Photo: Screenshot taken from a YouTube video posted by Lioness.
The dawn of a new decade is all about leaving behind the bigotry, narrow-mindedness and misogyny that may have clouded our judgement in the past and move forward in a manner that is conscious, holistic and inclusive. Which is probably why the Las Vegas-based Consumer Electronics Show (CES), probably the largest global gathering for people to discover innovative and unique technology and gadgets, is making good on its past mistakes by adopting a more inclusive attitude towards sex toys. So, they’ve announced that the Lioness, defined as the “first smart vibrator for self-experimentation”—a device that syncs with your smartphone and claims to collect data based on your masturbating sessions to maximise your orgasms—is one of the finalists for the Last Gadget Standing award.
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What’s even better about this honour being bestowed upon the device described by Oprah Magazine as "a sort of Fitbit for down below," is that this is the first time that a sex toy has qualified for an award in the health and wellness category. This comes after a major media fiasco last year, with CES being slammed after it disqualified the Lora DiCarlo ‘personal massager’ Ose vibrator for being “indecent and obscene”. After that, the event came under fire for being sexist and gender-biased, especially puzzling attendees since the show never explicitly banned sex toys, but just refused to give them awards. Finally, the Consumer Technology Association admitted its folly and gave back the award it had taken away in May 2019, but now it’s making amends on a major scale.
So now, the show that brought us augmented reality glasses and headbands that make your sleep cycle more efficient is back with a bang. The Lioness is also going head-on with other contenders like a plush toy that doubles up into a learning robot and a smart button, and will be displayed at the Las Vegas Convention Centre on January 10. But even if this smart toy isn’t the Last Gadget Standing, it’s definitely generated all the buzz it needed.Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.