Oh dear. Our friends the Men’s Rights Redditors have discovered Mr.Ian Ironwood’s little treatise on sexbots. While some are a bit skeptical about the reality of the (non-existent) Human-Robot Personal Relationship Act — more skeptical, anyway, than Ironwood or Vox Day before him — this doesn’t stop the regulars from offering all sorts of distressing and/or hilarious opinions on the subject.
For example, OuiCrudites suggests that women have made sexbots inevitable by generally being such a pain in the ass, and MaunaLoona compares female sexuality to the railroad monopolies of the 19th century:
In a later comment, OuiC elaborates on his “most women are shitty” thesis:
MaunaLoona, meanwhile, agrees with Ironwood that developing the AI for sexbots won’t be a big challenge, because the average American woman is dumb and has a terrible personality.
A Canadian Redditor steps in to point out that the alleged “legislation” isn’t real. Oh, and to suggest that many “females” can’t think rationally.
Geigerwasright concludes that men will find sexbots preferable to women because the women of today aren’t providing them with “love, loyalty [or] kindness.”
So watch out, ladies! Unless you clean up your act, and quick, the good men of the Men’s Rights subreddit will abandon you en masse in favor of sex with inanimate objects that pretend to like them.
And this is apparently supposed to be a bad thing for women.
Clauderoughly postulates that sexbots for women will never be that popular, because what women really want is to get pregnant, so they can live the good life off of child support:
That’s a bit weird, as all the women I’ve had sex with have seemed quite interested not getting pregnant from sex. Indeed, some have had devices inserted into their bodies by doctors to prevent such an occurence.
The world that MRAs live in is a strange and scary place. I prefer the real world. It’s much cheerier.
NOTE: The horrible picture at the top of this post was borrowed from Craftastrophe.
“@Argenti, can you do the query through email? Having to talk to someone about insurance is sooooooooo 20th century.
Your situation doesn’t seem to be the best though. Is she going to the bathroom/exiting the room while she’s in session with you?”
I should’ve clarified, the bathroom thing was college pseudo-parties and the like (I went to one party proper, I hated it), worst my psych has done is check that the vibrating phone isn’t important. But the insurance is state insurance, so no, I have to call and phone tree hell and hope they have a clue. Sending those “this is what we cover and from whom” books is apparently so last century.
Kitteh — meds!psych looks about my age, and in another other context, I’d wish I had the nerves to hit on her. Which makes this all the more annoying — I want to like her, but she just keeps harping on this. Talk!psych looks like your typical 30-something frazzled new mother.
They’re trying to get me to join some sort of social group, eg their psych dept apparently has client bowling outings (I can gutterball with bumpers, no way this is happening) and not *cure* my depression, cuz freakin’ bipolar, but help the depression side. To their credit, they’ve decided to push this instead of yet more “we’ll just up your meds”
And yeah, I’ve tried explaining y’all twice, that you’re a wide range of people, very accepting, and whatnot, but meds!psych can’t get beyond the mocking misogyny part to get to “stay for the cooking tips, sci-fi, Tolkien, math, physics, etc” — to the point of saying that this sounds unhealthy, cuz misogyny. *bangs head on bed*
Wow. That’s some bad doctors. Sorry, everyone, for your bad experiences 🙁
@Kitteh: what a rude and unprofessional comment to make. And it could have hurt even if you had been sexually active. I wish the medical schools would quit taking students on high grades and have more of a focus on interpersonal skills. On the topic of psychologists again, I did wonder for a while if my university took people into the counselling program because they themselves were seriously screwed up. One of them said to me “Isn’t it great that you’re doing another program as you’re good at data and not people.” WTF, and that comment showed they were?
Kiwi Girl — well, some fools do seek antibiotics for virī, but that’d still be no reason to be that rude and dismissive (a polite “you have a cold ma’am, you’ll get better without antibiotics, take OTC meds for you symptoms and call if they get worse” works better!)
