Pictured from left, Sarah Brown, Andrea Barrica, Carol Queen and Lynn Comella at the AVN Novelty Expo. Photo by JFK/FUBARWebmasters.com.
Sex toys and sex tech has been a hot-button combination as long as women have been designing and creating their own sex toys with pleasure in mind. Add to that the fast-paced world of technology and the progressive and forward-thinking adult industry, and you have a growing industry that puts women first.
The topic was discussed in a panel titled "Sex Toys and Sex Tech: The History and Evolution of the Pleasure Product Industry" at the recent AVN Novelty Expo in Las Vegas, which took place in January at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The January 24 panel discussion was moderated by Lynn Comella, University of Nevada Las Vegas professor and author of the best-selling book, Vibrator Nation. The panelists were Carol Queen of Good Vibrations and the Center for Sex and Culture; Andrea Barrica, CEO of sex education site O.school; and Sarah Brown, the sales and marketing rep from pleasure product design company Lora DiCarlo.
Comella began with her sharing that ten years ago in 2010, she moderated an AVN seminar to address the growth of women in the adult pleasure products market. “The market for women is ‘hot,’” she expressed. “Manufacturers and producers of porn want to know more about addressing the women’s market.” In 2010, it was considered a new and novel idea although the concept didn’t fall from the sky in 2010. At that time, the traditional porn industry was looking for a way to survive the recent 2007-09 economic downturn, and those companies turned to wooing women in ways they hadn’t before.
The presentation started with a brief history of companies that supported women’s sexual positivity and pleasure at the retail level, which began in the early 1970s with Eve’s Garden in New York City. Soon after, Good Vibrations followed in San Francisco. The early ’90s brought Toys in Babeland, now known as Babeland (and also this author's own store, Grand Opening!, in Brookline, Mass.).
Interestingly, the sex tech factor shifted when women themselves began investing in more female-based startups since, prior to that, venture capitalists and other investors overwhelmingly supported male-oriented businesses. The startups that women were investing in were companies that focused on women’s natural functions such as menstruation and fertility as well as tech-based applications based on such basic needs as breast pumps. Around 2015-2016, funding began flowing in for those technologies and fem tech investors and inventors’ platforms were beginning to flourish.
Comella confirmed that investment in breast pump technology was crucial as it was sex related but not too sexy, which is what people were comfortable with. Breast pumps made it OK in the greater investment world, but there had remained several challenges.
Barrica mentioned there is currently a startup featuring CBD-infused tampons that is looking for investors and there is a slight interest in the product. However, she believes, anything to do with the female body still doesn’t seem to interest traditional investors. Hence, women investors are doin’ it for themselves.
Brown mentioned that menstrual cups produced by another company initially brought her into the fem tech space. She’d share “I make menstrual cups,” which opened conversations with traditional VCs (click here for an article about these cups from the latest issue of Intimate magazine).
The Lora DiCarlo rep continued, “Tech can slowly follow and sometimes get dragged into a new space. For example, we applied for a CES tech award for robotics that included things like drones. We won the competition for our biotics technology, which mimics the sensation of human touch. Then a month later, CTA [the organization that puts on the huge CES show] rescinded the award. We showed up at CES anyway and convinced them about our valid technology and it’s now moving forward in the tech space.”
Lora DiCarlo’s pioneering spirit and refusal to surrender garnered significant press since their product was chosen by a general vote, and won. Brown added, “Whether it’s for Kegel exercises, breast pumps, period tracking, women are talking about it and you have to listen to us!” CTA ended up changing its policy and giving the company the award after CES.
The panel agreed that women are now disrupting the tech space when it comes to sexual health and pleasure. Sex tech drives innovation forward and is the message and movement we are all in right now.
Comella mentioned how CES changed its stance around women’s sexual health this year. Sex tech wasn’t in its own section; it was spread out throughout health and wellness category at the show. People at the show were excited to see it, and Comella believes that it isn't the consumer who doesn’t want to see women’s sex tech products and ideas. It’s reticence at the upper levels of management at CTA and CES that puts the restrictions on advertising, etc. She believes the changes are promising for the future of sex tech and fem tech investors.
The general takeaway from the panel was that sex tech and fem tech will continue to face challenges. But as with any progressive movement, progress is made when many voices are heard. And, to quote the late, great, Aretha Franklin, “Sisters are doin’ it for themselves.” A-men ... er, a-women!
