Sex dolls

In the past ten years or so, the conversation surrounding sex robots is far past fascination and anticipation for technological inventions, and now it is found as a point of reference in the assessment of our culture’s “catastrophic" reliance on technology and entitlement to sex. Columnist Ross Douthat hypothesised an inevitability of sex dolls prominence in future society (or how it will be in the absence of any meaningful revolutionary movement) due to “the left’s increasing zeal to transform prostitution into legalized and regulated ‘sex work’” combined with “the libertarian (and general male) fascination with virtual-reality porn and sex robots” will lead to people agreeing that there is a right to sexual access”. This perspective on sex dolls is focus on a larger conversation had around the entitlement to sex, a conversation that has become much more populous with the rise and intrusive acceleration of the incel movement. Oxford professor Amia Srinivasan explores this in her essay “Does anyone have the right to sex?” A quote that really stood out to me in the essay was “we acknowledge that no one is obligated to desire anyone else, that no one has a right to be desired, but also that who is desired and who isn’t is a political question”.

Contemporary examples of sex dolls focus on their place as a category within the expanding realm of humanoid robots, a step up from automata. Academics in robot ethics are actively campaigning against the development and overall production of sex robots, arguing they will further contribute to the objectification of women and children, furthermore the normalisation of such. It creates the misleading opportunity for social fulfilment absent of the mutual nature found in human to human interactions, meaning these social needs could be satisfied without demand for an ounce of empathy. Specifically, simulated sex bypasses any need for consent which, when added back in, could conditionally feel like an additional step rather than a fundamental principle.

True Companion chief executive Douglas Hines spoke with the BBC on the then upcoming launch of Roxxxy, the first sex doll imbued with artificial intelligence. He explained “[it is not] supplanting the wife or trying to replace a girlfriend” yet a “solution for people who are between relationships or someone who has lost a spouse.” He also claimed that “the physical act of sex would only be a small part of the time people spent with the robot”, despite the device’s tagline being “Always turned on and ready to talk or play”.

Burton, T.I. (2018). We’re talking about ‘sex robots’ now. We’ve been here before. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/4/17314260/incel-sex-robots-sexual-redistribution-ross-douthat-history. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

‌Douthat, R. (2018). Opinion | The Redistribution of Sex. The New York Times. [online] 2 May. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/opinion/incels-sex-robots-redistribution.html. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

Srinivasan, A. (2018). Does anyone have the right to sex? [online] London Review of Books. Available at: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n06/amia-srinivasan/does-anyone-have-the-right-to-sex. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

Clark-Flory, T. (2020). What I learned about male desire in a sex doll factory. The Guardian. [online] 19 Oct. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/19/what-i-learned-about-male-desire-in-a-sex-doll-factory. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

Nast, C. (n.d.). Campaign calls for ban on sex robots. [online] Wired UK. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/campaign-against-sex-robots. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

Intelligent machines: Call for a ban on robots designed as sex toys. (2015). BBC News. [online] 14 Sep. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34118482. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2024].

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