A Sex Toy Company Is Suing New York City's Subways

you could visualize analogies for droopy penises on subway ads in New York City — including phallic-looking cacti and upset roosters — yet nothing for femme-centered sex toys.


That’s why Dame, a sex toy firm founded by two females, is suing New York City’s transit organization for refusing to run its subway ads.


Dame says they submitted ads to the MTA in July 2018, and the MTA sent a beginning approval and then some feedback. They sent their final ads in November 2018 and waited to hear back. Three weeks later, the MTA declined their campaign, saying it went against MTA advertising tips. So Dame determined to sue the MTA to protest what they mention is a “sexist policy” and to “address its repercussions for vulva-havers everywhere.” They filed the suit on June 18.


“NYC’s transit business perpetuates a harmful double regular. They resisted Dame’s exhilarating new subway ad campaign, citing vague and sexist reasons. Their message: There’s plenty of space for erectile dysfunction narcotics, however none for innovators making sex enjoyable for women,” Dame mentioned on its website. (The organization is also providing clients $5 off their buy in honor of the suit with a code that reflects their messaging: #DerailSexism.)


This isn’t the initial advertisement blockade Dame has encountered — sex toy agencies, particularly those focusing on people who have vaginas, allege having a more notoriously complicated time placing advertisements that other agencies in the sexual wellness field just don’t face. Dame wasn’t allowed to use Kickstarter any time it first launched, and according to the Verge, ads for sex toys are barred from Facebook, are restricted on other ad platforms and several payment processors are unwilling to stage name transactions for sex toys, fearing the brand reciprocations they may face. Nevertheless this is one of the initial times Dame, or any other sex toy firm, has taken this sort of rejection to court.


In response, MTA Chief External Affairs Officer Maxwell Young mentioned in a statement to MTV News that Dame’s accusations of sexism are “clearly inaccurate because the MTA’s advertising is in no way gender-based or viewpoint discriminatory.”


Young pointed to the MTA’s FAQs about its advertising policy, in which it says the “MTA Advertising Policy prohibits any advertisement that promotes a ‘sexually oriented business,’ and advertisements for sex toys or devices for any gender fall within this category.”


However Dame argues that ads for erectile dysfunction, female libido medication, condoms, breast augmentation, and the Museum of Sex, all of which are allowed to advertise on the subway, are inherently “sexually oriented” organizations. The MTA has approved ads for both Hims and Roman, corporations that sell erectile dysfunction medication among their products; their ads have not been subtle about their wares.


This isn’t the initial time the MTA has been accused of sexism in its ad placement. In 2018, the MTA came under fire for refusing to permit Unbound, a corporation that sells sexual aids targeted at girls, to place ads in the subway. They ended up reversing their course and saying they’d work with Unbound if they could find a way to advertise the company’s products without violating MTA’s rules, according to the New York Times. And in 2015, it was only soon after a contentious, public battle that the menstrual underwear brand THINX says its ads were approved by the MTA.


The MTA mentioned they believe there’s a big distinction between sex toys and pharmaceutical illegal substances or museums, adding that “the MTA is constitutionally entitled to draw reasonable content-based distinctions between different types of advertisements and to imagine its diverse customers.”


Dame doesn’t agree. “The MTA’s choice to resist Dame’s advertisements reflects no legitimate principle of law,” the lawsuit reads, adding that the agency’s rejection of their ads “reveals the MTA’s sexism, its choice to privilege male interests in its advertising choices, and its fundamental misunderstanding of Dame’s products.”


It looks like there’s going to be a long road ahead for Dame and the MTA. In a statement, the MTA promised to “vigorously defend this lawsuit” and have already reported their lawyers for the case: “the preeminent First Amendment lawyer Victor Kovner and his colleagues.”