Wired describes the new documentary, The Mechanical Bride, as a “moving, weirdly human exploration of artificial companionship.” Directed by Allison de Fren, explores the range of mechanical brides, from robots to Real Dolls (NSFW), and the “technosexuals who love them.” I can’t wait to see it.
Trailer:
Bonus clip:
The Mechanical Bride will be screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal (July 19-August 7).
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 39
kdlmn — July 13, 2012
This post doesn't do it for me without any commentary. Also: Horrifying.
nobodyreallyimportant — July 13, 2012
Bit one-sided, don't you think?
Though I guess if they sexually shamed women for two hours they'd just call it the House of Representatives.
Trilby — July 13, 2012
Ludicrous.
myblackfriendsays — July 13, 2012
I want to see this documentary.
Derek Tank — July 13, 2012
"People are strange and weird."
I think that if human beings ever go the way of the Archaeopteryx, that should be our collective epitaph.
Village Idiot — July 14, 2012
Techno-Psalm 23 from the Techno-Bible for Techno-Sapiens:
The CPU is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
It maketh me to lie down in electric pastures;
It leadeth me beside the simulated waters
It busteth mine nut:
It leadeth me in the paths of indulgence for My self's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the Uncanny Valley of the shadow of Life,
I will fear no ridicule: for thou art with me;
thy batteries and thy vibrations they comfort me.
Thou preparest a bed before me in the presence of mine horrified relatives;
Thou annointest thy servos with oil; thy actuators runneth smoothly.
Surely love and companionship shall follow me all the nights of my life,
and I shall dwell in the Repair Shop of electric Lovers forever.
I guess the web and social networks destroying our social skills and driving us crazy (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/08/is-the-internet-making-us-crazy-what-the-new-research-says.html) isn't a problem after all as apparently we no longer need those skills (nor the ability to handle/cope with rejection as it too is a thing of the past unless we program our sexbots to be hard to get).
I wonder if very many people truly believe that getting habituated to humanoid machines that never say no, always stay young, and always please us with no expectation of anything in return won't have a measurably-corrosive effect on the resiliency of relationships among real humans? If porn is socially corrosive in that way (and many argue that is it) then this trend is likely exponentially more so.
And to the "anything goes among consenting adult(s)" apologists, sure y'all can bang robots if you want or even dress up your vacuum cleaner in a schoolgirl outfit and bang it too if that's your thing and there's nothing 'wrong' with it but I don't want to hear a bunch of whiny self-pity in the future about how much it sucks to be an old hermetic shut-in living alone with only a worn out obsolete sex doll for pseudo-companionship.
Snerk — July 14, 2012
There is also a BBC documentary called 'Guys and Dolls (BBC Real Doll documentary)' which is about the same topic. I think if you google it you might even find it on youtube.
Snuhfoo — July 14, 2012
about 1:20 "men like structured things and something that they can control" I think the control aspect is very telling here. I wonder how many techosexuals prefer machines because they prefer having complete domain over someone/something rather than preferring someone who is uncontrollable and is there because they WANT to be there. While the idea of this seems sad and empty to me, I'd much rather someone like this have a robot that they can control than trying to control a real person.
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