The show organisers, yesterday.
DEJA VU, ANYONE? Earlier this year, CES stripped a sex toy maker of an award and banned her from showing the product at the event, for fear of offending the prudish men eying up the various sex robots and VR porn on display.
Now Samsung has apparently managed to add a degree of extra crassness to the classless move: it has kicked a sex toy designer from a conference co-hosted by SF Women in Tech.
Liz Klinger, the co-founder and CEO of Lioness claims she was asked to remove her stand from the event – “Growth and Innovation in the Wearable Device Market” – after previously being approved for the show.
“They said that Lioness shouldn’t be there because ‘it wasn’t women’s health,'” Klinger told The Next Web. “I told them about our biofeedback and data aspect and how we’re covering different research and presenting at healthcare and research conferences, they told me ‘it wasn’t a wearable’ so the product still shouldn’t be there.”
It’s probably a semantic point as to whether a sex toy is a wearable or not, but Lioness’ product certainly qualifies as tech, as the vibrator takes readings from its various sensors and turn them into art. As Klinger later added via Twitter: “Lots of talk about fertility and watches for women though… but womxn’s pleasure is not ok.”
At the very least, somebody didn’t do a very good job of reading through applications, given Klinger claims she was originally approved. Maybe they thought it said “dodo.”
In the case of CES, the organisers eventually conceded they “did not handle the award properly” and have vowed to do better in future. They wouldn’t be organised on how exactly, at the time, but with CES just five months away, you’d hope they have an idea themselves. µ