CLAIRE LAMPEN
Butterflies and other animals are far from rare in the sex tech industry: feather boa-ed rubber ducks; pink, ball-balancing dolphins; clit-tapping turtles; horse penis dildos abound. That abundance raises some questions, like who assumed we want to fuck dolphins? Who decided female sexuality should either be childish, or bestial? And if the sheer variety of vibrators currently available to women suggests empowerment, what does it say that so many come in the shape of gooey purple butterflies?
Two sexologists I spoke with speculated that imitation animal penises are fetish items likely not intended for the mainstream women's market, but zoomorphic vibrators represented another beast entirely. Their history "says a lot about how sex toys are still seen as 'threatening' and how far we have to go to normalize masturbation for women," sexologist Dr. Jill McDevitt said on a phone call.
Inarguably the most famous of the animal vibrator kingdom, the Rabbit hails from Japan, where obscenity laws effectively bar the distribution of products that might sexually arouse consumers. Thus, Japanese manufacturers have taken to camouflaging sex toys as children's toys, often with an animal theme.
In the early 1980s, an American buyer looked to Japan for a new vibrator that could improve on the various "uncooked hotdog" colored options dominating the U.S. market, Shay Martin, vice president of Rabbit manufacturer Vibratex, explained. In Japan, the buyer encountered a groundbreaking design concept: dual-action stimulation, cloaked in bunny's clothing. Vibratex brought the Rabbit to the US from Japan in 1983, and became the first U.S. company to market a woman's pleasure wand that incorporated clitoral stimulation with vaginal penetration.
No one decided women wanted to fuck dolphins—that would have required thinking about what women wanted in the first place
Of all Vibratex's variations on that theme—the Turtle with its piston-like neck; the Kangaroo with fluttering paws and tongue—none grabbed attention quite like the pearlescent pink phallus that infamously kept Sex and the City's Charlotte tangled in her sheets for days. That may have helped make the Rabbit a household name, Martin said, but the product stuck thanks to its innocuous packaging—devoid of porn stars—a symbol of women's pleasure and approachability.
"It was just geared more toward making women feel comfortable," Martin explained. "It just made them feel good, and also, you know, a rabbit, that's cute and adorable and it didn't look like a big phallic shape, it wasn't huge, it didn't scream VIBRATOR, I think that did make women feel more comfortable in approaching the product."
30 years later, "rabbit" means "dual-action vibrator" the same way "Chapstick" means "lip balm." We can chalk up that ubiquity to a bunch of manufacturers drinking from the same well: shortly after Vibratex brought the Rabbit stateside, knock-offs came hopping down Chinese assembly lines.
According to Alicia Sinclair, Founder & CEO of b-Vibe & Le Wand, that's typically how it goes in the small world of sex tech: the main players look to a handful of Chinese manufacturers to develop their wares. If one company rakes in huge sales on an item, then the concept will catch on like the common cold, begetting knockoffs with shoddy craftsmanship and subpar materials, and flooded the market with a design that isn't ergonomically suited to many women's bodies, Sinclair said.
"I think it almost was like, 'Oh yeah, just put a butterfly on there,'" Sinclair continued. "I think there were men designing products; I think they didn't put a lot of thought into the complex sexuality of women, or even really know what women wanted, and to be really honest, I don't think they particularly cared."
No one decided women wanted to fuck dolphins—that would have required thinking about what women wanted in the first place. Many toy makers seem to have stopped at, Women like pink fuzzy shit, right?