Yesterday we looked at far-right manospheran clod/philosopher Vox Day’s melodramatic response to a Canadian sexbot ban that’s completely imaginary (but that Vox, natch, believed was real). Today, let’s look at an almost 3000-word post by one “Ian Ironwood” of the Red Pill Room, spelling out the dire implications of this imaginary legislation.
ProTip: Before writing 3000-word screeds denouncing something, spend 5 minutes with Teh Google to see if what you’re denouncing is in fact real.
Ironwood opens his argument with this dramatic (if slightly ironic) assertion:
The Sexbot threat to feminism is real.
No one wants to admit it, but it’s coming. Indeed, the only people who recognize it as such are the radical feminists and the radical nerds, and rarely do folks take those groups at face value when they speak. But they both have it right, sexbots are in our future. Indeed, they’re closer than you think, and their capacity to seriously screw with the SMP is very, very real.
For those not fully versed in the pseudoscience of pickup artistry, SMP stands for “sexual marketplace.”
Ian starts us off with a little trip to Japan:
Japan, the undisputed global leaders in male masturbation technology, are [sic] investing literally millions in research into this market. Why? Because of the herbivores.
The “herbivores” are the adult males (I hesitate to call them men) in Japanese society who have opted out of the dating-and-mating SMP entirely. In consideration of the exhausting and complex web of social and financial penalties involved, these men have just . . . given up on women.
Manospherians like to pretend that Japan’s much-discussed “herbivores” are essentially the Japanese version of Men Going Their Own Way. I’m no expert on Japan but even I know that’s a bit of an oversimplification.
Naturally, in Ian’s mind, it’s all the fault of those uppity ladies:
You think American women feel entitled? Japanese “princesses” put them to shame. Their demands and requirements for a husband are often so grandiose or unrealistic that they have turned-off an entire generation of Japanese men to the very idea of marriage, just at the point where their female contemporaries, themselves working in corporate jobs, are starting to consider it.
But when your day consists of going to work in a cube farm and playing the corporate warrior competing with women all day, apparently it saps your desire to deal with them all night, too.
So, naturally, these poor cube farming herbivores are turning to vagina replacements:
Long an important part of international sex culture, the last few decades have seen rapid advances in masturbation technology, including the disposable Tenga “egg” stroker you can buy in a vending machine for those long lunch hours. Japanese dudes whack it a lot, and that’s big business.
And soon – oh, so soon — Japanese masturbation technology will be able to replace not just vaginas but entire women:
[B]y 2018, and certainly by 2020, we’ll see animatronic Sexbots available for purchase that you will not be able to distinguish from a human being more than ten feet away.
Ian, I will bet you literally a billion gazillion dollars that you are wrong about this.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Ian is correct, and let him continue his most interesting – and increasingly NSFW — survey of the future.
Every aspect of the phenomenon is being developed: realistic-feeling skin, realistic-looking eyes, realistic-sounding voice, realistic weight and mass, realistic movements …
The current state-of-the-art is still primitive, but that’s changing rapidly. By 2020 your Sexbot will be able to walk, talk, see, hear, suck, fuck, give you an endless handjob, take it up her vibrating butt and do stuff no mortal woman can.
“Endless Handjob” is going to be the name of my ambient-drone cassette label.
You will be able to order them in any style, from African to Asian to European to Latin and beyond, any height, any weight, and you will be able to personalize them to suit your particular fetish. Advanced models will have changeable bust sizes and other options. Hair, eyes, and accent? Standard options.
I am glad to hear that sexbots will indeed have eyes as an option. It would be sort of weird otherwise. Can they have more than two? Could they have eyes instead of nipples, and nipples instead of eyes? Could you simply swap out various body parts as if your sexbot were some giant sexy Mrs. Potatohead?
Sorry, I’m getting a bit carried away with all the possibilities.
Let’s go back to Ian’s post, which is sounding more and more like some sort of sexbot informercial.
And just how much will dudes have to shell out to get a perfectly-programmed girlfriend delivered to their door?
About the price of an economy car. Estimates indicate that the best consumer price-point for a Sexbot is about US$7,000.00 (2013). Leases will likely be available. So will financing. But for the average dude, shelling out that kind of cash for the perfect sexual companion is a no-brainer.
