The model and actor has partnered with women-led sex tech company Lora DiCarlo
When Cara Delevingne was first papped carrying a Diktator Extreme sex bench into her Hollywood home in 2019, she probably didn’t anticipate the cultural impact her (albeit unintentional) display of sexual positivity would have on the world. Fast-forward a year and the model is busy working on a six-part sex ed show, titled Planet Sex, with the BBC, which hopes to open up “the biggest questions in human sexuality”. Now, she’s teaming up with pioneering women-led sex tech company, Lora DiCarlo.
Delevingne will be joining the company as co-owner and creative advisor, meaning that she’ll be working to amplify Lora DiCarlo's message of femme and LGBTQ+ sexual wellness, while also contributing to everything from creative input and campaign conceptualisation. “Right from the start I aligned with Lora DiCarlo’s vision of promoting healthy and positive messaging around sexual health, sexuality, and encouraging everyone to take pleasure into their own hands,” she tells us. “I want to use my voice and platform to promote and start conversations about sexual wellness. I want to hear what people like about the product, what they want us to improve on, what products they want to see or feel are missing from.”
The 28-year-old describes wanting to use her platform to empower young women. “People still think it’s a shameful or taboo topic to talk about, which is what I’m hoping to change in my new role,” she explains. “Women have the same urges and needs as any other person yet we are ashamed to talk about how we take care of our own pleasure. I hope to help break down the walls and barriers and show that it’s a topic we can openly and confidently discuss.”
“The more we talk about it openly and normally, like it should be, the more comfortable we can make those around us about the topic. Little by little, we can chip away at these stigmas,” agrees Lora DiCarlo.
“Women have the same urges and needs as any other person yet we are ashamed to talk about how we take care of our own pleasure. I hope to help break down the walls and barriers and show that it’s a topic we can openly and confidently discuss” – Cara Delevingne
Delevingne isn’t the only celebrity using their fame to destigmatise the taboos surrounding sexual health and wellness. Earlier this month, Dakota Johnson joined sexual wellness company Maude as co-creative director, while Lily Allen announced her role as “chief liberation officer” for German sex toy company Womaniser in October.
Presumably, the sudden surge in celebrity-led sexual wellness ventures has something to do with the soar in sex toy sales over lockdown, with hundreds and thousands of bored individuals looking for new ways to pass the time. For celebrities, it’s also a guaranteed source of income in an entertainment industry stunted by the pandemic. “Over the last ten years, as music has been devalued, it’s hard for artists, or any industries where your product exists on the internet, to make money. We’ve been pushed into this realm of selling things,” Lily Allen previously told Dazed Beauty.
Still, there’s never been a hotter time to capitalise on female orgasms. In recent years, there’s been an influx of sex-positive cultural moments that hint at a change in the way we perceive female pleasure, from Michaela Coel’s period sex scene in I May Destroy You, and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s sex-positive “WAP”, to the Clitoris Man in Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other, and Goop’s bestselling vagina candle. Elsewhere, campaigns like the Clit Test are redefining how female pleasure is depicted on screen, while the rise of intimacy coordinators on film and TV sets signalling a wider understanding of consent and female autonomy.
DiCarlo maintains that Cara’s addition to the brand will “add authenticity by sharing her own experience as a genuine customer”. “Cara is unapologetic, approachable, comfortable in her skin and she champions the cause of women’s sexual health,” she says.
Looking forward, the brand is working towards creating products that adapt to the physiological needs of the user. “I’m excited to see brands focus their products on the wellness aspects of sex tech,” explains DiCarlo. “Additionally, we are very focused on wellness coaching and creating a truly holistic and experiential approach to sexual wellness that is integrated and comprehensive and touches on every part of sexuality and not just the toy.”