Sex Toy Company Suing New York City's MTA for Disallowing Ads

The MTA found a new way to disappoint people.

Sex toy company Dame is suing New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority for refusing to run its ads geared towards women’s sexual satisfaction, The Verge reported. This is despite the fact, according to Dame’s lawsuit, that the MTA has, in the past, allowed ads for everything from erectile disfunction drugs to condoms to paper its train cars.

Dame believes it knows why it’s getting the shaft from the MTA — the company claims the rejection is rooted in sexism and is the result of the MTA’s “squeamishness about openly acknowledging female sexual pleasure,” according to The Verge.

We're suing the @MTA for rejecting our vibrator ads. Their decision to block our vulva-friendly message while privileging penile products like ED meds is sexist, and reveals a vague, selective enforcement of their "standards." Help us #DerailSexism! https://t.co/CUNToZXJF7

— Dame Products (@DameProducts) June 18, 2019

While the sex toy industry as a whole faces numerous hurdles with advertising, items and brands marketing specifically to women have it worse. The largely women-run sex toy company Lora DiCarlo had an award from the Consumer Technology Association stripped away earlier this month, despite the recognition other brands in the industry received, The Verge noted. The award was reinstated after the association received backlash for the move.

But in Dame’s case, the MTA’s decision “reflects its Victorian view of sexuality and disproportionately harms women,” and is a violation of the company’s first amendment rights.

The MTA, however, disagrees.

The agency is “constitutionally entitled,” according to a spokesperson, to enforce ad restrictions and those guidelines are “in no way gender-based or viewpoint discriminatory.”

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