A Robot Sex Brothel Is Opening (And Even A Kinky Chick Like Me Is Disturbed)

So it turns out that there is a brothel opening up in Spain. 

Why is this news? 

It's news because the brothel in question is staffed by robots. 

Yup, 100% robotic sex dolls. 

People are already making reservations. The future is now. 

Lumi dolls 

I don't want to be a bummer about this, but quick heads up, I"m going to KIND OF be a bummer about this. 

Okay, here we go.

I love sex.

I think everyone should be able to have the sex that they want to have whenever they want to have it provided that the people having that sex are two (or more or less) consenting adults doing no harm to others. I think that for too long (in America in particular) we have treated sex as something shameful but necessary. Any sort of movement that seeks to take sex out of the shadows and bring it into the light as a natural, joyous, and social activity should be applauded.

HOWEVER (you knew the "however" was coming) it is also undeniable that we live in an age with a real problem about how it sees and treats women, sex workers, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Women who are raped are often afraid to report it because of a crippling sense of shame — society teaches women that if we are raped or harassed, it was simply our fault for being female and not being constantly vigilant against the supposed bestial nature of all men.

Members of the LGBTQ community are spurned and abused — and sometimes even killed — for being open about their sexuality. 

Then there are the sex workers.

Sex workers deserve respect and protection. Sex work is WORK, and what people gain from belittling and abusing sex workers online, in media, or in the flesh has NEVER made sense to me. Sex workers are doing a very, very dangerous job every single day. 

Lumi Dolls

Keeping these unfortunate truths in mind, is it really a great idea to be supporting anything that could continue to perpetuate the false ideas that women are non-living objects who exist only to do their owner's bidding and that the sexual role of a woman is so one-dimensional that it can be outsourced it to a machine with no feelings or desires to handle ever so discreetly? 

If sex robots and sex robot brothels become the norm, how is that NOT going to impact the way other sex workers are treated?

The main thing sex workers have going for them when competing against sex robots is their very humanity — and the message that our humanity is a PROBLEM and ultimately not an asset continues to be broadcast to women everywhere. 

Do not misunderstand me. I am all about robots. Sincerely. I have no doubt that we are rapidly approaching an age where they will be used (in one iteration or another) by every household. If you have an Amazon Echo or a Google Home device, the robots have already arrived. 

I think tech like this is amazing and potentially super helpful. But I do think that if we are going to continue to hack our way into this murky and uncanny valley then we owe it to ourselves to do the ethical heavy lifting, too. 

Sex robots exist, fine, awesome, I love it.

But how is this going to ameliorate or exacerbate the way in which women are treated? How is it going to help or hurt the way we treat sex?