Sex robots: a threat to gender equality?

[Fartsniffage]

I know, but using sexual violence against things shaped like women encourage males to view real women as objects and even to being violent towards real women.
That's the point, and is already explained within the OP.
I think you need to read the excerpt by Lydia Kaye within the OP, that gives a very comprehensive Feminist view about the issue, even citing the work of a prominent Feminist scholar like Gail Dines.

That's like saying that everytime a soldier comes home he has an undying need to go right back into the war.

That's.....not a very good point.

[USS Donald Trump]

That's like saying that everytime a soldier comes home he has an undying need to go right back into the war.

That's.....not a very good point.

>sexual violence against robots
>leaves robots
>goes and performs same sexual violence on females

i thought it worked.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

That's like saying that everytime a soldier comes home he has an undying need to go right back into the war.

That's.....not a very good point.

I think the following would be more appropriate.

When I play first-game shooters or even Grand Theft Auto, I do not step outside and murder people out of cold blood.

[Fartsniffage]

That's.....not a very good point.

>sexual violence against robots
>leaves robots
>goes and performs same sexual violence on females

i thought it worked.

Not really. Quite a few soldiers come home with either PTSD or anger issues. War is not quite the same as visiting a hooker, watching some porn or fucking a sex-bot.

[Fartsniffage]

That's.....not a very good point.

I think the following would be more appropriate.

When I play first-game shooters or even Grand Theft Auto, I do not step outside and murder people out of cold blood.

Indeed, and I said the same thing in the 4th post in this thread.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

I think the following would be more appropriate.

When I play first-game shooters or even Grand Theft Auto, I do not step outside and murder people out of cold blood.

Indeed, and I said the same thing in the 4th post in this thread.

By Chess's logic, almost all teenage males would be outside hijacking people's car and randomly shooting at people with miniguns and homing rocket launchers!

[The Wombat People Territories]

Sex robots could ultimately make the idea of squishing your genitalia against someone else's, as 'weird' as naturism is to a lot of people nowadays.

There's also the socio-economic effects.

Someone who earns a lot of money, who can afford a sex robot for their biological urges, would then only need human company for the joys of forming emotional relationships and companionship.

Someone who doesn't earn a lot of money, who cannot afford a sex robot, would still be constrained by biological urges, which would distort their interactions with other humans.

So, I think maybe, the sex robots could be beneficial to gender equality in higher earning socio-economic groups of people, while being harmful to lower earning socio-economic groups of people.

So, vOv.

[Gauthier]

Indeed, and I said the same thing in the 4th post in this thread.

By Chess's logic, almost all teenage males would be outside hijacking people's car and randomly shooting at people with miniguns and homing rocket launchers!

And Pokemon has in fact set off a vast illegal animal fighting epidemic.

[Alvecia]

Sex robots could ultimately make the idea of squishing your genitalia against someone else's, as 'weird' as naturism is to a lot of people nowadays.

There's also the socio-economic effects.

Someone who earns a lot of money, who can afford a sex robot for their biological urges, would then only need human company for the joys of forming emotional relationships and companionship.

Someone who doesn't earn a lot of money, who cannot afford a sex robot, would still be constrained by biological urges, which would distort their interactions with other humans.

So, I think maybe, the sex robots could be beneficial to gender equality in higher earning socio-economic groups of people, while being harmful to lower earning socio-economic groups of people.

So, vOv.

If I'm understanding you right, you think that biological urges, i.e. libido, distort interactions with other humans?
I'd also point out that simply owning and using a sex robot does not magically make said biological urges disappear for when you talk to other people. That's a flawed premise.

[The Wombat People Territories]

So, vOv.

If I'm understanding you right, you think that biological urges, i.e. libido, distort interactions with other humans?

That was the central argument of the great documentary film "When Harry Met Sally".

[Alvecia]

If I'm understanding you right, you think that biological urges, i.e. libido, distort interactions with other humans?

That was the central argument of the great documentary film "When Harry Met Sally".

Oh, I see. It was that kind of post.

[The Wombat People Territories]

That was the central argument of the great documentary film "When Harry Met Sally".

Oh, I see. It was that kind of post.

It might be.

Still think that in the far future, squishing your bits against someone else's might be seen as 'weird' by a majority.

Especially with VR and all that malarkey.

[Saiwania]

Sex robots could ultimately make the idea of squishing your genitalia against someone else's, as 'weird' as naturism is to a lot of people nowadays.

I doubt it, I know there are some fleshlights which are remarkably close to feeling like a real vagina (so I've heard) but surely it will never be exactly the same. It just can't compare.

[Naretion]

I find the idea of sex robots to be a very good idea. They can help developing teeangers. They can allow interested adults to fulfill their sexual desires without needing another human being. This can help keep people that don't want full relationships out of them, probably reducing domestic violence to boot. I personally could never see anything wrong with this except that "social norms" will adapt oddly. But less violence, relationships kept to people that actually want them, and made easier to avoid for those that don't want them. Sounds amazing for all of humanity for me.

