A senior love doll enthusiast, who goes by the self-explanatory nickname Brick Dollbanger, has called on everyone to get involved in what he calls the "silicone sex revolution of the 21st century."
The 60-year-old divorced dad of two from California runs a YouTube channel where he shares videos with his roommates from Casa Dollbanger, one of the latest newcomers being Harmony, a lifelike sex robot with silicone skin.
In an interview with The Daily Star, he hailed Harmony as a "companion" that would "bring robotics into the public view."
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It seems, however, that not everyone is eager to jump onboard the new sexual revolution that he heralds.
Kathleen Richardson, professor of robotics ethics and culture at De Montfort University and director of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, is one of the most vocal critics of such "devices," seeing them as part of a larger issue of exploitation and abuse of women and children.
She argues that the commercial sex industry, which includes adult films, distorts people's perception of sex and promotes misconduct such as rape and child abuse.
But Brick suggests that Richardson is among the women who feel "threatened" by the new technology. "I think women are very threatened by the technology and by robotics and the fact that people use sex robots, because, women I think feel that sex is their only bargaining chip," he told Daily Star Online.
A 2017 report by the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, which focused on the societal and ethical questions related to sex robots, claimed that sex dolls "may have powerful impacts on society compared with other sex aids."
In 2015, according to the Statista market research portal, the global sex toy market was valued at some $21 billion. This size is expected to surpass $29 billion in 2020.
