io9: fembots

Alyson Hannigan Secretly Replaced With Robot!

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:30:00 PST

The starlets of tomorrow will emote in the depths of space and at the bottom of the ocean. That's because gynoids will replace all our favorite actresses! This gallery is sleazy, but probably work-safe.

I've been mesmerized and alarmed, looking through a giant Flickr set of fembot art, mostly created in Photoshop. It's a weird mixture of the titillating and the disturbing. The only way you know these woman are fembots is if they're flawed somehow, so the images divide into two categories: fembots suffering damage (usually with sparks flying out) and fembots who are seductively removing their faces or synthetic skins. It's like torn clothing or a striptease, only way more personal. And yet impersonal, because of their blank emotionless faces.

Way more pics at the link. [Meifembot on Flickr, thanks to Olga]

Kate Moss Suffers From Roborexia

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:10:00 PST

Kate Moss has constantly been accused of being too skinny. Well, there's a reason for that. It isn't hormones, or syndromes, or pheremones, it's just that she's a cold, steely robot underneath all that makeup and couture. No wonder she's able to pull off those near-perfect runway spins each and every time; it's all pre-programmed. You can see the full view of Kate and her superstructure down below (yes, it's work-safe).

The Master Of Robot Slave Women Is Dead

charliejane — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:38:30 PST

The father of fembot slaves is dead. Ira Levin's novel The Stepford Wives touched on the gender anxieties of a generation — the men who felt their wives were reneging on their traditional domestic role, and the women who feared their husbands wanted them to be machines. But the most shocking thing about The Stepford Wives, even to today's readers?

It's actually a scary book. If you've only seen the movies, especially the 2004 remake, you won't be expecting a tense, tightly paced paranoid thriller. But that's what you get:

She stood straight and listened; a tiny-toothed chittering came from behind her, from the phone on the night table; came again and again, long, short, long. He was dialing the den phone. Calling Dale Coba to tell him she was there. Proceed with plans. All systems go.

This book influenced the gender politics of an entire generation by creating a horrifying metaphor for its darkest fears.

Author of The Stepford Wives Dead at 88 [Scifi Scanner]