So the Boobz are getting worked up – again – over some imaginary “proposed legislation” to ban sexbots. Vox Day, one of the esteemed elder statesmen of the right-wing of the manosphere, has resurrected an urban legend that first fooled his comrades about two years ago, reposting a “statement” of mysterious Canadian origin explaining that
provisions have been proposed for the new Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act, the first draft of which is currently being finalized.The provisions are specifically meant to target the concerns that were expressed at the roundtable that sexbots will negatively impact the pursuit for gender equality and may unduly emphasize the objectification of women as sexual objects.The suggested provisions fall into the larger framework of regulating the emerging service robot industry that will be governed by the Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act and under the direction of the Ministry of Robots and Artificial Intelligence, to be established in Ontario and other Canadian provinces and territories at the end of next year.
The main provision of this dastardly Femi-Canadian proposed legislation?
The use of sexbots in the privacy of one’s home is prohibited, unless otherwise permitted by the Ministry of Robots and Artificial intelligence or a relevant regulating agency as per the criteria outlined in the Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act.
You may wonder: Why didn’t I read anything in the papers about this Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act? Why haven’t I heard about this Ministry of Robots and Artificial Intelligence?
Well, you guessed it. Because neither of them exist. I looked into this two years ago when the story first, er, broke in the manosphere. There’s no vast feminist conspiracy to deny Canadian men (or, for that matter, women) their still-imaginary sexbots. The “statement” was evidently written as part of a law school class project on law and robotics taught by Prof. Ian Kerr at the University of Ottawa Law School.
If you Google “Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act” or “Ministry of Robots and Artificial Intelligence” you will find that literally the only people talking about this issue are MRAs and PUAs and conspiracy theorists. And some of the more gullible 4channers, though a few of them quickly figured out that the whole thing was fake. (As did the Real Doll enthusiasts.)
Vox Day, who has yet to come to this realization, draws some dire conclusions from this thing that isn’t real, declaring that the
This Canadian attempt to preemptively ban sexbots is an overt confession by feminists of both sexes concerning their belief that women have nothing significant to offer men but sexual services. Moreover, it is proof that their “pursuit for gender equality” is directly and fundamentally opposed to the most basic human freedom. …
One would think that even those only superficially acquainted with human history would realize that attempts to put the technological genie back in the bottle almost always fail, as do attempts to prevent men and women from pursuing pleasure in ways deemed illicit. But then, a near-complete ignorance of human history is required to either be a feminist or possess a genuine belief in the rainbow-tailed unicorn of equality.
Well, not so much. Though Vox proves yet again that there are few people on planet earth as gullible as the manosphere’s pompous philosophers.
NOTE: Vox isn’t the only manospherian up in arms about the evil imaginary sexbot ban; more on this tomorrow.
Okay, Metropolis looks awesome and intriguing and I need to watch it. And then, thanks to the discussion in this thread, I need to go watch The Man Who Laughs agains so I can reminisce about just how cool it was when I realized the Joker’s design was based on Gwynplaine.
…And then while I’m at it, I ought to rewatch the 1935 A Midsummer Night’s Dream film, because I’m convinced their design for Oberon influenced Batman, and then I should go reread The Legend of Sleepy Hallow and Rappaccini’s Daughter, because Scarecrow and Poison Ivy, and then – damn it, Batman mythos, stop tying into so many other awesome things! There are only so many hours in the day.
“Human Men still need & want 24-7 PA’s and Human Women refuse, for the most part, to be such, with the exception of maybe those Alphas who can attract their own harems of groupies. What’s a Beta or Omega man to do then in that case?”
Actual human men need and want neither, being capable of buying their own cheetos and getting off their asses to find the remote themselves. “Betas” and “Omegas” can stop their fucking self-pity and professional whining and try acting like grown-ups who are capable of taking responsibility for themselves instead of joining the Cult of the Great Victim, which uses actual human women as sacrifices on the Alter of Bitches Who Refuse to be My Mommy With Benefits.
You are a cruel, wicked child.
It’s a literal space western. Our Heroes fly around in their spaceship (a beat-up old “Firefly” class cargo cruiser named Serenity), then when they land on a planet they use horses or an ATV they call “the Mule” to get around. They even have that post-Civil War feel, since it takes place six years after the worlds “On the Rim” fought and lost a war for independence from the “Core Worlds”.
