icyandthefrostbites:

snowwolf1118:

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about escort droids for awhile now, and I’m thinking about it’s link to modern society and about Iko in particular.

So we are all to assume these are androids designed to appear as young and attractive men and women. Now, thinking back to the douchebag Thorne got Darla from, he probably looked older than the late teens, early twenties-looking escort droid (as seen in Wires and Nerves). He basically paraded Darla around like his trophy girlfriend, which is gross because a) Darla does not have the freedom to choose whether she wants to be his trophy girlfriend or not and b) Mr. McDouchebag is proudly parading around a teenage girl like it’s acceptable. And the fact that no one at the poker table questioned this (whether they knew she was a droid or not beside the point) is creepy.

And I think this reflects Thorne and Cress as well at the table. Clearly, Cress is a young adolescent girl and Thorne is an adult male. No one in particular thinks it’s wrong that two people with such an age difference (in terms of life experience because this scenario would be different if Cress was aged up).

This disturbs me a great deal because this reflects modern society.

Has the male populace in the world of TLC not grown passed the fetishism and sexualization of young, teenage girls? It’s obvious wealthy households would have servant droids, but I have a feeling those of rich bachelors would have young, teenage and twenty-something-looking escort droids tending to their every need.

Of course, I’m sure 30, 40, and 50-something-looking escort droids, those for people who like the company of others around their age or those who need mature-looking individuals for “Real people! Not actors!” in commercials.

These are just my thoughts from the past few days.

Okay, I saved this in my drafts because I wanted to fully type this out after I properly thought it over.

The whole “escort droid” this is squicky right from the start. I mean, they’re called escorts. Escorts, in modern times, are… well… Wikipedia says it best within the first sentence. It’s always struck me as unsettling – and thank you for reminding me of that. 

Now, for the age and youth thing. I had to look up the age of consent for Egypt, where the real Farafra resides. It’s 18 during contemporary times, had to look that bit up. Now, this doesn’t mean that it can’t change. So, for the time period, it might not be unusual. I mean, we have a handful cases within the past few years of younger women being in relationships with older men. (Lorde, at 16, was dating James Lowe, 24. Courtney Stodden, 16, married a 50 year-old.) And, sadly, the men were applauded in these situations.

Now, this doesn’t mean I agree with it. At 26 years of age, I find this even more appalling than I did when this stuff was going on. And I’m glad Meyer actually doesn’t normalize it.

She pretty much calls it out and brings it to the attention of many young, impressionable young ladies who are in the age range of the main characters. She makes Monsieur McDouche an easily detestable person and subtly makes Darla’s situation clear to the reader. I mean, calling Thorne “master”? While, for a working droid, this might be normal. Nothing is expected of them outside the normal programming. But an ESCORT DROID saying it? There’s a whole other connotation behind it. One that should make the young ladies who are the target audience think over what it means to be with an older man.

Cress and Thorn are an… interesting pairing. I won’t go into a whole lot of detail because I have seen so much argument about them lately, but I will say this. Thorne never once forced Cress to do anything she didn’t want. He never once took advantage of her being interested in him. We could bring up the point about when he kissed that Lunar, but I will remind you that he was being glamored during that exchange. He was the one being manipulated in that situation.

I don’t think the sexualization of young girls will go away any time soon. As someone who loves to study history and wants to have a career in understanding past cultures, I can look back at previous world and see that teenage girls have always been sexualized in some way, shape, or form without much thought. That is the unfortunate truth. It has to do with fertility and youth and plumpness. There’s some science behind this. I can’t find the article in Psychology Today right now, but it’s there. (There’s something about privilege, not wanting children right away, and having time to do that with a younger woman.) The reason we talk more about it now – why we’re discussing it now – is because of social media. I applaud this. Victoria’s Secret – WORLD RENOWNED LINGERIE BRAND –  specifically created undergarments for teenage girls to help stop the sexualization. When a major company knows what’s up, it’s gone too far. 

Although, recently, PINK has taken a dive into the wrong section and should be called out on it.

But back to the TLC universe.

Yeah, I can’t help but shudder at the thought of some rich bachelor being tended on by a harem of escort droids dressed as, well, a stereotypical harem. Because that seems like something they would do.

I like to think that some of the rich bachelors role their eyes at their inappropriate friends and acquaintances and trying to point out the positives of being around someone who looks their own age. Like maybe Monsieur McDouche has a friend with a droid who looks 40 or something and he’s quite happy with that but seriously questions his choice of friends – why does he need McDouche anyway? Seriously. Oh, right, their daughters are BFFs – possibly lovers? idk I’m making this up as I go – and they are kind of forced to be around each other for the girls’ benefit.

I kind of wish I could coherently type everything out, everything that I want to say about this and what needs to be said, but I just can’t find all of the words. I hope this brought out a few things for people, and I hope people add onto this. Or even make ammends to it. Thank you, snowy, for posting this and for allowing for this discussion.