Sorry, I have a think against antibiotic overuse. And that sucks about all the people you lost, I’m sorry.
fuckityfuckfuck IDIOTS
why don’t they read the freaking site if they want to know what it’s about
gahhhh
maroons
macaroons
twits
reminds me, got to give psych my web page and say READ AND LEARN or words to that effect
By the way, lest anyone worry, the harassment ended at work and the employee has since left the job. My work is going very well :-3. I’m just still thinking I might find a new psych, because… way to be in my corner, person-I-pay-to-be-in-my-corner.
Umm…you have to be decent at data to get an undergrad psych degree…
Admittedly, I tended to set the curve, but statistics and research methods and some other math course were requirements of the major in my program.
@Argenti I am sorry for your situation, it sounds horrendous. Another stressor, just what you need /sarcasm. Organised activities can be hideous if you’re not wanting to be with the people and/or interested in the activity. It’s also a way of putting on social pressure to make sure you stay in a situation for a predetermined period of time, because leaving early would just be so *rude* /eyeroll.
Have the psychs asked what you want, and how you think you might get there? Because, you’re the expert on you. 🙂
Kiwi girl – and there was a load of squick in the “this country” stuff (the doctor was Indian). Hello, nice bit of stereotyping there, no? Not to play the victim card, but yeah, unprofessional, and sounding like she was caught up in her own cultural prejudices, not to mention a side order of heteronormative assumptions (I had told her I wasn’t sexually active, no more than that). There was a rather good article on that very thing by an overseas med student in the paper not long ago, talking about how it can cut as much when the doctor’s the immigrant as when the patient is.
“I’m just still thinking I might find a new psych, because… way to be in my corner, person-I-pay-to-be-in-my-corner.”
Sounds as good a reason as any! And glad the harassment ended, totally missed that you were referring to your current job *is dumb sometimes*
Kitteh — I did mention it originally as a site dedicated to mocking misogyny, so half my fault, but how sad is it that it’s just assumed that mocking misogyny means having to put up with it? This might be the one corner of the Internet where that shit is Not. Fucking. Tolerated. Period.
“I’m just still thinking I might find a new psych, because… way to be in my corner, person-I-pay-to-be-in-my-corner.”
I apparently have case management related goals, and keep managing to miss the case management person (holidays, then a snow storm)
But yeah, stuck there for predetermined time, or have my mother there and probably have it not count, as I don’t drive.
Viscaria – I’m glad to hear the harasser has gone! Good riddance. And yeah, time for not-in-your-corner psych to pack those bags, too.
Argenti – I can’t get my head around this “forced socialisation is good for you” nonsense at all. It’s bad enough for someone who’s just shy, or someone introverted, or simply not comfortable with having to make prolonged small talk with strangers … or ex-customer service types. 😉 (Tick all the above boxes for me.) To suggest it for someone who’s going to be one helluva lot more stressed by it is just … the stupid, it burns. It’s like some partygoer insisting that everyone would really LOVE partying and getting pissed if they’d just give it a try! Um, no, doesn’t work like that.
Anyway how much better does it get than a website where you get to talk to a queen, eh?
@Argenti, yeah, it was a UTI, peeing razor blades, not quite up to kidney infection but was working its way there. I don’t take a lot of antibiotics, as I particularly love my normal flora, but yeah needed them that time. For a flu, which is the only virus I tend to catch if I’m going to catch one, the GP is only needed for the medical certificate off work. 🙂
@Viscaria: good news on the work front. And I love your last comment.
@Argenti: not in NZ, only compulsory research paper was a 2nd year one that went as far as t-tests and ANOVA, so pretty basic. Over here, people can do their honours or masters and PhD as qualitative, no stats required. So it is possible, and I have met a few, for people to have a doctorate and have no clue about stats. I have also meet people who got somebody else to analyse their quantitative results for their masters. I had some quite technical questions about the analyses in one masters so I met the person for coffee to talk about their dissertation and they said they couldn’t tell me how the data was analysed because they “gave it to an expert” who analysed it all for them and just gave them their results. I was pretty dumbfounded. So, yeah, nothing like your requirements, and no paper requirements for a PhD either.
