A sex doll (also love doll, fuck doll or blowup doll) is a type of

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibratin ...

in the size and shape of a sexual partner. The sex doll may consist of an entire body, or just a head, pelvis, or other body part (

vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...

, anus, mouth,

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...

s) intended for

sexual stimulation Sexual stimulation is any stimulus (including bodily contact) that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to orgasm. Although sexual arousal may arise without physical stimulation, achieving orgasm usually requires physica ...

. The parts sometimes vibrate and may be moveable and interchangeable. Sex dolls exist in many forms, but are usually distinguished from

sex robot Sex robots or sexbots are anthropomorphic robotic sex dolls that have a humanoid form, human-like movement or behavior, and some degree of artificial intelligence. , although elaborately instrumented sex dolls have been created by a number of ...

s, which are anthropomorphic creations designed to be able to engage in more complex interactions.

History

Some of the first sex dolls were created by French (''dame de voyage'') and Spanish (''dama de viaje'')

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

s in the sixteenth century who would be isolated during long voyages. These masturbatory dolls were often made of sewn cloth or old clothes and were a direct predecessor to today's sex dolls.A History of Sex Dolls
DollsClub.com. 29 January 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.A (Straight, Male) History of Sex Dolls
''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

.'' 6 August 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2019. Later, the Dutch sold some of these dolls to Japanese people during the

Rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: /Shinjitai: , literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning") is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of West ...

period, and the term "Dutch wives" is still sometimes used in Japan to refer to sex dolls.Ferguson, Anthony. ''The Sex Doll: A History''. McFarland, 2010. p. 9–23. One of the earliest recorded appearances of ''manufactured'' sex dolls dates to 1908, in

Iwan Bloch Iwan Bloch (April 8, 1872 – November 21, 1922), also known as Ivan Bloch, was a German dermatologist, and psychiatrist, psychoanalyst born in Delmenhorst, Grand Ducal Oldenburg, Germany, and often called the first sexologist. Together with M ...

's ''The Sexual Life of Our Time''. Bloch wrote: In 1918, Austrian artist

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expres ...

commissioned a life-sized doll of

Alma Mahler Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard. Musically active from her early yea ...

(whom Kokoschka was in love with) to German puppet maker Hermine Moos, while he was in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. Although intended to simulate Alma and receive his affection, the "Alma doll" did not satisfy Kokoschka and he destroyed it during a party. German surrealist artist

Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer. Biography B ...

has been described as “the father figure of the modern sex doll” for his sex puppets in the 1930s whose more realistic models moved sex dolls further into the future. Bellmer made three dolls, increasingly sophisticated in design, which also made waves in the international art community. A report that, as part of the Borghild Project,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

made sex dolls for soldiers during World War II has not been verified by reliable sources and is now considered to be a

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

. It is however said that the commercial sex doll has its origins in Germany, especially since the creation of the

Bild Lilli doll The Bild Lilli doll was a German fashion doll launched on August 12, 1955, and produced until 1964. Its design was based on the comic-strip character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid newspaper ''Bild''. The doll was made ...

in the 1950s, which was in turn the inspiration for creating the famous

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

doll. The production of human

simulacra A simulacrum (plural: simulacra or simulacrums, from Latin '' simulacrum'', which means "likeness, semblance") is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, u ...

to substitute for human sexual partners took several technological leaps forward in the late twentieth century. By the 1970s,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

and silicone had become the materials most frequently used in the manufacture of sex dolls; silicone, in particular, allowed a greater degree of realism. A 1982 attempt to import a consignment of sex dolls into

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

had the unintended consequence of ending the law against importing "obscene or indecent" items that were not illegal to sell within the UK. Having had the dolls seized by

Her Majesty's Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was the ...

officers, David Sullivan's Conegate Ltd. took the case all the way to the

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...

, and won in 1987. Britain was forced to lift its stringent import prohibitions dating from 1876 because for imports from within the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

they constituted a barrier to free trade under the terms of the

Treaty of Rome The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was sig ...

. Shin Takagi, founder of the company Trottla, manufactures lifelike child sex dolls in the belief that doing so provides a safe and legal outlet for men expressing pedophilic desires. This has been disputed by

paraphilia Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

researcher Dr. Peter J. Fagan, who argues that contact with the products would likely have a reinforcing effect, increasing the risk of pedophilic action being taken. Since 2013, Australian officials have confiscated imported shipments of juvenile sex dolls legally classified as child exploitation material. However, machine ethicists Michael Anderson and Susan Leigh Anderson point out that sales of sex dolls are not and have never been a commercially significant industry, and can never become anything like as corrupting a source of money as

psychiatric medication A psychiatric or psychotropic medication is a psychoactive drug taken to exert an effect on the chemical makeup of the brain and nervous system. Thus, these medications are used to treat mental illnesses. These medications are typically made of ...

