Strap on…I mean, strap in. Jasmin Hagendorfer’s documentary short, Musings of a Mechatronic Mistress: The Peculiar Purpose of Tiffany the Sexrobot, is a weird one…or maybe not so weird.
Musings of a Mechatronic Mistress is a documentary that explores the purpose of sex robots…particularly the very busty robot Tiffany (voiced by Alix Martin). The documentary is a series of one-on-one conversations between Tiffany and several experts in the fields of robotics, AI, and gender identity.
The conversation is very free-form and goes off in many different directions. It starts with the very purpose of a sex robot and the fact that it may look like a woman and have the sexual parts of a woman, but instantly, the lifeless latex feel sets it apart from humans.
Then, the experts question whether looking like a human is even necessary. Though some sex toys look and are molded based on real things, does that matter? Moving on to the mind, what role does AI play in the act of sex? And lastly, the film delves into the patriarchal aspects of sexual pleasure and how not everyone is into the role of gender in sex.
“…explores the purpose of sex robots…particularly the very busty robot Tiffany…”
Though the discussion is explicit, there is nothing explicitly presented in Musings. The Barbie pink backgrounds and set can get the juicing flowing for this discussion about sex…what’s interestingly missing is the discussion of love. The discussion is about the physical feelings of sex but not the emotional connections that take place during sex, which is generally where I checked out the conversation.
Musings of a Mechatronic Mistress: The Peculiar Purpose of Tiffany the Sexrobot is an example of a documentary in which I don’t have to agree with the premise to find it interesting. The conversation was fascinating, and I’m of the ilk that likes to engage in debate to understand the opposing position better and either strengthen or modify my own. I can’t stop the production or development of sex robots, but we need to keep having discussions about their role or use in our lives.
I don’t agree with a lot of what’s being presented in Musings of a Mechatronic Mistress: The Peculiar Purpose of Tiffany the Sexrobot. Still, for me, it illuminates the path the world is currently walking down, where we’re finding more and more ways to isolate ourselves physically and emotionally and where sex robots and AI are becoming the surrogates for human contact…both interesting and quite frightening.
"…sex robots and AI are becoming the surrogates for human contact...both interesting and quite frightening."
