Sex tech made a splash as a new category at CES 2020 — an event that was somehow just months ago — but it was specifically Lora DiCarlo’s Baci toy that dominated the show floor. The award-winning Baci is launching today alongside the company’s new virtual sexual wellness coaching service — because, you know, staying at home is boring and there are certainly worse ways to entertain yourself.
Baci, like Lora DiCarlo’s other Osé sex toys, is aimed at “break[ing] down orgasm barriers” via some advanced microrobotics and bio-memetics. That is to say, you technically can’t call them dildos or vibrators, because that’s not how they function. Baci, on top of being body-safe, waterproof, and rechargeable, is notable because it supposedly mimics human touch. The microbotics and airflow tech are meant to recreate the “feeling of a mouth, lips, and tongue over the clitoris.” The press release gets into some more descriptive terms — things like “light suction,” “blended orgasm,” and “rhythmic thrumming” — but the idea is that it’s a device that’s meant to help those of us with a clitoris orgasm more easily.
“The largest U.S. study of female sexual dysfunction, from American Sexual Health Association, found that 21% of women are unable to achieve orgasm despite being aroused, which is something we wanted to address with Baci and our comprehensive approach to self-care,” Lora Haddock DiCarlo, CEO and founder of Lora DiCarlo, said in a statement.
It’s also the reason why Lora DiCarlo is now launching WellSx — virtual, 1-to-1 sexual wellness coaching sessions. The program reportedly involves 50-minute sessions with a certified sexual wellness coach and is aimed at addressing problems like shame, guilt, low libido, low confidence, etc. The company has also created a website where people can educate themselves on better sex via how-tos, interviews with experts, basic information about orgasms and the body, and tips on how to find the right toys.
Admittedly, the Baci and WellSx are a bit pricey — the Baci retails for $US160 ($229), while single WellSx sessions cost $US120 ($172) and a 4-pack is $US432 ($618). That said, sex tech has long struggled to be treated with the same respect for technological achievements as other gadgets. You only have to see how Lora DiCarlo was treated at CES 2019 to see that — most likely because this is a category that’s largely spearheaded by women-identifying people, for women-identifying customers. (More broadly, that extends even further to the lack of funding that goes toward startups founded by non-male entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.) At CES 2020, the overwhelming majority of sex tech exhibitors were small businesses owned by women.
But even though the Baci and WellSx sessions may be pricey, they’re objectively great on many levels. For starters, lord knows that sheltering at home can make people batty and that orgasms are a great form of stress relief. But on a more serious note, it’s encouraging to see technology used to advocate for sex-positive health, instead of it being relegated to some seedy corner of the internet.