Does a Robot Need to Have a Gender?

About as much as a fish needs a bicycle. But that's not going to stop people.

Which one is a “he,” which is a “she,” which an “it”? Depends whom you ask. And how. And why. From left to right: Moxi, a hospital-assistant robot; Nao, a small humanoid used for research, business, goofy videos and other stuff; Pepper, a larger humanoid robot; and one of Dubai’s robot police officers

There's a scene in the TV series Mad Men ¹ which finds a central character, Betty Draper, alone at home and leaning into her washing machine. She finds its vibrations really hit the spot, as it were, and presses on to orgasm. So you could say she used a machine to help her get off. You could not say, though, that she "had sex" with the machine. The first phrase describes a $36 billion-per-year global industry but the second, I think, is impossible. A robot is a thing that can't consent, desire or feel. It's not alive, so a person can't "have sex" with it.

Nonetheless robots destined for sexual uses…