Man-Made Women

This book presents a unique, feminist approach to ‘sex’ dolls and ‘sex’ robots, taking a critical look at the academic and business narratives that serve to rationalise them. As new forms of pornography (porn robots), this edited volume provides an urgent women’s centred critique.

The emergence of ‘sex’ robots is situated within the wider context of the attack on women’s rights and the relentless rise of techno-pornography. As an outgrowth of the  industries of prostitution, pornography and child sex abuse, these objects offer new ways to dehumanise women and girls. While support for ‘sex’ robots is positioned as progressive and emancipatory, the contributors in this volume argue they reduce women to consumable parts. They explore how law, the arts, ethics, economy, politics and culture are interconnected with harmful technological developments.

Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI in the Faculty ofComputing, Engineering and Media at De Montfort University. She is author of An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines (2015) and Challenging Sociality? An Anthropology of Autism, Attachment and Robots (2018). In 2015 she launched the Campaign Against Porn Robots (formerly the Campaign Against Sex Robots) to draw attention to the ethical harms of normalising pornographic technologies of women and girls.

Charlotta Odlind is a freelance writer, coach and women’s rights campaigner based in Brussels, Belgium. She has a BA (Hons) in European Studies with French and Spanish and an MA in International Relations. She has worked on child protection issues at Save the Children Brussels and volunteered with VSO for a year, advising on advocacy and communications strategies in a women’s rights NGO in Kano, Nigeria. Working at FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless), she was editor of Homeless in Europe magazine. She is Campaigns Manager at the Campaign Against Porn Robots.