Guilt-free sex with female look-alikes is an algorithm for the objectification of women

The internet and reality morph into what is called the “Nether,” replete with realms in which people can live in alternate realities as the characters they wish they truly were, in the 2013 play titled “The Nether.” As these individuals spend more time in the Nether than they do in “real life,” the fine line between fantasy and reality is increasingly blurred.

Among the alternate realities exists a realm call the Hideaway, where characters — all of whom are males — venture, seeking sex with underage girls, the most coveted among them being Iris. An undercover detective, intent on exposing the Hideaway, enters the Nether under a new identity. But he, like others, finds the lines too blurred to stifle the growth of his own affections for Iris. Iris herself is later revealed to be a grown man assuming a new identity in the Hideaway.

“The Nether” poses innumerable moral questions — primary among them is whether procuring sex in the Hideaway is wrong if the person behind the young girl is a grown man. Does it matter when everything about the sexual experience feels and looks like it’s being done with a child? These are the questions broader society may find itself asking when sex robots venture outside of the cinema into reality.

But as it stands, the only U.S. city that has faced this question so far is Houston. The answer was a resounding yes: it does matter, and it is wrong. Despite the contention around the sexbot debate, Houston made the right choice. Although, to me, there was only ever one morally sound option.

Sexbots have been floated as a solution to many issues — pedophilia, violent sexual fantasies and loneliness, to name a few. Proponents, however, gravely miscalculate substitutes for humans as solutions — an inadequate substitute at that.

Giving a robotic child replica to a pedophile for sexual gratification is not only wrong and endorses the notion that their desires can’t be suppressed, but it can also push such perverse feelings into tangible, egregious action.

As realistic as the dolls get — and trust me, they’re really real — they will never fully replace an actual human being. If someone enjoys acting out their fantasies enough, their appetite will likely grow to the point where relieving those fantasies on dolls won’t be satisfying anymore. And when you give a pedophile a child look-alike, comparable in every way save mental autonomy, acting out those desires on an actual child won’t be as large of a moral plunge. Giving someone almost everything they want makes the real thing that much closer and easier to attain.

I’m not alone in my concerns. Prominent among experts denouncing sexbots is Dr. Patrice Renaud, a leading researcher at the University of Montreal who studies how artificial intelligence could treat pedophilia. Renaud has shown enthusiasm for the prospects of using childlike sexbots to treat pedophiles, but also remains aware of the dangers.

“Pedophilia is difficult to treat as you can’t change this sexual preference,” Renaud said. “Maybe some individuals would have the self-control to stick to robots, but for others the experience may push them to seek out real children.”

Research is limited, and the technology is relatively new, but the fact that 85% of the men arrested for possession of child sex dolls in the U.K. also possessed “conventional” forms of child pornography speaks for itself.

Among denouncers are those concerned that the use of sexbots will promote the sexualization and objectification of women. Sex doll producers and brothels are a testament to this. LumiDolls’ website gives prospective purchasers options like “college,” “Japanese” and “mini” (I can think of very few reasons why someone would want a mini-female sex doll). TrueCompanion invented a “frigid” setting for its dolls, where users will find her not too “appreciative” when “touched in her private area.” The owner of the world’s first sex doll brothel has said that, while business is booming and drawing international customers, requests have become too vile as he finds himself faced with more and more requests for rape fantasies and child dolls.

Proponents think the advent of robotic sex dolls really does mean there’s someone for everyone and opens up the door for sexual freedom. Yet what they fail to see, but think they’re actually promoting, is the importance of the intimacy of sex. Having sex with a doll eliminates many things from the equation — chief among them being mutual consent and mutual gratification.

Commodifying sex in this way promotes a conceptualization of sex that emphasizes one person’s pleasure while wholly rejecting consideration of others involved. Unlike the robotic imitation, women have their own preferences, desires, feelings and thoughts, and the idea that you can now have sex with something resembling a woman in every way except in mental capacity is a promotion of rape culture.

Studies have shown porn reduces incidents of sexual assault, and some see this as a prospective benefit of sexbots. But this is not like porn where men can masturbate to images of sexual violence — this allows men to act it out with all the guilt-free gratification they seek. The difference between watching consensual sex played out in a rape fantasy and playing out those fantasies on a party incapable of consenting is a line as blurry as that in the Nether.

To me, the lines are never blurry. But with sexbots we will perpetually find ourselves asking just what that line is.

Written by: Hanadi Jordan — hajordan@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

Young people are depressed and as anxious as ever — some companies see that as a financial opportunity

Millennials and members of Generation Z have a lot to be down about. Stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing prices, job automation and a crippling debt crisis have all caused millennials to spiral into a new form of downward mobility. All of this has made them the first generation in the modern era to have future prospects worse than their parents. Generation Z, meanwhile, is not faring much better. Gun violence, social media exposure and the increasing threat of climate change serve as reminders of a bleak future and have left today’s teenagers lonely and distraught. Members of Gen Z are the most likely of all generations to report poor mental health, with 91% stating they experience physical or emotional symptoms like anxiety or depression — and brands have taken notice.

