리얼돌과 형사규제의 필요성

강미영(Kang Mi young) 중앙대학교 법학연구원 2020 법학논문집 Vol.44 No.2

After the Supreme Court decided to approve the import of real dolls, there were the national petition and fierce controversy surrounding real doll. But in the domestic legal system, there is still no definite regulation on real dolls. Rather, interest in real dolls has skyrocketed, and the number of real doll experience rooms that rent real dolls for money has increased. This real doll experience room is similar to brothel, but it is impossible to apply the “Act on the Punishment of Arrangement of Commercial Sex Acts”, because real doll is not a person, and it is difficult to punish even by the “Act on the Regulation of Amusement Business Affecting Public Morals”. Though regarding child-like real dolls, the “Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses” has been proposed to prevent sexual targeting and sexual exploitation of children, but it was discarded due to expiration. As many countries already prohibit child-like real dolls by law, it is also necessary for Korea to prepare and implement amendments as soon as possible. On the other hand, unlike children s real dolls, adult real dolls tend to refrain from regulating them as a private area based on the recognition that they are just one of adult products. However, real dolls are different from ordinary sex toys. Because it is a “real thing” that closely resembles a person s shape, so it can have a distorted perception of a woman s body or sex. Moreover, the social problems and risks associated with real dolls are likely to increase more and more as they can be custom-made in the form of a specific person. Just as children s real dolls are prohibited to prevent sexual objectification and sexual exploitation of children, adult real dolls also should be banned because of their social hazards. Therefore, a systematic amendment or legislation is needed to clearly control this. But as an alternative, real dolls could be regulated by viewing them as obscene objects in Articles 234 and 244 of the Criminal Act.

리얼돌에 관한 형사법의 대응

정배근 경상국립대학교 법학연구소 2024 법학연구 Vol.32 No.4

This paper approaches the ethical and legal issues surrounding human-shaped dolls, known as "real dolls," created for sexual satisfaction, focusing particularly on child-like real dolls. Real dolls can be categorized into adult and child forms, with the latter generally presenting more complex legal challenges. Child-like real dolls raise ethical controversies related to the sexual objectification of children and underscore the need for legal grounds for regulation. Additionally, the paper analyzes the current bills proposed in South Korea. It discusses how the production, distribution, and possession of child-like real dolls could be regulated under the current framework of Korean criminal law, examining the possibility of criminal penalties from a criminal law perspective. Specifically, it explores whether real dolls depicting children's bodies realistically are regulated as child exploitation materials, emphasizing the risk that the existence of child-like real dolls could reinforce the potential sexual objectification of children. Through case law and legal interpretation, the paper proposes necessary legal amendments to clearly regulate child-like real dolls within the Korean legal system.support this discussion, the paper also reviews the background of the amendment to German criminal law that recognized the limitations in the criminal provisions regarding child pornography and established a provision to regulate child-like real dolls. Tentatively, the study concludes that child-like real dolls hold potential to severely harm children's human dignity and that the current legal means for effective regulation are insufficient. Therefore, it is deemed urgent to establish concrete regulatory measures, including bans on the manufacture, distribution, and possession of child-like real dolls, to enhance child protection and prevent the sexual objectification of children. However, considering issues from a legal perspective, such as distinguishing between child-like and adult forms and respecting individuals' private spheres, simply establishing laws to ban the distribution, sale, and possession may not be a complete solution.

리얼돌 수입 논란에 관한 성윤리 접근

이상희 한국윤리학회 2022 윤리연구 Vol.138 No.1

Focusing on the Supreme Court precedent, this study analyzes the primary issues of the Real Doll's import clearance controversy and examines several problems related to the Real Doll from the perspective of sexual ethics. The controversy for the Real Doll import clearance includes a issue of whether Real Doll would be considered as pornography or as a sex tool. And this influence on the position for national intervention and regulatory about the Real Doll. In addition, there are issues that different observers make different evaluations when deliberating against Obscenity for real dolls and that lack of social consensus on the definition and perception of the Real Doll. Finally, the controversy includes issues that whether it can be distinguish an Adult Real Doll and a child one, and that national regulatory should be different according to the distinction. From sexual ethics, this study shows that a series of issues are related on the epistemological and ontological problem for what the Real Dolls are, the semantic problem that the allowing of the Real Dolls cause sexual objectification and the empirical problem that the use of the Real Dolls are close to sex crimes.

스크린 속 리얼돌(sex doll) 재현의 젠더 정치와 윤리적 함의

양진문 사단법인 아시아문화콘텐츠연구소 2026 문화·경영·기술 Vol.6 No.1

This study examines the representation of sex dolls (real dolls) in contemporary screen texts—such as film and television—as cultural signifiers situated at the intersection of technology, gender, affect, and ethics. Rather than treating the sex doll as a mere object of sexual consumption, this paper conceptualizes it as a “silent Other,” an “ideally responsive woman,” and a “mirror of affect,” strategically positioned within narratives of loss and loneliness as an apparatus of emotional compensation. Through cinematic techniques—including gaze structures, close-ups and bodily fragmentation, lighting, music, and narrative framing—the doll’s objecthood is transformed into a locus of projected personhood, reorganizing the audience’s affective orientation and ethical perception. Drawing on feminist film theory, the politics of the gaze, and affect theory, this study argues that the screen representation of sex dolls aestheticizes the myth of “harmless femininity” and “controllable empathy.” The doll’s silence and compliance are framed as desirable relational virtues, while speech, conflict, and resistance—associated with human female characters—are marginalized as sources of instability or fatigue. In this process, gendered power asymmetries and the normalization of emotional labor are obscured under the guise of affective consolation. Ultimately, this paper understands the representation of sex dolls not as spontaneous emotional response but as an affective dispositif that redistributes sympathy, agency, and moral legitimacy. By foregrounding how popular culture orchestrates affect and reorganizes ethical sensibility, the study calls for an expanded critique of nonhuman representation and a reconfiguration of the politics of emotional distribution.

‘여성화 장치’로서의 리얼돌과 섹스돌 복합체의 통치

김주희(Kim, Joohee) 한국여성학회 2025 한국여성학 Vol.41 No.3

This article conceptualizes the “real doll” as a sex-doll complex constituted by techno-progressivism, techno-nationalism, women extractivism, and the commodification of experience. Within this complex, the real doll functions as a feminizing dispositif that both enacts the ideal women and positions the women’s body as divisible and reassemblable. It is stabilized through differentiation from mannequins, illicit objects, and childlike forms, and regulated through the boundary politics of place across public/private, legal/illegal, and national/international lines. Such regulation privileges external markers of obscenity over contexts of use, thereby fixing women’s representations as objects of control and expulsion. The article calls for moving beyond morality- or obscenity-based debates to examine how women’s bodies and lives are incorporated into regimes of governmentality.

포스트휴먼 테크놀로지

홍성욱(Hong, Sungook) 인천대학교 인문학연구소 2021 인문학연구 Vol.35 No.-

우리에게 기술이란 무엇인가? 본 논문은 기술을 포스트휴머니즘의 관점에서 이해하려는 시도로, 기술이 인간과 함께 오랜 기간 공진화했으며, 지금 이 순간에도 서로를 만들면서 진화하는 ‘반려종’으로 생각해 볼 수 있음을 제안한다. 기술을 이렇게 보는 것을 필자는 ‘포스트휴먼 테크놀로지’라고 부를 것인데, 이 관점에 의하면 기술에 대한 이해는 인간에 대한 이해로 연결되며, 인간에 대한 이해는 기술에 대한 이해를 필수적으로 수반한다. 포스트휴먼 테크놀로지는 다른 포스트휴먼 사상이나 감수성에서처럼 인간을 관계적 존재로 파악하는데, 인간이 기술과 맺는 관계인 ‘기술적 매개’가 인간이 다른 인간, 동물, 자연, 영적인 존재와 맺는 관계만큼이나 중요하다고 간주한다. 이러한 관점에서 보면 기술은 새로운 관계를 만들어 내며, 동시에 기존의 관계를 무력화하거나 약화하거나 망각하게 만드는 역할을 수행하는 존재로 정의된다. 본 논문에서는 기술에 대한 포스트휴먼적인 관점을 제시한 도나 해러웨이, 질베르 시몽동, 브뤼노 라투르, 베르나르 스티글러의 철학을 살펴본 뒤에, 노인을 위한 반려로봇 ‘효돌’과 최근 사회적으로 논쟁의 대상이 되고 있는 ‘리얼돌 real doll’의 사례를 들어 인간과 기술과의 상호구성에 대해서 살펴보면서, 포스트휴먼 테크놀로지의 개념적 유용성을 고찰해 보고자 한다. What is technology to us? This paper is an attempt to understand technology from the point of view of post-humanism and suggests that technology has co-evolved with humans for a long period of time, which can be thought of as "companion species." Looking at technology in this way, I will label it ‘posthuman technology’. According to this point of view, an understanding of technology leads to an understanding of humans, and an understanding of humans necessarily entails understanding technology. Posthuman technology recognizes humans as relational beings, as in other posthuman thoughts and sensibility, and considers that ‘technical mediation’, which is the relationship between humans and technology, is as important as the relationship between humans and other humans, animals, nature, and spiritual beings. In this paper, I will examine the philosophy of Donna Haraway, Gilbert Simondon, Brno Latour, and Bernard Stigler, who presents a posthuman perspective on technology. I will then take the case of a companion robot for the elderly, “Hyodol,” and a highly controversial “real doll,” to look into the mutual construction of humans and technology, highlighting a conceptual usefulness of posthuman technology.

섹스로봇은 인격적 동반자가 될 수 있는가 ‘상징-결과 논변’에 대한 반론

김남호 대동철학회 2021 大同哲學 Vol.97 No.-

이 글은 한국사회에서 논란이 되는 리얼돌(real doll)이 단순한 성적 만족을 위한 도구 가 아닌 인격적 존재로 발전될 수 있는가에 관해 논하고자 한다. 그를 위해서 우선 리얼돌 에 반대하는 대표적인 입장의 핵심 논변인 ‘상징-결과 논변(symbolic-consequences argument)’을 비판적으로 검토해보고자 한다. ‘상징-결과 논변’은 리얼돌(섹스봇 포함)이 윤리적으로 문제가 있는 성적 규범(sexual norms)을 상징적으로 보여주며, 이는 결과적 으로 사회에 부정적인 영향을 미치므로 리얼돌의 생산 및 판매가 금지되어야 한다고 주장 한다. 본 논문에서는 윤지영(2020)의 입장을 ‘상징-결과 논변’으로 재구성하여, 그 타당성과 건전성을 검토해보고자 한다. 결론적으로 리얼돌이 여성에 대한 남성의 왜곡된 성적 인식 을 상징적으로 보여주며, 그 결과 리얼돌의 생산 및 판매가 금지되어야 한다는 이 논변은 건전하지 못한 논변임이 드러날 것이다. 끝으로 만일 ‘상징-결과 논변’이 건전하지 못한 논변이라면, 우리 사회가 리얼돌을 어 떻게 바라봐야 하는지(바라 볼 수 있는지), 그리고 철학의 영역이 끝나고 제도적, 법적 규 제가 시작되는 지점이 어디인지를 분명하게 드러내 보고자 한다. This study discussed whether the real doll, which is controversial in Korean society, can evolve into a personal being than a simple tool for sexual satisfaction. The ‘symbolic-consequences argument,’ which is a critical argument in the representative position against the real doll, was critically examined. The ‘symbolic-consequences argument’ insists that the production and sale of real dolls should be banned as they symbolize ethically problematic sexual norms (including sexbots) and subsequently harm society. This study reconstructed Yoon Ji-young (2020)’s position into a ‘symbolic -consequences argument’ to review its validity and soundness. In conclusion, the argument, ‘real dolls symbolically represent men’s distorted sexual perceptions of women, and therefore, the production and sale of real dolls should be banned,’ is proven to be an unsound argument. Finally, this study also intended to indicate how our society should (may) view real dolls if the ‘symbolic-consequences argument’ is unsound and where the philosophical domain ends and institutional and legal regulations begin.

리얼돌, 지배의 에로티시즘: 여성신체 유사 인공물에 기반한 포스트 휴먼적 욕망 생태학 비판

윤지영(Yun, Ji-Yeong) 한국문화사회학회 2020 문화와 사회 Vol.28 No.1

필자는 이 논문을 통해, 한국사회를 뜨겁게 달군 리얼돌이라는 사회적 쟁점을 세 가지 측면에서 고찰해 보고자 한다. 첫 번째로 리얼돌의 존재론적 위상을 살펴보자면, 리얼돌은 여성의 신체 형상을 머리부터 발끝까지 고도로 모사해낸 여성-유사물임과 동시에, 여성을 남성의 욕망규준에 알맞게 조작, 변경한 허상(illusion)이기도 하다. 즉 리얼돌은 단순히 원본과 매우 유사한 정도에 그치는 것이 아니라, 오히려 원본을 구조화하고 재조건화하는 초실재적 욕망 단위로 기능함으로써, 여성신체형상을 남성의 욕망 그릇으로 최적화하는 장치이다. 두 번째로 리얼돌은 섹슈얼리티를 궁극적으로 남성의 자위행위에 불과한 것으로 축소시킨다는 점에서, 남성의 성적 유아론을 구축하는 장치라 할 수 있다. 성적인 유아론이란 타자의 존재나 욕망, 관점 등은 모두 소거한 채, 타자를 자신의 욕망의 도구로만 여기며 오로지 자신의 욕망만을 실재하는 것으로 여기는 것을 뜻한다. 남성의 성적 유아론은 여성의 욕망과 관점의 실재성을 모두 제거하는 것으로 사물의 여성화와 여성의 사물화라는 두 가지 절차를 거친다. 세 번째로 리얼돌 수 입, 판매를 허용한 2심과 대법원 판결문은 리얼돌의 사용 주체부터 이것의 심리적, 성적, 사회적 순기능의 수혜자를 남성으로 한정하여 논의할 뿐, 정작 이것이 여성들에게 어떠한 영향을 미치며 어떠한 심리적, 물리적, 성적 위해를 낳을 수있는지에 대해서는 전혀 다루고 있지 않다. 또한 판결문에서 상정하고 있는 존중받아 마땅할 개인의 성적 자유란 남성의 성적 공격성의 확장과 보장을 의미하는 것이지, 이러한 남성의 성적 자유의 확대가 여성의 인권과 자유라는 기본권의 침해로 이어지는 것은 문제시하고 있지 않다. 이러한 관점에서, 리얼돌 수입, 판매 허가 판결은 여성 시민의 자리를 일체 소거한 남성편향적이며 불평등한 결정이라 할 수 있다. 뿐만 아니라, 리얼돌에 의해 촉발된 욕망 테크놀로지가 어떻게 A.I 섹스로봇의 개발로 이어지고 있으며 이것의 활용방식이 얼마나 포스트 휴먼적이지 않은지, 즉 얼마나 남성중심적 휴머니즘의 갱신 행위이자 남성폭력의 고착적 상상력의 재생산에 불과한가를 정치하게 드러낼 것이다. This article aims at providing a philosophical and critical analysis on the sex doll that is a political issue in Korean society. First, I will focus on the ontological status of this sex doll that is both an imitation of the female body and an illusion of the woman suitable to the economy of male desire. This sex doll is a hyper-real image that determines and conditions the original to manipulate the image of the body of women that is subjugated to masculinist and sexist desire. Second, the sex doll is what reduces the field of sexuality to male masturbation which is only a device of sexual solipsism. It means the elimination and denial of the existence of the other and the different perspective and desire of women to promote only the desire of men. It goes through the feminization of the thing and the objectification of the woman. Third, the judicial decision of the second instance and the last instance on the authorization of the importation of the sex doll is a one-sided decision that does not take into account the current situation of women and their right injured by this authorization. This judgment deals only with the sexual freedom of men and the positive aspect of this sex-doll to the detriment of women"s rights. In addition, the technology that concerns sexuality and pleasure is what produces not only the sex doll, but also the sexual robot. This technology is not post-human at all, but rather a renewal of sexist humanism. Advancing technology without questioning sexism could only reinforce male violence against women.

AI 성 상품의 산업적 측면

이성주(Seong Ju Lee) 대한성학회 2020 대한성학회지 Vol.4 No.1

The Korean Supreme Court s judgment, which allows companies to import real dolls, has been a hot potato in Korean society. While some feminist groups have resisted the judgement strongly, many Korean young adults have been supporting the decision. But many specialists think this may be nothing but a start. In almost all developed countries, people are meeting varieties of hi-tech sex products including teledildos, AI real dolls, humanoid sex robots, etc. The sex industry market size is now estimated at $100B and growing rapidly due to technological advances. Experts say AI technologies and Robotics are leading humanity to a whole new pleasure world. To prepare for the future, we should know how this area has been changing and predict where we are going with it.

섹스로봇과 상징적 재현의 문제

신상규 이화여자대학교 이화인문과학원 2021 탈경계인문학 Vol.14 No.1

Recently, there has been a debate about Real Doll in Korea. It seems that there has never been such a hot discussion in Korea regarding adult products. The above criticisms on real dolls are objections that can be applied to sex robots that will appear in the future. This paper examines those objections in relation to sex robots, and tries to assess the limit of the individual's sexual freedom that can be socially recognized. This paper first examines the reasons for favor or disagreement related to the introduction of sex robots, centering on Kathleen Richardson's view, and evaluates its justification. The most important issue implied by Richardson's criticism is the symbolism of sex robots. It is criticized that sex robots are a symbol that promotes distorted perception of sex by sexually objectifying women, and that ignores the norm of gender-related consent norm of sex. This paper focuses on criticism of sex robots based on symbolism in particular, and considers how to circumvent such criticism. 최근 우리나라에서 리얼돌에 대한 논쟁이 벌어지고 있다. 성인용품과 관련하여 우리나라에서 이처럼 뜨거운 논의가 진행된 적은 없었던 듯하다. 리얼돌에 대한 위와 같은 지적들은 앞으로 등장할 섹스로봇에 대해서도 그대로 적용될 수 있는 반론들이다. 본 논문은 섹스로봇과 관련지어 위와 같은 반론들을 검토하고, 섹스돌을 사회적으로 인정할 수 있는 방안의 가능성을 가늠해보고자 한다. 본 논문은 먼저 캐슬린 리처드슨(Kathleen Richardson)의 견해를 중심으로 섹스로봇의 도입과 관련된 찬성이나 반대의 이유를 살펴보고 그 정당성을 평가한다. 리처드슨의 비판이 함축하는 가장 중요한 논점은 섹스로봇이 갖는 상징성이다. 섹스로봇은 여성을 성적 대상화하여 성에 대한 왜곡된 인식을 조장하며, 성과 관련된 동의 규범을 무시하는 상징이라는 비판이 그것이다. 본 논문은 특히 상징성에 입각한 섹스로봇에 대한 비판을 중점적으로 살펴보면서, 이러한 비판을 우회할 수 있는 방안이 무엇인지를 고민한다.