In 2014, Alexandra Fine and Janet Lieberman took to Indiegogo hoping to get financial backing for their sex toy Eva. Despite being completely new to the world of sex toys, the women had come up with something unique: A hands-free, strapless couples’ vibrator. It was one of a kind and because of that fact, people took notice. In just 45 days, their Indiegogo raised $575,000, instantly becoming the most highly-funded sex toy in the history of online crowdfunding. With that, Dame Products was born, and Fine and Lieberman could get their product officially off the ground and onto the market.
“The whole thing is actually a coincidence,” Fine, Dame Products’ Co-Founder and CEO tells Bustle. “In June 2014, I met Janet through mutual acquaintances that strangely enough, thought we were the same person. Crazy, right? At that time, I had basically been going around from meet up to meet up, looking for engineer to help me bring my concept to life. At the same time, Janet had told a friend that she was starting a sex toy company — and voila! We got in touch, realized how similar our vision was, and got to working."
And what they worked on was game-changing. "As far as vibrators go, Eva’s really unique because it’s a hands-free vibrator that stays in place all on its own, without any extra straps or garments," Dame says. "It also stands out, because it focuses on clitoral stimulation during sex. Eva’s has flexible wings that keep the vibrator in place by comfortably tucking under a woman’s labia majora, and it’s equally as effective when used alone as it is when used with someone else."
Introducing Fin
Now, two years later, Fine, who has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Columbia, and Lieberman, a mechanical engineer who graduated from MIT, are back with Fin — and on Kickstarter. Fin, unlike Eva, isn’t hands-free at all. Instead, it’s a vibrator that’s worn between the fingers. From here, the vibrator takes intimate touching between partners (or solo) up several notches, by adding something extra to the clitoral stimulation part of sex.
Considering 75 to 80 percent of women need clitoral stimulation to orgasm, this product, similar to Eva, is also revolutionary in many ways. Its Dame Products' way of taking their mission to close the “Pleasure Gap” between men and women even more, because seriously, the ratio at which men and women achieve orgasm is definitely something that needs to fixed.
"We wanted to continue designing products that helped close the 'Pleasure Gap,' products that could be used unobtrusively to help increase intimacy and pleasure," says Fine. "After creating Eva, we heard from some potential customers that did love the hands-free-ness aspects of Eva. Some of them wanted to be more engaged in using the vibrator on their partner (or themselves). So we started testing out all hand worn products and none of them were meeting our standards, so we invented Fin."
The Process
In regards to the process for creating Fin, compared to Eva, things were a bit different this time around. As Fine tells Bustle, "We've left ourselves more time and managed our expectations appropriately. We've tested Fin with more people, gathered more data, and acquired better results!"
What this means is that they bought every vibrator you can wear on your hands, tested them all, then reported on them. They weighed the pros and cons of each item, their likes and dislikes, as well as surveyed those who use finger vibrators, asking them why they were intrigued to buy them in the first place.
"We believe that we will not have true gender equality until we have pleasure equality."
"After identifying key features (which for us were: ease of use, versatility, and unobtrusiveness) we got cracking on a range of potential products. Using our fleet of 3-D printers we were able to create prototypes quickly, send them out for testing and then iterate on those designs until we had something we were proud of. It's a human centric design approach, which is not widely used in the space because it takes a lot of work, but we believe it results in better products and your vulva deserves it!"
But Back To That Pleasure Gap
Whether you call it a “Pleasure Gap” or an “Orgasm Gap,” the difference in how often men climax compared to how often women climax in heterosexual relationships is huge. According to a 2015 Cosmopolitan survey, 57 percent of women orgasm “most” or “every time” they have sex with a partner. However, on the other hand, that percentage is 95 for men. The same survey also found that 72 percent of women reported their male partners finished before them, then didn’t even bother to help them achieve orgasm, too. (Come on, guys!) Which, of course, just keeps that orgasm gap wide open, contributing to overall gender inequality.
But Fine and Lieberman want otherwise; they want a future in which that gap no longer exists. “We believe that we will not have true gender equality until we have pleasure equality,” Fine tells Bustle. “Everyone has the right to sexual pleasure!”
And she's right. Between Eva and Dame Products' latest, Fin, we're well on our way to zipping that gap right up, one orgasm at a time, and keeping it closed.
Images: Dame Products
