Sex-Dolls and War-Machines: Artificial Binary Gendering in Current Android Technology

Bettina Vitzthum

Authors

Bettina Vitzthum Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Keywords:

gender, android, sex-doll, war-machine, posthumanism

Abstract

Using the example of military and erotic industry androids, the paper examines the regression of newly established and emerging android technologies to binary gendering in order to establish their products as humanoid. The android is a concept with a surprisingly old and diverse tradition in the history of art and literature. It has a significant impact on present time technological progress and the public discourse thereof. Its growing impact provides an opportunity to examine gender in the context of technological human self-mimesis. The traceable gender-division in the utilisation of assigned female and male androids in several hundred years of android-themed fiction precedes the same implementation of gendering in real-life android technology; establishing a clear distinction between female robots for erotic and male robots for violent purposes.

Author Biography

Bettina Vitzthum, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Bettina Vitzthum is a doctoral student at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. She is currently associated with the International Doctoral Program MIMESIS (Munich Doctoral Program for Literature and the Arts at LMU Munich, funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria). Her PhD project, supervised by Professor Tobias Döring, focuses on the discourse on humanity in the context of artificial versions of human self-mimesis in art. She has a special interest in artificial humanity and post-humanism. The working title of her PhD project is: ἀνήρ εἶδος: Robotic Mimesis of Humanity in Fiction.