The Consumer Technology Association announced last week that it would be allowing “tech-based sexual products” as its own category at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020, almost a year after accusations of gender bias for revoking a technology award given to Oregon-based sex tech company Lora DiCarlo.
In October 2018, Lora DiCarlo was informed that their “smart vibrator” product known as the Osé had won an award in the robots and drone products category at the Consumer Electronics Show, run by the Consumer Technology Association. About a month later, CTA officials contacted the company to say the award was being revoked, on the grounds that the Osé “does not fit any of [CTA’s] existing product categories.”
After public backlash from Lora DiCarlo founder Lora Haddock and others who accused the CTA of longstanding gender bias, the organization hired The Female Quotient, a consulting firm specializing in women in the workplace. The new category will exist on a “one-year trial basis as part of the Health & Wellness product category,” according to a CTA press release.
In addition to formalizing sex tech as part of the CES, CTA also released new policies regarding employees’ dress code, as well as a reminder about the ban on technologies involving pornography.
By Ian MacRonald
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