Meet Dame Products: By Women, for Women

If you visit the Dame Products website, the first thing you notice is that it is young, hip, straightforward, and unapologetic. The second thing you notice is that the company’s co-founders, Alexandra Fine and Janet Lieberman, are very smart. Janet, in fact, has a degree in engineering from MIT, and Alex has a master’s in Social Work, specializing in marriage counseling and sex therapy, from Columbia.

Their company is on a mission: “to design well-engineered sex toys, to heighten intimacy, and to openly empower the sexual experiences of womankind.”  And they aren’t kidding.

From their first meeting in June 2014 until they crowdfunded Eva, their first vibrator, on Indiegogo, raising $575,000 in six weeks, Dame Products has been on a tear.

What you notice about that first product, Eva, is that it is small-ish, unobtrusive, and kind of weird-looking—somewhat bug-like. And that it doesn’t come in pink. (There is, in fact, very little pink anywhere on the website.) Eva does come with wings, which are designed to be tucked inside your labia, making it a hands-free device during sex. In fact, the pressure of a partner’s body during sex ratchets up the sensation, according to one reviewer. (We hope to offer the Eva soon.) 

Eva was followed by Fin, a two-finger device that comes with a detachable “tether.” You can either slip your fingers through the tether (for those of us lacking in the manual dexterity department) or use it without.

Both are high-quality (medical-grade silicon), carefully designed products made by women for women—an idea whose time is long overdue. Dame aims to uncouple sex toys from the provocative and erotic—the “male gaze”—and toward an everyday tool that actually works for women. “We want them to be like something from Ikea, not the lingerie shop,” says Fine. Tellingly, its products aren’t shaped like dildos, which don’t actually stimulate the clitoris. These ladies understand that female orgasm can be finicky and that the action has to be in the right spot.

Another element that distinguishes these vibes from many others is their low-tech simplicity. You can’t program a playlist with it or choose among a selection of designer vibrations. There’s a button on top and a choice of three speeds. Easy peazy. “Because that’s what women were telling us they want,” says Fine.

Although the brand has a young, millennial sensibility, chances are that the over-50 customer will appreciate it for the same reasons as her younger cohort: it’s petite and attractive; it’s practical; it works; and Eva, especially, is designed with couple sex in mind. Not to mention being the first fully-female-designed brand on the market, which we all appreciate.

Expect to hear more from Dame. A dedicated department—Dame Lab—is soliciting ideas and comments from women—and men—for future products. Do the vibes need more power for older users? Do you have suggestions that might make it better? Talk to the dames. “We welcome feedback,” says Fine. “The community really drives our ideas.”

Personally, I appreciate a company that’s unapologetic and passionate about designing quality sex toys. It’s time these products move from the realm of the semi-kinky to something that we all can talk about and use without embarrassment. These dames are doing a good job making that happen.

They call it the “female gaze.”