A Poll on Terminology!

[Saya]

Have you ever noticed that there are quite a few terms floating around out there describing our fetish? So I think I might just ask you guys and girls which one your favorite is, or the one you find less silly.

Mind you, this isn't to argue which is superior. It's just to see which one is the most preferred, so please keep it lighthearted and respectful!

[Robot Devil]

An acronym that doesn't really spell anything doesn't really roll of the tongue too well to me! I went with Technosexual because it sounds more like an orientation than a fetish (which I would say suits me) although it can include other technology such as holograms. Also, I doubt the rest of the world, especially the non-English speaking, can identify with a long defunct news group but may be able to have a similar term for such an orientation. I'm just sayin'

[dale coba]

ASFR is a broad, umbrella term. It's also a secret term, whereas technosexual gives up all your cards at once. Once people think they know, they can start to judge. ASFR gives you two tenths more melee-round time to decide where to steer the conversation.

As a term, ASFR can be brushed off; or you can get as far as Alt.Sex... and see a reaction start to form in their eyes.

We're still not included in most lists of categories of fetishists. We're still marginalized, if not actively persecuted. We still need a stealthy, flexible term for use when communicating with outsiders.

Of course, there's little need for such secrecy when speaking with any Anime fan.
They understand the appeal, even if they don't share it;
and you can come back with, "At least it's not tentacles, right?"

- Dale Coba

[King Snarf]

Honestly, when it's come up, I've just used "robot fetish".

[Miss Pris]

I always prefer technosexual. To begin, it encompasses more than the idea of a "fetish" (which can be both limiting and medicalizing - I don't know about you, but I don't have a psycho-sexual sickness centering on machines; "fetish" has grown as a term, but it still carries with it a lot of psych baggage, and the implication that there is no sexual pleasure possible without the object of desire, which I don't think is the way we're really using the term here - more reason to chuck it.) "Technosexual" suggests an entire spectrum of sexual interests and involvements (if nothing else, for political projects that involve acceptance, larger, inclusive groups that outsiders can relate to on some level tend to do better than small, exclusionary groups.)

"Technosexual" is also an open enough term that people whose interests are robot-adjacent have a "place" (both spatially and semantically) that they can feel includes them. The "group" itself has opened up and changed a lot since that usenet group. There's a lot more variation in the idea of who/what/why/etc. qualifies as an object of desire. For example, I'm not sure ASFR really leaves a space for cyborg and hybrid concepts (IMHO). Bio-med cyborgs are not robots, but they are tech (and since so many of us are bio-med cyborgs these days...) And for many of us coming into this group in recent years, we may be too young to even know what this stuff was when that usenet group came out - I know I have no nostalgic attachment to "ASFR," heathen that I am

[dale coba]

ASFR, the newsfroup, was always a desperate mix of assorted crumbs of robot-related content amid the spam.

Fembot Central is a good place for evolving inclusion.

When a sneaky, sexy usage is appropriate, I like the F for "fetish" as a bit of reclaiming, dis-empowering the word as a clinical weapon while adopting it as a badge, like the term "queer" was reclaimed (back when I was at college - GOD I AM SOOO OOOLD.)

When sexuality is the point, we're so marginalized by psychiatric science, we're barely represented in the DSM.
We're only on the outskirts of qualifying to be a formally recognized fetish.
[I think that's phunny]

- Dale Coba

[Spaz]

I can't believe I'm the only one who voted for Technophilia...

It just seems more appropriate to me. ASFR, as I've noticed, seems to also include mannequin, statue, and doll fetishes as well.

Techno = Technology
Philia = Love

= Love of Technology

[--NightBattery--]

Techno = Technology
Philia = Love

= Love of Technology

challenge any one ideas is not my intention to do, all terms are ok , but ,while I think ASFR encloses, of all the posible tech (toasters, class2 levers and ipads) , the only relevant to this fetish, it does includes the word "alternate" and "fetish" the second which, makes me feel like if I accept myself as a deviant in the bad way, and more importantly, it sounds like cheese, which I don't find sexual at all. the other terms are very inclusive...to me.
I chose robosexual because it specifically signals the cheering for robots in a more mainstream way that is probably more likely to be used when people really get it on with robots and also because bender made me laugh when he said it in the first futurama episode.
i wish it was more popular.

[Windblade]

Right now in my country the term "technosexuality" is quite safe. If you say that you're a technosexual, almost everybody will think that you just love gadgets (and nobody will call you a pervert, a freak or something like this) Well, some people may say that you're wasting your money, you shouldn't buy new gadgets, you should buy something more important instead (a car, for example; but I have a motion sickness, so...).

On the other hand, in my country the term ASFR may be dangerous because some people may think that it's related to LGBT which was banned recently (no, I'm not joking).