An interview with Wet For Her sex toy entrepreneur Alice Derock
By Jennifer Corday
Long Beach, CA (The Hollywood Times) 12/28/21 – “Not everything is about strap-ons and dildos,” explained Alice Derock, the 45-year-old sex toy entrepreneur mastermind. “Everyone is different, and we don’t want to exclude anybody.” I spoke to Alice over a cup of coffee on my desk in California and she immediately felt safe, like an old friend, as we discussed vibrators.
Alice is French and has a lovely accent. It may seem incongruous with sex talk, a bit genteel perhaps, but Alice is super down to earth, and nowadays, let’s face it, the whole world is having sex. “I grew up in France, but we moved to Miami a year a year ago to get away from the pandemic.” She now lives with her partner Caroline in balmy Miami and absolutely loves it.
She started the company out of necessity, in her frustration when shopping for a sex toy with her partner. “Ten years ago there was nothing out there. The packaging all had porn stars on it and portrayed women with long hair and high heels. They didn’t look like us- like real lesbians I knew.” Ya think? She continues, “The toys were often very realistic, there was nothing designed and soft.” By realistic, she means: it looks like a penis. Some of you may like the look of a realistic “gender-affirming” dildo, and those are also available on her site, like the Vixen Mr. Right, used for packing, and some even squirt. Wow! I’m not an outright hater of penises and for those of you who want one like that, awesome! But I personally can relate to her distaste of it in my dresser drawer of the bedroom. I have seen these flesh-colored dildos in toy stores, complete with balls and veins popping out, molded apparently after real porn stars, and opt instead for something a little more, well, cheery… purple or fuchsia perhaps? “I wanted to keep it clean, in the style of the rainbow, and use colors,” she says. “Nothing too intimidating.”
Alice launched into action. “I knew what to design. The hardest part was to find a manufacturer. I had to go to China and find a good factory to produce the design.” She is now one of the top-rated LGBTQIA+ sex toy manufacturing companies, selling unique sex toys worldwide. Customers are mainly from the U.S. but she has big orders in the queue going to Australia, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, and more. With only five employees, it’s a small but efficient operation and everyone identifies as transgender, queer or gay.
Her initial slogan By Women For Women was exciting at the time, and served lesbians everywhere who could relate. But she now realizes it is outdated. Soon she hopes to change the phrase to By Us For Us. “I want to get the gender out of it because we don’t want to exclude anybody. We are all under the same flag.” Indeed, her toys are designed to be enjoyed by transgender, non-binary, and the whole GNC (gender non-conforming) community. “With conventional toys,” she ventures, “they are cornered into thinking outside the box or ignoring the parts about the toy that aren’t for them. Sometimes they can find themselves settling for something that’s not great or makes them feel dysphoric, while other people have thousands and thousands of options.” I get it. Often we have to be creative in finding a position. “It’s hard sometimes,” she laughs, “with two arms, two legs and all, it can be challenging. So I wanted to add something to make it work, to vibrate, or to find a solution to make it easier.” I am intrigued so I ask her about some of her new inventions. “We created the RockHer mini scissoring vibrator so two people can come at the same time. We have a dildo where we added a bump at the base to give pleasure to the wearer of the strap-on. It’s all around the idea of sharing.” The Suki is a rechargeable suction vibrator and the Yumi is a small rechargeable finger vibe for those who prefer clitoral. More toys are kind of a fusion. “Some don’t like penetration, some do; everybody’s pleasure is not related to penetration.”
If you haven’t checked it out yet, you must check out the website, which is SUPER informative. I learned a lot myself. Apparently, dildos come in a variety of materials including silicone, vinyl, glass, metal, crystal, latex, and jelly rubber, all of which mostly determine the type of sexual play you’ll be engaging in. Hmmm. I read answers to questions I have taken for granted like:
- How do I pick out a dildo?
- Why choose a multi-functioning dildo?
- How To Make The Most of Your Bullet Vibrator
And there are blogs like Tentatively Accepting My Bisexuality and Uncovering Queer Myths: Butch Tops & Femme Bottoms which make for a very fun and informative read. Blogger Sam’s story Am I Still A Lesbian If I’m Not A Woman was equally fun and fascinating: “Fuck the binary. I’m queer as fuck, I’m gay as fuck. I’m a lesbian for her, I’m her girl, not yours. I wear whatever I want. You can call me by any pronouns. But most of all, call me Sam.” Sam is a “proud queer vulva-owner (a clam parent, if you will)” with a Masters in Social Psychology. It’s this kind of content that makes the website super fun and interactive and you can even ask questions and get real replies! “We want everyone to be comfortable on our website. It’s a place to be open and find ideas to talk about. We want it to be a nice safe place to find answers. And we reply to everything.”
Alice adds, “I think there is a misconception about what we are looking for. I find that most men, and a lot of straight women, believe that lesbian and transgender couples are missing something. But we don’t feel we are missing anything. We just want to share love at the same time.” I love that. Let’s all share love. And, at WetForHer.com, EVERYONE is included. “I want us all to feel comfortable and included as a family.”
