean-alicia-sinclair-women-adult-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"EAN Speaks With Alicia Sinclair About Women in the Adult Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Randolph<\/p>\n

Randolph Heil<\/a>‘s article — “I think we are still in the age of pioneers.”<\/a>— featuring Alicia Sinclair, Founder of\u00a0b-Vibe<\/a>,\u00a0Le Wand<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Cowgirl<\/a>, was first published on EAN Online.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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There is hardly an industry that caters more to female audiences than ours. The number of products geared towards male users or couples may have increased in recent years, but just flip through this magazine, and you will see that there is hardly a company that has no vibrators, dildos, etc. in their portfolio. Considering this, you\u2019d think that there would also be a strong female presence in the adult industry\u2019s halls of power. Alicia Sinclair, who is a successful business woman in the adult biz \u2013 and the founder of COTR Inc. \u2013 tells us more about the challenges facing female leaders in the industry, and about changes and developments that are on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\n

Not so long ago, female leadership in the erotic industry was a rarity. But as many things, this too has changed. Before we go into more depth about this topic, could you tell us bit about your own career?<\/strong>
\nAlicia Sinclair:<\/em>\u00a0Believe it or not, it all started when I took a job working at a lingerie company over 15 years ago now. Admittedly, I had no idea that this job would affect the course of my life, but sure enough \u2014 as I rose the ranks in that job, it led to another in the industry, and before I knew it, I was fully immersed in the sexual intimacy world. After serving as the VP of Worldwide Sales and Business Development at Jimmyjane, I decided it was time for me to take my years of industry experience and start introducing my own innovations into the world. My goal was \u2014 and still is \u2014 to examine outdated areas of the industry and create not only superior and heavily-researched products to fill these voids, but to provide approachable educational materials and extensive coaching and support so that everyone could partake. Pleasure is a right, not a privilege.<\/p>\n

Did you have any role models when you started working in the industry?<\/strong>
\nWhen I first began working in the industry, there weren\u2019t many female-led companies. Additionally, I don\u2019t feel that there was much support from other women either. No women took me under their wing or tried to help empower me. As a result, I don\u2019t feel like I had any real role models until I began working with female-run, sex-positive retailers seven years into my career.<\/p>\n

Who would you say are the pioneers of advancing women in the erotic industry?<\/strong>
\nThere are several women who were really ahead of the game \u2013 people like Joani Blank, Carol Queen, Claire Cavanah and Rachel Venning \u2013 those who really had the foresight to look ahead and see what was missing and to support other women. To be honest, though \u2014\u00a0I think we\u2019re still in the age of pioneers. It\u2019s still not an easy world out there for women in this industry \u2014 especially those looking to break outside of traditional industry norms. I would say that any woman in this business who is currently forging ahead in the face of adversity is a pioneer. For example, the Women of SexTech community is a wonderful place to turn to when looking for women leading the charge in this category.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that any woman in this business who is currently forging ahead in the face of adversity is a pioneer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did the people close to you react when you started in the erotic industry?<\/strong>
\nI come from a very conservative family, so it certainly wasn\u2019t commonplace to go and work in the erotic industry. Yet, as those around me got more and more comfortable with the life I\u2019d chosen for myself (and the fact that it was making me happy) the more they embraced it. I take it as a wonderful opportunity to gently educate those people who might have hesitations about the importance of sexual well-being and help shift perspectives towards a poorly misunderstood category.<\/p>\n

As said before, the industry isn\u2019t as male-dominated as it used to be. How would you describe the current situation?<\/strong>
\nI think that, right now, women are more accepted than they\u2019ve ever been \u2013 but that they\u2019re still not the norm. Not only do women still face more hurdles (whether that be the perception of their peers or simply the plights that come with being a woman in any business), but female sexuality as a whole still fails to be fully understood and valued. I\u2019m encouraged by the number of products that we\u2019re seeing created that cater to the clitoris, and I hope we continue to head in a similar direction. Instead of assuming what people with vulvas want, we need to conduct research, focus groups and speak with communities to create products that stem from real desires rather than figments of the male gaze.<\/p>\n

How did this change affect the industry?<\/strong>
\nI believe that the more women we see taking places of leadership within the industry, the more we\u2019ll see a collaborative, thoughtful approach to products \u2014\u00a0something that\u2019s only just begun over the past few years. Toys for women that are function first, aesthetic second \u2013 and focused on real physical desires \u2013 will help shift perceptions towards female sexuality and pleasure, and I\u2019m excited to be a part of that.<\/p>\n

Where do we see the biggest impact of a female perspective? Is it sales, marketing, product design or something else?<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019re definitely seeing the impact of female perspective in all areas: sales, marketing, and product design. However, for COTR, Inc., it all starts at product design. We\u2019ve take a look at long-outdated categories and find ways to improve the design with women in mind. Specifically, the wand vibrator and the riding machine are two sex toy categories in which the leading products came from male dominated companies. Through Le Wand and The Cowgirl, we\u2019ve re-approached the design with a female-led team and asked, \u201cWhat do women want? What do people with vulvas want?\u201d rather than \u201cWhat\u2019s going to look sexy to a male audience?\u201d It starts with having a well-designed product made with women in mind, and the rest follows suit.<\/p>\n

How important is it for a female customer to know that there is a woman behind the erotic products she is buying, to who she can relate?<\/strong>
\nHaving a woman at the helm of an erotic product is still a novelty, so to speak. Women are still stigmatised for embracing their sexuality at all. By being a visible ambassador for my company, I hope to help women to confidently embrace their own interest in exploring their sexual selves.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it just logical, that a market focusing more and more on women as the target audience also experiences more female leadership?<\/strong>
\nWhile the market for women-focused sex toys is absolutely there, women in the adult industry still face barriers to rise to leaderships positions. This field has been dominated by men for decades, so seeing women in charge is still something that people are getting used to. We need to advocate for ourselves in order to rise to the top, and that\u2019s not always easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the market for women-focused sex toys is absolutely there, women in the adult industry still face barriers to rise to leaderships positions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you see differences between the erotic industry and other industries in this regard? If so, which differences are there?<\/strong>
\nWhile women face sexism in all industries, the erotic industry can sometimes exacerbate these stereotypes due to the nature of the topic.<\/p>\n

From your personal experience, do you have any tips or recommendations for women who would like to start out in this industry?<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t take no for an answer. You\u2019re going to be told no a lot by a lot of different people in business situations \u2014\u00a0and most of the times, that\u2019s just doubt manifesting as rejection. Prove them wrong.
\nBe thoughtful about the products you\u2019re creating. If you spend the time and energy developing a quality product for a sophisticated audience, they will come. Don\u2019t feel the need to repeat what may have worked in the past \u2013 your power is to set a new standard.
\nIn that same vein, think about what you would want. Keep in mind that women are fairly new in this industry, so the more you can use that to your advantage, the more you can create competitive products that cater to real desires.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randolph Heil‘s article — “I think we are still in the age of pioneers.”— featuring Alicia Sinclair, Founder of\u00a0b-Vibe,\u00a0Le Wand\u00a0and\u00a0The … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-mentions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lewandmassager.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}