National Geographic documentary series

[zebrarbez]

Hello Fembot central community!

First time poster (besides 'welcome thread') and avid researcher.

I am casting the National Geographic documentary series; Taboo. We are looking to explore and investigate unique aspects of our culture and hear the first hand accounts of those who not only indulge in these but live them.
The Fembot community is intriguing to me and there is a wealth of information and variety in each detail.

I'd like to find someone who is well spoken, articulate and willing to be frank about their passion (s) within the fembot community. I would need to talk to this person on the phone (I can call you saving the bills) and eventually, National geographic would want to interview you in person and on camera.

I've spoken with a moderator here, and they've been a tremendous help. Now I'm reaching out to you, the community.
Please, PM me if you're interested. We'll take it from there.

Talk soon.


- Z is for zebra

[WilloWisp]

Our fetish has a strong tendency towards shyness and fear of ridicule/rejection from those who are not already aware of our preferences. If you could provide a little more detail about privacy, discretion, and the overall tone of the documentary, it might serve to reassure some potential volunteers. Others might be more willing to participate if the coverage did not require direct telephone conversation or physical presence in front of a camera.

Hell, I might be willing to participate, if I could upload voice-disguised audio files to a third-party host instead of giving out my phone number, and not have to directly interact with anyone who could potentially connect my physical appearance or real voice to my online persona.

Your best bet for getting volunteers is to pretend we live in some impossible-to-reach location, and that realtime communication is not available, only forum posts and anonymous file-sharing websites/tools.

[bilbo]

Z,

Just to be clear, the last 'documentry' that came round these parts gave much the same assurances as your giving. However the member who agreed to speak to that production company and then be filmed was lambasted on screen. Since then there has been alot of suspision around so called 'honorable' tv productions.

[WilloWisp]

Z,

Just to be clear, the last 'documentry' that came round these parts gave much the same assurances as your giving. However the member who agreed to speak to that production company and then be filmed was lambasted on screen. Since then there has been alot of suspision around so called 'honorable' tv productions.

Assuming he can demonstrate that he does, in fact, represent National Geographic for their already long-running series, "Taboo," it's pretty safe to assume they won't be judgmental, and will likely make every effort to be objective and neutral. I just think the community might benefit from a better understanding of how confidential it would be.

[Stephaniebot]

I think its swings and roundabouts stuff, you can be lucky, or unlucky, just that last time folk around here were very unlucky. I talked to a Canadian TV company (cant remember any more details) about 10 years ago, as to my view from the other side of the scene, and was treated absolutely fine.

Cant remember if thats because I was the only one who would talk to them though lol!

But I'm assuming NG want to see things from the male fembot lover POV, not from those who want to be a robot themselves. Mind, if they want to robotise/brainwash me into appearing, I'm open to offers! I'd at least want it filmed at a 'suitable location' this time, thats for sure!

[dale coba]

http://fembotcentral.com/viewtopic.php? ... ina#p54038

This magazine writer's profile of us went relatively well - only a little subtlety lost in the editing.

- Dale Coba

[zebrarbez]

Z,

Just to be clear, the last 'documentry' that came round these parts gave much the same assurances as your giving. However the member who agreed to speak to that production company and then be filmed was lambasted on screen. Since then there has been alot of suspision around so called 'honorable' tv productions.

I understand that completely.
As stated before, it's the national geographic show Taboo. It has been on for 7 previous seasons and we're researching for the 8th season. You can find clips or the wikipedia page if you'd like. The show takes an objective look at the subject matter and explains it in depth to those who are not involved in these particular interests, practices, hobbies, activities, etc.

As far as privacy, which someone mentioned, that can be addressed with each individual. Ideally, I would like to speak with any interested parties on the phone. This call is NOT being recorded, although I am taking notes. This is for internal reasons. Any interviews after that, we can address concerns later.
Remember; if anytime you're not comfortable and we can't assuage any concerns, you are free to back out. There's nothing holding you until you sign something before the cameras roll. (I only ask that you let me know, rather than just disappear!)

I'm in office on the US holiday, and will be fielding emails and PMs.

Any questions, you can PM me or reply to this thread. I'll be checking it regularly.

Thanks,

Zebra.

[gmiceo]

A good reference. http://www.fembotcentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8627
All the right words have been used to gain the trust of members before and it usually ends badly.

[KingJeremy]

I would think a crew attached to NatGeo would be trustworthy, especially after looking at some of the previous episodes. It doesn't appear to have that mocking "get a load of these freaks" feel to them, at least from the ones I watched.