I’m pretty sure Ian isn’t thinking with his brain at this point. Heck, he’s even wrong about the cars: a decent economy car is going to cost you at least twice that, and most of them don’t even have vibrating butts.
Imagine a dude getting home from work in his single apartment. His Sexbot has been pre-programmed to start his dinner and have it ready on demand. She greets him at the door, asks about his day, gets his dinner, and then spends the rest of the evening satisfying him any way he chooses. With a sophisticated AI (one of the major focuses of the effort) she will be able to converse with you on nearly any topic or stay blissfully silent. And you don’t even have to ask about how her day went.
After two years, trade her in for a newer, more advanced model. Repeat as necessary.
And fellas, this stunningly realistic female human being replacement, with a vibrating butt and as many eyes as you want, will be yours for less than half the cost of a cheap car – in as little as six years from now!
And heck, these sexbots won’t just replace women – they’ll even replace women who are whores.
Our children’s generation will look forward to a whole lot of men (if Japan is any indication, over half) depending on Sexbots for their erotic entertainment over actual human beings. Even whores. Because sexbots are safer than prostitutes by any estimation.
Sounds like life for heterosexual-yet-woman-hating men will become some sort of wondrous sexual utopia!
What could possibly stand in the way of this glorious dream?
Oh, you guessed it already: jealous, and probably ugly, feminists – who for some reason apparently want all of the woman-hating straight men for themselves.
Ian trots out that wholly imaginary Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act that we talked about yesterday. The “proposed law” that turned out to have been an assignment in a law school class about law and robotics. The law that Ian didn’t bother to Google before writing his long, long screed.
Ian is as worked up about this imaginary law as he is excited about his imaginary robot girlfriend(s) of the future. “[T]he thinly-veiled, incredibly obvious motivation behind this freakish proposed law,” he thunders, is that
feminists are upset because when dudes can buy a girlfriend for less money than an engagement ring, and then have elective temporary vasectomies to cover their bases for the few times they do end up with a real woman, then the future looks an awful lot like a male paradise and a female hell.
Wait, now all men are getting vasectomies as well? Even though they have no reason to bother with mere human females, what with all their talking and their lack of vibrating butts? I’m a little confused now.
What happens when you’re a woman, you want to be a mom, but not only can’t you find a husband . . . you can’t even find decent sperm? When in order to conceive, you have to convince a dude to commit to providing you with semen, which he can do only AFTER he consciously gets his vasectomy reversed? No surprise pregnancies, no one-night-stands gone wrong, suddenly the only way a woman can get pregnant is if she can convince a man to commit to her? If she can even find one who is interested? …
What happens in our society when a majority of working women can’t find husbands – or even dates, thanks to the Sexbot craze – and end up working and paying taxes to subsidize other women’s childbearing? What happens when a dude with superior genetics can start a bidding war on his balls?
Yeah, but what if Japanese women develop ROBOT SPERM and use it to get pregnant and somehow force men to pay child support for their new human-robot hybrid babies? Did you ever consider THAT, Ian?
I’m not quite sure how all of that would work, exactly, but, hey, the Japanese are awfully clever so presumably they could whip up something like this in, oh, six to eight years or so, right?
But let’s just assume that my idea of robot sperm remains a pipe dream, and that Ian’s pipe dreams somehow become reality. He continues:
The temporary vasectomy is literally just a few years away. Throw in Sexbots, and suddenly men have reproductive power the likes of which they’ve never dreamed, even at the height of the Agricultural Age. They will decide when they conceive as a conscious choice, not as a whim of Nature. Have a bad date with yet-another desperate woman who only wants you for your sperm? Kandi the Asian 19year old Sexbot will make it all better.
Why is her name Kandi? Is that a common name in Asia?
And that’s why feminists are trying to ban them. Not because they “objectify” women, but because they make women largely redundant to men. Suddenly the allure of their genitalia will pale in comparison to the outrageous sexual bombshells rolling off of the Kyoto assembly lines.
I’m sorry; I just love that last sentence there so much I have to repeat it:
Suddenly the allure of their genitalia will pale in comparison to the outrageous sexual bombshells rolling off of the Kyoto assembly lines.
Ian dreams on:
Sexbots will actually cure a plethora of social ills: STDs, AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, sexual frustration, loneliness, heartbreak, child sexual exploitation, and more. Far from making men objectify women . . . it will merely make them ignore them. Men with Sexbots won’t treat women poorly, because more likely than not, once they have the “perfect” programmed girlfriend at home, there really won’t be any reason to interact with women unless you’re at work.
Yes, because aside from sticking his penis in them, there is clearly no possible reason why a man would ever want to have anything to do with women.
Just imagine a society where any man can get his ashes hauled at any time, in any way, without having to ask a live woman to participate. Just imagine a society where women can’t get “accidentally” pregnant anymore. Not only is the impetus to marry absolutely killed, but even the impetus to mix with the opposite sex. And that’s what is scaring feminists, not the potential for objectification.
Yes, I’m sure feminist women are crying themselves to sleep at the notion that asswipes like Ian will refuse to “mix” with them any more.
Happily, for him, Ian concludes that the (wholly imaginary) Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act won’t stand up in court. Because of NAFTA, or something. (I kind of skimmed this bit.) But then he’s back to imagining the wondrous possibilities of a sexbotted-up world. Which apparently involves a lot of robot dismemberment.
Just imagine the result if sex with “realistic” Sexbots is actually made illegal . . . why not just pop an alien head on? Or a animatronic animal head? Or just a silvery glass sphere? That’s the real danger for women when it comes to Sexbots: their ability to be customized in ways no woman would ever consent to.
Uh, I’m pretty sure no living creature, regardless of gender, would consent to having their head “popped off” and replaced with a sphere.
Can’t have a “realistic” full-body Sexbot? Then just buy her from the waist down. And then next year spring for a separate torso and head. You can use them separately, or together!
Who needs a human girlfriend when you can just fuck a torso?
Cant’ have a Sexbot that portrays a minor? Get a really, really small model, and no one knows what happens in your imagination.
How thoughtful! So even pedophiles will have a place in Ian’s sexbot utopia.
So while imaginary feminists propose imaginary laws to fight the coming sexbot utopia, Ian will be licking his chops.
I, for one, will be welcoming our new Sexbot masters. It’s going to tighten up the SMP worse than gay liberation did. And it’s going to make shallow, poor-quality women completely and utterly undatable, and leave them little or no options to reproduce. And the women who do reproduce will do so only with the permission, consent and acquiescence of men.
I’m beginning to wonder if this “red pill” is actually some sort of hallucinogenic.
(power supplies are an issue, as is weight . . . but carbon fiber makes an AWESOME chassis)
Oh man.
1: No one is going to invite someone to a bragging session and say, “we managed to make this, it cost $100,000 and is a one off, because we can’t mechanise the production.
2: Carbon fiber is good for some things, but it’s got some serious drawbacks. Maybe the fiberglassing aspects have been fixed so the failure modes are… dramatic, but I’d not count on it.
3: Power supplies… oh yeah, that’s gonna get fixed, sure it will. And when it does, don’t short the batteries. The more compact they get, the closer they get to bombs (research the energy release from a LiON battery when you short across the terminals), and wonder why it’s illegal to ship them in passenger planes.
Well, don’t wonder. Be very glad.
I never said that Asian women were submissive or “the best” — I’ve simply stated that they have more traditional ideas about marriage and family that might appeal to a man who actually wants to get married and stay married.
How, one wonders, is “Asian” defined in this statement?
Lets limit it to Japan (Since that’s the culture our hero tells us he is so in tune with).
The wife does the cleaning, and the cooking, and the child-rearing. The husband works 60 hour weeks, and gives her the money; from which she gives him an allowance.
I can see the US MRM going for that.
Or not.
That is – literally – hysterical. Just another attack on male sexuality as “rape culture”.
No. It is an attack on rape culture. It’s not an attack on “male sexuality”, but on those who think rape culture is just fine.
Try — just try — to give this some real cogent thought. I’ll give you a moment.
. Famous people (at least in the US) would have a hard time challenging that in court under the “parody” element of the First Amendment.
