Sex is good for you. It keeps your immune system happy, potentially lowers blood pressure and lessens your risk of heart attacks — all while improving sleep and lowering stress.
Given that, people have been studying whether or not sex dolls can have an impact on the health of the population as a whole. As of right now the consensus seems to be: we just don't know yet.
Researchers Chantal Cox-George, an Academic foundation doctor in London, and Susan Bewley, a Professor of Complex Obstetrics from King's College London, recently published their findings, “I, Sex Robot: the health implications of the sex robot industry,” after looking into the potential health implications of sex robots, both for potential therapeutic value and sexual satisfaction.
Not surprisingly, there’s hardly any research being done on sexbots. But when you consider how big the industry is and how fast it’s growing — with the potential of new companies seeing the monetary incentive and striving to make cheaper, possibly more dangerous models — it begs to question: are sex dolls good and healthy or extremely unhealthy?
Worth an estimated $30 billion, sex technology is heating up as a method to pump out some steam. Particularly high-cost, female-designed mannequins (only one of the four main producers will begin to sell male devices in 2018), cost anywhere between $5,000 and $15,000 per robot. Steep pricing is dictated by the fact that these dolls have customizable features and sex organs like vaginas and anuses. And many with AI make eye contact, speak and respond.
The question of health, researchers found, is ensnarled in the moral, ethical debate of sex robots possibly being a means of worsening rape culture, pedophilia, and the mindset that women are objects to be had whenever, wherever.
But before condemning sexbots as plain nasty, there were four key areas where the potential use of sex dolls could in fact be healthy means of medical treatment.
“We identified four key themes relevant to healthcare providers,” says the study published in BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, “Safer sex, Therapeutic potential, Potential to treat pedophiles and sex offenders, and Changing societal norms.”
In terms of using sexbots for therapy, they found it is “plausible that sex robots will be helpful for patients who would benefit from sexual practice without pressure, although this might move some further away from human intimacy.”
Similarly, the use of sex robots for couples with mismatched libido or to help treat erectile dysfunction turned out to be a double edged sword, with potential adverse consequences “such as rejection of the non-interacting partner or threats to the integrity of the relationship.”
The study also looked at whether sexbots could be healthy as a means of companionship for the lonely, mentally, and physically disabled, along with the elderly or those who find intercourse traumatic.
The answer: probably not … for a number of reasons, most explicitly that the meaning of a “companion” would negatively change from an interacting, speaking person that can genuinely reciprocate, verbally and emotionally as much as physically.
The study concluded that the clinical use of sexbots should be rejected until more research has been done and tested, including medical observations, case reports, and measurement of visual and neural responses, alongside evidence of the impact of sexbots in the education, criminal justice and social science sectors.
More ‘robotiquette’ was also called for— the management of human-robot interactions.
So as of today, right now: No, sexbots are not a compatible swap for eating your kale and lifting weights. And if you try going to the doctor and arguing you need a sex doll to treat your migraines, expect to be swiftly given an Aspirin and told to leave.
Stick to your old-school bumping and grinding for cleared congestion and an immune system pick-me-up.
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