May is redhesd sex videoNational Masturbation Month, and we're celebrating with Feeling Yourself, a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure.
It's 2019, and people are finally starting to understand that it isn't just dudes who are allowed to be horny.
While social media platforms lag behind on allowing sponsored posts for vibrators and other sextech, one sex toy company is getting around these barriers by advertising through something more organic: meme accounts.
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Male sexual enhancement has long been advertised openly. Older men toss footballs and describe how Viagra rejuvenated their love lives. Condom ads run in the same traditionally masculine tone as whiskey and beer spots. Sure, we've seen ads for menstrual products, where overly cheery women spike volleyballs on the beach and sprint across stretches of wildflowers as if their uteri weren't betraying them at that very moment. But products focused on female sexual health -- and on pleasure, specifically -- remain shrouded in shame. Companies in the sextech space face difficulty securing funding for new products and often can't advertise using traditional channels.
As a result sex tech companies have increasingly relied on social media to promote their products. Aesthetically pleasing sex toys found a home on Instagram a while back. (Vox dove into the many companies whose minimalist earth-toned Instagram grids echo those of beauty and skincare brands.) But Unbound, a sexual wellness company founded in 2014, takes a different approach.
Leaning in to chaotic horniness
The company's Instagram grid is curated chaos. Unbound also posts ethereal portraits of female and non-binary fans with their toys, but the soul of its Instagram presence is in the memes about eating ass and canceling plans to play with yourself instead.
"When it comes to subjects that make us feel vulnerable," Unbound CEO Polly Rodriguez told Mashable during a phone call. "The best thing to make people more comfortable is to laugh at the truths we all know are real but maybe don't talk about."
Buying toys for the first time can be an intimidating experience, especially if you don't know what you're looking for. Traditionally, sex shops were crowded with overwhelmingly flesh-colored silicone molded into equally overwhelming phallic shapes. For decades, Rodriguez says, toys for women were designed by men, based on cis male genitals. When she was diagnosed with cancer and treatment forced her into menopause at the age of 21, a friend who was a nurse recommended buying a vibrator to get a hold of her sex drive again. Rodriguez says she, "questioned why they all had to look like penises."
SEE ALSO: How mutual masturbation can help close the orgasm gapShe added that the packaging on the toys depicted women "in lingerie with big boobs and the hair," and said she didn't see herself in them. Unbound products are more whimsical and otherworldly than conventionally sexy — one of its vibrators is literally shaped like an alien spaceship. Rodriguez says when it came to designing these toys, she wanted people to feel comfortable leaving it out on their nightstand.
The fact that Unbound's toys are rarely shaped like any sort of genital almost makes their Instagram page more approachable for first-time buyers who may be more timid about their desires. It also naturally paves the way for a more chaotically horny, relatable social media landscape.
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"That mentality of not giving a fuck relates to a lot of the audience," Rodriguez said, explaining the company's shitpost-y Instagram presence. "We want to follow meme accounts because they make us laugh."
A shift in the spon con landscape
Although Unbound really started taking off in 2016, at the height of color-coordinated, well-planned grids, Instagram users are moving away from avocado toast and selfies against saturated mural walls. As the Atlanticnoted in an article about the decline of the perfect Instagram grid, "Fast-rising young influencers such as Emma Chamberlain, Jazzy Anne, and Joanna Ceddia all reject the notion of a curated feed in favor of a messier and more unfiltered vibe."
Unbound was ahead of the times. When Glossier's millennial pink-themed grid was the gold standard for Instagram accounts, Rodriguez said she let her former intern and now social media manager Emily Malinowski take the wheel.
"Emily was like we're just gonna post some weird shit and see what happens," Rodriguez explained. "That's where Instagram's trending — people want lowbrow in experience but highbrow in intellect."
But while Unbound's messaging and aesthetic resonated with its audience, Instagram itself still has a long way to go when it comes to sex positivity. The platform doesn't allow Unbound to use typical advertising methods like promoted posts, Rodriguez says, and frequently removes posts it claims are inappropriate. She calls it a "double edged sword."
"On one hand Instagram rewards brands and accounts that really care about visual aesthetic," Rodriguez explained. "At the same time, Instagram is constantly taking down accounts, banning accounts ... And yet male sexual wellness brands are allowed to promote."
Which is why Unbound uses the more unconventional advertising tactic of partnering with meme accounts. Many brands, of course, reach out to influencers to promote their products. But doing spon con through memes, like Unbound is doing, is brilliant.
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Linda Lin found Unbound through the meme account @ghosted1996, and was drawn in by the fact that she didn't have to visit a "sleazy website" to buy sex toys.
"It made it seem like masturbation was normal to talk about," she said through Instagram DMs. "Seeing memes and small influencers promote this material makes you feel good about being open about your sexuality."
Hyacinth Rios was surprised that when they first bought an Unbound toy and posted about it, a friend reached out to ask how they liked it.
"I remember being surprised that someone who I considered to be like a normie or local (not that either is bad) would be open about sex toys," they said through Instagram DMs. "Which made me feel like it was probably super widely accepted now."
Normalizing masturbation through memes
The fact that Unbound advertises through meme accounts is so smart because it not only normalizes sex toys in a humorous, approachable way, but because it presents them on the ground level. Sure, masturbation can be a sexy experience for personal awakening and empowerment, but it can also be something you do when you're bored.
The memes depict masturbation as any other kind of self care, like popping on a face mask or blasting your favorite album. They aren't necessarily presented as wholesome — but the fact that so many of the memes are about spending a night smoking weed and flicking the bean out of boredom or distress is what makes masturbating seem so normal.
By establishing a presence through Instagram memes, Unbound gets around Instagram's draconian rules for images surrounding female pleasure and also finds its way right into the lap of young people who are over cis men getting to have all the fun.
"Meme accounts earn the respect of their audience because to be funny is difficult," Rodriguez concluded.
She notes that not everyone can nail down the art of meme making — if you get it, you get it, and if you don't, you don't. We've seen brands attempt to get in touch with the youth and fail miserably. But by going straight to the meme makers, Unbound lessens the risk of making an embarrassing gaff.
Masturbating isn't a big deal. Just ask the meme accounts of Instagram.
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