Designing better sex toys

Regina Lynn has written an intriguing Wired report on the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Choosing not to focus on the porn being hawked she instead zeros in on sex toys - from the high-spec and stylishly packaged vibrator designed by "two aerospace engineers in love", to the Sounds Erotic stories available on Audible.com - and notes that "the true innovators at this year's porn convention are the women and couples who take advantage of high-tech to bring pleasure into the bedroom."

It's just a shame she has to justify the female slant of her piece:

My editors often remind me that most -- but not all, if my e-mail is anything to go by -- Wired News readers are male. Male or female, you're definitely among the most tech-savvy people on earth. If you've never thought of sex toys as high-tech, here's a chance to change your mind.

I definitely think sex toys need sensitive design thought, and this will only happen when the production process involves more people from outside the regular 'adult entertainment' sphere. Myla really took the lead on this, by commissioning three talented designers to re-imagine the vibrator. Mari-Ruth Oda, a ceramicist, says this of her Myla creation: "I am interested in how the body becomes a negative space when moulding itself to the positive space of a human form. This interest encouraged me to make an object of beauty that would be tempting to hold and to explore, or explore with."

And Coco de Mer, the London-based 'erotic emporium' also sells objects beautifully designed for women.

The coming age of "teledildonics and cell-phone vibrators" just amuses me, though, when I imagine a range of sex toys designed by a bunch of engineers.

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