Sex, Hair, Vagina: ‘That Sassy Thing’ Normalises Female Sexual Wellness

Back in June 2019, The New York Times released an opinion piece titled, ‘Vaginas Deserve Giant Ads, Too’. If the motive of the article was not clear enough from the headline itself, we’ll break it down — advertisements for and around male sexual health products, medication and awareness seemed to be easily allowed to take up media space, but the same for female sexual wellness is a hard pass.

The same blanket belief quite potently applies to India, too.

Sachee Malhotra, founder of That Sassy Thing, a homegrown female sexual wellness brand is on the path to steer away from that line of thought. As someone who suffers from PCOS herself, Sachee’s first-hand experience with sexual wellness itself has been tumultuous.

“With Sassy, I wanted to normalise everything from body hair to periods to sex. Of course, a huge part of it is normalising female pleasure which is still considered a taboo,” says Sachee.

When Sachee was researching all things female sexual wellness, she realised that products that aid pleasure such as lube, are aimed towards satisfying the need of men. Obviously enough, that fact does not sit well with Sassy’s ideology and hence, their all-natural, pH balanced sexual lube, DTF, was manufactured after much testing.

Apart from this, Sassy’s armoury consists of a period cramp care Soothing Stick (Hallelujah!) and Bush, a pubic hair oil — yes, you read that right. “During the lockdown, a lot of women started owning their hair. So the bigger goal was always to normalise body hair. Additionally, when you wax or shave, hemp and other oils in Bush help you in soothing the skin,” explains Sachee.

While we always aim to change the lens with which the Indian society looks at women, their menstrual wellness and sexual pleasure, it is individuals like Sachee with their hands-on enterprises that truly dent the long-standing and regressive beliefs. Yes, the brand caters to women and their health, but it also stands as a testament for everyone to simply be open about such things — no harm, foul or any of what sanskaars teach you will fall upon you.

“Explaining a woman’s perspective was a challenge,” says Sachee. The manufacturers would try and influence her into using small amounts of petroleum-derived substances, which would, of course, lead to the creation of harmful products. In fact, she also switched to a new manufacturer due to this discrepancy. “I would never want anyone else to use something I myself am not comfortable with,” she says. Thanks to her inquisitive nature, Sachee was able to entirely involve herself in the product-making process, which has resulted in complete transparency to the consumers regarding the ingredients.

That Sassy Thing is not simply a brand with unbelievably adorable and bold packaging — it is a statement that emphasises the urgency of accepting women and vagina owners, and catering to their needs just as one would to a male counterpart’s.

The double standard of sexual wellness and awareness is a concept devoid of equality — and That Sassy Thing aims to change just that.

Explore That Sassy Thing and their products here.

Find them on Instagram, too.

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