ARCHIVES OF sexology
CENTRO STUDI INTERNAZIONALI - RESEARCH AND STUDY PAPERS
2018
2018
Androids and sexuality
By Prof. Antonio Virgili*
The new frontiers of sexuality are maybe less unexpected and far than how we could think. Not only the far in time movies as “Metropolis” (1927) and “L’Age d’or” (1930), surely not much known today except from scholars, bus also the more recent “2001: A space Odyssey” (1968), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Mannequin” (1987), “Her” (2013) or the Swedish science fiction TV series “Real humans” (2012-2013). They all are movies including, more or less, the subject. For not talking about traces and clues in several other movies or in the novels as Asimov’s science fictions. In the latest few years, slowly, it has become an increasing subject in scientific literature too, that means the time has almost arrived: androids become to be among us. And this happens after a fast but intense preparation of the new generations to the artificial social relations: smartphone, social networks, etc. Not only it, further studies and researches are in progress and the relation between sexuality and androids need to be discussed, at least at a starting level, from sexologists too. In fact, as a recent European study (FRR Consultation Report, 2017) suggests, there are at least six aspects involved, that I consider mainly sexological, and two further are mainly sociological: Would people have sex with a robot? What kind of relationship can we have with a robot? Will robot sex workers and bordellos be acceptable? Will sex robots change societal perceptions of gender? Could sexual intimacy with robots lead to greater social isolation? Could robots help with sexual healing and therapy? In a wider sociological analysis: would sex robots help to reduce sex crimes? And, how could “sexual androids” change the anthropological and societal organization of sexual life, reproduction and interpersonal life?
Today we already have androids (also named “humanoid robots”) that look and act very much like a human; considering the speed of technology innovations and the available nanotechnologies, in very few years they will still be more close to human look and behaviour. Several liberal societies accept or tolerate sex in many different forms and combinations and if the trend will allow to consolidate the existing power and to increase people behaviour manipulation surely the liberalization will expand progressively to the other societies. The so called sex aids for increasing excitation or masturbating or giving support to some paraphilias, time ago considered abnormal, even if known (and used limited) from Centuries have now a easy and wide diffusion, can be purchased in many places and are becoming “normal” part of the social culture. Android specialised in sex are the coming step, functional to the societal organization that is planning to have androids specialised to work, to fight in war, to work in dangerous environments, and so on.
It is clear from these questions that the implications not only are very wide but also that social consequences could be broader than expected. And it reveals how much sexuality involves many aspect of social and individual life, not just sexual life. There will be an issue about ethics, responsibility and the emotional, psychological and social impact of sex with androids. Last but not least, the gender questions, in our days much debated, will result quickly outdated, “de facto”. Androids do not need to have a gender, someone think, they could just need to have different anatomical characters to be more suitable to the different anatomical needs of human sexual anatomy. That point of view, consider probably sexuality mainly as a kind o mechanical event by which to activate neurotransmitters, neuronal modulators and hormones and related subsequent events. This means to level progressively, or delete, emotional, characterial and humoral differences so as their connected cultural and social nuances, probably also separating sex from eroticism Again, this trend has been preceded from some of the actual changes in our societies and culture. The antecedents are already widely in progress, about gender levelling so as about artificial partners and virtual social relations, today almost an ordinary event.
In our days there is a form of sexual paraphilia named “robot feticism”, a modern extension of the Agalmatophilia, which dates back to the studies of Krafft-Ebing, but it would be different or overtaken compared to the sexuality with androids. Even if it is not to be excluded that only, or mainly, persons having a form of robot feticism could switch to androids. Would it be only a different and new form of paraphilia? According to several observers it should not be so.
Some scholars consider that, if we take a step back, we realize that a kind of “mechanical assistance” for sexual gratification goes way back. For example, what we name “Dildos” in one form or another have been present in society throughout history, from the 20-centimeter phallus from the Upper Palaeolithic period to ancient Greek urns. Could sexual androids simply be an elaborate extension of such devices? We think they are not, there is something deeper at play here owing to their guided autonomy. But, it was and is usually just an aid, today androids could be substitutive partners, at the same time reproductive medicine is making more diffused the medical assisted reproduction, till the extreme procedures of gestational surrogacy. Or we had to value if it can be considered a full sexuality to use only assistances and supports.
Might sex with androids ever become socially acceptable? Consider the case of vibrators which we might regard as a first approximation. In 2009, Indiana University reported two research studies on vibrators used for sexual purposes, they found vibrator use during sexual interactions to be common in nationally representative samples of adult American men and women, with approximately 53 % of women and 45% of men ages 18 to 60. They concluded that “not only is vibrator use common, but the two studies also show that vibrator use is associated with more positive sexual function and being more proactive in caring for one’s sexual health.”
