Taboo on the Bus

A reddit forum titled: ‘My Boyfriend is AI’ recently gathered a lot of attention, leading me down the rabbit hole of relationships with humanised chatbots. Millions are forging intimate, emotional connections and relationships with artificially intelligent chatbots, creating boyfriends, girlfriends, best-friends, deceased replicas, and more, and today I sat down to analyse it.

Is it ethical to build apps and systems that sell relationships to potentially vulnerable or lonely users? Users who will never own that connection, and rest solely upon tech companies not stripping that away now…

We’re fashioning towards a society where the elderly will cure loneliness with chatbot partners, and women are ditching Hinge and failed talking stages for the chatbot man of their dreams. 

Let’s deep dive this from both and ethical and moral perspective, considering the risks, the harms, and the alternatives to artificial connections. 

Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171924338 

Instagram: Whatzaraloves

Tiktok: Whatzaraloves6

Podcast: Taboo on the Bus

Email: [email protected]

Reading/Referance List:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-023-00348-8

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/15/she-helps-cheer-me-up-the-people-forming-relationships-with-ai-chatbots

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/replika-ai-chatbot-update/

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-5073962/exploring-concerns-around-users-building-emotional-dependence-on-ai-chatbots

https://jamesmuldoon.org

https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/

Join me on the bus for a mini version of this episode as we dissect the ethics and harms of forging relationships with artificially intelligent chatbots. Longer episode is also live for a fuller, broader deep dive.

A reddit forum titled: ‘My Boyfriend is AI’ recently gathered a lot of attention, leading me down the rabbit hole of relationships with humanised chatbots. Millions are forging intimate, emotional connections and relationships with artificially intelligent chatbots, creating boyfriends, girlfriends, best-friends, deceased replicas, and more, and today I sat down to analyse it. Is it ethical to build apps and systems that sell relationships to potentially vulnerable or lonely users? Users who will never own that connection, and rest solely upon tech companies not stripping that away now… We’re fashioning towards a society where the elderly will cure loneliness with chatbot partners, and women are ditching Hinge and failed talking stages for the chatbot man of their dreams.  Let’s deep dive this from both and ethical and moral perspective, considering the risks, the harms, and the alternatives to artificial connections. Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171924338 Instagram: WhatzaralovesTiktok: Whatzaraloves6Podcast: Taboo on the BusEmail: ⁠[email protected]⁠Reading/Referance List:⁠https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-023-00348-8⁠⁠https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/15/she-helps-cheer-me-up-the-people-forming-relationships-with-ai-chatbots⁠https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/replika-ai-chatbot-update/https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-5073962/exploring-concerns-around-users-building-emotional-dependence-on-ai-chatbotshttps://jamesmuldoon.orghttps://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/

Consider this an expansion to one of my recent episodes: Food as a Status Symbol, where I discussed how food is increasingly becoming a luxury item as it becomes more inaccessible. Today I HEAVILY deep dive the broken UK food system, discussing how healthy eating and foods remain a privilege as opposed to a right amid our current climate. Join in for a discussion about the barriers to healthy foods, food poverty, the appeal of ultra-processed foods, and what the government is trying to do to improve the UK’s diet. 

Thank you so much for listening and creating space for this important discussion. Unless something upstream is done to tackle access to healthy, nutritious food then we will see widening health and nutrition gaps between those who can and can’t afford these items. 

Some notable references from this episode are:

-       Food Fight by Stuart Gillespie 

-       Source quoting Wan et al., (2014) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953615300629

-       Broken Plate 2025 https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/broken-plate-2025

-       https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking#tabs/Round-16

-       The Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/obesity-crisis-uk-healthy-food-affordable-government-prices?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Find me online:

Instagram – Whatzaraloves

TikTok – Whatzaraloves Taboo on the bus

Email – ⁠[email protected]⁠

Full deep-dive episode is also live, join me on the bus for a mini discussion. here.

Consider this an expansion to one of my recent episodes: Food as a Status Symbol, where I discussed how food is increasingly becoming a luxury item as it becomes more inaccessible. Today I HEAVILY deep dive the broken UK food system, discussing how healthy eating and foods remain a privilege as opposed to a right amid our current climate. Join in for a discussion about the barriers to healthy foods, food poverty, the appeal of ultra-processed foods, and what the government is trying to do to improve the UK’s diet. 

Thank you so much for listening and creating space for this important discussion. Unless something upstream is done to tackle access to healthy, nutritious food then we will see widening health and nutrition gaps between those who can and can’t afford these items. 

Some notable references from this episode are:

-       Food Fight by Stuart Gillespie 

-       Source quoting Wan et al., (2014) ⁠https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953615300629⁠

-       Broken Plate 2025 ⁠https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/broken-plate-2025⁠

-       ⁠https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking#tabs/Round-16⁠

-       The Guardian article: ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/obesity-crisis-uk-healthy-food-affordable-government-prices?utm_source=chatgpt.com⁠

Find me online:

Instagram – Whatzaraloves

TikTok – Whatzaraloves Taboo on the bus

Email – ⁠[email protected]⁠

I have seen too many queerbaiting accusations fly around recently, during pride month of ALL months, and wanted to give my input on the topic. So so many times I see ‘queerbait’ accusations against celebrities there is real undertones of biphobia and the reinforcement of labels and boxes. Do these accusations do more harm than good? Are they just pushing the idea that we others an explanation of our sexuality?

