Loving the Artificial: “Sex Robot Madness” Documentary Review

An informative, entertaining, and thought-provoking look at artificial companions

Initially screened at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival in Prague before winning the Best Feature Doc at the Philip K Dick Film Fest in NYC—and featured at this year’s annual Love and Sex with Robots Conference—Jimmy Mehiel’s “Sex Robot Madness” is a remarkably thorough examination of their fascinating history, ongoing controversies, and how artificial companions might either prove to be a cure for today’s loneliness epidemic or, as several of its interviewees apparently fear, will result in humanity’s downfall.

Interspersed with Mehiel’s mix of humor and insightful commentary, “Sex Robot Madness” covers a lot of ground, featuring sextech expert Bryony Cole’s history lesson on where sexbots first originated; avowed sexbot proponent Dr. David Levy’s discussions of the emotional/sexual benefits they might provide; discussions with Professor Kathleen Richardson, the enthusiastically anti-sexbot activist; and Micah Gamboa, Executive Director for Elijah Rising, an organization aiming to eliminate sex trafficking—who are also against the technology.

In addition, we get to hear from Matt McMullen, the founder of RealDoll—who many consider to be the father of modern synthetic companions, as well as Joaquim Lousquy of the now-defunct Paris-based Xdolls brothel, and other important figures for or against the manufacture or use of these products.

“Tomorrow goodness knows”

Freely admitting to my own biases as someone believing as long as sexual activity is consensual, enjoyable, and emotionally/physically safe then more power to you, watching Mehiel’s documentary with Kathleen Richardson began to raise my blood pressure immediately—particularly her disturbing statement how being online guarantees that, “We’ve got incels today, but tomorrow goodness knows what we’re going to have. Do you know what I mean? We’re going to have an ISIS cult that feels it’s their right to have colonies of sex dolls and murder women.”

Gamboa seems to echo Richardson’s views that artificial companions are inherently dangerous—though with no credible evidence and plenty of positive personal accounts to the contrary—and Mehiel does an excellent job of letting Gamboa and Richardson’s true colors.

Richardson, for instance, flat-out rejects that anyone could be happy with a sexbot and says anyone who says the opposite is essentially delusional. When asked about living in a world where artificial companions are an accepted sexuality, Gamboa replied, “I would love to see these sex robots outlawed. I mean, overall, because the utilizing of a mock person for a dehumanized sex act is not a culture and not a society that I want to live in.”

Sexwork, brothels, and try-one-yourself

Mehiel also delves into the parallels between sex bots and sex workers, examining how the former might help alleviate the pain and suffering of the latter—despite Gamboa’s protestations—and how Houston and then Paris seemed to take great moral pride in shutting down Xdolls brothels.

Impressively complete, especially given the complexity and controversy of the subject, Mehiel even rounds out his documentary by spending time with an artificial companion, trying to understand what the fuss is all about.

Unfortunately, while an interesting experiment, his lack of interest somewhat undermines his overall message that sex dolls and their ilk may not be the world-ending horrors Gamboa and Richardson make them out to be.

Questions and answers

When I asked if he thinks the artificial community might someday become less underground, more widely respected, Mehiel responded:

When do I think sex robots will become mainstream? If I really knew I’d be the trillionaire, but I feel confident saying it’ll happen soon enough that someone born today will have the opportunity to lose their virginity to a robot as a teenager—maybe as part of their health class. I actually think “sex robots” will be a really dated term by the time they go mainstream because when they do, they will just be, as McMullen says in the film, “robots that are open to the idea of sex,” and they will do WAY MORE than just boink you for 7–13 minutes twice a week. We don’t call humans “sex workers” just because they’re capable of sex—it’ll be the same with sexually capable robots.

As for what inspired him to explore such a frequently contentious topic, particularly in light of the today’s socially conservative climate, Mehiel answered:

The biggest reason I thought making this film was worth the effort, beyond the massive personal riches and fame it will still surely bring me, is that up until now, people have been too quick to dismiss this monumental technology because it’s just “too icky and weirrrrd man,” and/or because it’s easy to make the mistake of judging the potential appeal and impact based on the limitations of today’s models and the currently perceived use cases. “How many people are really gonna want a computer in their house?” said everyone who didn’t buy Apple stock in 1980. If we couldn’t see where Apple was headed, why would we see this?

Adding that notwithstanding others seeing them as some sort of ill-defined, existential threat, artificial companions are pretty much inevitable:

But people ARE going to want robots, and, at least some of the time, they’re gonna want to have sex with those robots. So we should educate ourselves (by watching my award-winning movie, SEX ROBOT MADNESS, obviously) and move on as soon as possible to the necessary debates about how we want to manage this coming sexbot tsunami as a society.

Winding it all up

Not without its flaws, such as Mehiel’s humor not always landing and occasionally seeming a touch rudderless, “Sex Robot Madness”—which is available on YouTube and Tubi—nevertheless adeptly achieves its goal of discussing what needs to be discussed: the likelihood that artificial companions are coming and when they arrive, they will be here to stay.

And more than anything, we need to be open-minded, intelligent, and supportive towards them and their users—and refrain from condemning either for what we fear they might do.

Image Sources: Sex Robot Madness (YouTube)