Image credits: Odoki
CES has long served as a hub for innovation and cutting-edge technology. But there was a glaring gap at this year’s event: sex technology was almost non-existent. Despite being an industry that caters to a universal human experience, sex technology has always had an uncomfortable relationship with CES.
This year, its notable absence begs the question of why we so deliberately resist integrating technology and intimacy.
In 2019, sex technology had a headline moment at CES. Pleasure technology company Laura DiCarlo won the Innovation Award. However, the award was canceled but reinstated after widespread backlash. (It has since gone out of business). The controversy has highlighted the uneasy relationship between the mainstream technology industry and its closer ties.
Fast forward to 2024, and it looks like CES has effectively managed to kick the sex tech industry out of the show floor.
I looked for potential sex tech companies to do a roundup, but there were very few that made me realize there was just one trend. It wasn’t sex technology, it was the absence of sex technology.uponCompanies that stood out: Norwegian companies Great Dokicreator of handy And Oh!, launched at CES, was a refreshing addition to an otherwise staid tech world. Their booth was buzzing with activity, a stark contrast to the event where sex technology was almost non-existent.
It’s unclear whether CES itself is trying to make the show floor less sexy. The show itself has evolved a lot over the years, and this correspondent thinks he was relieved to see so-called “babes in the booth” almost absent: much has changed since his first CES around 2007. Yes, there were scantily clad models everywhere. But while I applaud the banishment of sexism and the objectification of humans in booths in 2024, sex itself should have a place in the language of technology.
I wonder why, as a community, we continue to erase sexuality from technology so much when it is such a universal part of the human experience.