Sex Object

Why is it that it feels like the people campaigning against sex robots have the most terrible, negative, pessimistic view of sex.

i haven't read the whole of their site but doesn't it come down to a negative view of power relationships?

not that you're rong, i think blanket pessimism re: sex is depressing.

but i get the (misguided?) desire to escape power...even if it does lead them to a sterile puritanism

They are super-anti-sex-work, right in their mission statement. Sex with robots is bad because:

https://campaignagainstsexrobots.wordpress.com/about/

The vision for sex robots is underscored by reference to prostitute-john exchange which relies on recognizing only the needs and wants of the buyers of sex, the sellers of sex are not attributed subjectivity and reduced to a thing (just like the robot).

That is not commonly the way that buyer-seller relations are depicted in other forms of labour. It's the writers of this statement that are reducing the sex worker to a "thing"; not the actual exchange of labour for money. In other exchanges, workers are recognised as having rights and the buyers of labour are recognised as having responsibilities. Why not sex work? Oh right, generally because it's criminalised and workers have no recourse when their rights are abused.

Why is it that sex labour (and often other forms of emotional labour) are held to be somehow... *not* labour? There's this weird doublethink going on whereby sex is either A) this quasi-magical mystical emotional union between two souls who ~love each other very much~ or else B) this degrading brutal thing that "Men" do to "Women". Like, these are the only two options available.

Looking at sex robots as a labour issue... (assuming that sex work is viewed as work, and emotional labour as labour that can be bought and sold as any other form of labour) Why were robots even invented in the first place? To perform labour that was too dangerous, too strenuous, too repetitive for human beings. (Also, robots don't form unions like those pesky human auto workers.) if you're howling about the poor robots that might be sexually mistreated, why aren't you howling about the bomb-exploding worker robots that get blown up when clearing landmines?

And from another tack.. who *are* the current market for non-robotic sex dolls? I honestly don't know here. Is it criminals and violent offenders? Is it sad and awkward gross old dudes who can't attract girlfriends and are afraid of the legal penalties for buying sex? Is it young women who buy rampant rabbits to quench the occasional thirst because dudes are gross and entitled? You wanna know what a sure way to introduce a criminal element to a labour market is: criminalise it. You wanna make sure that AI is only used for the most wretched of sex work? Remove the legal uses.

These people are gross. I hate their view of the world. I hate their view of sex. I hate *their* view of sex workers as things, rather than as people. I also hate the heteronormativity of assuming that only women (or sometimes children) ever perform sex work, but hey, that's another kettle of fish.

Florian says...

http://twingokraftwerk.com/news/20060402-wdrtv-krautundruben/1991KraftwerkTheRobotsPromo01-twingo.jpg

ROBOT ARMS ARE FOR HUGGING.

yeah i didn't see the immediate connection between anti-sex robot and anti-sex worker but that statement couldn't be more steeped in anti-sex worker rhetoric. tho tbh i'm just really confused as how anyone could work up a moral fervour about the question of robot sex.

i don't think of labour as a freely chosen, mutually beneficial transaction really but yeah there's no reason why sexual/emotional labour shd be treated separately to the rest of it

it does seem a bit odd to me how a lot of pro-sex worker arguments have a strong tinge of that kind of liberalism to them, but maybe making the argument that all work is terrible including sex work but this doesn't mean working conditions and safety shouldn't be improved isn't going to fly outside of shirker communist circles

"All work is terrible" therefore, let's have labour laws and employment tribunals, etc. is the valid logic here. People mostly agree that conditions in sweatshops are terrible, but the moral position is: put pressure on retailers to source more ethical suppliers. Very few people are making a genuine argument that we should ban garment workers and everyone should wear only clothes knitted for them ~with love~

But it just shows how SWERF logic just does not hold up when examined.

God we're gonna need a new acronym for Robot-Exclusionary RF''s. Damn RERFs keeping me from sexy funtimes with Herr Robo-Ralf.

Keep out the rerf ralf

Raggy?

