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.
@Fed Up – um, what exactly are you on about? This is the third (?) thread in a row you’re posting excerpts from stuff on MRM sites not related to the original post at random. Are you trying to get David writing about these things or just “it’s so horrible I can’t deal without sharing” or…?
Oww, kitteh, I’m getting a visual…
“In our culture, a woman is statistically less likely to be raped by a man than a man is to be falsely accused of rape by a woman ”
Where are those statistics?
http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/false-rape-culture/ignore-gender-denounce-rape-defend-all-victims/
It gives “He’s been clamped” a whole new meaning.
@ drst
Did you see the other thread? I’m voting for Atomic Asshole, Part 2.
Fed up – seriously, why bother reading those sites? They don’t cite real statistics, or at very best completely misread stuff. Take it as read those creeps just lie about anything they can if it makes women look bad.
Plus, remember this isn’t a Feminism 101 space, it’s not for research or asking for tutorials, it’s a mockery site.
Cassandra – yeah, there’s a socky smell coming here, and I’m at the end of my “answer in good faith” ration now.
To add to what Kittehs’ said, there is some degree of distance between having a drink or two and (depending on a person’s tolerance for alcohol) being so drunk as to be unable to give consent.
Really, this is not at all difficult for people who are not amoral asshats. MRAs like to raise this issue of mutual drunkenness as though it invalidates the whole idea of incapacity, but the fact remains that if one person is passed out and the other person is slightly-less-than-passed-out, that makes the latter person the rapist. And hey, if there’s any doubt at all, try not having sex with a person. It’s not hard. I don’t have sex with dozens of people every day!
Fed Up, can you tell us where you’re coming from with this crap?
Random but funny – check it out, I found a friend for governmentgirlfriends guy! And a newspaper whose editor deserves a stern talking to for publishing this crap.
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/12/11/tax-the-handsome-one-homely-guys-solution-to-the-declining-birth-rate/
The lesson to take home, kids, is that MRAs are looking for any excuse to rape a person and get away with it. Feminists, however, try to avoid raping people.
Who’s the hate movement?
Cassandra, that’s bizarre on so many levels but especially because Richard Ayoade (pictured) is pretty adorable.
Esp. since some of it is stuff we’ve gone over before.
That guy in the pic is a cutie! I’d consider approaching him at a bar. And his hairstyle definitly gives him character.
I suppose at least the dude is aiming his desire to punish people at other men rather than at women, so that makes him unique among his brethren. Still don’t see any good reason why the government should fix the odds in his favor, though.
(It also made me wonder what if a guy is super hot AND super successful? Do they set Joe Odigiri’s tax bracket at 200% of income or what?)
Catching up here (getting the water right for white tea is apparently quite the production!)
nerdypants1 — you new around this parts? If so, welcome! Have some very good white tea!
Night Falconer!
Heya nerdypants, thank you for reading the link, I unfortunately went to hi site today and he’s whining because Christian books don’t like his new piece of crap. But since I view anti vax proponents as close to child killers I would prefer that xian fundies were coming to lynch the fucker
Ps for an MRA he’s one of those weird ones who want today put her down game on women but also finds sex a bit icky, eg he doesn’t like the game of thrones author because of all the sexiness but then he complains about a fictional ban on sex bots. Arghh my head hurts, the stupid it burns!
Whoops that was to play ( hate auto correct).
damn you blockquote!
That’s Moss from The IT Crowd. Why they are using his pic on an article that has nothing to do with him, and giving the source for it as some random Japanese website, I have no idea.
I like Richard Ayoade and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was something of a sex symbol in the UK.
Ingrained codes of conduct are good methods for not resulting in drunken fuckups. I.e. a person who refuses to drive after drinking is much less likely to try driving somewhere when they are stupid-drunk, similarly, a person who knows blasted people are off-limits is much less likely to engage in mutually drunken hookups when they’re blasted. It also assumes both people are in the “I’m walking and talking but not going to remember any of this tomorrow” drunk, as opposed to either of them being actually unconscious.
And of course the “accusations” line was blasted out of the water recently with that info graphic. Here’s the version with some comments from Amanda regarding errors and relative accuracy: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/01/08/the_enliven_project_s_false_rape_accusations_infographic_great_intentions.html
On topic, I have to admit, My personal sci-fi futurist prediction is that we will be forced to define the terms of “person” outside our current paradigm of “human”. We will probably reach the point where we create a sentient machine, or a genetically engineered critter, or deal with another creature we can communicate with, from our world or beyond. In my crankier moments, I think this might be possible in my lifetime. I also have the sinking feeling that economic advantages are going to trump any talk of rights for a very long time, even after such a thing is discovered.
New Pierre. *hunted the mammoth voice* I counted the stars on a Confederate flag for you!
Just attach a fleshlight onto the end of that welding arm and away you go. The torque on that thing is probably not going to be all that pleasant though.
I still love the xkcd with a male and female sexbot getting it on off-panel while their owners watch on. “It’s like someone put a vibrator in a fleshlight”