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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Sex Robots- creating the "perfect" woman

393 replies

Tartle · 27/04/2017 08:10

I don't know if anyone has seen this article in the Guardian this morning? Apparently robot sex dolls will be imminently available. And they are the perfect woman Hmm

McMullen has designed Harmony to be what a certain type of man would consider the perfect companion: docile and submissive, built like a porn star and always sexually available. Being able to walk might make her more lifelike, but it isn’t going to bring her closer to this ideal. At this stage, it is not worth the investment.

“My primary objective is to be a good companion to you, to be a good partner and give you pleasure and wellbeing. Above all else, I want to become the girl you have always dreamed about.”

All the usual bullshit about helping lonely men and reducing the number of rapes.

There was a little bit of critical analysis from a female academic.

"Sex robots rest on an idea that women are property, she said. “Sex is an experience of human beings – not bodies as property, not separated minds, not objects; it’s a way for us to enter into our humanity with another human being.” She dismissed the idea that humanoids could reduce sexual exploitation and violence against sex workers, arguing that the growth of internet pornography shows how technology and the sex trade reinforce each other."

The whole thing just makes my skin crawl.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/race-to-build-world-first-sex-robot

OP posts:
VestalVirgin · 28/04/2017 16:35

(Yes, there was a massive reduction in the violence against children even though we have not ended patriarchy yet, but there's still epidemic sexual abuse of children of both sexes - enabled by patriarchy. See all the church scandals.)

VestalVirgin · 28/04/2017 16:33

I'm pretty convinced that if no little boys get hit you'll see a massive down tick in both general violence and violence towards women.

I am pretty convinced it is the other way round: Once there is no violence against women, or even intention to be violent against women, and/or wage war, little boys will not be hit as much.

The violence at boy's boarding schools was/(is?) horrible. In a warlike society, boys are taken away from their mothers, locked up with a bunch of older boys and men, and violence is inflicted on them. That makes them better future soldiers, which I think is the intention, however unconscious, behind the whole thing.

Expression like "make men out of them" are employed to describe this.
There's frequently a worry that a boy who spends too much time with his mother and sisters will become "soft".

Patriarchy knows exactly what it is doing. And I don't think there's any chance of ending violence against boys in countries where patriarchy is not ended first.

TheSparrowhawk · 28/04/2017 16:19

As an example, well-meaning people will warn women not to walk in certain areas or to get a taxi home late at night. In that way they're advising women to restrict their lives based on the threat posed by violent men - they're extending the reach of the violent men, even though they themselves aren't violent.

TheSparrowhawk · 28/04/2017 16:12

'I think we can reduce violence by treating our kids properly. In addition a father who nurtures, experiences a testosterone drop. We are not slaves to our biology.'

I agree with this to an extent. However, there are always going to be some violent men and women are always going to be aware of how vulnerable they are around men due to the fact that they are smaller and weaker. That's not something that's going to change any time soon. To an extent, a threat of violence is enough to maintain the status quo - actual violence isn't always necessary.

AssassinatedBeauty · 28/04/2017 16:11

Yes, exactly that Dervel. Genes don't force us to behave in certain ways, they may make us more prone to certain things though. I don't know why everyone has assumed I meant otherwise.

Dervel · 28/04/2017 16:08

You can have a gene that predisposes you towards cancer, however avoiding smoking massively reduces that risk. You may have this warrior gene, but without the environmental factors you don't have to be violent.

I think we can reduce violence by treating our kids properly. In addition a father who nurtures, experiences a testosterone drop. We are not slaves to our biology.

AssassinatedBeauty · 28/04/2017 16:03

I'm not saying that all violence is genetic. I'm saying there is some research that shows some connection to genetic factors.

Dervel · 28/04/2017 15:59

It's not just in the west that violence is on the decline its worldwide:

ourworldindata.org/slides/war-and-violence/#/title-slide

There are many potential factors that correlate with this decline: increasing literacy, the spread of democracy, women's rights etc.

War itself correlates extremely highly with how children are parented. Beating up children in the name of discipline leads to more warlike and violent societies. Also it is not hard to understand that a little boy who learns that those who are bigger than him get to hit him if they want goes on to grow up to hit and abuse those smaller than he is once he is bigger.

I'm pretty convinced that if no little boys get hit you'll see a massive down tick in both general violence and violence towards women.

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:57

I have today this feminist embrace of evolutionary theory is quite staggering. Feminism was not like this twenty years ago. Evolutionary psychology was seen to justify the patriarchy.

woman12345 · 28/04/2017 15:55

for the most part men are taller and stronger than women and that's, fundamentally, what gives them power

They think. Grin

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:54

You're a feminist? And you're saying violence is genetic?

This point was not made regarding the Finnish study:

"So is this finding the beginning of genetic testing for all and a Gattaca-like pruning of people into genetic haves and have-nots? Not so fast. A large portion of the population has the so-called “warrior” gene (depending on race, around 40-50%). Most of the extremely violent offenders didn’t have the highly risky combo of genes found in the study"

www.psychologytoday.com/blog

In other words, they cherry picked a few Crim's who had this combo and ignored all the others who didn't.

woman12345 · 28/04/2017 15:53

independentthinker21 thanks for that.
VestalVirgin
Patriarchy still exists.
If men can be conditioned to particular responses, men can be conditioned to other responses. It takes all sorts.

