Does it matter that CES banned the Osé vibrator.

10th January 2019

Yes. Yes it does.

CES is the shining beacon of tech conferences. It’s the biggest tech event of the year where not only the big boys get to show off their latest Alexa enabled device, but the small innovative startups get to show off their wears. The publicity alone from a demo at CES can launch a startup’s product onto the front page of every tech website and garner them a great following.

Its parent company (CTA) also gives out awards and this year, the Osé won the coveted CES Innovation Award. Its creator claims they’re creating the first vibrator to mimic ‘human mouth, tongue, and fingers’. You can imagine the delight the creators must have had. To have their hard work recognised. To win an award so coveted in the field.

Then imagine yourself at CES, with your product. And having the award taken away. And not just that, but to be banned from demoing. Banned from demoing your formally award winning product. And now imagine that the company who originally gave you the award in the first place giving the reason that…

Entries deemed by CTA in their sole discretion to be immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image will be disqualified. CTA reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry at any time which, in CTA’s opinion, endangers the safety or well being of any person, or fails to comply with these Official Rules.

– The CTA

Ok. So the sex doll demoed at CES 2018 wasn’t immoral or obscene. But a vibrator is. The VR Porn company who have been demoing for the last few years isn’t immoral or obscene. But a vibrator is.

Bad enough that this was the original reason given, but the CTA CEO later stated that the vibrator actually was ineligible for the category it was entered in (Robotics and Drone). The robotic vibrator apparently isn’t robotic enough. The robotic vibrator developed in partnership with the Oregon State University robotics lab.

Yeah, I’m not buying it CES. Not one little bit.

Sex and the tech industry

The sex industry has been at the forefront of quite a lot of tech innovations (see Betamax vs VHS, HD-DVD vs BluRay, how HTML5 video beat everything else). Its one of those industries where they have the capital to actually spend developing the weird and wonderful, experimenting with the new and exciting, and pushing for improvements.

And yet – CES have banned a robotic vibrator. Either for being immoral or for not being robotic enough. Either way I’m calling bullshit.

Carrying on the tradition of sexism

This isn’t the first time CES have been shall we say. Sexist as hell. 2017 and 2018 had all male speakers. The use of booth babes which, let’s face it, have been around for forever were actually defended and backed up by the CEO. They also don’t actually (at least in 2018 didn’t) have an official code of conduct. Something which most conferences have had for quite some time to ensure they’re an inclusive environment for all.

Quite frankly – the removal of the Osé vibrator is depressingly unsurprising. Until CES has a mammoth change in leadership and starts looking at what it’s representing in the tech industry (and maybe doing some serious introspection about its own ideals since the CEO still thinks booth babes are ok), this is the sort of behaviour we can expect.

Sex related tech is only ok if its designed for men – according to CES.