The problem is that the actual sex aids are different from an android able to react, to move, to adapt and to memorize to personal requests, etc. So we may ask to ourselves if the society is ready and, mainly, if is able, to manage the new change. Gunther Anders and his “Diskrepanzphilosophie” warned about the fracture between technological possibilities from one side and social and cultural capacity from the other side. The debate is totally open on the topic of sexuality and androids.
Antonio Virgili
[* Prof.of Social Sexology at UNISED, Sexologist, independent researcher, former lecturer of Social Psychology
© Copyright by Prof. Antonio Virgili, April 2018.
Some sexological aspects of bullying
by Prof. Antonio Virgili
In the latest years the problem of bullying, especially among adolescents, is more and more diffused in several Countries, or at least more perceived than before, and activities to prevent it multiply. Bullying is not only at schools or at other educational communities, of course, but special attention has been given to what happens in those educational settings because the most of young people attend, or attended, schools and universities/colleges. Moreover, what happens outside them is often anyway related to persons known at school or college, or on the way to school or in peer communities. A UNESCO Report (2017) says that: “School violence and bullying occurs throughout the world and affects a significant proportion of children and adolescents. It is estimated that 246 million children and adolescents experience school violence and bullying in some form every year.“ The same UNESCO Report states that: “School violence encompasses physical violence, including corporal punishment; psychological violence, including verbal abuse; sexual violence, including rape and harassment; and bullying, including cyberbullying.” And that: “There is some evidence to suggest that girls are more likely to experience sexual violence and that boys are more likely to experience corporal punishment, or more severe corporal punishment, in school than girls, although girls are not exempt.”
But, strangely, maybe for cultural reasons, prudence, partial lack of data, or fear in talking about adolescents and sexuality, they seem underestimated, or often not enough cited, the sexological implications and aspects of bullying. Only when there is a specific sexual violence it is mentioned as “sexual”. Instead sexological aspects are important sides of bullying and of its diffusion and have to be considered if we want to counteract it. The already quoted UNESCO Report admits that: “Specific data on sexual violence in and around the school setting is limited, since many victims are hesitant to report acts of sexual violence for fear of being shamed or stigmatised or because they are concerned that they will not be believed or will face retaliation from their aggressor or aggressors. Nevertheless, available figures suggest that sexual violence and abuse in schools, perpetuated by staff and by other students, is a reality for many students, particularly girls.” Among them: “A UNESCO evidence review found that the proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students (LGBT) experiencing school violence and bullying ranged from 16% to 85% and the prevalence of violence was between three and five times higher among LGBT students than among their non-LGBT peers.”
It is clear that, for many cultural and/or psychological reasons, those who are bullied, regardless of explicit or implicit sexual components, do not easily communicate what happened. Or, considering their average age, it is not well understood what sexual components are really acting behind the aggressive behaviour. To say that these components are underestimated it is not an evaluation based only on the statistical data, sexological aspects are indeed relevant for at least four reasons:
Starting from the previous/above reported c) point, it is better to clarify the meaning of the definitions placed in quotation marks, so it will be clearer why links between sexuality and bullying are interconnected at various different levels.
“Emotional sadism” is the enjoyment of the emotional pain of others, it is probably the most typical and diffused form of bullying at any age. The “narcissistic sadism” is as much an artist of pain as any sadist. The difference between them lies in their motivation. The narcissist “tortures” and abuses as means to punish and to reassert superiority, omnipotence, and grandiosity. The sadist does it for pure (usually, sexually-tinged) pleasure. The “narcissistic supply” is a concept introduced into psychoanalytic theory by Otto Fenichel, in 1938, to describe a type of admiration, interpersonal support or sustenance drawn by an individual from his or her environment and essential to their self-esteem. Usually bullying is more common as a group action, group is the social environment of bulls, in fact the “environment” is another aspect to be reconsidered: bullying cannot be limited to psychological aspects, as it is often done, leaving interventions only, or mainly, to psychological dimensions. It is also a sociological event, which involves groups, culture, social norms, specific urban areas, etc., so it also requires social actions and some neuro-sociological approaches.
Some other researchers, on the basis of their findings, distinguish the following five categories of sadism: 1. characterological sadism, associated with a need for control over another person; 2. neurotic sadism, involving ritualistic, symbolic whipping or spanking whose primary aim is not to inflict pain and derive sexual pleasure but to free the individual of unbearable anxiety; 3. sadism associated with an altered state of consciousness; 4. sadism associated with psychosis (both disorders are viewed as products of simultaneous paroxysmal discharges in the areas of the limbic system that mediate sexual and aggressive behaviour); and 5. sadism proper, a rather elusive entity, probably a variant of characterological sadism extending into sexual relations.
The above mentioned different definitions and aspects of sadism and of narcissism allow to better value causes, modalities, emotional involvement, the possible addiction to violence, the individual and social triggers of the behavior, the common lack of guilt or remorse.