Explicate. Cite case the case law on point.
Explain also how the various laws on trademarked/copyrighted image of celebrities (esp. as used in the sex toy market) would fail to apply.
Again, cite case law on point.
I also can’t help but notice few of you took the bait on temporary male vasectomies, either. I’m sure it won’t disturb our society any more than, say, the Pill did.
How are these going to work? What will make the present cause of reversal surgeries lack of success change? Do you even know the cause of most reversal failures?
What is the difference in the procedure/technique which you see taking place?
Or is it just a convenient tool in the gedankenexperiment you have composed to show how, “Come the REVOLUTION! women will suffer!”?
But the big thing I want to ask here is: despite your clumsy attempts to shame me, apart from nature of the original article, can you counter my argument with any reasonable suggestion? So far I’ve gotten “They’ll never have sexbots in my lifetime! You’re a freak!” and “No one would by sexbots but losers!”.
Dude, if we expected you to have any shame the attempts you’ve made at defending your piece here put paid to that.
You’ve not countered a single argument put up to show why the type of sexbots you posit aren’t plausible.
What you’ve done is repeat the things being discussed; as if repetition changes invalidates the arguments.
In short, you’ve spent a lot of words/time/effort to say, “UNH HUNH!… It WILL happen, and you are all doodyheads to think it won’t.”
Well I put too much thought into this but, I’m not sure that sexbots would be popular replacements for real partners even amongst the MRA set. I mean, assuming they aren’t sentient, they can’t/dont respect you, or care about you or what you say. and do to them at all.
Which of course also means they aren’t going to be upset when you decide you want a newer model, and they won’t miss you, and no amount of guilting and mindgames will ever bother them in the least. Where would the fun in that be!?
Add to that all the supercreepy harping on about banging lots of ‘fertile women’ (sexbots are all gonna be infertile because uhm robot), I really just can’t see them catching on as a replacement for a real live woman to be a dick to. Which is kinda sad.
also hi. 🙂
Another new person! 2013 is looking up, as I, for one, enjoy different perspectives and we’ve had a whole bunch of new people 🙂
Welcome Monster! And you are, unfortunately, probably right that they’ll still want sapient women who get upset at their harassment, because disrespecting women is their bread and butter.
In before “women demand respect but don’t earn it”
@ostara321 – Word.
Did anybody else notice this particular contradiction of Abnoyance’s “logic”?
WTF kind of insecurity is that but of ego? “Some other guy you fucked before me may have been better at it and I can’t cope with that possibility so I’ll only screw naive virgins and robots?
How in hell is that NOT about ego?
And this dude is demanding we provide a rebuttal to his well-reasoned arguments? Oy.
Meanwhile, this gem:
Sums it all up. The entire appeal of a sexbot for Abnoyance and his buddies is ownership. They want to own a female-looking object that they can completely control and treat any way they want without restriction.
Just warning you that people aren’t going to like this statement much.
I wish that talk about the Reeperbahn hadn’t gone for the, “germans sound like beasts, but “x” are mellifuous”.
My MRA Name is “Colin Dremel Gabbro”
Well fuck, that’s an awesome name. Curse my multimeter!
So, let’s say all the guys out there will see sense and think sexbots are Teh Awesomesauce, and will go on to ditch their human partners to shack up with one. And that they will also all tie a temporary knot in their tackle out of some kind of spiteful ‘You must BEG for my precious sperm, you deceiving harlots of Satan!’ attitude.
Well…actually, I guess things could be worse. There are three and a half billion women out there who can set up home together to satisfy their weird desire for human warmth and companionship, even if it isn’t everyone’s preferred solution. Women still have their uteri, and as for the sperm, the science to turn other cells into sperm cells is an awful lot closer to reality than the science to create sexbots. Of course, since in this wonderful sexbot Utopia, women are apparently the only ones still forming partnerships with other human beings, then this means all the sperm will be X-chromosome only, and that all their kids are also going to be women.
Hmm. You know, this might not turn out to be the overwhelming victory that the MRA are envisaging.
My first name is also Colin, watched the new Total Recall the other day, maybe someone else shot last but I wasn’t paying attention because it sucked.
