Three-Fold Fetishism: An Analysis of Racialised and Gendered Sex Robots

My study will examine new forms of subject construction and representation made possible due to technological
advances, drawing upon the schools of postcolonial theory, gender theory, queer theory, spatial theory, and critical race
theory, primarily. My methodology will consist of qualitative analyses of particular case studies of forms of embodied AI
most frequently referred to as "sex robots." Through a continuation of my graduate studies, field research, and
multidisciplinary theorisations, I will focus on the human labour, design, and production processes behind these sex
robots. Through these analysis, I will demonstrate that the "digital age" in which these technological objects are produced
is by no means "post-bodily," but influenced by social discourses of power and knowledge which inform the design and
programming of such technologies. I will examine the ways in which these technologies in turn influence the user's
perception of subjects represented through digital embodiment, using reception theory and research engagements with
users, such as interviews. Based on these findings, I will use this research to propose my original theory of "three-fold
fetishism" as a framework. I will thus theorise how interactions with these technologies of power affect human-human
interactions, essentially questioning how these technologies reproduce social discourses which perpetuate inequality and
discrimination (such as racism, misogyny, and Orientalism) under a rape culture.