A few weeks ago, the website “Feminist Current” wrote an article about the coming propagation of sex robots. As you might expect, it was not in favor of men utilizing these sex robots. The reason given for this trepidation was that sex robots are the epitome of patriarchy—now, women would no longer be seen as metaphorical sexual objects by the pipe smoking, Brylcreem-wearing patriarch of feminist nightmares. Men would have literal sexual toys, and this would, of course, inspire them to see women as sexual toys even more than they already do, in a vicious cycle of female abuse.
If I may, I find this explanation to be a bit flimsy, for a few reasons:
I want to make something perfectly clear (since the typical “femsplanation” for any protest against feminist talking points is that said protester is a pathetic virgin loser with a tiny penis and no life): I have no interest in sex dolls or sex robots. I’m in a loving and happy relationship with a real, flesh and blood American woman that I have never abused or hurt. In addition to that, I have since quit watching porn, and frankly, I find the idea of having sex with a machine to be more than a little creepy and degrading.
But then again, this sort of service is clearly not intended for me. It’s for a nerd, a loser, a guy who is either afraid to ask out a girl or is incapable of doing so due to his own ugliness. Let’s make it clear that any man who would be banging a robot is likely not interacting with real women at all, and thus it’s not likely he’ll be in an abusive relationship because the idea of him being in any relationship is unlikely.
Furthermore, there’s been at least two killing sprees that have been explicitly caused by beta male rage and sexual frustration—and of course, it would be ridiculous to say that women “owed” these guys sex to keep them from killing people. In cases such as that of Elliot Rodger or Ben Moynihan, a good robot humping would probably have done much to help them chill out and perhaps they would not have attacked those people. Knowing how desperate men can be for not just sexual release but a sense of companionship (the rise of “girlfriend experience“-style prostitution comes to mind), I think it would be quite easy for a pathetic and lonely man to be able to snuggle up to a robot and feel better about himself for an hour.
While I am still somewhat disgusted at the thought of a group of guys lining up to penetrate a latex vagina, it seems the lesser evil by far (knowing of course, what a sexually frustrated man is capable of). So why is it exactly that feminists are enraged at the thought of nerdy, socially awkward men having an admittedly kind of creepy but ultimately victimless sexual outlet?
Could it be that it’s as they claim, that they’re “concerned about “enabling patriarchy and sexual assault”? I don’t think so, because the behavior of strong, empowered women has repeatedly shown that they love patriarchy and sexual assault (at least when it’s studly, virile, men of color doing it ).
No, I think there’s another explanation. A two-pronged explanation to be more specific:
First off, as the OJ Simpson trial proved, race trumps sex in the chess game that is human interaction. Namely, feminists react much stronger to “patriarchy and sexual assault” from thoroughly tamed, K-Selected men (two subgroups of which make up my racial and thus sexual background) than from those who “goodthinkers” implicitly consider muscular animals without agency. But then the question remains, why are they reacting so strongly?
Perhaps we should look at Sheryl Sandberg’s exhortations to “Date the crazy guy, the bad boy…and marry the guy who changes diapers”. Or we can look at Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon, who loudly proclaimed that she was a sexually confident woman who didn’t need no man…until she approached 30 and realized that she had to sink her claws into someone quick. Or we could look at this story from the UK which made the rounds a few years back, a story of a woman lusting after a stud she briefly knew while married to a dweeb for decades.
Could it be that hard-driving, career-focused women are feeling a bit nervous about the soft, nebbishy beta males they used to settle for suddenly not needing them for sex?
While I don’t speak in absolute terms, I do notice that such a phenomenon has occurred at least a few times. And the utter disconnect between modern Western men and women—again, speaking in generalizations—has been noted by sex workers who have noticed a massive increase of men paying for mere cuddling and conversation (again, notice how many, admittedly not all but many, feminists are vehemently against prostitution).
Protesting against hookers and sex robots and pornography…it’s almost as if feminists want to deprive dorky, socially-incompetent men of any sexual outlet other than your post-Wall selves.
Of course, the writer of the original anti-sexbot article may very well be earnest. But looking at her intellectual peers and forebears, I just find it a little questionable.
