Fembot

December 21, 2009 12:39 AM

Fembot (overview 1 of 2);

Fembot (overview 2 of 2);
·Fembot Mk I (1927);
·Fembot Mk III (1959);
·Fembot Mk IV (1964);
·Fembot Mk VIa (1976);
·Fembot Mk VII (1992);
·Fembot Mk VIb (2007);
·Fembot Mk VIII/HRP4C (2007). ***Now shipping***
BONUS Golden Age of Fembots VIDEO links: click here, here, here, and here.

posted by Meatbomb (21 comments total)

My wife has a bionic-woman fembot doll new in the box in the garage. Maybe now is the time to Ebay it.

Of course, when she discovers 4 years from now that it is gone, she'll sell my 1977-era Millennium Falcon. Then it will be ON!!
posted by double block and bleed at 12:50 AM on December 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is a well-researched and comprehensive post.
posted by vrakatar at 1:15 AM on December 21, 2009

Fairly comprehensive, until you see the Robot Girl Tvtropes page.
posted by Mike1024 at 2:18 AM on December 21, 2009

Gynoids
posted by pracowity at 2:23 AM on December 21, 2009

These stories about robot women should be viewed as cautionary tales. I think any modern male should be wary of engaging too deeply with artificial versions of womanhood.

My own (embarrassing) tale of man-machine interaction begins with me, alone, horny, with nothing to look at save the beautifully contoured lines of her 2-slot stainless steel toaster. Her smoothness, her warmth, attracted me to penetrate her mysterious depths deeply and hold myself there as long as possible. But I got burned-out, bad, by that experience.

The heat of passion is unsafe beyond medium.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:13 AM on December 21, 2009 [2 favorites]

Annalee Newitz: a delicate yet violent robot named Pris

What's she on about? The Blade Runner replicants are biological (or mostly so), not robots.
posted by raygirvan at 4:50 AM on December 21, 2009

Does a Fleshlight count?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:17 AM on December 21, 2009

Interesting post, you might want to include the original Fembot in your analysis.
posted by Dr Dracator at 5:44 AM on December 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

Things I learned by watching Futurama: "Don't mess with them fembots!"
posted by Drasher at 5:48 AM on December 21, 2009

Yeah, baby!
posted by DreamerFi at 6:09 AM on December 21, 2009

I think the interesting question to ask is, what makes a fembot "fem"? If you give a robot curves like a woman and a female voice, then is it female? Does the behavior of the machine reflect what a female would do, or what a male thinks a female should do? In fact, would a female robot created and programed by a man not be more like a transvestite--if indeed machines can be said to be sexually oriented at all?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:21 AM on December 21, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeah, Lisa from Weird Science was also not a robot, she was just magically created by application of, well, weird science. (And blinded me with same.)

But that Japanese storm trooper fashion bot - damn. I can see that one in mass-produced ranks with rifles, and I'm preparing to greet our new fashion bot overlords. And amazed - I think this robot thing might actually work out, pretty soon.
posted by Michael Roberts at 6:53 AM on December 21, 2009

" Have you any idea how it feels to be a Fembot living in a Manbot's Manputer's world? "
posted by The Whelk at 7:47 AM on December 21, 2009 [3 favorites]

Oh man, so many awkward Fembot memories. To a 10-year-old boy 'The Six Million Dollar Man' was (believe it or not) one of the few interesting things on TV in the '70s because it actually talked about cool science things.

I remember feeling conflicted about the Fembots on the show because a) even my 10-year-old mind realized there was something debasing about the subservient role female robots played, and yet b) the Fembot doll was held up by my peers as an object of ridicule. It was THE toy that boys in my class dreaded having their sisters get; I'm guessing because of the embedded cooties.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:11 AM on December 21, 2009

Mike1024: Fairly comprehensive, until you see the Robot Girl Tvtropes page.

I have to ask, with a wee bit o' shame: who's the fembot in the upper right-hand picture on that tv-tropes page?
posted by hincandenza at 8:48 AM on December 21, 2009

Robot Girl. (At 1:45 if you really can't take Earth to Doris.)
posted by Naberius at 9:22 AM on December 21, 2009

My own (embarrassing) tale of man-machine interaction begins with me, alone, horny, with nothing to look at save the beautifully contoured lines of her 2-slot stainless steel toaster. Her smoothness, her warmth, attracted me to penetrate her mysterious depths deeply and hold myself there as long as possible. But I got burned-out, bad, by that experience.

twoleftfeet, was it a Telefunken U47, by any chance? If so, I'll bet you grubed it too hard.

/Anyway, it happened to me once. In my buddy Joe's garage.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:48 AM on December 21, 2009

who's the fembot in the upper right-hand picture on that tv-tropes page?

Probably just something scavenged from deviantart or the like.
posted by anazgnos at 10:48 AM on December 21, 2009

Is this one of those articles where the author thinks that cyborg is a synonym for robot.

Oh. It is. What crap.

Also, are we any more or less mystified by male or gender neutral robots compared to female ones? Robots are fucking cool no matter what gender or lack thereof.
posted by davros42 at 11:06 AM on December 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow, all that and no mention of Cherry 2000? Also Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone...

...on second thought, I probably shouldn't be in this thread....
posted by samsara at 9:58 PM on December 21, 2009

Ok, one more...Robogeisha...I'm done!
posted by samsara at 9:59 PM on December 21, 2009