Clint Ovengranite here.
I really wonder how the “asking about their day” part is going to work.
Sexbot: Hello [insert owner’s name], tell me all about your day and [insert preferred topic of discussion].
MRA: No, you’re supposed to actually say my name! And you need to cook me dinner first!
Sexbot: Hello [insert owner’s name], tell me all about your day and [insert preferred topic of discussion].
MRA: NO, it’s not time for that yet!
Sexbot: Current time is 12:00 AM.
MRA: NO, FUCK, THAT’S NOT RIGHT!
Sexbot: Hello [insert owner’s name], tell me all about your day and [insert preferred topic of discussion].
MRA: How the fuck do I program this thing?
Sexbot: [Keyword “Program” recognized, initiating help system]
Sexbot: [Welcome to the Sex-Bot 5200™ help system! The Sex-Bot 5200™ is a magnificent piece of technology designed to satisfy your every need. For help in configuring the many functions of your new product, consult the manual and speak the correct keyword now!]
MRA: I just want some dinner!
Sexbot: [Keyword “Thinner” recognized]
Sexbot: [The Sex-Bot 5200™ comes with a fully customizable chassis, simply contact our service providers and purchase the many available exchangeable parts and your Bot can have the appearance that is most right for YOU!]
MRA: Wait, I have to buy extra parts to customize this thing?
Sexbot: [Keyword “Customize” recognized, initiating help system]
Sexbot: [Welcome to the Sex-Bot 5200™ help system! The Sex-Bot 5200™ is a magnificent piece of technology designed to satisfy your every need. For help in configuring the many functions of your new product, consult the manual and speak the correct keyword now!]
MRA: AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Nic Roasterveneer.
>I wish that talk about the Reeperbahn hadn’t gone for the, “germans sound like beasts, but “x” are mellifuous”.
Will happen, as soon as Der Spiegel stops burying the soon-to-be-dead USA In effigie every five weeks.
Myoo – love it! Perfect!
@Myoo
That reminds me of Sam Vimes’ conversations with his Disorganiser in Jingo, the Discworld book.
It refers to him as “Insert name here” 😛
“And you are, unfortunately, probably right that they’ll still want sapient women who get upset at their harassment, because disrespecting women is their bread and butter.”
They’ll have a “C’mon baby, feed the troll” button/app for that.
Steve Toasteroven Travertine here. Call me “Toast” for short.
I want to make a Bad Luck Brian gif.
Gets a SexBot
It cheats on him
You know Abnoy and the Sexbot Quartet could just get themselves a Fleshlight or Tenga Flip Air *right now* if all they need is a compliant hole to stick things in. No risk of sloppy seconds, unless you don’t clean it! It’s also likely to be a lot lot cheaper than a sex bot.
No, what they actually want is some being that will cook their dinner for them and basically take care of these overgrown man infants without having a will of its own.
Did anyone share this yet?
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/16p0jr/the_looming_sexbot_threat/
My apologies if so. I haven’t read all the newer comments!
PennyDreadful — there’s an app for that! *dies*
Which reminds me, Pecunium, and other musicians, there’s an app for timing how long you practiced individual songs, and at what bpm (you do have to calculate that by hand / another traditional method) — MusicJournal = my new best friend.
********* I’m sure this has been stated already, but it’s late, I’m a bit too tired to wade through more than 300 comments and it definitely bears repeating.
Sexbots for MRAs must be MANDATORY.
No, it doeesn’t bear repeating. It ought not be said so much as once. MRAs, no matter how fucked up, are people. If they find partners who are willing to put up with them (or who happen to sincerely love/care for them) that’s their right.
Full stop.
Abnoy: <iBah, in the rest of the world not the White West ”pure girls” are still the first choice of most straight guys. There are women you bed and there are women you wed and traditionally the twain were not the same.
More of your being too avant garde?
Seems pretty old fashioned to me. Stupid too. Cutting out all the nice/intelligent interested in sex women.
and now I need to grab a quick shower, pack my overnight bag, and head my self to the bus to Boston; for Arisia.
@cloudiah: Dunno if this is a good or bad thing, but I actually expected the thread to be much worse!