Could A Smart Vibrator Revolutionize The Way We Talk About Sex?

Katie Tandy
The Establishment
Published in
8 min readApr 28, 2017

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Lioness is so much more than ‘just a vibrator’ — it’s out to shift social mores.

MMasturbation conjures all kinds of images, few of which are typically called beautiful, empowering, or communication-improving.

“Touching yourself” is a term that’s still snickered over and scoffed at. It’s an act that’s largely been made synonymous with lonely, hormone-thrumming teenage boys miserably hunched over their desktop computers, clutching Kleenex in the blue glow of their sticky bedroom.

I exaggerate, but just by a little. Pornography is a multibillion-dollar industry almost entirely predicated on folks taking matters into their own hands, if you will…and yet we still find ourselves in a neo-Puritanical hellscape where masturbation is a dirty word.

Especially for women.

Not surprisingly, this societally-sanctioned shame of self-exploration and satisfaction has pathologized masturbation and rendered a huge swathe of women ignorant of their own bodies. They don’t know what they like: how hard or how long is ideal, if they’re a penetration person or a clitoral person. Or both! Do I need lots of foreplay? Do I need my nipples pinched? What makes me come harder than other times? What’s it all

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Katie Tandy
The Establishment

writer. editor. maker. EIC @medium.com/the-public-magazine. Former co-founder thepulpmag.com + The Establishment. Civil rights! Feminist Sci Fi! Sequins!