Written by Jessica Conditt for Engadget. Originally published on January 8, 2019.
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Sex tech is intrinsically tied to the fight for gender equality at CES. At last year’s show, the Osé — a female-focused, hands-free orgasm device from startup Lora DiCarlo — won a CES Innovation Award. And then the CTA revoked that honor, arguing the Osé was disqualified from consideration because it was “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image.” Meanwhile, the CTA allowed a VR porn exhibit from Naughty America to set up in one of CES’ main halls, and the show has historically featured sex robots including RealDoll and Solana. The main difference between Osé and these items, Lora DiCarlo founder Lora Haddock argued, was their intended market. Gadgets designed for women’s health and pleasure were categorized as “immoral,” while those for men were acceptable.
Haddock’s disagreement with the CTA went viral and kickstarted a public debate about gender bias in the technology industry. Eventually, the CTA reversed its decision and re-granted the Osé its Innovation Award.
“CTA did not handle this award properly,” read a statement from the organization. “This prompted some important conversations internally and with external advisors, and we look forward to taking these learnings to continue to improve the show.”
The CTA opened up CES 2020 to sex tech companies on a one-year trial basis. This move gave tech and business consultant Cindy Gallop hope that CES would accept her talk, “Why Sex Tech Is the Next Trillion Dollar Category in Tech.”
The CTA turned her down.
For years, CES has rejected speaker pitches from women on the basis that their talks didn’t focus enough on tech, their credentials in the industry were too thin, they didn’t meet the rigid requirements set by the CTA. Gallop’s name has been brought up multiple times as a clearly missed opportunity for a qualified, female tech leader to speak at the show.
“CES’ response to criticism of their lack of female keynote speakers historically has been that their standards are extremely rigorous, that they simply haven’t been able to find women who deliver the same level of technological seniority, experience, credibility and gravitas as the many white men who populate their speaking stage,” Gallop said. “And that they have no intention of putting any woman on stage who does not live up to their extremely high standards regarding a demonstrably, highly impressive track record in tech and business.”
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