The Osé personal massager, a sex toy that set off a controversy over gender bias in the technology industry earlier this year when it received an “innovation” award at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, only to see the award revoked, is now ready for consumers to actually purchase—and decide for themselves whether the device-maker’s claims that it induces a “blended orgasm” are accurate.
The Osé was given the “innovation in robotics” award at CES in January. But the show’s parent company, the Consumer Technology Association, yanked the award away, on grounds that the sex toy was “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image.”
But in May, after protests from Lora Haddock—founder of Lora DiCarlo, which manufactures the Osé—and widely publicized allegations that it exercised a double standard when it came to sexual products for women and those that appealed primarily to men, CTA reversed the decision and gave the company its award back.
Haddock had published an open letter noting that CES had previously featured sex dolls for male use, as well as virtual reality porn typically consumed by men.
Now, according to a Twitter post by the Lora DiCarlo company, the actual Osé itself is available for pre-order “while supplies last.”
The “hands free” device will not actually ship to consumers until January. That’s when any consumer with $290 to spare on “blended orgasms” will finally be able to experience the device that “combines a G-spot massager and clitoral mouth to arouse and stimulate both pleasure points simultaneously,” according to the company’s own descriptions.
The controversy over the Osé award seems to have had at least a somewhat liberating effect on the CES organizers. Starting in 2020, the show will allow sex toy companies to exhibit from January 7 to January 10—on a “one-year trial basis,” according to The New York Post.
Photo by LoraDiCarlo.com