I would have got away with it if it wasn't for those damn kids!

lol

Das Geheimnis Maschine

✓

Funnily enough I've got a photo of eine Geheimnis Maschine with an ex-member of Kraftwerk around here somewhere...

http://1.1.1.5/bmi/filtermagazine.com/images/uploads/benjamin-curtis-michael-rother-josh-klinghoffer-ATP-2005(2).jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8d/ab/8c/8dab8cc28af9c585c1023ff62100e182.jpg

http://storyboardsecrets.com/blogspot/26e3e880e6a8_CEE2/Facebook-Wolverton-Robot-Woman-Weird-Mysteries-002-1_cr_thumb.jpg

Man, I am just cranky as heck today and in order to de-crankify myself clearly I need photos of das Sex Objekt

https://41.media.tumblr.com/56529712ffbd3f5bd883ed743187f144/tumblr_nvtxuxVyii1qbmupoo7_1280.jpg

I am not sure when I started fancying septuagenarian Germans with faces like potatoes and strange dye jobs but what makes you happy makes you happy so why should you not preserve the little happiness there is in the world. Oh Ralf you adorkable nerd.

Cranky me before looking at pictures of Kraftwerk:

https://38.media.tumblr.com/d24ef4ee5b62d8da5079c9e32205fd72/tumblr_nte7bvC45f1shxh5xo1_400.gif

Me after looking at pictures of Kraftwerk:

https://38.media.tumblr.com/bb4752fe30b95ce7b7a20218a453c347/tumblr_nte7bvC45f1shxh5xo2_400.gif

Yes.

He is looking well on it.

(What "it" is, ymmv, etc)

Thank god for Tumblr memes.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/a5332e9267f364f933097a71b9a8d3fa/tumblr_nvyu816U0b1qm9sieo1_1280.png

lol

I imagine actual Ralf's actual front sitting room looks pretty similar.

https://40.media.tumblr.com/f8661459f586a1493542bc6b34be7f1f/tumblr_nwmicboMBW1rjw8sqo1_400.png

Look, Ralf has put it in writing: the robots are responsible for groupies.

How do I become a groupie?

Lookit this disgustingly geriatric sex objekt with his crepey skin and his old man jowls and his annoyingly perky blue eyes and his freckles and when did I start fancying old men but uuuuhhhhhhhhhh

http://40.media.tumblr.com/ff9e9bab54fc40cb33c88988a7ee61b2/tumblr_ny2e66nrjp1rjw8sqo1_540.png

LOOKIT HIM. LOOK. AT. HIM.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/f3f2b425d74ce1928b176ab135687217/tumblr_ny2e66nrjp1rjw8sqo2_1280.png

Oughtn't to be allowed. Being so sexy at his age, good god there should be a law against that or something. Besmirching my good pure mind with his filth. Make it stop.

I am aware that Ralf has feelings on this.

https://36.media.tumblr.com/eada5a57a766300fd3a7fcb4ae6e0d35/tumblr_ny148rGzSU1qkx7ifo1_540.jpg

https://40.media.tumblr.com/0b7358dcea8e4b2e9a87268997c559fe/tumblr_ny482p1s7i1rjw8sqo4_1280.jpg

^^^^sheer pornography

https://41.media.tumblr.com/7eb9dd224b6e19232701714d1baa134c/tumblr_ny482p1s7i1rjw8sqo5_1280.jpg

I can't cope with the sex objectification on display here.

*explodes in giant ball of attempting to lick the screen*

wow awesome

jesus

The rest of the interview is just Ralf being typical "Ja it is difficult to play with click but we merge with our machines I think soon" Ralf but mine eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that!

BRB; rebuilding Klingklang in my basement.

But the funny thing is, since I posted it, Tumblr keeps showing me the post and suggesting I follow myself?

Oh, nice article, thanks.

BRB; rebuilding Klingklang in my basement

Build some of these while you're at it:

http://www.google.com/patents/USD244717?cl=en
Electronic percussion musical instrument
US patent US D244717 S
Filing date Jul 10, 1975
Inventors Florian Schneider, Ralf Hutter
(just the layout is patented, no functional details)

http://www.google.com/patents/EP0396141A2?cl=en
System for and method of synthesizing singing in real time
European patent EP 0396141 A2
Filing date May 3, 1990
Inventors Florian Schneider, Gert Joachim Ott, Gert Jalass
(circuit diagrams! for midifying a Votrax speech synthesiser or uh sth)

Aaah, the Singing Typewriter one I've seen before. But not the drum pads ones that Wolfgang says he invented and they stole from him.

Thank you for this!

I know German is a funny language but the idea that Ralf lived on "animal garden" street* makes me laugh probably far more than it should.

*yes I know it means "zoo"

Awwwww, Ralf-paws.

Things I have open in adjacent tabs:

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/what-would-sex-robots-for-women-look-like

What Would Sex Robots For Women Look Like?

Next tab:

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/photo-of-ralf-hutter-and-florian-schneider-and-kraftwerk-florian-and-picture-id85853934

Yes.

nice pic