Cover Anna Lee, co-founder of Lioness (Photo: courtesy of Lioness)
Anna Lee, co-founder of Lioness (Photo: courtesy of Lioness)
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How the founders of Lioness and The Oh Collective are creating a safe space in which women can explore their sexuality and be empowered by embracing it
During the pandemic, the sex toy industry boomed. “In the privacy of their home and having more time for themselves, people felt inspired to try out new things,” says Elisabeth Neumann, a sexologist and user research manager at the Lovehoney Group, a British online store that carries sex toys, lingerie and erotic gifts from brands such as Lovehoney, WOW Tech, Womanizer, Amorana and more.
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In fact, in 2021 alone the world spent US$19 billion on sex toys, which is almost twice as much as it had in 2016, and the growth is predicted to continue. Is this an indication that more people, including women, are taking matters into their own hands? Perhaps. And if that’s the case, it’s hardly surprising.
Even before entering the sexual wellbeing industry in the early 2010s, Anna Lee had discovered what a male-dominated space it was—which was simultaneously expected but still surprising.
Like many things, including from films to art, female pleasure was being perceived through a male gaze, the Korean engineer and former Kindle-employee tells Tatler. And the problem with products for women being made by those who do not live in a woman’s body was a complete misunderstanding of the female body, and how to pleasure it.
“I’ve heard crazy things at conferences,” Lee says. “[Once, a male] founder of a sex-toy company told me that the industry standard was to put a vibrator on the tip of your nose to feel what a clitoris would feel”.
Also crazy to her at the time was the products’ designs itself. Most of the sex toys available were pink “because women only like pink, obviously,” she says, and only phallic-shaped, as if female masturbation “had to replicate heterosexual [penetrative] sex”.
Lee already knew very well that women rarely orgasm through penetration alone, and adhering to designs based on the assumption that they can only perpetuated this misconception when, in fact, according to a 2022 study by the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 82 per cent of women require clitoral stimulation to orgasm.
As the industry persisted in designing phallic-shaped toys, she knew it was time to innovate; and that a woman had to take the lead.
“Back in the 90s, sex toys were mostly designed as fleshy, veiny dildos or cheap plastic toys [that break easily], but a lot has changed since then,” says Neumann. Nowadays, sex toys designs have become smaller, more minimalistic, and are available in a wide range of colours. Vibrators with an emphasis on clitoral stimulation over penetration have also taken over the market, as they prove to be a better match for women’s bodies and needs.
We have cis-female and queer people to thank for the evolution, Neumann says, as “[diversification of the industry] really allowed it to let go of the ‘realistic’ replicas of genitalia, and to think big, crazy and unconventionally”.
Lee was already thinking big, crazy and unconventionally early on. In 2013, she became the co-founder and vice president of engineering at Lioness, a women-led brand responsible for an award-winning, first-of-its-kind smart vibrator with an app that can track a user’s involuntary pelvic floor contractions during orgasm.
Lee and her Lioness co-founder Liz Klinger led the revolution and created sex toys that were unique in design and technology, with the data-tracking science they included actively contributing to the research on female sexual pleasure. And this knowledge is both needed and empowering, because female pleasure can be influenced by a slew of factors, including depressive episodes, childbirth, menopause, concussion, hormonal changes, lifestyle and diet—and the AI integrated in Lioness helps its users better understand all of that.
“In an era where we’re tracking everything yet simultaneously know very little about female pleasure, we knew we could contribute to changing that,” Lee says. “People underestimate how important it is to understand our own bodies, and how so many factors can impact pleasure”.
Today, Lioness has the world's largest database on female physiological sexual function, and they’re collaborating with scientists to study the correlation between sexual pleasure and mental and physical health.
Above From left to right: Winxi, Diana, Simona and Eden from the Oh Collective (Photo: courtesy of the Oh Collective)
From left to right: Winxi, Diana, Simona and Eden from the Oh Collective (Photo: courtesy of the Oh Collective)
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That success Lioness is experiencing and the information it has gathered have resulted in a shift in approach within the industry that acknowledges that women’s sexual satisfaction is not only about physical pleasure anymore—it is also about health and wellness. A concept that was well-understood by The Oh Collective, a Shanghai-based intimate wellness company helmed by Eden Chiang, Diana Lin, Winxi Kan and Simona Xu, ethnically Chinese Third Culture Kids who were raised in North America and the Netherlands.
“We are working on pushing a different narrative with The Oh Collective,” Winxi told Tatler during a call that spanned Hong Kong, mainland China, Thailand and the Netherlands as its members are currently scattered around the globe. ”Sex is a global experience and [its definition is] so much broader than how it’d been defined in the past.”
The women of The Oh Collective are “four girlfriends from Asian heritage” who started their own sex toy company after conversations they’d had about sexual wellness with a small community of people in Shanghai back in 2018.
“The way people explore their sexual life will be influenced by their [culture],” says Eden. “In our case, despite our western [upbringing], we all come from pretty conservative Chinese families where sex was taboo and not talked about. So, when we started our work in Shanghai, we realised that education was the most needed.”
First lesson being: it’s high time women had a seat at the table when it comes to making the sexual wellbeing industry a more safe, welcoming and inclusive space.
When The Oh Collective talked to Tatler, two of their members had just been to Shanghai’s biggest sex fair, where they shared a disturbing reel on Instagram of what it feels like as women in the industry. Between booths were alleys full of naked plastic models with giant breasts male attendees groped freely, and phallic dildos being inserted into even more naked plastic models that were made to look like very young girls was not an uncommon sight.
“It was so shocking,” Diana says. “It's completely uncomfortable and when we were walking [around] the fair, men were staring at us not as founders, but as if we were objects.”
The Oh Collective also wants to raise awareness for the need to test for sexually transmitted diseases and normalise the conversation about masturbation. To do that, they have designed their platform to be a safe space to have those discussions, and a place where women’s basic and sexual needs are met. Besides sex toys, their platform also offers period underwear and what they call “mood setters”, including massage oil, candles, gua sha stones and more.
On top of that, The Oh Collective also publishes articles and hosts podcasts on a wide range of sex-related subjects. From the effects of anxiety on sex and freezing your eggs to genital mutilation, the organisation is expanding the conversation surrounding female bodies and sexuality, and redefining how sex, in relation to women, is perceived.
“We’re [redirecting the] narrative on female pleasure [away from] pornography and dark sex shops, because it is truly about self-care,” Simona says. “And, as women, we have so much to lose from ignorance on this subject.”
From a sexology perspective, Neumann couldn’t agree more: “Apart from being a stimulation device, a sex toy has also became a symbol,” she says. “It became a symbol for self-care, sexual empowerment, independence, and self-confidence.”
Salomé Grouard was Digital Editor and Front & Female Content Lead at Tatler Hong Kong. Primarily focused on managing Tatler Hong Kong’s digital platform and content, she also covers gender equality, the music scene and sports through interviews with industry leaders, experts and trendsetters.
Interview highlights include renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, Korean actor Park Seo Jun, singer Jorja Smith, Chinese TV host Yue-Sai Kan, YouTuber Kimono Mom, Japanese rapper Awich, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Mikey Musumeci.
She has also produced stories on revolutionising sexual wellness in Asia, activism within the surfing community, Asian trans musicians reclaiming their narratives through music and looked at the toxicity of gym culture through the lens of the plus-size community. She also covers music festivals, such as Hong Kong’s Clockenflap and Bali’s Suara.
