Published , by Josh Hawkins
Published , by Josh Hawkins
CES is an exciting time for technology lovers, and the tradeshow has always seen a fairly diverse number of different types of tech out on the show floor. This year, female-focused adult toy creator Lora DiCarlo was set to dominate the floor with the company’s first product, Osé. Submitted for the CES Innovation Awards, the company was ecstatic to learn that the Consumer Technology Association (or CTA, the company that runs and produces CES) had chosen their product for the CES Robotics Innovation Award, a highly coveted award among technology makers that attend CES.
A month after being told their product had been given an award, though, the folks at Lora DiCarlo received saddening news. Not only had the CTA revoked their award, but the company wouldn’t even be allowed to showcase the Osé, or even have an exhibit at CES 2019. According to Lora Haddock, founder and CEO of Lora DiCarlo, CES cited the following rule as the reason for the events:
“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 wellbeing of any person, or fails to comply with these Official Rules.”
Furthermore, Haddock has also stated that this isn’t the only reasoning that CES has given for revoking the award and keeping them from showing off their product on the CES showfloor, but she doesn’t really touch on any of these 'other' reasons in a massive post that she published on the official Lora DiCarlo website. It should be mentioned, though, that last year at CES, robotics company Abyss Creations debuted a realistic sex doll targeted at men--in the video interview with Christopher Trout, the company's spokesman stated that a male model of the robot was in the works as well. On top of that, there have been exhibits from VR porn companies on the CES showfloor in the past, which leads to some confusion as to how the Osé meets any of the disqualifying reasons listed in the CTA’s original response to Lora DiCarlo.
What’s the real reason for the CTA pulling the award? That's the big question here. All we have to go off of right now is the information provided by Haddock on the company's website. Whatever the case may be, though, it’s clear that there is an issue here that needs to be addressed by the technology industry as a whole. Whether gender bias is the root of this particular issue, or there is some other reason for what’s transpired, the technology industry continues to be a rollercoaster for women trying to innovate and bring new technology to the world. We’ll be sure to update this story with more information as it becomes available. For now, though, all we can do is wait to see if the CTA makes any official statement on the matter.
You can keep up with all the other news coming out of this year's tradeshow by heading over to our CES 2019 home page.