Awarding then banning a robotic sex toy at this year's Consumer Electronics Show proves the technology industry's oblivious attitude towards women's wants and needs, says tech writer Holly Brockwell.

It surprises no one to hear that the world of tech is sexist, but the ways in which that sexism manifests can still shock even those of us knee-deep in the industry. The news this week that the best-known tech tradeshow in the world ? the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas ? banned a women's sex toy from its halls was one of those occasions.
Having been to CES and other tech shows plenty of times, I'm depressingly familiar with women being ignored, talked down to, sleazed on, and used as decoration. But even my jaw dropped at the downright backwards events of this week, in which CES gave one of its prestigious Innovation Awards to a robotic sex toy for women, then rescinded it, then banned said toy from the show entirely. The Consumer Technology Association, which runs the show, told the toy's manufacturer Lora DiCarlo that products "deemed by CTA in their sole discretion to be immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA's image" were barred.
The message Osé's banishment sends is that women's sexual pleasure has no place at CES
Firstly, there has long been sextech at CES, so this sudden prudishness is bizarre. Secondly, there is nothing immoral, obscene, indecent or profane about women's sexual enjoyment, so I can only assume the...