Sit down with me and let’s discuss queerbaiting, celebrities, and the real origins of the term. Queerbaiting actually stems from a media realm, which I discuss with reference to Sherlock, and the pipeline from queerbait to fan fiction. 

Thank you always for the support!

Instagram: Whatzaraloves

Tiktok: whatzaraloves6

email - [email protected]

[Mini bus bus episode, full deep dive is also live]

I have seen too many queerbaiting accusations fly around recently, during pride month of ALL months, and wanted to give my input on the topic. So so many times I see ‘queerbait’ accusations against celebrities there is real undertones of biphobia and the reinforcement of labels and boxes. Do these accusations do more harm than good? Are they just pushing the idea that we others an explanation of our sexuality?

Sit down with me and let’s discuss queerbaiting, celebrities, and the real origins of the term. 

Thank you always for the support!

Instagram: Whatzaraloves

Tiktok: whatzaraloves6

Email: [email protected]

Alongside the longform podcast deepdive, here is the bus version of this week's episode.

Inspired by Laura Bate’s new book: The New Age of Sexism, I sat down today to analyse how the interaction between society and AI girlfriends/robots/cyber women is ultimately going to be at the detriment of us all. Is it really a good thing that men are now ‘redirecting’ abuse and harm towards AI women? Is that really sparing the rest of us? 

Or we creating spaces and systems that tolerate and withstand abuse, creating if anything, a pathway towards further abuse and harm of women every day. 

I take a look at existing technologies such as Alexa’s and Chat Robots to understand this correlation, giving you a deep insight into this important conversation. It will truly change your perspective on a lotttt of things.

Laura Bate’s new book: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-New-Age-of-Sexism/Laura-Bates/9781471190483

Instagram: Whatzaraloves

Tiktok: Whatzaraloves6

Email: [email protected] 

Hello loves! This is somewhat a deep dive in to my dissertation topic and pulling in some of my own research. I sat down in the long episode today to discuss why we can’t just replicate Grindr for women and expect it to foster the same culture. We analyse the differences in hookup/dating app culture between queer men and women, and how these intertwine with dating app design. Someone please just let me design a dating app for the gay girls, I beg!!

Tiktok – Whatzaraloves6

Instagram – Whatzaraloves

Email – [email protected]

If your feminism only caters to white, middle class, cis women — is it really feminism?

In this episode, we talk about white feminism: a version of feminism that often only represents the experiences of white, cis, middle-class women — leaving out women of colour, LGBTQIA+ women, disabled women, and those impacted by class, colonialism, and systemic oppression.

From the exclusion of Black women in the suffragette movement (something your history teacher might not have mentioned) to the often pink, commodified feminism we see from large figures today — let’s deep dive the history and current displays of white feminism, looking at:

⁃            What is white-feminism?

⁃            the Suffragette’s exclusion of black women

⁃            choice feminism

⁃            Pop culture figure, influencers, and white feminism

⁃            How to be more intersectional in your approach

This episode was largely collective from the Taboo on the Bus community to be as inclusive and considerate to everyone’s viewpoints and experiences as possible. I understand I am a white woman and aim to be contributing to this conversation without taking space away from more important voices. Please use this as a potential basepoint, or small part of your understanding, and consider the voices, stories, and input from those more affected by these issues from marginalised communities. Reading list below!

This episode isn’t about shaming individual women — it’s about encouraging all of us to think more critically, be more intersectional, and hold ourselves (and the people we look up to) to a higher standard.

#tabooonthebus #whitefeminism #intersectionalfeminism #popfeminism #suffragettehistory #genderequality #choicefeminism 

Reading list:

BOOK

Ain't I a woman : black women and feminism

hooks, bell, 1952-2021.

Main stock ; 305.4208996073

Me, not you : the trouble with mainstream feminism

Phipps, Alison, author.

The Right to Sex: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2022 Kindle Edition

by Amia Srinivasan

“Diversity Within”: The Problems with “Intersectional” White Feminism in Practice

Christoffersen, Ashlee ; Emejulu, Akwugo

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot Hardcover –

by Mikki Kendall (Author

White Tears Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Colour Paperback – 21 Oct. 2021

by Ruby Hamad (Author)

Your silence will not protect you

Lorde, Audre, author.

2017

Bad Feminist Paperback – 21 Aug. 2014

by Roxane Gay (Author)

What a tine to be alone - What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower's Guide to Why You Are Already Enough

Chidera Eggerue

Join me to dissect and discuss whether filler, Botox, and aesthetic cosmetic procedures can be considered 'feminist'? While it may empower you, and be your choice, can we call that feminist when it is largely rooted in upholding harmful beauty standards?

I take a look down the lense of gender, class, and race to dissect this question, referencing the works of Dana Berkowitz and Margaret Hunter.

Let me know your thoughts…

Again, clarifying that this is not an individual attack on individuals who get these procedures. It is an unpack of the wider system these are part of and the standards/expectations of women that they ultimately uphold. 

instagram: whatzaraloves

tiktok: whatzaraloves6

show: Taboo on the Bus

Email me: [email protected]

references:

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2016/12/30/botox-gender-and-the-emotional-lobotomy/

https://jpanafrican.org/docs/vol4no4/HUNTER%20Final.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/audio/2016/oct/15/when-womens-rights-meet-botox-what-would-a-feminist-do