Sara Elizabeth Wenger

This dissertation interrogates consent, power, and companionship through the contentious existence of humanoid sex robots or “sexbots.” Drawing from gender studies, cultural studies, and feminist technoscience literature, this project traces the evolution of sexbot discourse within recent years, employing an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the sociotechnical imaginaries through which sexbots emerge. Specifically, it examines how sex technology or “sextech” companies have framed sexbots as feminized solutions for masculinist desires, offering human-like companionship without the implications of consent. By challenging this popular conception of sexbots, this dissertation offers an alternative theoretical perspective to reimagine feminist relationships to these futuristic technologies.