“Naughty Japanese Babe:” An Analysis of Racialized Sex Tech Designs

Recent technological developments and growing acceptance of sex tech has brought increased scholarly attention to sex tech entrepreneurs, personified sex tech devices and applications, and the adult industry. Drawing on qualitative case studies of a sex doll brothel named “Cybrothel” and the virtual entertainer, or “V-Tuber,” known as Projekt Melody, as well as quantitative sex doll advertisement data, this study examines the racialization of personified sex technologies. Bringing attention to the racialization of personified sex tech is long overdue, as much scholarship to date has focused on how sex tech reproduces specific gendered meanings, despite decades of intersectional feminist scholarship demonstrating that gendered and racialized meanings are mutually constituted. General trends in the industry are shown, but particular emphasis is placed on the overrepresentation of Asianized femininity among personified sex tech industries.