Helpful Articles For Everyone.: This New Vibrator Could Change How Women Talk About Their Own Sexuality

Photos: Stocksy

When you think of items that boost women's empowerment and self-esteem, you might not immediately think of a vibrator—but the Lioness vibrator is looking to change that. Since launching on Indiegogo on February 9, the product has already received all $50,000 of its desired funding. So what makes this sex toy so unique that everybody is rushing to get behind it?

Lioness has an ergonomic handle, safe materials, battery notifications, a travel lock, and buttons that all feel different—so you know what you're doing in the dark—but those aren't its defining features. The most innovative part of this toy isn't the vibrator itself, but rather the app that comes with it.

Through sensors on the toy that detect motion and temperature, the app can actually tell you what your sexual arousal pattern looks like. Beta testers have used it to track an incredible array of things: their menstrual cycle, when sex feels best for them, how much foreplay they need, and other features of their sexuality that they were always curious about but didn't know how to discover.

The company's cofounder and CEO, Liz Klinger, spoke with us about how the idea for Lioness first struck her and the process of creating the toy and app.

Glamour: How did you become interested in helping women learn about their bodies?

Liz Klinger: To be honest, at first, I was helping myself. I came from a more conservative upbringing where sex just wasn't talked about. The lack of information and stigma around the topic made me curious to learn more.

Over time, I started to talk to friends and then did things like Tupperware-style parties selling intimacy products, and then I realized that I wasn't the only one who felt uncertain and had questions about sex. Many, many other women had questions, from all backgrounds and ages.

Because of the taboo, there are very few opportunities where people feel comfortable asking questions about their own sexual preferences—it's not something you just talk about casually during dinnertime, but certain questions don't feel right asking the gynecologist, either. But they're questions, often about your own body, that you want a way to start answering so you can start a conversation with yourself, a partner, or both.

How did you decide that creating an intelligent vibrator was the best way for you to encourage these conversations?

A lot of questions and curiosity pertain to what you like and why your body is the way it is. One issue is that, because of the stigma and expectations around female sexuality, there usually isn't good information. Some books and online resources can sometimes help, but even if you find good ones, not every piece of advice is applicable to everyone in the same way. No one is exactly the same.

Making a product that can help you learn more about your body and what you like made the most sense—and making it in a way where you can learn more about yourself and can try out new things over time fits well with our desire to try new things.

How did you go about developing the product?

Lots and lots of prototyping, and lots of feedback. It sounds silly when you talk about prototyping and testing for vibrators, but it's the same thing that's done for every other well-designed product imaginable. You want to make something that people enjoy and something that enriches their lives.

I've had many experiences seeing vibrators that are made out of low-quality materials, are built in weird shapes or with weak motors, or are even painful and make you wonder if they consulted anyone when making them. So it was especially important for our team to make something and get that feedback, because we want to provide people with a great experience instead of a lackluster one.

What exactly does Lioness measure?

On a high level, we're trying to help people understand how they get aroused and what their orgasms are connected to. Specifically, we use sensors that pick up on vaginal contractions, temperature, and the way you position the vibrator.

One of the simplest but most requested measures during testing was how long it takes for you to orgasm. A lot of people asked out of just curiosity, but we started to find it feeds into understanding how much foreplay you need as well.

That's one example, but the broader point of what Lioness does for people is that it allows for exploration and connection. You can figure out that one measure connects to foreplay, but you can also draw connections between other parts of your life. When are you most aroused? How does it relate to other factors like mood? We're still doing testing, but there's also an entirely new continent of insights we're exploring.

How has the vibrator impacted the women who have used it so far?

As we've done our testing, we've found that the biggest benefit isn't the exact data that we provide. It's more the ability to get feedback and from there ignite sexual curiosity and the willingness to explore. It sounds weird to say, but it's almost like being able to track what you're doing gives you permission to be curious and really explore. It creates a structure that you can refer to, and when we start attaching data, it creates a vocabulary—or at least visual pattern—around "that thing I feel."

Related to that, we've also found it's been really helpful for communicating with partners. Our main focus is on your own self-discovery, but for a lot of people, a big reason for it is greater intimacy and understand to use with a partner. One thing that's been fascinating is how data breaks down expectations. Sexuality is pretty fraught with different societal expectations. Women often have a burden of a bunch of expectations around purity and what they should and shouldn't feel. And men often have expectations around "performance." These aren't the only ones, and different people feel them to different degrees.

But being able to do something like—for one husband and wife in our tests—allowing the wife to feel comfortable saying that certain things they experience when together is just how her body works (she isn't a deviant), and the husband to not feel that he's failing...that changes the conversation a lot and leads to healthier places. Everyone's conversation is different, but we think creating a place for people to comfortably have them is crucial.