Sex Ed, Sex Toys

Sex Toys Or Sex Education? What exactly does Manzuri do?

Rabbit vibrators stacked next to some books on a shelf

Sex toys in India? Sex education? These are pretty much taboo topics in our country. And it takes a great deal of unlearning before you can re-learn the very fundamentals of a subject that is taboo. Vulva-owners are said to lose their virginity by breaking the hymen, when in fact the hymen – as any other muscle – will break when stretched and repair itself in time. In order to gain a better understanding of virginity, we must unlearn it as a social construct and learn it again as a fact that does not affect your sexual performance, health, or ability to have children.

Considering ourselves to be one of the few sexual wellness portals in India that really embraces sex, we aim to be more targeted and nuanced than the average sex toy and sexual wellness brand – we are also a sex education startup. The website contains a store to buy products from as well as an in-house blog – and we aren’t shy about sex here 🙂

Woman is lying down with a vibrator in her hand, speaking into the phone, “I’m masturbating. I told you I’d be doing that all day today.”

So TL;DR: We would call ourselves your one-stop shop for destigmatised education, accessibility to adult toys in India of good quality, and so much more!

Um, okay, but what exactly does Manzuri do? Sex toys or sex ed?

We’ll spell it out for you: B O T H.

We run a sex education as well as a sex toy company!

We want to bring about a change wherein there is adequate focus on inclusive and pleasure-positive sex education. We are ensuring this is done in a variety of ways – with blogs, community activities on digital platforms and by providing a platform for people to share their experiences openly. Our Instagram account, @get_cliterate, focuses on spreading information, education, and awareness – basically to do sex education the right way, so it doesn’t look like this:

A teacher shoves his fist into the other arm saying, “...the man puts his penis into the woman’s vah-gina…”

Manzuri houses sex toys for everyone: sex toys for men, sex toys for women, sex toys for queer individuals, sex toys for kinky individuals, sex toys for couples – well, you get the drift. Derived from a Japanese word that translates to ‘a thousand rubs’ and roughly translates to consent in Hindi, Aastha Vohra co-founded Manzuri with her best friend Ritesh D Ritelin in 2020 when she saw how “tabooed the pleasure gap is”.

 

Manzuri’s mission

In an era of ed-tech, it’s unfortunate that sex education doesn’t fall under the education umbrella. Manzuri is attempting to become India’s first sex education company. We’re trying to change that through our focus on inclusive, pleasure-positive, sex education. A few mediums through which we are trying to bridge this gap with content (blogs), community (Quora, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) and commerce (e-commerce).

Screengrab showing Manzuri’s Instagram post on ‘Have you wondered if your labia is normal?’

“At Manzuri, we plan to launch our own sex education courses eventually, and are already in the process of developing an exhaustive curriculum with some of the top gynaecologists and doctors in the space. With this, we hope to build a platform to offer judgement-free medical consultations, to help people with the taboos that vulva-owners encounter with gynaecologists. Our Instagram page @get_cliterate has already gained decent momentum and is 100% a sex education-focused handle.” says Co-founder Aastha.

On our website, you’ll find a variety of products for couples, including bondage, anal plugs, strap-ons, vibrators, fleshlights and dildos – even a queer-friendly section.

Screengrab showing Manzuri’s website and its categories of products

Besides this, we also offer online and live workshops and set up stalls at events to bridge the orgasm gap among young adults and new parents.

 

But why is our mission relevant?

We are glad you asked.

We, at Manzuri, did a small, anonymous survey of over 200 unmarried women, and found out that 87% of their parents did not know that they are sexually active. However, the number may actually be much more since our survey audience was mostly confined to tier 1 & tier 2 cities.

It is estimated that India is the sixth most sexually active country in the entire world, but people still avoid discussing sex openly because they consider it taboo.  However, adult toy sales have increased in the past decade. As of 2019, the global sexual wellness market was valued at $74,770.0 million and is projected to reach $108,320.0 million by 2027, with a CAGR of 4.62 percent between 2021 to 2027. With the vast variety of sexual products in the market, catering to each individual’s unique taste, the demand is surely going up!

One woman showing a sexual device to another saying, “This one is called ‘Here Comes The Sun.’ It’s solar powered, so you leave it on your porch all day.”

“It only adds to our mission when we can see the impact! Every so often women write to us, telling us how they had their first orgasms ever because of a vibrator they purchased from Manzuri. Or there was this time when someone DM’ed us to tell us how they got out of an abusive relationship because of a blog that we wrote…these things keep us going, but we’re just getting started and it’s too early to be proud or content with anything we’ve done. The only thing we know is – we’re on the right track,” Aastha says.

So in short…

There is often a feeling of guilt associated with self-pleasure due to the social stigma associated with female desire. Manzuri intends to remind folks that it’s perfectly alright to indulge in pleasurable activities and give your own pleasure importance over concerns for other people’s unreasonable demands. For a lot of people, it can be a liberating experience in life.

Your self-care adventure is meant to be supported by sexual education and the usage of sexual wellness solutions. We devote a great deal of our time, energy, and resources to maintaining our physical and mental health. However, considering all facets of our human experience is necessary to make ourselves happy, healthy, and positive. Let’s be honest: What is more essential to that than sex? Manzuri is out to give you and/or your partner the most stress-free experience in preparing for and discovering your pleasure. So hold no stops, we got you covered!

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