have since

deinstitutionalization Deinstitutionalisation (or deinstitutionalization) is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. In the la ...

made psychiatric medication sales profitable by doing away with the cost of keeping the patients in mental hospitals, as selling dolls that are kept by the patients for a long time can never reach the sale volumes of medicines that the patients take on a daily basis. Corruption by psychiatric medication sale money is argued by Michael Anderson and Susan Leigh Anderson to be a cause of psychiatry alleging reinforcement, as studies of pedophilia show no correlation between the age of the pedophiles and their degree of fixation onto children or preferred age of children (unlike drug addicts for whom higher doses and lower effects of the same doses correlate with higher ages of the narcomanes) and

penile plethysmograph Penile plethysmography (PPG) or phallometry is measurement of blood flow to the penis, typically used as a proxy for measurement of sexual arousal. The most commonly reported methods of conducting penile plethysmography involve the measurement of ...

studies on community samples of men with guaranteed anonymity show that the prevalence of sexual attraction to prepubescent children is much lower in the population than sexual attraction to adolescents which does not support the theory of reinforcement towards lower ages. Sales of sex dolls increased significantly during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Commercial forms

Cheaper sex dolls are inflatable, using air. These dolls, representing the lowest price range (less than US$75), are usually made of welded

and bear only a passing resemblance to actual people. They have an artificial and typically crudely designed vagina or

, but due to their affordability, many users are willing to overlook their shortcomings. They often burst at the seams after a few uses, although they are commonly given as gag gifts and therefore many may not be used at all. In Russia, for some years the Bubble Baba Challenge humorously featured participants river rafting on blowup dolls as a matter of entertainment but in 2013 the race was canceled on "health and safety" grounds. At the middle market price range ($100 to approximately $1,000), dolls are made of thicker vinyl or heavy

without welded seams or a polyurethane and silicone mixture, typically surrounding a foam core. Most have plastic

mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. P ...

-style heads and styled wigs, plastic or glass eyes, and occasionally properly molded hands and feet. Some vinyl dolls can contain water-filled body areas such as the

breasts The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...

buttocks The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...

. Latex dolls were made in Hungary, China and France but only the French manufacturer Domax now remains in production. The manufacturing process causes most latex dolls to be delivered with a fine coating of

zinc oxide Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cemen ...

covering the skin, which is usually removed by the consumer by placing the doll under the shower. Otherwise, latex is an inert and non-toxic natural material; although a small percentage of users may discover a

latex allergy Latex allergy is a medical term encompassing a range of allergic reactions to the proteins present in natural rubber latex. It generally develops after repeated exposure to products containing natural rubber latex. When latex-containing medical de ...

. The most expensive sex dolls (approximately $1,200 and up) are usually made from silicone (usually above $3,000 at 2016 prices) or

thermoplastic elastomer Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), sometimes referred to as thermoplastic rubbers, are a class of copolymers or a physical mix of polymers (usually a plastic and a rubber) that consist of materials with both thermoplastic and elastomeric properties. ...

known as TPE (below $3,000). Dolls made of either material can be very lifelike, with faces and bodies modeled on real people in some instances, with realistic skin material (similar to that used for movie special effects), and with realistic (or even real)

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

. These dolls usually have an articulated PVC or metal

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

with flexible joints that allow them to be positioned in a variety of positions for display and for sexual acts. Silicone or TPE dolls are much heavier than vinyl or latex inflatable ones (which consist mostly of air), but are roughly half the weight of a real human being of comparable size. Because of their ability to be posed in different positions silicone dolls are popular with artists and photographers as models. In Japan, sex dolls are known as , which now refers to relatively inexpensive dolls. Their name originates from the term, possibly English, for the thick

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

bolster A bolster is a long narrow pillow or cushion filled with cotton, down or fibre. Bolsters are usually firm for back or arm support or for decorative application.Von Tobel, Jackie. "Neck Rolls and Bolsters." The Design Directory of Bedding. La ...

, used to aid sleep in humid countries by keeping one's limbs lifted above sweaty sheets. Orient Industry is considered to be the leading manufacturer of high-end silicone dolls in Japan, which started using another term around 1998 to distinguish their dolls from the image of inflatable dolls associated with the term "Dutch wife". The term has stuck and is now used generally to refer to any high-end product. There is a business, Doru no Mori (Doll Forest) in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, that rents love dolls and rooms to male customers. In March 2007 the Japanese daily ''

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

'' newspaper reported that there are also rental businesses that bring the dolls to the customer's home, and that the specialist love-doll magazine ''i-doloid'' has a print-run of 10,000 copies per issue. The middle market and high-end market emerged in the USA around 1992. The market has grown for two main reasons. Firstly, the last twenty years have seen huge improvements over earlier types of sex dolls, and customers come to realize this through using the web. Secondly, the method of retail purchase has also improved, now showing customers what the actual doll, seams, hair, and even orifices look like. In China the market has mushroomed on account of the demographic effects of the

one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much br ...

and accordingly numerous new Chinese manufacturers have appeared in recent years.