The one android we meet is little more than a RealDoll – almost completely unresponsive – and her purpose is to illustrate that the man who married(!) her is sadly maladjusted.
Joss Whedon, the creator, used a similar device in Buffy when he had a misogynistic character build himself a girlfiend-bot. Rather than make her voice-activated, or hardwire in a response to come when he calls, he built her so that she suffered feedback if she heard his voice and didn’t respond. This character went on to become a killer of women.
*shakes cane*
Young whippersnapper!
lowquacks, git off my lawn!!
Technically, I feel that I need to point out the RealDoll was in The Movie, which was called Serenity, just in case someone watches all 13 eps of the series looking for her.
Do you need to watch all the series to understand what’s going on with the movie? I think you can get by with the premiere (also called “Serenity”), “Bushwhacked” and “Ariel.”
Joss Whedon did his best to make it so that people who’d never seen any episodes of the series could understand the movie, and I think he did OK. Indeed, some characters lost some ground in terms of character growth from the series so they could have an arc in the movie.
Watching the series greatly enhances the experience, of course.
But…..but why wouldn’t you want to watch the whole series : (?
You wanna know how geriatric I am? Years ago my dad had invitations to see the opening of a new Sci Fi adventure film, and I turned it down because I had an art history final the next morning.
And that’s how I missed the Hollywood premier of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
@katz, love the new Pierre : ) And sorry for the newb question, but I can’t find the source for the original Pierre concept, what was it?
heathen bee, you can find Pierre’s origins here:
http://manboobz.com/2012/12/12/mra-videoblogger-johntheother-hypocritical-defender-of-doxxing-doxxes-himself/comment-page-2/#comment-230662
(Basically I begged katz to make a cartoon.)
Some people think video games are boring, and I don’t understand that either, but I gotta make dispensation for ’em all the same.
That sucks. I was fortunate (?) enough to watch the prequels in the theater; I saw LOTR and The Hobbit and all the Marvel Avengers run-up movies in the theater; but I was too little for the original Star Wars trilogy, or ET. I was a babe in arms and my family saw that in the drive-in.
I was taken to see Dances With Wolves by my middle school, which didn’t bother to ask permission first.
Clearly, the major social problem of ugly feminists (http://skepchick.org/2013/01/ai-its-sexxxxxxxxay/) can only be solved by………..sexbots.
What dipshits these MRAs be.
Eh. I have several dear friends in Mensa, and have attended a number of very enjoyable Mensa events with them. I think Mensa gets an unfairly bad rap thanks to douchebags who think being a Mensa member says anything meaningful about them – my experience with Mensa members was that about 90% of them are pretty reasonable, non-egotistical people who joined because they wanted more nerdy people to hang out with and do puzzles and make terrible physics puns, and about 10% of them are douchey types who joined because they want to brag to everyone they encounter about how they’re SOOOOO SMART because they’re in Mensa. The former group mostly rolls their eyes at the latter and goes back to ignoring them and doing puzzles/making terrible physics puns. For obvious reasons, you don’t hear nearly as much about the people who join Mensa and don’t think it’s a big deal that they need to brag about to everyone who will listen, but they definitely exist, and they seem to find the “ooh, ooh, look at me, I passed the Mensa test, aren’t I special?” crowd terribly annoying, too.
Abnoy, they serve God for those reasons. They do not serve the sexual interest of humans for those reasons. And you need to be reminded that numerous angels did not want to serve humanity and are filled with anything but love for us. You know, the fallen ones.
Abnoy trying to deal with a fallen angel would be … entertaining. 😉
“Watching the series greatly enhances the experience, of course.”
Plus you get to watch River kick epic ass again.
Thank you cloudiah! (heathenbee here)
@Cloudiah
Well, isn’t that how they feel about women?
Bah, I mean the whole “I hate them but I also want to fuck them” thing. I feel like it must be really confusing to be a hetero male misogynist.
Yeah, it’s basically just projection.
Apparently, Vox also thought this was a confession.
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2012/10/john-scalzi-is-rapist.html
Labov: He’s a VERY special snowflake, isn’t he?
Less “ironwood” than “deadwood” – and I don’t mean the tv series!
Deadwood: <3 it so much.