An article titled „Queering Sex Robots Beyond Diversifying Design? Insights from Queer Lacanian Psychoanalysis and New Materialism“ by Maaike van der Horst and Anna Puzio was published in the journal Philosophy & Technology in March 2026. Surprisingly, it does not reference several works that are highly relevant to the topic, including publications by Tanja Kubes and Oliver Bendel. As a result, some of the article’s claims to originality appear less convincing than they might otherwise have been. Following an exchange with one of the journal’s editors, Luciano Floridi, Oliver Bendel therefore submitted a commentary, which was published in Philosophy & Technology on June 10, 2026. From the abstract: „This commentary discusses Maaike van der Horst and Anna Puzio’s article ‚Queering Sex Robots Beyond Diversifying Design? Insights from Queer Lacanian Psychoanalysis and New Materialism‘. While acknowledging the article’s valuable contribution, particularly its integration of Queer Lacanian Psychoanalysis and New Materialism, the commentary argues that its account of prior scholarship is incomplete. Several key themes and proposals presented as novel – including critiques of humanoid mimicry, new-materialist approaches to sexuality and technology, queer design concepts, relational ontology, and transformative sex robot forms – had already been developed in earlier work by Tanja Kubes and Oliver Bendel. The omission of these contributions affects assessments of originality, the reconstruction of the field’s intellectual development, and the allocation of scholarly credit. The commentary therefore calls for a more comprehensive scholarly genealogy of queer and new-materialist approaches to sex robots and argues that careful citation practices are essential to maintaining the integrity of academic discourse.“ The article „Who Queered the Sex Robot? Notes on Attribution and Conceptual History“ can be accessed at link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-026-01123-3.
A new article titled „Beyond Diversifying Design? Insights from Queer Lacanian Psychoanalysis and New Materialism“ (van der Horst & Puzio, 2026) has been published in Philosophy & Technology. The authors argue that queering sex robots should go beyond diversifying their physical design and instead involve a broader reconsideration of sexuality, identity, and human-technology relations. The paper starts from a critique widely discussed in the literature: current sex robot models largely reproduce heteronormative and stereotypical representations of femininity. Similar observations and related arguments can be found in earlier contributions in the volume „Maschinenliebe“ (Bendel 2020). In that book, Tanja Kubes addresses the topic in her chapter „Queere Sexroboter“, while Oliver Bendel discusses transformations of gender and embodiment in „Trans-Formers“. Both contributions also refer to examples such as the Harmony robot from Realbotix/RealDollX. The main novelty of the new article lies in its theoretical framework, which combines Queer Lacanian psychoanalysis and New Materialism. Given the thematic overlap and the small number of publications on queer perspectives on sex robots, it is somewhat surprising that the earlier contributions in „Maschinenliebe“ are not referenced. This book is predominantly written in German, but in times of large language models this should hardly pose a barrier. Moreover, the chapters by Kubes and Bendel have already been cited in several English-language academic publications.
Das Zukunftsmagazin Frankfurter Allgemeine Quarterly bringt in der aktuellen Ausgabe 4/2024 eine Serie mit dem Titel „Sind Roboter bald die besseren Lover“? Auf dem Cover ist sie angekündigt mit den Worten „Die Sexroboter kommen: Wie Hightech das Intimleben ändern könnte“. Am 13. Juni 2016 hatte Oliver Bendel in Telepolis den Artikel „Die Sexroboter kommen: Die Frage ist nur, wie und wann“ veröffentlicht. Heute, fast zehn Jahre später, ist die Antwort klar: Liebespuppen spielen eine gewisse Rolle, Sexroboter kaum. In der Serie kommen Kritiker wie Kathleen Richardson ebenso zu Wort wie Entwickler wie Brian Sloan (Autoblow), Filmemacher wie Johannes Grenzfurthner (Arse Elektronika) und Unternehmer wie Philipp Fussenegger (Cybrothel). Und Oliver Bendel, der 2020 das Springer-Buch „Maschinenliebe“ herausgegeben und das Phänomen zusammen mit prominenten Kollegen und Kolleginnen erforscht hat. Er rät dazu, mehr empirische Forschung in diesem Bereich zu treiben. Eine gelegentliche Nutzung von Liebespuppen und Sexrobotern hält er für unproblematisch, eine anhaltende Beziehung dagegen für eine Verschwendung von Gefühl und Zeit. Die Gespräche hat Airen geführt und protokolliert, ein Schriftsteller und Journalist, der in Mexiko lebt. Frankfurter Allgemeine Quarterly ist ab 12. September 2024 am Kiosk und bereits vorher als digitale Ausgabe zu haben.
„Anthropomorphic love dolls – the successors of basic blowup dolls – are widely used these days, both in brothels and at home. While they can offer physical comfort and sexual satisfaction, they certainly cannot engage in more complex interactions with their counterparts. However, sex robots can – or at least they ought to. For now, the offer is not extensive and prices are high. The motor abilities of current models are limited and mainly focus on the head, while the body is usually identical to that of a love doll. Obviously, sex robots are made primarily to have sex with. But the user can also talk to and even form a relationship with them. This in mind, we are now starting to think about other applications of humanoid sex robots in the future – at least when their motor skills have improved. The possibilities might surprise you …” (De Gruyter Conversations, 23 April 2021) The full article is available via blog.degruyter.com/what-we-can-do-with-sex-robots-besides-the-obvious/ …
On 24 October 2020 the article „Love Dolls and Sex Robots in Unproven and Unexplored Fields of Application“ by Oliver Bendel was published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics. From the Abstract: „Love dolls, the successors of blow-up dolls, are widespread. They can be ordered online or bought in sex shops and can be found in brothels and households. Sex robots are also on the rise. Research, however, has been slow to address this topic thoroughly. Often, it does not differentiate between users and areas of application, remaining vague, especially in the humanities and social sciences. The present contribution deals with the idea and history of love dolls and sex robots. Against this background, it identifies areas of application that have not been investigated or have hardly been investigated at all. These include prisons, the military, monasteries and seminaries, science, art and design as well as the gamer scene. There is, at least, some relevant research about the application of these artefacts in nursing and retirement homes and as such, these will be given priority. The use of love dolls and sex robots in all these fields is outlined, special features are discussed, and initial ethical, legal and pragmatic considerations are made. It becomes clear that artificial love servants can create added value, but that their use must be carefully considered and prepared. In some cases, their use may even be counterproductive.“ The article is available here for free as an open access publication.
The „4th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots“ will be held at the University of Montana, Missoula, in the United States on 6-7 December 2018. In 2016 and 2017, the scientists met in London to discuss this topic. Matt McMullen will be the keynote speaker this year. He is CEO of Realbotix, „is the artist and design director for the company, and brought the core Realbotix team together“. „He started Abyss Creations, the manufacturer of Realdoll, out of his garage in 1997. For the past 20 years he has been creating ‚The World’s Finest Love Dolls‘, as well as undertaking multiple custom projects along the way. McMullen’s dolls have popped up on more than 20 television shows and also co-starred in 10 films. Now, he focuses on integrating cutting edge technology with silicone doll artistry and believes that AI driven robots can become companions and partners to human beings, and can connect with us in ways that are often overlooked when considering these technologies.“ (Website LSR 2018) Further information is available via loveandsexwithrobots.org.
Fig.: Love dolls are becoming more and more human-like
