Discourse on sex robots is largely dominated by two strictly antagonistic positions: emphatic rejection by many feminists and equally emphatic endorsement by representatives of the industry and a number of (predominantly male) scientists. For the time being, there is no real dialogue between the two positions. My study aims at establishing sort of a middle ground by both including the feminist critique of current sex robots’ sexist design and acknowledging the possibility that physical and psychological well-being does not exclusively have to build upon human-human interactions but could include non-human actants as well. 

From a feminist-neo-materialist, post-humanist perspective, overcoming the inherent anthropocentrism of large parts of the discourse on sex robots, we can move from normative, objectifying practices to a queer and diverse design of sex robots and open up new spheres of post-humanist relationships, interactions and sexualities.

The project is funded by the city of Berlin’s joint program DiGiTal - Digitisation: Design and Transformation.