CES has lengthy been a launchpad for innovation and cutting-edge know-how. However, at this yr’s occasion, there was a conspicuous void: the near-absence of intercourse tech. Despite being an business that caters to a common human expertise, intercourse tech has all the time had an uneasy affiliation with CES.
This yr, its conspicuous absence begs the query: Why are we nonetheless so prudishly immune to integrating know-how and intimacy?
In 2019, intercourse tech had its headline second at CES when pleasure tech firm Lora DiCarlo gained an innovation award—just for it to be rescinded, after which reinstated after widespread backlash. (It later went out of enterprise). This controversy highlighted the uneasy relationship between the mainstream tech business and its extra intimate cousin.
Fast ahead to 2024, and it appears CES has successfully managed to chase the intercourse tech business off its show floors.
I went searching for sex-tech corporations to doubtlessly do a roundup, and there have been few sufficient to acknowledge just one development: Not in intercourse tech, however in the absence thereof. One firm stood out: Norwegian firm Ohdoki, the creators of The Handy and the CES-launched Oh!, had been a refreshing presence in the in any other case prudish tech panorama. Their sales space was bustling with exercise, providing a stark distinction to the largely sex-tech-absent occasion.
It’s unclear whether or not it’s CES itself that’s attempting to scale back the quantity of sexiness on its show floors – the show itself has developed loads through the years, and this correspondent thinks it’s a reduction to see the so-called ‘booth babes’ being all however absent: An enormous change from my first CES again in 2007 or so, the place scantily-clad fashions had been in every single place. But whereas I rejoice the banishment of sexism – objectifying people at cubicles has no place in 2024 – intercourse itself must have a spot in the vernacular of know-how.
It’s puzzling to me why we, as a neighborhood, hold erasing sexuality from tech – when it’s such an common a part of the human expertise – to such an extent.
