The country’s largest consumer electronics convention has restored an award that it had promised to give — but then rescinded — to a high-tech sex toy for women and gender-nonconforming people. The convention, CES, is held each January in Las Vegas to great anticipation. An appearance — and certainly, an award — at the show can give a company a crucial boost and help it attract investors. That’s why the owners of Lora DiCarlo, a start-up based in Oregon, were gobsmacked in October when they were told that their hands-free personal massager, the Osé, would win an Innovation Award in the robotics and drones category — only to learn weeks later that the decision had been reversed. In an open letter that spurred an outcry when it was published on the first day of the conference in January, the company’s founder and chief executive, Lora Haddock, accused the show of sexism and stifling innovation.

Source: New York Times May 09, 2019 23:37 UTC