Sex Toys News

Warning...the T-3000 model is equipped with a summary justice module

Designing Virtuous Sex Robots

By Anco Peeters and Pim Haselager

Abstract

We propose that virtue ethics can be used to address ethical issues central to discussions about sex robots. In particular, we argue virtue ethics is well equipped to focus on the implications of sex robots for human moral character.

Our evaluation develops in four steps.

• First, we present virtue ethics as a suitable framework for the evaluation of human - robot relationships.
   

• Second, we show the advantages of our virtue ethical account of sex robots by comparing it to current instrumentalist approaches, showing how the former better captures the reciprocal interaction between robots and their users.
   

• Third, we examine how a virtue ethical analysis of intimate human - robot relationships could inspire the design of robots that support the cultivation of virtues. We suggest that a sex robot which is equipped with a consent-module could support the cultivation of compassion when used in supervised, therapeutic scenarios.
   

• Fourth, we discuss the ethical implications of our analysis for user autonomy and responsibility.

Boots has revealed that it will stock adult toys as part of its new sexual pleasure and wellbeing category.

The health and beauty retailer will stock Lovehoney and So Divine adult toys, as well as massage oils and flavoured lubricants, both in-store and online. It will also be stocking a new range of vegan-friendly  condoms by online condom subscription service Hanx and will offer fertility support across 400 stores.

Sainsbury's has caused a bit of a stir by joining several other chains by stocking a range of cheap sex toys. It is now selling vibrators alongside its condoms and lubricants products.

But it's not going down well with all customers. The newspaper dragged up a few trivial complaints.

One mum told The Sun: What's become of Sainsbury's? This is so wrong. A shop worker from Halifax said: One lady in her 70s told me she was shocked.

The range, by Rocks Off, was first launched last year at more than 300 of Sainsbury's 1,415 UK stores. They include the indulgently powerful 10-speed intimate massager Aura Heaven, Sent silver vibrator at £15, Touch of Velvet at £12 and Precious Gold Passion at £8.

The Sun has gotten all aroused about a new style of vibrator that is becoming popular with the ladies. Tongue vibrators are said to mimic the pleasure felt during oral sex.

Love Honey is currently selling one of the sensual toys, the Fun Factory Volta with the comment:

If you like your tongue flickering fast and fierce this is toy for you. Its dynamic silicone tips will have you quivering with pleasure lickety-split.

Another tongue vibrator on the market is The Frenchman 4

About 210,000 people have signed a petition against the import of life-size sex dolls into South Korea.

The petition was started on the Cheong Wa Dae website a month after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to allow the import of such dolls.

The petition author wrote

They are not ordinary sex toys. A life-size sex doll resembles a woman's body in every detail. It can even be customized to fit an individual's needs for hairstyle, facial structure, birthmarks or anything.

Nowadays, deepfake celebrity porn videos can easily be found online. There's no guarantee that sex dolls won't be used for such purposes. People may be shocked to find sex dolls that look just like them. If that happens, who will take responsibility for the damage?

The Korea Customs Service refused to allow the import of life-size sex dolls of any kind on legal grounds as there is a ban on the import of morally degrading products. But it faced a legal challenge in 2017 by a Korean company that took the issue to court.

A district court in Seoul ruled in favor of Incheon Main Customs, saying such dolls would degrade human beings' dignity. But an appeals court overturned the decision, saying state intervention must be minimized in such private matters, which was upheld by the top court.

Sex toys are still illegal in Cuba but now a group of artists has been given a little space to set about breaking taboos.

Consolez Vous is the project of the artists Yanahara Mauri, Javier Alejandro Bobadilla and Joan Diaz, who during the last Biennial of Havana stormed the Cuban Art Factory with the provocative idea of installing a sex shop. Their pieces are now exhibited at La Marca, as part of the Design Biennial, organized by the National Design Office.

The original idea was to establish a traveling sex store. The authorities did not accept this proposal and placed the proposal in the Art Factory, a place where thousands of people enter daily.

These erotic objects are all transparent, they have messages and things inside, apart from the mixtures of colors. We prepare the right environment to make them look better and be more appealing.

To make the pieces, they use polyester resin. The material is liquid, it looks like honey. We have toys of different sizes and colors, some are smooth but there are others that have curves. In the shop some complained that the objects do not vibrate or that they are very hard. Others asked that silicone be used instead of resin.

In the absence of places licensed for the sale of sex items, an illegal market has developed in the country. A sex toy costs between 20 and 60 CUC. Sex shops in Cuban exist clandestinely in private homes with products arriving in the country in the baggage of the so-called mules -- individuals who bring items through customs.

The Consolez Vous artistic project ran throughout the month of April and the first week of May at the Art Factory. Although at first the idea was to give away the objects, the high price of the raw material forced the artists to sell their work. Each sexual object is sold at 5 CUC (roughly 5 dollars). The price barely covers the investment, but it is part of the purpose of the display: For these objects to be within reach of people's wallets, he adds. For the Biennial we made 500 toys and we only have one small box left in Matanzas. We have sold more than 400, says Bobadilla proudly

As unlikely as it sounds, Thailand, known worldwide for its prosperous sex industry and its tolerant attitude towards sex -- is one of the last remaining countries in the world where sex toys are illegal, along with Saudi Arabia and India.

Now feminist, pro-LGBT and sexual health campaigner Nisarat Jongwisan has taken up the challenge to get the sex toy ban reversed.

Nisarat decided on this coure of action during a visit to Australia when she walked into a sex shop for the first time. She recalled thinking:

A Land of Toys opened up in front of her eyes. Why can't I have the same privilege of buying whatever makes me feel good?

She came back to Bangkok carrying her first personal vibrator -- along with a new desire, to start a fight to decriminalise sex toys for the happiness and safety of my people. And, along with that, to encourage sex-positivity in Thailand where words such as orgasm and climax are banned from public speech.

The first knockback came from her friends and even her boyfriend: They thought what I was doing was wrong. They didn't want to know or talk about my new, happy sex life. It makes you look like a bad person. But Nisarat carried on and launched a petition to ask the amendment of the 287 Section removing sex toys from pornographic items.

A little-known political party competing in next week's Thai general election revealed one of its priority proposals for Thailand was to legalise the production and sale of sex toys.

The Tai Rak Tham party also proposed 24 hour opening for entertainment venues.

Deputy leader Chitsanupong Trairatrangsri said the party wished to emphasise the policy as the country has a huge amount of rubber which was the raw material for sex toys. Therefore, if the production of sex toys was allowed in Thailand, it would add value to the rubber trade, he said.

Swedish feminists are on the war path against sex robots. They claim such android sex workers promote dangerous attitudes towards women.

Writing in the Expressen newspaper, the heads of three Swedish feminist organizations argued that the appearance and attributes of today's sex robots bore the same objectifying, sexualized and degrading attitude that was found in mainstream pornography.

The organizations behind the letter were the Sweden's Women's Lobby, the National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters (Roks), and Unizon, a women's empowerment group.

They argued that the female robots lacked any agency when it came to dealing with the requests of male clients. They also warned that the type of fantasies made possible by the opening of sex robot brothels would lead to real violence against women.

The activists are now calling for the Swedish government to implement a series of measures that would make it difficult for such a brothel to open in Sweden.