[Ethel mermania]

I find the idea of sex robots to be a very good idea. They can help developing teeangers. They can allow interested adults to fulfill their sexual desires without needing another human being. This can help keep people that don't want full relationships out of them, probably reducing domestic violence to boot. I personally could never see anything wrong with this except that "social norms" will adapt oddly. But less violence, relationships kept to people that actually want them, and made easier to avoid for those that don't want them. Sounds amazing for all of humanity for me.

I prefer hookers, why do you want to put hookers out of work?

[Shofercia]

Hello, NSGs.

Kathleen Richardson of De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, and Erik Brilling of University of Skövde in Sweden some months ago launched an International Campaign Against Sex Robots
http://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/
The campaign have already reached some important goals, like in example the cancellation of a conference about sex robots that was planned in Malaysia
http://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/201 ... onference/
And, more recently, a conference against sex robots had been held at the London Science Museum
http://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/201 ... ce-museum/

My idea is that we shouldn’t just only support a ban on the use of sex robots shaped like children or ban of the use of sex robots for used for rape fantasies , but we should outright ban ALL sexrobots, because they would be very harmful to gender equality.
Doctor Kathleen Richardson make it very clear: the emerging idea of the “relationship” between the owner and the robot is that it would be very similar to the “relationship” between a prostitute and a uyer of sex. We already know why prostitution, the worst patriarchal relic in western societies, is very harmful to women, to ALL women, not just only to prostitutes: because it encourages men to view women as objects that can be buyed and traded, and by so it furthers gender inequality.
Needless to say that with the proliferation of sex robots things would get only worse: trafficking and violence against women are already very common within prostitution, and with widespread sex robots such issues will be immensely extended.

This is an excerpt from a very interesting article about it by Lydia Kaye:, who gives a Feminist point of view about such issue, explaining why sex robots can be very harmful to women:

http://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/201 ... -of-women/

Robot ethicist and director of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, Dr. Kathleen Richardson, stated that the very business idea of sex robots is modelled on the already existing businesses of the sex trade and the porn industry. The creation of sex robots imitates and reproduces the value system of these corrupt and brutal industries that capitalise on the exchange and dehumanisation of women.
There is of course another very important side to this argument that concerns the creation of male sex robots for the use of women, and the homosexual use of sex robots, which are essential layers to this debate to be discussed. Men, women and children all have a right to have their subjectivity recognised and should not be presented as a ‘thing’ to be used, discriminated against, or coerced.
However, what cannot be denied is that sex robots, like most of the technology we use today, have predominantly been designed and created by men and with male users in mind. At present the technology industry is undeniably male dominated. This is a fact visible from the top down, from workers and investors, to owners and creators.
Men are also the main users and buyers of pornography and prostituted persons.
This has resulted in sex robots being modelled on the appearance of porn stars and prostitutes and consequently inheriting the same roles.
It may seem obvious to those in their mid twenties and older that porn is not representative of real life, real sex or real relationships between men and women. But due to a widespread lack of sex education and the ubiquity of porn on the internet, many young people today confess to learning a great deal about sex from adult entertainment.
Anti-pornography scholar Gail Dines argues that the dominant images and stories distributed by the porn industry promote and legitimise a gender system that undermines equality and encourages violence against women. Pornographers exploit the degradation of the female body. These often extreme and violent images lead to distorted notions of sex and relationships.
The creation of sex robots would make these images and relations viewed in porn tangible to the viewer by putting a faux female sex worker in front of them. The sex robot will be used by its owner in the same way women are used in pornography. Due to the humanlike appearance of the sex robot, the concern is that the user will begin to see sex with robots and sex with humans as an interchangeable physical act. This would result in the same sexual objectification present in porn and sex work ultimately penetrating human relationships and human sex.
Sex robots will create another means through which women will be presented as objects to be used for sexual gratification and mistreatment. They will also desensitise humans to intimacy and empathy, which can only be developed through experiencing human interaction and mutual consenting relationships.
In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, cultural critic Walter Benjamin points out that we can now mass-produce art in a way that was never possible before technology.  But he emphasises that when a work of art becomes mass-produced, the original piece loses its significance. It becomes obsolete and is no longer valued in the same way. The ‘aura’, or authenticity, of the original is lost.
With the introduction of sex robots into society – with the very real potential for them to be mass-produced – the original is lost. That is, the original human, consenting relationship which is based on freedom rather than control and coercion.
In order to protect basic human rights and discourage the brutal objectification of humankind, it’s time to examine the human ethics of freedom in relation to sex robots. We must address the ways in which advancing technology should be used as a force for good and could reflect what is best for humankind. We – as humans – have a voice, and we must use it.
We cannot let our humanity and our dignity slip away into a world of technology.
—
Lydia Kaye is Research Director of the Campaign Against Sex Robots. She is author of Unpacking Female Hysteria and The Reason Skinny Models Are Here To Stay. Her Masters dissertation project examined the social impact of using transgender models in fashion imagery. Lydia has a particular interest in the interrelationship between social change, technology, identity and artistic expression.

