In a world where most aging female academics are warning against the dangers of sex robots, Barbara Kay, a former professor at Concordia University, has surprised us with a positive prediction for sex robots. Her recent article titled “Barbara Kay: Bring on the sex robots and make our world a better place” is a refreshing take on the benefits that sex robots will have for the world. She begins with the following statement:
In the case of controversial sex bots, which seem to me a victimless fetish, I find myself remarkably unoffended, even somewhat boosterish at their potential for alleviating human distress.
Instead of feeling threatened, Barbara recognized that people using sex robots is ultimately a victimless act that doesn’t harm anyone else. Combine this fact with the mental benefits the user may experience, how can sex robots be view negatively?
The meat of her argument is in the following two paragraphs:
To my surprise, I’m feeling totally non-judgmental about the phenomenon. I say “surprise,” because I am pretty judgmental about other sex-bottish stuff like sperm donorship, which sadly eliminates actual fathers from children’s lives, and yet arouses no indignation in the general public. But in the case of controversial sex bots, which seem to me a victimless fetish, I find myself remarkably unoffended, even somewhat boosterish at their potential for alleviating human distress.
In Utopia, everyone will be vegan and prefer chastity to all but emotionally-engaged sex. For now, realism must accommodate our carnivorous and carnal weaknesses. As with all weakness of the flesh, harm reduction is the best we can do. Even if a more conservative approach to sex were to reclaim our culture’s high ground, there would still be many people who don’t have much, or even any, opportunity to achieve the sex-love nexus on a regular basis. Some of them are committed loners; some socially inept; some disabled or disfigured; some denied sex at home, but principled enough to forego adultery. Sex bots would be a blessing to them, and in the process would cut into the sex trade, which is harm reduction, no?
She recognized that when analyzing the impacts of sex robots that we need to put aside our idealism and take an honest look at human reality. Sex Robots will be a very healthy outlet for men who desire sex but aren’t getting it from real women.
In a surprising conclusion she also states on opinion on if child-like robots should be considered ethical or not.
More disturbing to many observers, Japanese sex doll manufacturer Trottla has been selling underage schoolgirl dolls globally for a decade, created by self-confessed pedophile Shin Takagi, who claims the dolls prevent him from harming children. “We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes,” Takagi told The Atlantic in 2016. “I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically.” He isn’t wrong about pedophilic desire.
In 2013, one of Takagi’s dolls was seized at a Canadian airport and its owner charged with possessing child pornography; the case remains unresolved. Personally, I think Takagi’s dolls fall into the harm reduction category. You may well disagree. Thorny questions, as I noted.
A very progressive woman indeed, well written article Barbara. Read the full article here.
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