New Technology, Same Old Stigma: An Analysis of Feminist Discourses and Sex Work Stigma in Sex Robot Media

Abstract

Scholars have theorized the technological displacement of sex workers at the hands of sex robots, but none have addressed how sex robot representations could contribute to sex work stigma. Using critical discourse analysis and sex positive theories, this thesis seeks to address this gap by analyzing the production of knowledge in the emerging field of sex robots.Specifically, this study analyzes sex robot representations in academic literature and online news articles to critically consider how prevailing discourses may impact sex and gender norms and sex work stigma. My analysis revealed that through their construction as sex work, sex robot representations reproduce problematic sex and gender norms, radical feminist discourses, and stigmatize sex workers and sex work clients. Furthermore, sex workers, sex work clients, and sex robot/doll users were found to be underrepresented in these conversations. This research demonstrates the need for more inclusive and destigmatizing sex robot representations.

Dystopian Panic, Transphobic Hatred, and Annihilation Anxiety: Critiquing Radical Feminist Opposition to Sex Robots

“…21 I then categorized the sources 20 Data collection concluded in March 2021. 21 For example, several scholars have examined sex work in relation to sex robots (Carpenter, 2017;Danaher, Earp, & Sandberg, 2017;DiTecco, 2020;Klein & Lin, 2018). Therefore, although references to sex work are pervasive in anti-sex robot arguments, this was not a key theme I identified for my own analysis.…”

“…Some have taken a more tentatively positive or neutral stance, examining how sex robots might impact moral codes, social norms, and more (Behrendt, 2020;Beschoner & Krause, 2018;Danaher & McArthur, 2017;Klein & Lin, 2018). Feminist and queer critiques (Cranny-Francis, 2016;Danaher, 2019;Devlin, 2018;DiTecco, 2020;Gersen, 2019;Knox, 2019;Puig, 2017) have examined sex robots in relation to pro-and anti-pornography feminism, sex work, the objectification of women, the performance of hyperfemininity, and the blurring of licit and illicit sex. Other areas of research include sex robots in media and popular culture (Devlin & Belton, 2020;Döring & Poeschl, 2019;Fabian, 2018;Wennescheid, 2018), law and policy implications (Adshade, 2017;Galaitsi et al, 2019;Goldfeder & Rezin, 2015;Lugano et al, 2019;Ryznar, 2019;Walter, 2020), and far-future speculation about sentient sex robots (Mackenzie, 2018a(Mackenzie, , 2018bRousi, 2018).…”

“…Most scholarship that is critical of anti-sex robot feminism has challenged its simplistic, stigmatizing view of sex work as inherently violent and sex workers as exploited, non-agentic victims (Danaher, Earp, & Sandberg, 2017;DiTecco, 2020;Klein 4 Please note that since the writing of this thesis, CASR has announced that it has changed its name to the Campaign Against Porn Robots. In a YouTube video explaining the change, Richardson describes that the term 'sex robot' was inherited from "male thinkers" and is problematic and misleading, because robots are objects without "sexed bodies," intimacy, or consciousness, and they cannot participate in sex, relationality, or love (CAMPAIGN AGAINST PORNBOTS, 2021).…”