Are friends electric?

"Are friends electric?" is a song on this album, "Replicas" by Tubeway Army. (Click the link to hear it, apparently Your Tube doesn't like me to show it here.)

What makes me start with this?

This. A robot. An 'electric friend', and one you probably can't leave in the hallway. Sorry, insider joke for those who know the lyrics to the above song.

It struck me that robots are naked. They wear no clothes. And yet, they're cheered, appear on television and in films that way. We're not. We're shunned, muffled and ignored.

Why?

Because robots have no naughty bits. People do. Things like penises and breasts aren't present on robots.

Oh... did someone just say 'Hold my beer'?

Oops.

Female robots don't have the nipples of death, like real women do. That's my mistake, sorry about that.

But again, even the female robot isn't required to be dressed. No, instead they undressed to impress, to whoo us with the technological advances. Look, the robot stands. It walks! It reacts!

Hell, we do all that, and much better.

Oh... did someone just say 'Hold my beer'? 

Looks like I was wrong on the nipple part. Hmm.

Isn't it remarkable how the world at large uses double standards in this respect? Robots can even be sexy, alluring and undressed, and that's fine.

Let us be simply nude, and all hell breaks loose.

It's not real, and that makes it okay.

They don't have naughty bits. They may have lasers, built-in canons and machine-guns, but no naughty bits.