On the bullying definition side, to confirm the connections, bullying is usually defined as mainly unwanted, aggressive behaviour mainly among school aged children that involves a real, or perceived, power imbalance. The behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. In order to be considered bullying, it is said the behaviour must be aggressive and include an imbalance of power (bully – bullied) or an attempt to get more power in the group or contest.
Bullying includes several kinds of actions such as making threats, spreading rumours, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Therefore they are classified types of bullying as aggression can take a variety of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, mental.
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:Teasing,Name-calling,Inappropriate sexual comments,Taunting,Threatening to cause harm
Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes: Leaving someone out on purpose, Telling other children not to be friends with someone, Spreading rumors about someone, Embarrassing someone in public
Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes: Hitting/kicking/pinching, Spitting, Tripping/pushing, Taking or breaking someone’s things, Making mean or rude hand gestures
Aggression or aggressive behaviour can also “serve” a number of different purposes, including:
Not wrong to remember that the physical bullying is close to baby gangs violence, the last one mainly an urban form of violence.
About gender, usually men are more likely than women to engage in physical aggression, but lately also among adolescent and young girls is diffusing physical aggression, so as are known several cases of physical violence of women against men and/or among women. While researchers have found that women are less likely to engage in physical aggression, they also suggest that women do often use non-physical forms, such as verbal aggression, emotional or relational aggression, and social rejection.
[1] About it see the studies of Prof. Chester D.S. and his scientific papers contributions
Main references
AA.VV. "Atypical Empathetic Responses in Adolescents with Aggressive Conduct Disorder: A functional MRI Investigation" in Biological Psychology, Feb. 2009
Chester D.S., “The role of positive affect in aggression”, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 26, 2017
Garnett, Nahmias et al., “Positron Emission Tomography and sexual arousal in a sadist and two controls”, in Annals of sex research, vol. I, issue 3, September 1988
UNESCO, School violence and bullying: global status report, UNESCO, 2017
Virgili A. “Some gender differences in adolescent bullying and gang violence”, in Archives of Sexology, 2016
© Copyright by Prof. Antonio Virgili, June 2018.
by Prof. Antonio Virgili
In the latest years the problem of bullying, especially among adolescents, is more and more diffused in several Countries, or at least more perceived than before, and activities to prevent it multiply. Bullying is not only at schools or at other educational communities, of course, but special attention has been given to what happens in those educational settings because the most of young people attend, or attended, schools and universities/colleges. Moreover, what happens outside them is often anyway related to persons known at school or college, or on the way to school or in peer communities. A UNESCO Report (2017) says that: “School violence and bullying occurs throughout the world and affects a significant proportion of children and adolescents. It is estimated that 246 million children and adolescents experience school violence and bullying in some form every year.“ The same UNESCO Report states that: “School violence encompasses physical violence, including corporal punishment; psychological violence, including verbal abuse; sexual violence, including rape and harassment; and bullying, including cyberbullying.” And that: “There is some evidence to suggest that girls are more likely to experience sexual violence and that boys are more likely to experience corporal punishment, or more severe corporal punishment, in school than girls, although girls are not exempt.”
But, strangely, maybe for cultural reasons, prudence, partial lack of data, or fear in talking about adolescents and sexuality, they seem underestimated, or often not enough cited, the sexological implications and aspects of bullying. Only when there is a specific sexual violence it is mentioned as “sexual”. Instead sexological aspects are important sides of bullying and of its diffusion and have to be considered if we want to counteract it. The already quoted UNESCO Report admits that: “Specific data on sexual violence in and around the school setting is limited, since many victims are hesitant to report acts of sexual violence for fear of being shamed or stigmatised or because they are concerned that they will not be believed or will face retaliation from their aggressor or aggressors. Nevertheless, available figures suggest that sexual violence and abuse in schools, perpetuated by staff and by other students, is a reality for many students, particularly girls.” Among them: “A UNESCO evidence review found that the proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students (LGBT) experiencing school violence and bullying ranged from 16% to 85% and the prevalence of violence was between three and five times higher among LGBT students than among their non-LGBT peers.”
It is clear that, for many cultural and/or psychological reasons, those who are bullied, regardless of explicit or implicit sexual components, do not easily communicate what happened. Or, considering their average age, it is not well understood what sexual components are really acting behind the aggressive behaviour. To say that these components are underestimated it is not an evaluation based only on the statistical data, sexological aspects are indeed relevant for at least four reasons:
- among adolescents the sexuality is undergoing further transformation, it is something to explore and to test so as are emotions, and to use it in offending and prevaricating is more common than imagined. According to some Italian data, the average age of boys and girls involved in bullying activities is not only lower year by year, but about 33% of youths is a victim of sexual bullying;
- bullying has some clear components of sadism, that is exactly the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others. It is known especially for cyberbullying, but it is not only in cyberbullying;
- narcissism may be associated with some sadistic manifestations, there are: “emotional sadism”, “narcissistic sadism” and “narcissistic supply”; each of them, or more than one, may be part of the bullying behaviour;
- in developed Countries the start age of sexual activities is decreasing, becoming a bit closer to the average age in less developed Countries; at the same time mass media convey many sexual contents and the spread of internet and smartphone has increased the speed of diffusion and the spread itself of these contents.
