Trigger warning: The following post contains descriptions of erotic situations.
Sex doll brothel. What sounds like a weird sci-fi joke is a new reality in one European country, and some experts are predicting this new “business” is a look into the future.
Barcelona, Spain, has just become home to the first known brothel with “lifelike” silicone sex dolls as its employees, reports Forbes. There will be four “love” dolls to choose from at the new business, all different in looks and ethnicities, but similar in female qualities. Customers can choose from a white European doll, a Black doll, an Asian doll, or a doll with blue hair that’s inspired by a Japanese anime character.
A “Romantic” Experience?
What is marketed as a lovely, romantic experience with a lifelike-yet-lifeless sex doll is actually pretty lonely and definitely strange.
The realistic dolls are worth thousands of dollars each, and as a special offer, one hour with a life-sized doll was initially less than $100, with the rate going up after the opening. And what about hygiene for all the hundreds of clients that are sure to be romancing these robots? The brothel owners assure “high standards of hygiene,” and that each doll will be properly disinfected, before and after each service, with special antibacterial soaps.
Welcome to the future, where your date has to be disinfected after the night is over so the next customer can have their turn.
Related: Futurologist Says Sex With Robots Will Become Reality By 2050
To make the experience “more pleasant and erotic,” the new business offers to dress and position the doll according to the client’s desires. There are private rooms available, where each customer can set the mood with their lifeless companion with music, candlelight, or pornographic videos on a large plasma screen.
Talk about a passionate love affair…not.
We can’t begin to describe how creepy this is, and unfortunately, this is only the beginning of robotic sex being normalized and even promoted in society.
The First, But Not The Last
Futuristic experts predict it won’t be long before a lot of humans will be doing it—with machines.
Imagine a world where sex with an inanimate humanoid robot is completely normal. Doesn’t seem real? Apparently, this will be totally commonplace in just a few years.
Futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson has recently released a report called “The Future of Sex” in partnership with one of the UK’s leading sex toy shops, and he predicts the future of how humans will be getting it on. He makes the point that robotic sex toys have been in use for around a century, and that virtual reality porn is about to become mainstream. (Sadly, he’s probably right about that.)
“Sex with humans could soon be a thing of the past,” the German magazine Spiegel wrote in an article about the report by Pearson, who “draws a future in which robotic brothels and strip clubs with computer-controlled dancers are normal.”
Some think that the ethics of watching virtual reality porn—simulating sex acts with a fake, 3D person—are no different than the ethics of having sex with a robot. After all, people are constantly looking for new ways to “spice up” their sex lives. This is proven by the $15 billion dollars and growing sex toy industry, and now, it’s proven by growing interest in lifelike sex dolls that will eventually be able to talk and respond to verbal commands.
Spain’s sex doll brothel is just the first public example of the fast-growing trend of sex without intimacy with another person. Now, manufacturers around the world are working to create uncannily realistic sex robots programmed to fulfill the fantasies of people who want to get with a lifeless machine.
Recently, an international conference at the University of London, “Love and Sex With Robots,” reflected this reality of looking at the wide possibilities of humanoid sex. The conference showed a new market that engineers and programmers are working hard to meet, creating dolls programmed to display moods and emotions—some that might be ready for production as soon as this year.
The Harms Of Synthetic Sex
It’s not hard to see that the development of creepily lifelike sex dolls is one of the negative results of the normalization of pornography in our society.
Porn normalizes sex without intimacy, without connection to another person, and now, without another real person at all. It just needs to look and feel human to be considered “romantic.” The problem with porn is that it teaches viewers to think that sex is all about you, and you alone—your needs, your satisfaction, your timetable. As far as porn is concerned, it doesn’t really matter who or what you are having sex with, as long as you are having sex. In fact, porn would even tell you that having sex with a lifeless doll is normal and sexy. And as shocking as it sounds, some of the major porn sites are actually in the process of incorporating sex robots into their content. Yikes.
Related: Major Porn Sites Are Now Planning To Use Sex Robots
“Sex with humans could soon be a thing of the past.” Wow. While that quote from the German magazine may seem like a sci-fi-movie-gone-creepy plot, it’s really happening. Such a development is dangerous and unhealthy because it completely warps the natural beauty of a human sexual relationship—gone is the hand-holding, the intimacy, and the trust. In its place, we find only silicon, manufactured body parts, and a one-sided connection.
The porn industry is only concerned about one thing—money. It’s not worried about the rape culture that it is fueling, and based on this development of normalizing sex dolls, it is clear that it doesn’t care about people having healthy and meaningful relationships with living, breathing human beings.
The sexiest thing out there is real, genuine love shared between two real people. That kind of love is not only inspiring, it’s the healthiest of all. That kind of love is worth fighting for.
We can’t accept technology taking the place of real, healthy human relationships. Whether it’s a computer screen or a sex doll, we need to be educated and take a stand for healthy sexuality and human connection. Science, facts, and personal accounts all show how porn kills love, and we can’t ignore the facts.