FTR here, they’re generally pretty good, or I’d have given up months ago. They just keep walking that line between “I am mildly annoyed, but to nothing major” and “stop it already” (my brother is a master of this, making me more inclined to tolerate it)
I mean, they got my diagnosis probably the most right it’s ever been, wrote a damned good letter to the state that got me welfare with no fuss at all, and they’re right around the corner — I can easily walk there.
I’m glad there are some serious positives about them, Argenti!
Conveniently-located therapy is a godsend.
Kiwi Girl — sorry if that came off as questioning your need for antibiotics, but seeing how it is a pet peeve, I’m glad you know wtf they’re for (and lol at the med certificate!)
I am, how ever, kind if frightened that I know more statistics than a PhD / doctor of psychology.
Kitteh — apparently socialization is best when we don’t feel up to it, like this is some cranky depressive thing (trust me here, I do that, and I speak to no one *cough*hi months long hiatus, I’m looking at you*cough*)
Also, *bows* greetings my lady
“Conveniently-located therapy is a godsend.”
After 45 min there and 45 min back, on the bus, for a 15 min meds!psych who Did Not Listen in Pittsburgh, yeah an under 15 min walk is very nice.
Lol, at least they finally had the sense to ask whether I care that I’m not dating (I don’t)
*curtseys* d’you prefer milord or milady? 😉
Heh – you’d have liked Mr’s stunt on Friday. Did a handstand and then made a leg in the most exaggerated fashion ever. Love it when he’s being silly.
@Argenti, that’s fine, I know you’re thinking antibiotic-resistance. I can assure you it was a UTI. I think every woman knows a UTI when they get one.
Be scared at the maths/stats aspect. I have Australian colleagues, so I know it’s also an issue in Australian degrees. I don’t currently have a PhD, but I get asked to review studies etc because I have a formal statistics qualification. Obviously that’s because I’m complete shite at getting on with people, with my absence of interpersonal skills.
Good news on the psych front though, I’m happy your situation isn’t as dire as I thought it might be. Re the socialisation thing, I always thought throwing people into the deep end and letting them sink was such as good way of helping people get better. Fuck knows why people consider face-to-face to be the gold standard of socialisation, I’ve mentioned more personal stuff on her today than any of my co-workers of > 3 years know, and I’ve been seeing them face-to-face for 5 days a week in that time. Of course, I’m sure we would all be having this level of quality conversation if we were at the pub surrounded by drunken idiots, and annoying loud music, gosh I wish I was there now /sigh.
Intertube hugs all round, persons, Mr Gardening Tee Shirt and I are off home in the blech hot heat. Catch you later! 🙂
Kitteh — hmmm, pick one? My now former FWB used m’lady, the not-an-ex prefers m’lady zirself, so I took m’lord. So whichever I guess! Hm…m’lady I guess, I *was* dubbed Princess Killjoy McGee the third for saying that I didn’t think the Corsica could go over the highway divider, not even with all the snow. (That was a fun day! …and another person I only talk to online anymore, seeing how we’re 3 hours apart currently)
Kiwi Girl — thankfully my nether regions tend to behave, which is good as I rather hate having to acknowledge their existence. Get your point about being sure you had a UTI though, I imagine it’s a bit like when I broke my toe in the “some things you’re just sure of” thing. As for the math, lovely, just lovely!
And yeah I’m sure I’d totally be all “I prefer to ignore my anatomy, seeing how androgynous isn’t exactly an anatomical option” in person (my biology makes my anatomy readily apparently, it’s very annoying) Totally had issues at the law firm for not being social enough, not particularly caring about the Steelers game is apparently more important than being the fastest to run anything anywhere, you’d think that would be of massive importance when the client pays for that time…oh…
Cheap ass lawyers…
Ye gods, so many terrible psychs! I guess this is the other side of schools like mine where psych is considered the easy major you take if you don’t know what you want to study.
More hugs all around! Hugs are particularly good when “please don’t touch me or I’ll jump” doesn’t apply!
I think it’s time for more Criminal Minds here (all the eye candy! And some of it geeky!)