White Man buys Asian female robot and…of course..has sex with her

White guy Joe Hawkins (played by Tom Goodman-Hill) buys a female robot, Anita (played by Gemma Chan). Of course, the female robot is Asian. Now, when I read a summary of this show, and saw there was an Asian female character, I knew they would have her cast in a way that a white guy was having sex with her. And sure enough….

There is a particular demented nature about Hollywood – a fetish that has taken epic proportions. Again and again, Asian women are shown to be ‘easy’, to be sexually available, to be submissive to white men. They are convenient sexual options, usually never in a traditional relationship. Humans stays true to that. But it takes it to the next level that the Asian woman is a programmable robot. She shows some feeling and emotion, but is largely at the beck and call of her master, Joe.

Some background (from Wikipedia): After missing his wife at home in his busy household, Joe Hawkins buys a pretty synth (Anita), a robotic assistant that looks like a young woman; he doesn’t consult his wife. Upon her return, wife Laura feels displaced and cast off….Anita continues to worry Mattie (Joe’s elder daughter) with her human-like nature, and Laura with her closeness to Sophie (Joe’s younger daughter) and how she’s taken over house tasks that Laura would normally do herself, while Toby (Joe’s teenage son) finds himself enticed by her. (As we can see- all the men in the household think of Anita in sexual terms including the teenager). Joe discovers an “18+” pack and has sex with Anita. Mattie takes Anita home and finds in a log that someone has had sex with her. She assumes it was Toby, who admits to it when Laura questions him. Joe talks to Toby, who knows that it was really Joe who had sex with Anita. Toby becomes angry at Joe. Joe confesses to Laura that it was he who had sex with Anita”

The sex scene happens in Season 1, Episode 4, directed by Daniel Nettheim.

In this creepy scene, Joe approaches Anita. He reads the code words to trigger her sexual interest “Rose. Mesmerize. Summer. Sapphire. Crush”

Her eyes glaze over and lips separate. He says, “Did it work? Do you feel something?”.

She says, “Yes”

He says “So what happens now?

She says, “Anything you want.”

He kisses her.

They have sex.

Afterwards, he deletes her memory. He says, “I don’t give you permission to mention this to anyone.”

This is the white male dream come true; a submissive Asian sex slave who can’t object to his advances. She has no agency. To say that Hollywood has gone off the deep end in how they represent Asian women is an understatement. It will take a herculean effort to get them to the point where they show Asian women as respectable and capable; able to follow their own path, and not the scripted fantasies of perverted white directors.