[WilloWisp]

A good reference. http://www.fembotcentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8627
All the right words have been used to gain the trust of members before and it usually ends badly.

Have I missed something? The thread you linked is about a documentary that went reasonably well, which was later mocked by a comedienne. It doesn't look like Discovery Health betrayed anyone, just that someone else decided to mock it for laughs.

[dale coba]

Turning the question around on ourselves, I'm asking us,

What's in it for us?
- like, what would we hope to achieve?
Recognition?
Validation?
Recruitment - our kind Googlefinds us easy, so no value there.

Are we prophets and harbingers of attitudes many more people will develop?
Or, after a few bad interviews, are we a small tribe with nothing to gain?

- Dale Coba

[KingJeremy]

I would think that if a picture is going to be painted of us whether we're involved directly or not it would be advantageous for us as a whole to have some input in one form or another. Ultimately it matters little, those of us who have been through the bad representations are going to be here even if another happens and while there may be a little ripple of emotion about how poorly the group as a whole is perceived, life will eventually go on.

[Stephaniebot]

Well, I wrote in, got a very nice reply back too. Sadly I'm in the wrong country to do more than that, unless anyone over there knows a friendly immigration officer, or the like!

Oh, and for anyone in North America, and interested in life on the 'fembot side' of the fence, they want to hear from you too, not just the male perspective.

[King Snarf]

Mind, if they want to robotise/brainwash me into appearing, I'm open to offers! I'd at least want it filmed at a 'suitable location' this time, thats for sure!

... Call the networks, we've got a ratings smash for sweeps week! (I'd certainly watch it, at any rate. )

[gmiceo]

it's not Discovery Health, it's what happens afterwards. The question boils down to "Do you add material for others to mock and take out of context" or "Do you hope that something can be added to the discussion that gives viewers true insight." From what I have seen of Taboo they treat the different topics without bias, but so did Discovery Health and it didn't do much other than promote Douglas Hines.

[Stephaniebot]

Mind, if they want to robotise/brainwash me into appearing, I'm open to offers! I'd at least want it filmed at a 'suitable location' this time, thats for sure!

... Call the networks, we've got a ratings smash for sweeps week! (I'd certainly watch it, at any rate. )

Sadly you're out of luck anyway, as I said, I'm in the wrong country to be involved anyway, just too far away. A shame really, if someone like that would be set up, it has to be said. Well, I'll be over there for a week in April, if they really did want to set something up for then, but otherwise...

it's not Discovery Health, it's what happens afterwards. The question boils down to "Do you add material for others to mock and take out of context" or "Do you hope that something can be added to the discussion that gives viewers true insight." From what I have seen of Taboo they treat the different topics without bias, but so did Discovery Health and it didn't do much other than promote Douglas Hines.

Isnt that a good reason for us getting involved, and not letting Hines do so?

[daphne]

Ultimately, I think this comes down to a question of acceptance. Many of us have, like other fringe groups before us, been mocked or ridiculed for our desires. Exposure is what makes people comfortable with one another; exposure lets people see that we are just human beings like them, with lives and jobs and families and hopes and fears and loves. I think there's an opportunity here for that to be transmitted to the larger world, and I think from what I've seen of Nat Geo's program so far that that is part of their motivation as well.

Of course, it could go phenomenally bad, and even in a best case scenario there will certainly be people who will continue to scorn and mock us. We might end up as a clip on Tosh.0 or a routine in some YouTube vlogger's cruel, snarky monologue. These things are probably inevitable.

But so what? None of us is a criminal or a freak, no matter what they say. There are awkward questions to be posed by our shared penchants, but those are questions that should be asked -- of us as much as of society. I think that's a good thing, too. That's how we grow as individuals, by dealing with our emotions and learning from our experiences.

It seems to me that what we have here is an opportunity to be heard, and to say: "We are people who deserve acceptance, too. We don't hurt anyone. Maybe some of what we believe is weird, even nonsensical, but maybe some of it is a natural response to a weird, nonsensical world. We're willing to talk about it. Would you please listen to us for an hour, and try to understand?"

[dale coba]

Would you rather push against the co-efficient of static friction,
or the co-efficient of kinetic friction, hmm?

There will come a time when our numbers will increase rapidly, because fembots will be real.

Exposure and the search for acceptance will improve significantly, then.

Until then, you can try to spark a flame, but the tinder's damp yet (IMDCO).

- DC

[daphne]

Would you rather push against the co-efficient of static friction, or the co-efficient of kinetic friction, hmm?