What do you think NSGs?
Sex robots are a major threat to gender equality?

By far the best advertising that I've seen in favor of getting a sexbot. Where do I get one?

[Naretion]

I find the idea of sex robots to be a very good idea. They can help developing teeangers. They can allow interested adults to fulfill their sexual desires without needing another human being. This can help keep people that don't want full relationships out of them, probably reducing domestic violence to boot. I personally could never see anything wrong with this except that "social norms" will adapt oddly. But less violence, relationships kept to people that actually want them, and made easier to avoid for those that don't want them. Sounds amazing for all of humanity for me.

I prefer hookers, why do you want to put hookers out of work?

They are illegal where I live so I gave them no consideration.

[Ethel mermania]

I prefer hookers, why do you want to put hookers out of work?

They are illegal where I live so I gave them no consideration.

poor girls get no respect, sad really

[Dooom35796821595]

They are illegal where I live so I gave them no consideration.

poor girls get no respect, sad really

Competition is a core principle of healthy economics, we shouldn't engage in protectionism just because they may not be able to compete.

[Ethel mermania]

poor girls get no respect, sad really

Competition is a core principle of healthy economics, we shouldn't engage in protectionism just because they may not be able to compete.

fair point,

[6Marion9]

So cringe-worthy.

Men can be prostitutes too, and women can use sex robots as well.

In fact, and this may or may not be controversial, but I'd be ok with child sex robots for one reason. It makes sure that these people have a channel where they can do this thing and not harm real children.

Well that is until robots get human rights, or uh.....robot rights.

[The Princes of the Universe]

So cringe-worthy.
Men can be prostitutes too, and women can use sex robots as well.
In fact, and this may or may not be controversial, but I'd be ok with child sex robots for one reason. It makes sure that these people have a channel where they can do this thing and not harm real children.
Well that is until robots get human rights, or uh.....robot rights.

Use of logic on the OP has already been established as futile.

[Royal Denmark]

Has it been brought up that maybe I, a Bisexual male, could have a partner of the same or opposite gender, and whatever gender my partner is, purchase a sex robot opposite of my partner
to maintain gender equality?

(E.x. If I have a female partner, I purchase a male sex robot.)

So basically, what Im getting at is, I want a damn sex robot, but I want to be fair about it, and Im being fair to both genders, by having a partner willing to let me have one and be okay with it, and yet it allows me to treat both genders the same, have sex, live our lives how we want, raise children, die, repeat process for future generations.


So, my final point is, who really gives a damn whether it threatens gender equality, you should let whoever wants one, to have a sex robot. It's like making body pillow waifus illegal, which I would never want, but would allow someone else to have, because I think equality is when people get to choose how to love their life with whatever they want.

Anarchy!

[Nordrgard]

Yes OP, let's just ban everything while we're at it. As long as we can vote we are free, right?

[Talanis Collective]

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all 1st semester psych a-hole, I took a human sexuality class a while back that touched on this subject in some interesting ways. First off, I read a book called Love and Sex with Robots, which basically postulates that it is an inevitable step in the sexual paradigm that people will pursue the physical and, with the introduction of AI, emotional fulfillment offered by sex robots. Being able to sate these needs without the complicated investments required for human-only romantic relationships makes robots desirable for a good chunk of the population. The social effects and morality of it are called into question, but to me it was the impact on the implicit sexual "economy" that was the driving force behind opposition. Now this is the culmination of several texts and theories, but here's how I interpreted it. Whether consciously or not, women (the most vocal opponents of the tech) are aware of their role as holder of the sexual "currency" in the traditional sex relationship. Anything that threatens this dynamic, like porn, prostitution, and sex dolls, is reacted to negatively by many women, likely based on a subconscious level. While they rationalize by calling it objectification, which I would need another post to delve into, or using something akin to a slippery slope argument about encouraging violence or disrespect of women, the core of it is the loss of inherent social and personal influence through the devaluation of "sexual currency." Consider how you likely have never heard a woman claim that vibrators or other female-oriented toys are a threat to gender equality, even though they encourage the objectification of male anatomy and reduction of male sexuality to a big, detached phallus unconnected to the rest of the male body. Now compare to the attitudes many women have regarding the equivalent used for men. This discrepancy makes sense if an unconscious balance of social power is involved. It is possible that this is an evolutionary holdover from a vast history where their sexuality was women's only bargaining chip in the power distribution of the species, but that is obviously just a theory like most of what I'm saying. Hopefully this didn't come off as pretentious, misogynistic, or the rant of some wannabe expert. I just remebered talking about this and finding it interesting.