Is Meta Suppressing Women’s Sexuality?
Press Release
Local Vernon, BC Woman-Led Sexual Wellness Company Struggles to Find a Voice
“Not approved, not approved, not approved.” When Intimate Wellbeing softly launched on August 8th, 2022 they did not expect so much rejection
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 1, 2022
(Vernon, BC) Intimate Wellbeing is a site created for women to feel empowered about their sexual health. It’s an online company that Okanagan co-founders Cassandra Redding and Leah Fischer created because they couldn’t find a sexual wellness site that resonated with women in their age and demographic (40+) - and they couldn't find a credible site that had the answers to the questions they were asking. “Where do you find answers about menopausal changes and sex?” “What products help with loss of libido?” “What are the different kinds of vibrators?” “How toxic are personal lubricants?"
Intimate Wellbeing states that they “value being able to talk about sex as a part of overall health and wellness and want to take the taboo out of talking about products that are sexual or intimate.”
The realization that the stigma was bigger and more powerful than they thought hit the co-founders when it came time to launch their social media campaign. Ad after ad with Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) got rejected with the statement that Intimate Wellbeing was breaking advertising policies.
“Adverts must not promote the sale or use of adult products or services, unless they promote family planning and contraception. Adverts for contraceptives must focus on the contraceptive features of the product and not on sexual pleasure or sexual enhancement, and must be targeted to people aged 18 years or older,” states Meta.
“Most of our ads are pretty vanilla,” states Cassandra, “we aren’t pornographic or lewd in any way.” One ad reads that “We are a women-led, Canadian-based online company for all your pleasure product needs. We want to empower women to live their best lives, while normalizing talking about intimate wellness.” It was all rejected. Every ad they have tried to get approved since, even one that only introduced the two co-founders, has been rejected.
Digging deeper and doing more research, the two found a recent report by the non-profit organization Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ) done together with pelvic health start-up Origin. The report claims that Facebook parent company Meta rejects ads on women’s health while allowing ads by men’s sexual wellness companies with sexual innuendos to run on Facebook and Instagram. According to the report, the categories of start-ups with rejected ads included menopause, pelvic pain, pregnancy or postpartum care, menstrual health, fertility, sexual wellness, education, and others. Read the report here: https://www.intimacyjustice.org/
The co-founders are in disbelief that ads promoting women’s sexual health are denied or suppressed while ads about men’s erectile dysfunction are promoted. The male-targeted ads that are a lot racier - including some that say things like “Get Hard or Your Money Back” or “Hard Made Easy” - are allowed.
The unfairness has the co-founders of Intimate Wellbeing fired up. “We feel that sexual function is a key factor in women's lives and affects our physical, emotional, and social wellbeing,” says Leah. “If we have to spread the word about our site without the help of social media ads, we will. One woman at a time.”
Intimate Wellbeing is now live and seeing more visitors every day. Features and benefits of the site include:
- A growing community with resources and links to professionals, events, podcasts, books, and articles
- An offering of therapeutic devices as an alternative to in-clinic rejuvenation as well as solutions for feminine issues, including vaginal dryness, painful sex, and loss of libido
- A calm, non-intimidating, no-pressure site to buy pleasure devices
- A discreet way of exploring and ordering sexual products
For more information contact
coco(at)intimatewellbeing.com or lola(at)intimatewellbeing.com
Samples of rejected ads:
