Short story, please read and have fun.

SEX DOLL

"And then what will become of us normal women? Shall we learn to behave like prostitutes?" The woman I interviewed was maybe in her mid-forties, had blond, medium-length hair with grey highlights, was also a very well-groomed appearance and board member of AWL (American Womens League). In this function we had our conversation. I worked for New Tech Magazine, well, freelance at least, and was working on an amazing story:

A Japanese robotics company had put a sex doll on the American market, for testing. In the advertisement for this doll, "Aphrodite 7", it was explicitly stated that the professional experiences and detention masters of more than 120 prostitutes had flowed into the design and software. Thus, Aphrodite could do more than any individual woman could. The vagina of the doll could be enlarged or reduced in size, automatically, the length and depth were individual in relation to the customer, as well as the pumping and suction power of the mouth, the degree of moisture of the skin, the pitch and height of the tone, as well as the dialect, the color of the eyes. On request, Aphrodite could take on the appearance of a 25 year old or represent the characteristics of a 40 year old. The company's target market was brothels, but there was still considerable resistance to the introduction of Aphrodite. Here was the story I wanted to tell.

The Japanese company stated that no women should be forced to work in brothels, that men (mostly the customers were male) should experience a higher satisfaction, that the transmission of diseases should be excluded, as should violent abuse. How can you rape a robot doll that is able to hold the perpetrator to the penis and notify the police? That would be a suicide squad.

The business plan was to equip a lot of brothels with the Aphrodite at the beginning and to make them famous for the sex doll. For the brothel owners it would become financially more favorable, since the dolls needed only one scant hour maintenance and loading time on the day and in addition it was legal. Aphrodite 6 was available in every conceivable configuration; hair and skin colour, shape of the nails, their colour, piercings or not, tattoos, of course the type of appearance, size of the breasts, the back, length of the legs, belly or not, everything was possible.

The built-in AI was able to adapt to a very wide variety of situations, tests with customers had found a satisfaction rate of 92 percent, compared to 56 percent for "real" women. In particular, the feeling of being respected and of direct attention, as well as the satisfaction of needs that came with it, convinced the men, along with some technical tricks that Aphrodite had to offer.

The customer loyalty was stronger than with "real" women; the rate of those customers who came more than twice a month was significantly higher, which more than compensated for the slightly lower average price.

Jack van Schneyder, one of the brothel operators I talked to, told me that after four months of test operation with a total of 71 Aphrodite models, sales had increased by more than forty percent, the return on investment by more than 22 percent and they had gained new percent of new customers in the meantime and had hardly lost any of them. He was very satisfied and had looted for the houses for which he was responsible to order a total of 240 Aphrodite 7 models.

Nippon Universal Robots, however, had a special business model: they only rented out the sex dolls. You couldn't buy them, the maintenance and all other services were included in the rental price, the brothel operators could make a fixed calculation and it was almost always cheaper for the robots.

That the prostitutes had no lobby, their protests turned out to be very little loud, there was some media coverage of them, there were videos of female students complaining that their prices were being destroyed and they generally had to switch to other forms of activity.

On the other hand, there were now more women who specialised more in providing girlfriend experiences and marketed them as real life wifes, but overall demand for "real" women was declining noticeably.

Protests from this corner of society were to be expected, but what happened then came as a surprise to the marketing company operating in the USA.

There was considerable protest from women's rights activists. The argument went like this: "If the service offered by the one Aphrodite7 is accepted as the standard because men like it better, then it is the normal wives and pressure to meet this standard or their husbands go to a brothel. Which Fau wants to be jealous about a doll? The normal women have to learn how to behave as prostitutes in order to satisfy the men. This puts them under considerable pressure and impairs their previous gender balance," said Amy Weimer, the representative of AWL.

"Do you mean that men are less interested in stable relationships?"

"Yes, exactly that! Look, a visit to a brothel is forty percent cheaper, basically affordable for everyone. That's exactly what will happen: The men go into brothels and are then allegedly more content than with their real women. These will then be neglected by the men." Amy talked herself into rage, as if she saw the whole social model in danger.