Starting from the previous/above reported c) point, it is better to clarify the meaning of the definitions placed in quotation marks, so it will be clearer why links between sexuality and bullying are interconnected at various different levels.
“Emotional sadism” is the enjoyment of the emotional pain of others, it is probably the most typical and diffused form of bullying at any age. The “narcissistic sadism” is as much an artist of pain as any sadist. The difference between them lies in their motivation. The narcissist “tortures” and abuses as means to punish and to reassert superiority, omnipotence, and grandiosity. The sadist does it for pure (usually, sexually-tinged) pleasure. The “narcissistic supply” is a concept introduced into psychoanalytic theory by Otto Fenichel, in 1938, to describe a type of admiration, interpersonal support or sustenance drawn by an individual from his or her environment and essential to their self-esteem. Usually bullying is more common as a group action, group is the social environment of bulls, in fact the “environment” is another aspect to be reconsidered: bullying cannot be limited to psychological aspects, as it is often done, leaving interventions only, or mainly, to psychological dimensions. It is also a sociological event, which involves groups, culture, social norms, specific urban areas, etc., so it also requires social actions and some neuro-sociological approaches.
Some other researchers, on the basis of their findings, distinguish the following five categories of sadism: 1. characterological sadism, associated with a need for control over another person; 2. neurotic sadism, involving ritualistic, symbolic whipping or spanking whose primary aim is not to inflict pain and derive sexual pleasure but to free the individual of unbearable anxiety; 3. sadism associated with an altered state of consciousness; 4. sadism associated with psychosis (both disorders are viewed as products of simultaneous paroxysmal discharges in the areas of the limbic system that mediate sexual and aggressive behaviour); and 5. sadism proper, a rather elusive entity, probably a variant of characterological sadism extending into sexual relations.
The above mentioned different definitions and aspects of sadism and of narcissism allow to better value causes, modalities, emotional involvement, the possible addiction to violence, the individual and social triggers of the behavior, the common lack of guilt or remorse.
On the bullying definition side, to confirm the connections, bullying is usually defined as mainly unwanted, aggressive behaviour mainly among school aged children that involves a real, or perceived, power imbalance. The behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. In order to be considered bullying, it is said the behaviour must be aggressive and include an imbalance of power (bully – bullied) or an attempt to get more power in the group or contest.
Bullying includes several kinds of actions such as making threats, spreading rumours, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Therefore they are classified types of bullying as aggression can take a variety of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, mental.
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:Teasing,Name-calling,Inappropriate sexual comments,Taunting,Threatening to cause harm
Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes: Leaving someone out on purpose, Telling other children not to be friends with someone, Spreading rumors about someone, Embarrassing someone in public
Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes: Hitting/kicking/pinching, Spitting, Tripping/pushing, Taking or breaking someone’s things, Making mean or rude hand gestures
Aggression or aggressive behaviour can also “serve” a number of different purposes, including:
- To assert dominance (es. in groups)
- To intimidate or threaten
- To express anger or hostility
- To achieve a goal
- To express possession
- A response to fear
- A reaction to pain
- To compete with others
- To revenge for sexual reasons (betrayal, rivalry, etc.)
Not wrong to remember that the physical bullying is close to baby gangs violence, the last one mainly an urban form of violence.
About gender, usually men are more likely than women to engage in physical aggression, but lately also among adolescent and young girls is diffusing physical aggression, so as are known several cases of physical violence of women against men and/or among women. While researchers have found that women are less likely to engage in physical aggression, they also suggest that women do often use non-physical forms, such as verbal aggression, emotional or relational aggression, and social rejection.
[1] About it see the studies of Prof. Chester D.S. and his scientific papers contributions
Main references
AA.VV. "Atypical Empathetic Responses in Adolescents with Aggressive Conduct Disorder: A functional MRI Investigation" in Biological Psychology, Feb. 2009
Chester D.S., “The role of positive affect in aggression”, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 26, 2017
Garnett, Nahmias et al., “Positron Emission Tomography and sexual arousal in a sadist and two controls”, in Annals of sex research, vol. I, issue 3, September 1988
UNESCO, School violence and bullying: global status report, UNESCO, 2017
Virgili A. “Some gender differences in adolescent bullying and gang violence”, in Archives of Sexology, 2016
© Copyright by Prof. Antonio Virgili, June 2018.