Earlier this month, Burger King became the latest company to hop on the mental health advertisement bandwagon, launching its “#FeelYourWay” promotional campaign aimed at the emotionally downtrodden. Through a dark advertisement displaying contemporary stressors like student debt, slut-shaming and hostile work environments, the fast food chain took aim at rival McDonald’s iconic “Happy Meal” by proclaiming, “No one is happy all the time. And that’s OK.” In what could have otherwise been straight out of The Onion, Burger King used the ad as a launching platform for its “Real Meals”; the Blue Meal, YAAAS Meal, Pissed Meal, Salty Meal and DGAF Meal all among the new products.

Of course, this type of corporate cynicism is hardly new. Kaitlyn Tiffany of Vox noted that Burger King is merely the latest company to utilize millennials’ emotions and mental health as selling points. This technique is particularly prominent on Twitter, where nearly every corporate brand now tweets in first person, creating false, youthful personas through angsty posts and the awkward adoption of modern slang. Although typically playful and benign, these accounts sometimes take a darker and more problematic route, tweeting in a manner reminiscent of someone going through a suicidal or depressive episode. The official Twitter account for SunnyD, for example, recently tweeted nothing but the message “I can’t do this anymore.”

In much of the same way that brands have co-opted social justice movements as a means to bolster advertising — typically despite largely questionable workers’ rights records — the appropriation of mental health issues has come at a time when many companies are under fire for the mistreatment of their employees. Allegations of understaffing, long hours and low wages, for example, were all cited by Burger King employees in the aftermath of the company’s latest campaign. Incidentally, the fast food giant has also adopted the aforementioned “woke” capital approach. The company caused a stir with recent tweets appearing to endorse a string of incidents in which a number of conservative politicians in the United Kingdom were attacked with milkshakes (yes, seriously).

Burger King, of course, cares not about the mental wellbeing of its employees and customers, but rather about maximizing profits. In doing so, Burger King and numerous other companies adopting this strategy have created a dangerous trend of advertisements that trivialize legitimate mental disorders and offer material items as an appropriate solution. While this may seem harmless at first, deep down it’s a cynical ploy, aimed at commodifying yet another component of human suffering.

Written by: Brandon Jetter — brjetter@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

Video games provide an unparalleled relationship between you and the world of a story

One of the greatest strengths of video games is their ability to transport you to a whole new world. It’s what makes them such great storytellers. But as games have increased their ability to create worlds on a technical level –– games are larger, more detailed and more realistic than ever before –– they’ve also been able to create digital versions of real-world cities. And in many ways these “fictionalized” cities in the digital world become almost like travel brochures for the cities themselves.

In the analysis and criticism of games, setting is still treated like a background. And, to some extent, that may be applicable in older games and certain genres of games today. But, in the massive open-world odysseys and epic stories that are now produced, the world is so much more than a background — it is more like a living, breathing character than ever before.

How do the worlds feel? How do they sound? How long did it take for you to remember your surroundings and recognize landmarks? These are the questions we should be answering (and experiencing) when we play games today.

Swinging around Manhattan as Spider-Man in Insomniac Games’ “Spider-Man” let me feel the energy and bustle of New York. The liveliness of the world, swinging through skyscrapers and shooting finger-guns at enthralled New Yorkers, really made me want to be there. Each subsection of the city felt different, from Hell’s Kitchen to the Upper East Side. The sensationalism of Spidey’s friendly-neighborhood was amazing.

But, the game that gave me the best sense of immersion in a new setting was Sucker Punch Productions’ “Infamous: Second Son.” It was the spring of 2014, and I had just gotten my hands on the next generation of gaming: the PS4. “Infamous: Second Son” was the title I had to play. Set in a fictionalized Seattle, the game itself was amazing, but the world was sensational. Any city, real or created, had never looked so beautiful in a game. The high reaches of the Space Needle and the views of Mt. Rainer were breathtaking. Photo mode was killer, and “Second Son” made the feature an instant staple for our current generation of games.

I fell in love with a city I had never been to –– through a video game. It was so beautiful not because it was visually appealing –– I could see that in a movie –– but because I could experience the city in a way that was personal, like I could in real life. It felt like a place I could actually inhabit. The dark alleyways and empty docks were mine to explore. I could climb on top of any building to get a better view or spend as much time as I wanted at the Pike Place Market. Movies can portray the highlights of a city, but having the freedom to take in the beauty of that Seattle at my own pace is not possible through a movie.