"Look," her hands performed a dance over the microphone on the table, "our society is based on the partnership of men and women. If men can say goodbye to this partnership without harming themselves, then society will be torn apart. Where should the children come from? Who should take care of the Altren?"

Contrary to my other habit in interviews, I had to answer: "Robots maybe?".

Amy was confused, she seemed to let the whole idea go through her head and to grasp new aspects.

"Sex loses romance and completely becomes a commodity, the women can never compete with sex machines that are always ready in any desired form. That is simply unfair. We think such robots must be banned! Yes, exactly, forbidden. They destroy the foundation of our society."

I worked my way up to the next question: "Amy, isn't it a gain for women if they no longer have to work as prostitutes? When they can no longer be forced to do so? Isn't it a gain for women if the different needs of men and women don't have to be balanced within a relationship? I see this as a contribution to the liberation of women."

Amy had breathed heavily when I asked these questions. They shook their heads from left to right and contradicted me: "No, Neil, on the contrary: part of women's freedom is based on having the right to veto sex in the relationship. Sex is not everything," they know Neil, "but without sex everything is nothing. Without this right of veto, women lose a lot of influence in relationships, which undermines relationships.

"Men who don't have a fixed relationship and yet can have good sex at any time naturally have very different interests than men who are in relationships that they need to nurture and cherish in order to function. The dependence of men on women decreases, while for women nothing changes; they remain dependent on men."

"Amy, I disagree: if women don't have a fixed relationship with a man, then they have achieved the freedom that the women's movement has always advocated. Women can no longer define themselves through their husbands and so the goal is achieved. Both sexes have the same rights and duties, without any relationships."

"But that's it, Neil! While women can now choose which model of life they want to follow, they have no choice. They have to earn money themselves to be able to live. They need an expensive education, they must then either work in cheap jobs or compete with men who are not dependent on them. To become a mother, to have children, one must be able to afford oneself in such a society. Children will become a privilege of the rich."

"But Amy, statistically this is already the case. Rich people on average have more children than poor people." "But that will get worse and worse!" Amy talked herself into rage again. "What role model do we want to offer the children? Everyone should take care of himself? In a society that prefers men because they simply don't need women."

"For the moment, Amy: women don't care for themselves than now?"

"Yes, yes." Amy seemed to get the upper hand: "Of course, faruen already take care of themselves and the whole family. About her husband. A woman chooses her husband, whose services for the family she then coordinates. This is her task to ensure that everyone receives their fair share. Children, men and, of course, women."

Now it was my turn to be so amazed that I almost missed the words. With a dry mouth I asked: "Amy, so you think that women coordinate the work of men and that it is not possible without this work of women? That society will then be more unjust? Why are they so sure that the men will want to tie up these achievements?"

"Oh, that's very simple: evidence-based approach. What men want, biology tells them, along with society: they want sex (that is biology); they get good sex in a relationship if they maintain the relationship. That's been going on for thousands of years and we're putting that on the line with the sex dolls."

I closed the reader and the picture of the printed page disappeared from the air before my eyes. Today, 16 years after my interview with Amy, the first state for men only was created in the northwest of the USA. The logic was simple. There had been too many complaints, about women who could no longer be equal, as long as sex dolls were allowed. So they had been democratically banned by the female majority. The men had to drive to Canada or make a new one out of old sex dolls in the basement. Everything was not so simple, and so the thought was born to establish a state only for men, in which the sex dolls were of course allowed, but no brothels with "real" women.

Nippon Universal Robots had launched Aphrodite12 "Goldfinger" in the meantime, the reviews sounded phantom. I looked at my old-fashioned Movado with only one hand. At 18 o'clock the driver would pick me up and drive me to Adamstown. My first time with an Aphrodite. I was very curious how I would like it, but above all what my beloved MarieAnn would say about it.