Non-standard forms

In Japan one can purchase inflatable or stuffed love pillows or ''

dakimakura A ''dakimakura'' (; from ''daki'' "embrace" and ''makura'' "pillow") is a type of large pillow from Japan. The word is often translated to English as body pillow or waifu pillow. In Japan, ''dakimakura'' are similar to Western orthopedic body ...

'' that can be fitted with a cover printed with a life-size picture of a porn star or anime character. Other less common novelty love dolls include overweight, intersex, and

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

dolls, which are usable for pleasure but also tend to be given as gag gifts. Some companies manufacture cloth sex dolls using the same technology that is used to create plush toys. With widespread cultural use of the internet amongst younger generations, numerous forums exist for amateurs who create their own sex dolls from fabric or other materials. There are even mailing lists for discussing techniques and experiences with ''MLDs'' (material love dolls) . Some inflatable sex dolls are made in the form of animals, most notably

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and cows. These dolls are more of a joke gift or party novelty and are often not suitable for sexual use.

New materials and technologies

Silicone dolls were at first made from tin-cure silicone but platinum technology has better longevity, less prone to tears and compression marks. For this reason, the " RealDoll" manufacturer reported switching from the tin to the platinum material in June 2009 and all other manufacturers have followed suit. Since 2012 or so, a

alternative known as TPE has come into common use particularly by Chinese manufacturers which have enabled realistic dolls to be made which are cheaper than those composed of the high quality expensive platinum cure silicone. CybOrgasMatrix dolls used an elastic gel, which they claimed to be superior to silicone in elasticity,

shape memory In metallurgy, a shape-memory alloy (SMA) is an alloy that can be deformed when cold but returns to its pre-deformed ("remembered") shape when heated. It may also be called memory metal, memory alloy, smart metal, smart alloy, or muscle wire. P ...

, and durability. Both this company and the company "First Androids" once offered pelvic thruster motor, audio capability, and heated orifices, though these options are no longer available. Several modern doll manufacturers now offer the last option on their silicone dolls, with the addition of an internal heating system. Foam dolls have now become available from EX Doll and SeeDree dolls, in hope of making Sex Dolls a lighter weight. Cloud Climax reports that they can be as low as 9 kg, whilst being a life-sized doll and that the heads are silicone for realism.

Legal restrictions and issues

General

In 2019, the

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

media reported on an incident where a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an sex dolls company created a sex doll that is based on the Israeli model, Yael Cohen Aris, without her permission. In 2020, the same story was further investigated and reported by ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', and was mentioned in relation to

Deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of " deep learning" and "fake") are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerfu ...

. The importation of sex dolls for men has been banned in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

according to Section 178 of the Botswana Penal Code. The law further abolishes the right to "possess, lend, trade-in, export, import, and or exhibit obscene objects or any objects tending to corrupt morals in Botswana", which includes sex dolls.

Austria

As prostitution is legalized and regulated, there are no legal restrictions concerning sex dolls in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and numerous brothels are offering sex dolls for clients. Although sex dolls originally started appearing in Austria around 1980, they gained popularity in 2017 when a brothel started offering sex doll services to clients. This can be attributed to the fact that the dolls have become more realistic in recent years. In addition to being able to have intercourse with the sex doll, some places allow clients to purchase sex dolls for themselves. One of the biggest

laufhaus A laufhaus is a building with apartments that sex workers can rent and use as their base of operation. Laufhauses are very popular types of brothels in Germany, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is ...

es in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

offers sex in the laufhaus with dolls alongside real women. According to brothel owners who offer sex dolls, the dolls are being properly cleaned after every session. Unprotected sex with sex dolls is also allowed, but it is not advised as there is no guarantee that the dolls are being cleaned after each client.

South Korea

In 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled to legalize the sale of sex dolls. The issue still remains controversial in the country.

China

In China, it is not illegal to buy and use sex dolls. In the past year, sex doll experience halls have appeared in many cities in China.

United States

Sex dolls that look like children have been banned from Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

United Kingdom

Sex dolls that look like children are illegal to import and carry up to 7 years in prison under several acts, one of which is an 1876 customs importation act on Obscene articles. However, the law is not directly specific on what constitutes a child doll and as such all sex dolls are technically illegal until decided otherwise by a border agent upon importation and inspection, the only guidelines known by vendors is to ensure the doll is taller than 140cms and this can be observed on UK sites since you'll not find dolls below this height, other factors affecting the outcome of a case will likely be breast size and the subjective opinion on the age of the face.