Five months later, when I finally visited the real Seattle, the feeling was almost indescribable. It was a mix between the strangest deja-vu feeling ever and utter joy. I didn’t just recognize Lincoln’s Toe Truck or Elephant Car Wash: I recognized actual alleyways and street corners. It was like experiencing a new city for the first time –– twice.

Of course, Sucker Punch Productions is located just outside of Seattle, so the setting of the game they created was pretty much in their own backyard. The city the studio recreated felt even more alive and breathing, It wasn’t just a still or moving image on a screen — it was full of interactable NPCs and environments. It even responded to my actions and gameplay choices. That is the power of games, and it’s hard to understand until you actually experience it yourself. And with the rise of virtual reality technology in games, these digital cities are going to feel more real than ever.

It’s not that video games can do this better than movies or TV shows, or any other form of entertainment; it’s that they can do something that no other platform can. Video games can put you in the city and give you all of the sounds and sights you would actually see in the real-life thing. It’s unparalleled, and I can’t wait to see where the technology of video games takes us.

Written by: Calvin Coffee –– cscoffee@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

A guide for parents and teachers on how to take climate action with America’s youth

I remember clearly the first time I understood what death really meant. That all people — parents, brothers, friends and myself — will eventually be no more. I was about five years old, and my dad was watching Braveheart. I walked into the room right when Mel Gibson was getting tortured and executed. I was confused and asked my dad what was happening.

“He’s dying,” my dad told me.

“What happens when he dies?” I asked him.

His answer of “ceasing to exist” and “complete eternal darkness” haunted me for years. Every time I saw Gibson’s face I associated it with death, and depression would take hold of me. It wasn’t my dad’s best moment.   

Parents and teachers, after being guardians, are the educators of our youth. Their duty is to make sure kids are prepared for the future ahead of them. Certain lessons about life can be very scary to kids, and fear is not a good teacher or motivator. The biggest challenge facing our youth — climate change — is also a scary one. How we go about teaching kids could be the difference between paralyzing fear and action.

Previously, I wrote an column explaining how 80% of parents and 86% of teachers think kids should be taught climate change, but only 42% of parents and 45% of teachers actually teach them about this issue.

The overwhelming majority of teachers say they don’t teach climate change because “it’s not related” to their subject. But I challenge that claim. Climate change is an issue that covers all subjects of education, and here’s how you can implement it even in non-science classes:

English

There are many great ways to introduce kids to climate change in language arts classes. You can assign reading from the various books related to the environment and climate change. A personal favorite and classic is The Magic School Bus — a flying school bus taking kids through adventures while they learn different science lessons. Check out the series’ “The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge” edition. EL Education also has great ideas on its website for English topics related to climate change for K–8th graders.              

Math

Reading graphs and plotting points are basic lessons that all kids learn in math. Why not graph examples of how our greenhouse gas levels have been increasing dramatically over the past two centuries? You can add and subtract basic examples of the carbon cycle to see how extra carbon can surpass our threshold of living in a balanced cycle. Basic tools like transposing Celsius to Fahrenheit and calculating range, mean, median and percentages are all needed to understand the fundamentals of climate change. Math Goodies is a free website with a great “Mathematics and Climate” section that can be used to teach many different basic math lessons related to climate change.

Social Studies

Social studies classrooms are the perfect space for students to lose any worry or fear of climate change. Here, they can feel empowered to take action in their schools, homes or communities. Among many options, you can have your students do hands-on recycling projects, plant trees, write notes to members of Congress and use social media to spread environmental awareness. Social studies is the ideal subject to start teaching kids how to be good stewards of our planet. Teaching kids hands-on that climate change solutions must be solved by collective action and that all individuals can have an impact is a great way to show the power of social action. “Young Voices for the Planet” is a great website for teachers and kids that covers inspirational stories of youth taking action all over the world, while giving ideas and projects for how to take local action by developing an “action plan.”    

Parents

You can request that your kid’s K–12 schools implement a climate change curriculum through the California Education and the Environment Initiative website. You can also participate with your kids in the #FridaysForFuture climate marches that happen every Friday all over the world, which was started by Swedish 16-year-old and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg. Strikes are happening in every major city, and you can request and organize one in your own city if yours doesn’t already have one. If you live in Davis, the Peregrine Project leads strikes every Friday at 10:30 a.m. at Peregrine School (click on the Davis map for contact information).

The youth of the world have shown us what they can do when aware of the problems facing them. 21 youth activists are currently suing the U.S. in Juliana v. United States, and children all over the world are marching to the beat of a 16-year-old’s drum and demanding climate action. Educating our youth by giving them hope and encouraging them to take action is the least we can do.

Like Will Smith told his son Jaden in the movie “After Earth”:

“Fear is not real. The only place where fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future […] Danger is very real, but fear is a choice.”

Teach our kids. Let them have a choice between fear and hope. They’ll choose wisely.

Written by: Daniel Oropeza — daoropeza@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.