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In industrial and social setting in Africa, machines and technological devices are gradually replacing human beings. Sex robots are replacing the need for other human beings for intimacy. People no longer need other human beings to indulge in sexual pleasure. Using Isintu ethics, I interrogate the ethical challenges that emanate from the substitution of human beings with technological devices. Isintu thrives on human-to-human relations; when human relationships suffer, Isintu suffers. Isintu is linked to the concept of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (a person is a person because of other people). The chapter concludes that the Ndebele of Matabo are not yet culturally ready for sex robots.

This chapter signals a shift from considering the ways in which the porn user is embedded in digital forms of productivity to the modes of work undertaken by the porn performer. It asserts the vital connection between these immaterial and material forms of digital labour, understanding dominant trends in contemporary mainstream pornography as profoundly connected to attentional and informational modes of accumulation. This chapter uncovers a fundamental change in the representational rationale of mainstream pornographic film, from a genre concerned with representing sexual pleasure to one concerned with representing bodily labour.

I write and throw myself to the words from this subaltern, Latin, central American and half-blood body that lives in an urban place; with her skin colour that does not know its story, its mix and where it came from because all that was erased long time ago.

This article explores how human-posthuman intimate relationships are thematized in both robotics and in science fiction film, literature and robotic art. While on the one hand many engineers and computer scientists are working hard, albeit in an altogether affirmative way, toward the technological development of anthropomorphic robots which are capable of providing social assistance, emotional support and sexual pleasure, aesthetic representations of intimacy between man and machine give us on the other hand a more nuanced and critical picture of possible future forms of desire. However, these fictional works are themselves very often complicit with the use of familiar dualistic paradigms as male-female or self-other. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas of ‘becoming-other,’ scholars in critical posthumanism counterpose to this as an essentially traditional approach a nondualist reconceptualization of human beings and of the technological other, a reconceiving which is centered on ‘encounters of alterity’ and ‘unnatural alliances.’ The aim of this article is to expand on and to further develop these theories into what can be called a theory of ‘new networks of desire.’ According to this network idea, romantic entanglements between man and machine can better be seen as a specific form of power which does not leave us just where and who we were, but transformed. Desire is thus shown as a site for challenging our restricted self-understanding as humans and for transgressing humans’ self-centeredness.

The occurrence of the female orgasm, or lack thereof, has fueled productive research regarding gender differences in sexuality. Both scientific research and popular beliefs support the idea that men orgasm more frequently than women do and, given the biological nature of the orgasm phase of sexual responses, it is easy to assume that the gender difference in orgasm frequency is “natural” and unresponsive to contextual factors (e.g., relationship styles). While it may be true that men orgasm more frequently than women in partnered sex, using sociocultural approaches to understanding orgasm, we argue that it is inaccurate to suggest that men’s orgasms are easier and women’s are more difficult to invoke. In other words, yes—men orgasm more frequently than women—but this is not because women are biologically hardwired not to orgasm or receive sexual pleasure. Yet remains the question: Why do women orgasm less frequently than men do? What factors might narrow this gap in orgasm frequency between men and women? In this chapter, we critically examine gender differences in orgasm and, in doing so, provide science-based suggestions for individuals and relationship partners to close the orgasm gap between heterosexual men and women. We will begin our examination of women’s orgasm with providing an overview anatomy and orgasm. For the remainder of the chapter, we consider orgasm frequency in the context of both short-term (casual sex and hookup scenarios) and long-term relationships. Throughout, we offer suggestions for women and their sexual partners to increase women’s orgasm frequency across both short-term and long-term relationships.

Although sexual problems can occur during infertility, sometimes even causing infertility, sexual difficulties are not universally experienced by infertile males. Some studies have suggested that infertile men experience fewer disturbances than women because pregnancy has a lower emotional impact on males than on females. It is unclear whether this observation is due to a general tendency for men to underreport their emotions. The medical assessment and treatment for infertility may interfere with the infertile couple’s sexual pleasure due to performance demand, treatment requirements or emotional response to infertility diagnosis.