Porn or sexual therapy? A peek inside Madrid’s first sex doll “brothel”
A sexologist, an activist against sexual robots and the founder of this new business venture reflect on the ethical concerns raised by these hyper-realistic dummies
The development of hyper-realistic sex dolls and the future of sex robots is forcing society to consider a new form of sexuality and to reflect on how this affects women.
“It is just another sex toy, like a dildo or a whip,” says Daniel García, co-founder of Luxury Agency Dolls, Madrid’s first sex doll brothel and the second one to open in Spain after Barcelona.
“It’s not like a dildo, because women do not do have an illegal sex industry where they are the main buyers of other people’s bodies,” says Kathleen Richardson, who teaches a course called Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University in Leicester, England.
“If we lived in a world without prostitution or pornography, I would have no problem with sex dolls,” adds Richardson, who is also the co-founder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots and who believes that these products further objectify female bodies.
Marlís González, the vice-president of the non-profit group Sexólogos Sin Fronteras (Sexologists Without Borders), says she is concerned that society may be heading toward a more mechanized form of sexuality, but notes that sex dolls could have some therapeutic advantages. “The doll is a sex toy, just like other toys that we are more used to.”
English version by Susana Urra. Subtitles by Simon Hunter.