Cyber toy stories
The broken promises and broken parts of interactive sex toys
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2394213 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ekat Osipova (0000-0001-9583-4005, TU Wien, corresponding author), Azadeh Badieijaryani (TU Wien), Katta Spiel (0000-0001-6094-9531, TU Wien) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1544-1565 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sexualities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13634607241274983 |
| OpenAlex | W4401627474 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 50 |
Interactive sex toys shape how we understand sexual intimacies and pleasures on an individual and societal scale. Yet analytical and critical research on actual devices is scant. To help address this, we conducted an in-depth Feminist Content Analysis of interactive products offered by one Dutch manufacturer, including text and video material that discusses and presents those products. Applying the theoretical lens of technosexual scripts, we show how one of the largest industry stakeholders engages in promising a utopian sex-future, while upholding and re-inscribing normative scripts for how sexual encounters with others and oneself can be technologically mediated. Our analysis illustrates the far-reaching consequences of skewed (and unkept) promises of safety, health and optimization, which implicates technologists as well as marketing strategists
Aesthetics · Art · Normative · Political science · Scripting language · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Law · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty
Situational Analysis
Feminist HCI
Back to the technologies themselves
Touching at a Distance
Just around the corner
Is Technology Neutral
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
Introduction
‘The embodied empathy revolution … ’
Cisgender
Rebooting an Old Script by New Means
Feminist Content Analysis and Representative Characters
The droning of intimacy
For men arousal is orientation’
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Sexual scripts
Healthism and the Medicalization of Everyday Life
Sexual Scripts
Toy stories
Data-driven intimacy
Sexual scripts
I'm the Operator With My Pocket Vibrator
The Political Language of the Helping Professions
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |