
Sex Robots
The End of Love
Kathleen Richardson(Author)
Polity Press
1st Edition
Published on 19. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-5095-3029-8 (ISBN)
Description
There are more ways of connecting and communicating via technology than ever before. Yet loneliness is on the rise as we begin to experience an 'attachment crisis' in forming and maintaining intimate relationships.
Enter sex robots. Built from the bodies of sex dolls, they are created to help humans - particularly men - cope with our inability to connect. In this bold and trenchant critique, Kathleen Richardson explores important questions surrounding this emerging technology. What does the rise of sex robots tell us about the way that women and girls are imagined? To what extent are porn, prostitution and child sexual exploitation driving the attachment crisis?
The author argues that sex robots are produced within a framework of 'property relations' - in which egocentric Man (and his disconnection from Woman) shapes the building of robots and AI. Can this tide of destruction and disconnection be turned, and what would a revolution for the love of humanity look like?
Presenting a passionate case for the abolition of practices that cast women as property, Sex Robots: The End of Love is essential reading for students and scholars of robot ethics, anthropology, gender studies, philosophy of technology, sociology and related fields, as well as anyone concerned for the future of human relationships.
Enter sex robots. Built from the bodies of sex dolls, they are created to help humans - particularly men - cope with our inability to connect. In this bold and trenchant critique, Kathleen Richardson explores important questions surrounding this emerging technology. What does the rise of sex robots tell us about the way that women and girls are imagined? To what extent are porn, prostitution and child sexual exploitation driving the attachment crisis?
The author argues that sex robots are produced within a framework of 'property relations' - in which egocentric Man (and his disconnection from Woman) shapes the building of robots and AI. Can this tide of destruction and disconnection be turned, and what would a revolution for the love of humanity look like?
Presenting a passionate case for the abolition of practices that cast women as property, Sex Robots: The End of Love is essential reading for students and scholars of robot ethics, anthropology, gender studies, philosophy of technology, sociology and related fields, as well as anyone concerned for the future of human relationships.
Reviews / Votes
"A truly fascinating and chilling book which demolishes the hype about shiny new technologies, and shows how love and sex are being warped and commodified in new inhuman ways."Kathleen Stock OBE, author of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism
"An excellent explainer as to why the critique of and campaign against the production and normalization of porn dolls and sex robots is essential as part of the fight against sexual violence. Richardson brings a laser-sharp focus to a topic few of us understand, and even fewer have engaged in. Thank goodness she has."
Julie Bindel, feminist and writer, author of Feminism for Women
"Readable yet harrowing"
The Spectator
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 212 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-3029-8 (9781509530298)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
Wiley
€17.99
Available for download

E-Book
11/2025
1st Edition
Wiley
€17.99
Available for download

Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Polity Press
€81.90
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University.
Content
Acknowledgements Introduction: The Politics of Dissociation
Chapter 1: Pornography
Chapter 2: Prostitution
Chapter 3: Child Sex Abuse
Chapter 4: Aristotle's Slave Ontology: Ethics and the Egocentric I
Chapter 5: Cyborg Companions: Anthropology and the Undifferentiated We
Chapter 6: Love: I-you Attachment
Conclusion: The Politics of Love
Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1: Pornography
Chapter 2: Prostitution
Chapter 3: Child Sex Abuse
Chapter 4: Aristotle's Slave Ontology: Ethics and the Egocentric I
Chapter 5: Cyborg Companions: Anthropology and the Undifferentiated We
Chapter 6: Love: I-you Attachment
Conclusion: The Politics of Love
Bibliography
Index