
Phillips, the electronics company,
announced this week that it will be developing a line of "tasteful" vibrators designed at the "neglected" 35-55 sex toy using community (in the UK only, for now). I'm all for putting more quality sex toys on the market - it's always nice to have options when they're well made. But I have a few issues as well.First, Phillips seems to be marketing this almost as if all of the other sex toys currently on the market
weren't tasteful. I'll admit that quite a few are not, but what isn't tasteful about the
Nea, the
Tuyo, the
Petit Ami or the
SaSi? Those toys rock and deserve some credit for their classiness. Phillips didn't invent the idea, they're just capitalizing on it now that sex toys have become more acceptable. I'd like to question what "tasteful" even really means - is it just that it doesn't automatically look like a sex toy? If so, that speaks more to a shame about sex than wanting something to be smartly designed which is sad.Second, it's interesting to me that Phillips is designing their toys specifically for people who are 35-55. Maybe in the UK things are different but at Babeland we sell the same toys to people who are 21 or 37 or 53. Are my tastes in vibrators suddenly going to change the day I turn 35? Also, why are they only targeting people until 55? Do older folks not like vibrators or are we going to have to design yet another range of vibrators just for them? Babeland would have to start organizing our store by age so people would know where to shop! Why not just say you're designing luxury vibrators that anyone can use?What do you think? Is Phillips rightly appealing to a specific demographic or are they a little off?