Is It Time For Makeup Sex

Hands-free vibrator Eva 2. Photo Courtesy: Matriarch Products

When information technology comes to sex toys, the days of the vivid pinkish, phallic, vibrating object as the ascendant selection in the market are over. Fortunately, the days of going to a seedy-looking sex shop to buy i of those adult toys and feeling guilty about it are also pretty much done.

"It's important to take thoughtful well-designed products that are designed for women. The vast majority of what we've seen was designed by men at women […]. They only didn't really fully embrace the user of these products," says Ti Chang over a Zoom video chat. Chang is co-founder and VP of Design at the sexual practice tech company Require, which was founded in 2010 subsequently the industrial designer Chang had already launched a line of sexual activity jewelry called INCOQNITO in 2008.

Require products are sold through the company's website simply also at mainstream retailers like Nordstrom, where they're available in-shop and online.

Matriarch Products co-founder and CEO, Alexandra Fine, seems to be on the aforementioned page as Chang when information technology comes to the evolution of sex activity toys. Over electronic mail, she tells me about Matriarch Labs, the enquiry arm of her sexual practice tech visitor, where customers inform the process of product evolution — "from the blazon of stimulation a product provides to where each push button is placed," she writes, adding they exam their products with real people. "The Matriarch customs is working to humanize a product space that isn't always speaking to the audience it serves."

Dame, which launched in 2014 and was founded by sexologist Fine and engineer Janet Lieberman, has a team of full-fourth dimension engineers to ensure their products are based on research and also go all the technological sophistication they need equally standard consumer products.

Browse the products by Dame and Crave but also those by other leading sexual activity tech companies — such as Lora DiCarlo, Lelo and Womanizer — and you'll see a diversity of offerings. And I don't mean just in terms of the colors you can choose from, but also in the shapes, sizes, materials and functions of the devices. At that place are waterproof toys, flexing vibrators, easily-complimentary devices, suction stimulators, pleasure products that are designed for solo play and those for use with a partner. There are even pocket-sized, inconspicuous gadgets ideal to accept with you while traveling.

You'll also encounter mainly people with vulvas or vulva-owners — terms used by Chang and Fine to describe their users — represented on those companies' websites. "The sex industry is on an exciting swing from a male-centric vice manufacture to a female-centric health industry," says Fine.

When Pleasure Meets Wellness

Well-nigh perfectly aligned with this lineup of sexual practice tech companies catering to people wanting to be more in bear on with their pleasance, we find the resurgence of the so-chosen sex-positivity motility. Call back of Phoebe Waller-Span'southward testify Fleabag as an excellent contemporary introduction to this movement or ideology that promotes sexuality as a natural function of being a human and aims to remove stigma and shame from sexual activity. Sex activity-positivity encourages existence open-minded, non-judgmental and respectful of personal sexual autonomy. And it emphasizes safe sexual practice and consent.

Flexible vibrator Pom. Photo Courtesy: Dame Products

"Sexual activity is becoming a more public part of everyday conversation, which helps shed light on loftier-quality products inside the manufacture," says Fine. "We're seeing it more than openly discussed in pop culture, which helps validate and sanction products that were once shamed."

Not merely that, simply Matriarch, Crave and other sex tech companies tin can also play an integral part in bringing the sexual conversation to the forefront by helping us gain a meliorate understanding of our pleasure and sexuality. "We believe that our toys can aid vulva-owners understand their ain 'pleasure map,' and aid them enhance sexual pleasure and communication with their partner (and themselves). More than pleasance means improve slumber, less stress and overall improved wellbeing. Vibrators are also amazing tools for folks who take depression libido, cancer patients and abuse survivors, amidst others, to reconnect with themselves in a rubber low-pressure atmosphere," says Fine.

"The reason why we haven't had well-designed sex toys [in the past] is considering of the primitive attitude that did not value female pleasure and sexuality," Chang says, referring to the pervasive cultural stigma associated with women's pleasure. "We're emerging out of that darkness. Female pleasure is as a part of a adult female'due south wellbeing as mental health, physical health and their sexual health."

To make information about sex attainable to anyone, regardless of their "gender, sexual orientation or level of sexual engagement," Dame Products launched Swell in early on 2020. It'due south a digital platform that explores sexual wellness and human intimacy. The site includes a very educational glossary that explains the meanings of all sorts of sexual terms, from "sexting" to "pelvic floor." Bully — which is written by journalists, therapists, sex educators, activists, essayists and health experts — also offers an array of articles on topics ranging from sexual activity during pregnancy to logistics of formulation while being transgender and how to brand long-distance relationships work.

The Importance of Design

Part of the reason why I was able to mention five sex tech companies in this article, while still managing to leave some names out, is also due to the mode current pleasure products look.

Necklace vibrator Vesper. Photo Courtesy: Crave

If the days of the large phallic vibrator are over, the days of hiding sexual activity toys away are too numbered. Take Require'southward Vesper, for example. This modest and elegant vibrator — available in silver, rose gold and 24kt gold — can also be worn very publicly equally a necklace.

While designing the Vesper, Chang was very aware of the taboo around sex activity and women's pleasure. She thought that, to remove that taboo, more people needed to start talking about it. "It was intentional to create a conversational piece, that information technology's a argument necklace that you can wear out but it's too a functioning vibrator," she says. "I'm not saying everyone has to wear a vibrator out, just women doing it are starting conversations with friends, sometimes with family."

The designer too talks about how sex jewelry has get an iconic symbol of empowerment.

Fine also sees Dame Products as empowering tools, simply she points out the importance of eliminating many of the lingering biases within the pleasure marketplace — like the fact that they're prohibited from many modes of advertising on social media platforms and also in physical spaces. Matriarch Products sued New York's Metropolitan Transit Authorisation in June of 2019 for rejecting its ads and maxim the transit authority perpetuates a double standard. The example is still agile.

"We need to continue to urge advertisers to treat sexual health solutions for all sexes and genders every bit in how they approve or deny advertisements, whether they are ED [erectile dysfunction] medications, vibrators, lubricants, condoms, dildos, dilators or books. This leveling of the playing field is crucial to ensure all people have access to the products and solutions they need, also every bit continue to break the stigma surrounding sexuality and sexual activity toys specifically — that's what sexual activity positivity means to united states of america," says Fine.