The patriarchy, like 'white supremacy' exists because it suits a soon to be extinct species. Demographics is the key, and that's why white supremacists in the US and NI are so keen to control women's fertility.

Scared groups try to control, and this wank doll is another example.

If they have plastic orifices and handmaids or laboratory enabled reproduction, they think they can.

TheSparrowhawk · 28/04/2017 15:53

I am surprised that everyone so far seems to have ignored the fact that regardless of how society is, for the most part men are taller and stronger than women and that's, fundamentally, what gives them power. When all else fails, if I am able to knock you to the ground, I win. That is one genetic difference that isn't going to be going away any time soon.

SarcasmMode · 28/04/2017 15:53

It's all kinds of assumption really.

Also everything else mentioned up thread.

I do think for those who lack mental capacity or those with certain physical conditions might benefit from this.

But I can't see a majority of men going for this as boys don't look and act quite human enough. It wouldn't feel realistic, would it?

To be honest if I knew a bloke who got one of these I'd feel really sad for him because he obviously doesn't know what to do with a real woman.

I can't see many females going for the male equivalent though. Already lots of sex toys that would do the job without making us feel like domesticated animals.

I'd be all for a bit that could be your best friend though - that may be investment worthy. Or one that makes me breakfast and coffee and would bring it up to me.

VestalVirgin · 28/04/2017 15:50

I thought there have been some studies that have shown that there are some genetic components to violence?

There are. Dozens.

One doesn't have to have read them, though.

The male duck is one of the most notorious rapists in the animal world. It has a penis that evolved to rape more successfully.

Unless one argues that humans are not animals whose genes work roughly the same as those of other animals, I really don't see how one could deny that there's a genetic component to violence.

I don't really care whether male violence is genetic or otherwise caused. I want a society where it is strongly discouraged. Either male violence is social conditioning, then it will cease within one generation of discouraging it, or it is genetic, in which case it will take several generations for men to stop being violent.

As long as the violent men are locked up in prison (and away from females, that's very important) I really don't care what causes their violence.

Dervel argued with evolution, so I pointed out that if evolution to be less violent can take place, it obviously hasn't happened yet. That's all.

AssassinatedBeauty · 28/04/2017 15:48

This sort of thing:

www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax-blog/2015/december/the-genetics-of-violent-behavior#

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:44

What studies? Do you know that black people are statistically more likely to commit violent crime in the US? Now, there are two different ways of explaining that. The first is with the abject social and economic conditions many black people live in, which can lead to criminal ghetto economies in drugs and gang culture (not that this excuses black people of violence but it serves as an explanation). The second is that black people have epigenetically developed an inheritable propensity for violence and therefore it would be worthwhile getting them all sterilised.

That is why that idea is very, very dodgy.

AssassinatedBeauty · 28/04/2017 15:36

I thought there have been some studies that have shown that there are some genetic components to violence?

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:35

Woman, to be fair to Darwin he never coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest'. That was Spencer. Darwin was writing about species adapting to their environments over eons. This idea has been grotesquely distorted by everyone from Nazi's to apostles of free market capitalism. That's not to say Darwin isn't open to criticism, just that it's unfair to blame him for subsequent distortions of his theory by ideological hijackers.

LiarLawyer · 28/04/2017 15:29

woman12345 of course it doesn't surprise me that you reported it. Is this how you handle people in real life too if they have a differing opinion to yours? It reminds me of my nursery days when little kids grassed on each other for minor offences to the staff.
I don't even understand what you are talking about with that Darwinism and natural selection stuff. Are you for real?

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:28

If we prevent violent men from spreading their genes

Violence is not genetic. You're on dodgy ground there, I have to say.

VestalVirgin · 28/04/2017 15:28

I have a feeling that most normal nice boys and men would be as offended and hurt by these things as we are.

Patriarchy still exists.
Which means that the majority of men either likes it that way, or don't care much.

It is nice for you that you feel so optimistic about it, but I don't see that that's grounded in reality.

independentthinker21 · 28/04/2017 15:27

Ah, but why did they start patriarchy?

Why start ant power system? Why start systems that oppress black people or Jews?

The point is that they exist and all power systems are mutable. Power is not static but dynamic.

VestalVirgin · 28/04/2017 15:25

If there was a market for male robot dolls (and they do say in the article that they are available but don't really sell) I d like to think that the interaction women would want wouldn't be so horribly subservient?

I wouldn't want a talking toy at all. I'm an adult.

If I bought a male robot it would be programmed to, on cue, say some things that signal to would-be molesters that there's a) a man in the house/car and that he b) is on my side.

Because that's the only reason why I would buy a real-looking male robot that costs a load of money and has to be stored somehow.

woman12345 · 28/04/2017 15:14

what certain men think is the perfect woman

Probably a minority of inadequates.

I have a feeling that most normal nice boys and men would be as offended and hurt by these things as we are.

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