Myanmar

In Myanmar, it was highly public criticized on October 22, 2022, when people paid obeisance to China-made two silicone sex dolls as the two goddesses Thurathadi and Thiri Devi at the

Shwedagon Pagoda The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...

. The dolls are owned by an alchemist named Inn Weizzamo. He bought the dolls from China for US$2,400 each, and worshiped them by dressing in royal clothes. On the same day, he was arrested for allegedly causing harm to

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

. The sayadaw Min Thunya (Buddhist University) says that "the act of worshiping two silicone sex dolls in the form of two noble goddesses is an insult to the religion. It's really shameful."

Sex robots

In June 2006, Henrik Christensen of the European Robotics Research Network told the UK's ''Sunday Times'' that "people are going to be having sex with robots within five years." Reacting to the ongoing development of "sex robots" or "sexbots", in September 2015, Kathleen Richardson of

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

and Erik Billing of the

University of Skövde The University of Skövde (in Swedish: Högskolan i Skövde, HIS) is a state university in Skövde, Sweden. The University of Skövde was granted university status in 1983 and is now an academic institution with general and specialised educationa ...

created the ''Campaign Against Sex Robots'', calling for a ban on the creation of anthropomorphic sex robots. They argue that the introduction of such devices would be socially harmful, and demeaning to women and children. Additionally, sex robots could have a profound (negative) impact on society if they become as accepted as today's smartphones are, many authors argue.

State of research

Compared to

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

for which thousands, and compared to

s for which dozens of scientific studies are available, sex dolls, their use and effects have been relatively little researched so far. This is not surprising because sex dolls are a subtype of

s, and sex toys as material sexual objects are fairly under-researched in general. Nevertheless, a systematic review from the year 2020 was able to identify 29 published academic studies on sex dolls. These sex doll studies deal with the following five research questions: #What are appropriate theoretical conceptualizations of sex dolls? #How are sex dolls represented in art and media? #What empirical findings on the use and effect of sex dolls are available through interviews, surveys or analyses of sex doll online forums? #What therapeutic uses and effects of sex dolls are documented in clinical case studies? #Should there be a legal regulation of child sex dolls, and if yes, why and how? Overall, the current state of research shows that sex doll owners (so far, the majority are men) and their uses are diverse and that sex dolls can be associated with negative and positive effects. Likewise, the available empirical studies with sex doll owners indicate that they do not only regard and treat their dolls as “sex” dolls, but sometimes also as “love” dolls or social companions. A clinical case study explained how living with a doll helped a divorced man to overcome relationship trauma and get ready to approach real women again. Psychological theories that can explain the human-doll relationship are, among others, the theory of transitional objects or the theory of parasocial interactions and relationships usually applied to media personas.

In popular culture

In the BBC programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

'', aired since 1942 with little interruption, guests were also permitted to bring either a book or a "luxury" in addition to musical recordings. Several chose life-size dolls:

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...

Ronnie Scott Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadium ...

(who settled instead for a saxophone), and

Duncan Carse Verner Duncan Carse (28 July 1913 – 2 May 2004) was an English explorer and actor known for surveying South Georgia and for the portrayal of Special Agent Dick Barton on BBC Radio. Early life Carse was born on 28 July 1913 in Fulham, London, ...

. The fictional narrator in the Italian writer Tommaso Landolfi's comic short story "Gogol's Wife" describes several visits to the subject of his biography,

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

. At that renowned 19th century Russian writer's residence, the future biographer finds Gogol, referred to throughout as Nikolai Vassilevitch (his

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

and

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

), with a life-size, anatomically correct blow-up doll. In later visits, the doll is described with more and more human attributes, bringing the story ever more into the realm of fantastic fiction.

References

Bibliography

* Alexandre, Elisabeth. ''Des Poupées et des hommes — enquete sur l'amour Artif''. (2005). (Book is in French - 'Dolls and Men — Investigation into Artificial Love'). * Dorfman, Elana. ''Still Lovers'' (2005). . (Female art/fashion photographer photographs men and their dolls). * ''Guys and Dolls: Art, Science, Fashion, and relationships''. Royal Pavilion, Libraries, and Museums. (2005). (102-page catalog of a major exhibition at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Museum and Art Gallery,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

). * Moya, Cynthia Ann. (2006) "Artificial Vaginas and Sex Dolls: An Erotological Investigation." Dissertation, San Francisco, CA: Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Available i
hardcopy
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.

External links

"Just Like a Woman"
Salon.com article describing cultural phenomenon of RealDolls * - original, more detailed version of the Salon article
Sexbot slaves - Thanks to new technology, sex toys are becoming tools for connection - but will sexbots reverse that trend?
(June 2014), Leah Reich, ''

Aeon The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

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Sex Dolls Replace Prostitutes?"
- (Sep 2021), Love Doll Palace {{DEFAULTSORT:Sex Doll