I'd rather not push against friction at all; a smart engineer uses oil in such an equation. Lubricate the moving parts and they will function much more smoothly. That's something we may have the opportunity to do here... if, again, we're smart.

There will come a time when our numbers will increase rapidly, because fembots will be real. Exposure and the search for acceptance will improve significantly, then. Until then, you can try to spark a flame, but the tinder's damp yet.

I admire your faith, but that's an assumption made on a great number of unproven givens and generous expectations about the world. But let's assume you're right: how long should we wait, then? Years? Decades? Some of us might be dead by the time it comes around. Do we simply accept our fates until then, when we're given chances to alter social perceptions now? That's a bit depressing.

[dale coba]

My timeline is based on fears of the military industrial complex.

Their stuff may be ugly and limited for now; but given Moore's Law and time and greed, we get a model of the future which I fear, and want to defeat - but I can't imagineer a way around it. That's my test, rough and messy approximate. Nukes were inevitable, bots are inevitable.

Reviewing past experiences FC's had with outsiders, maybe there's some lubricating oil.
We couldn't figure out how to separate out the million teeny-tiny balls of tar.

When the time comes, I guess those in the boom of new fetishists will appreciate having a 0th example to start with. The most recent documentary at that point might be a useful part of their discoveries.

Google takes you here to FC, quick. There are times I don't mean to pull us up in a search;
and I do, and I think,
"Maybe that's too exposed?!"

What about the doc could be more helpful,
or helpful in a complementary way,
than signing up here?
(therein would lie history's prize)

- Dale Coba

[Keizo]

Z,

Just to be clear, the last 'documentry' that came round these parts gave much the same assurances as your giving. However the member who agreed to speak to that production company and then be filmed was lambasted on screen. Since then there has been alot of suspision around so called 'honorable' tv productions.

I understand that completely.
As stated before, it's the national geographic show Taboo. It has been on for 7 previous seasons and we're researching for the 8th season. You can find clips or the wikipedia page if you'd like. The show takes an objective look at the subject matter and explains it in depth to those who are not involved in these particular interests, practices, hobbies, activities, etc.

As far as privacy, which someone mentioned, that can be addressed with each individual. Ideally, I would like to speak with any interested parties on the phone. This call is NOT being recorded, although I am taking notes. This is for internal reasons. Any interviews after that, we can address concerns later.
Remember; if anytime you're not comfortable and we can't assuage any concerns, you are free to back out. There's nothing holding you until you sign something before the cameras roll. (I only ask that you let me know, rather than just disappear!)

I'm in office on the US holiday, and will be fielding emails and PMs.

Any questions, you can PM me or reply to this thread. I'll be checking it regularly.

Thanks,

Zebra.

Robotman told me about this thread. Sorry I've been absent as I've been in the process of moving and having no home internet. Anyway everybody, despite these re-assurances otherwise, having been in the last documentary here's what to expect. Zebra may have some initial say in the footage sent to National Geographic but it is ultimately the editor's and producer's choice in what is aired and it may certainly be taken out of context. There was approx. 15 hours of footage that I did with the crew from Landmark and to their credit, they were very decent and straight forward. Still, I only got about 10 minutes of actual airtime out of all that because of Discovery's final edit.

My sole intention in agreeing to do the documentary for Discovery was to try to present the logical arguments, to show that we can be average people and to do my best to show this as a positive thing since we are marred with Skynet and misogynist scenarios. Almost all the best conversations and interviews didn't make the cut regardless of the production crew's say. All they could do for me was to control what was actually submitted to Discovery and I still ended up looking more pathetic than informative if one is to believe the online response. Ultimately these shows are about shock value (read the title "Taboo") and ratings. Sadly, actual interviews and conversation don't measure up to visuals of people going through the more uncomfortable motions, meanwhile with the viewers having the opportunity to feel better about themselves for not being the freaks onscreen. Regardless, I understand the compulsions of some to justify their/our mentality and seek acceptance and understanding or tolerance at the very least.

When he says that you are free to back out before signing anything, then understand that anything you say will not make a difference until you sign that paper and that once you do, you really don't have any say in what is aired. You basically agree to let them show whatever they want and you have no recourse. You might get a couple of free meals out of it but don't expect much more than that. I am proud of the fact, though, that I was able to reach a couple of people out there and that they found it helpful and informative, just don't think you are going to spawn some kind of mass epiphany.

[tinadanger]

hello Zebra please pm me about your interests and im sure you would love to talk to us look up "Ashley3000" or the clipssale store 5177 and look up our robot section
I myself play a fembot at times

[tinadanger]

thanks, me too Dr Fires can reboot me any day