Turns out robotics for men is acceptable but not for women (WAPO, use incognito), according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) which owns and runs the CES exhibition each year. Here's a timeline of amazing technological innovations they've exhibited in the last fifty years. CTA has exhibited technology for male sex:
CES has no problem allowing explicit pornographic products for men; a virtual-reality pornography company exhibits there every year, allowing the largely male attendees to take a pornography break as they stroll through the massive show. A robotic sex doll for men debuted at CES last year.
but this year, after deciding to give Lora DiCarlo an award for their hands-free, blended orgasm tehcnology, CTA rescinded the award and refused to let them even exhibit:
Organizers sent back an email saying they had a “very strict policy that forbids ‘Adult’ companies from exhibiting on the show floor.” A few days after that, we received an email claiming that our inquiry had “spurred a larger conversation” within the organization that runs and owns CES, the Consumer Technology Association. Our application for the award was being removed — even though the award had already been granted — because the CTA reserved “sole discretion” to decide what entries were “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image.” We were outraged and insulted. We wrote back, expressing our disappointment that the CTA was taking such a narrow view of innovation and citing other pleasure-tech devices that had won CES Innovation Awards.
So the organizers took a new tack. The president of CTA, Gary Shapiro, wrote to us stating that there had been a “misunderstanding” and that our product was “ineligible for entry” in the robotics category and, further, that it “does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not have been accepted” for the awards entry in the first place. And on top of that, Lora DiCarlo was barred from even exhibiting at CES. This was a huge blow to a young company that was in the midst of raising funding for our operations and product debut.
The device is called Osé, in case you're interested. Looks fine:So the organizers took a new tack. The president of CTA, Gary Shapiro, wrote to us stating that there had been a “misunderstanding” and that our product was “ineligible for entry” in the robotics category and, further, that it “does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not have been accepted” for the awards entry in the first place. And on top of that, Lora DiCarlo was barred from even exhibiting at CES. This was a huge blow to a young company that was in the midst of raising funding for our operations and product debut.
