"Just like a woman" (really weird article from Salon.com)

[Crankie Avalon]

Just like a woman
Thousands of men are shelling out $6,500 for hyper-realistic dolls that answer all their needs -- and don't talk back.

By Meghan Laslocky


Davecat and his doll, Sidore, do everything
together, including playing video games.



Oct. 11, 2005 | Davecat keeps a picture of his girlfriend in his wallet. She's pretty, with long black hair, an alluring mole under her left eye, and glossy red lipstick. Her sheer tank top shows off her full breasts and the hoop through her left nipple.

Ask Davecat about Sidore -- pronounced She-doh-ray -- and he'll tell you she's everything that turns him on: beautiful, loyal, a great listener. Si-chan, as he affectionately calls her, is half British, half Japanese, which is nice because he's always had a thing for both British and Japanese culture. Even their clothing style and taste in music is simpatico -- they're both Goths.

Like many born in the sun sign Cancer, Sidore is a homebody, but then, she couldn't leave the comfort of the bed she shares with Davecat even if she wanted to because Sidore is a 100-pound solid silicone Real Doll.

Go ahead. Flinch at the notion of a man having sex with an imitation woman and classify him: lonely loser. Pathological creep. Misogynist. Potential rapist. Sicko. True enough, some men who have sex with Real Dolls are creepy, the kind of guys you wouldn't want to be alone with. But not all. Many are simply lonely -- some tragically so. Others are disfigured or infirm. Some are oddly sweet, like Davecat, for whom a Real Doll is a "teddy bear with benefits." And others proclaim their normalcy and defend their Real Dolls as no different than a 3-D version of a Playboy centerfold.

Many doll lovers -- or "iDollators," as some of them call themselves -- participate in a confusing online subculture where the lines between art and pornography, the ludicrous and the tender, and fantasy and fetishism blur like watercolors. Spend time talking to Real Doll aficionados as I have over the past year, and you come to understand that behind every Real Doll is a man with a reason...

SNIP

Go here and, if you're not a subscriber, get the day pass for the rest of the article--it's a doozy:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/10/11/real_dolls/index.html

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. I read that one yesterday

there are lots of intersting facets to doll ownership, and the perception of doll ownership; some of them almost logical, others downright scary.

[Crankie Avalon]

6. Guess I noticed the downright scary stuff more than the almost logical...

"...When I ask Griggs how having Ginger and Kelly has affected his life -- if perhaps he feels more confident -- he writes, "I don't like being around people at all now ... the less human contact I have the happier I am. Yes, I do feel more confident. I realized not long after I got Ginger that I don't really need anybody ... I feel safer and more secure knowing that I will never waste my time and money on another human female that just wants to use me." He adds, "I don't have a lot of human friends and only 2 of them have seen Ginger and Kelly, and none of them or anyone else have or will ever lay a hand on them while I am living." "

Hooboy.

[BigMcLargehuge]

12. Logical like

parapalegics who sleep better with another body in the bed, that sort of thing.

[Shell Beau]

2. Um..... oookay!

:shrug: :crazy:

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. Hmm.

Hmm...

[johnnie]

4. Um

Ok. As long as they are happy together.

[El Fuego]

5. I read it yesterday, some of it is very FREAKY

Though not surprising.

[Crankie Avalon]

7. I guess it's the sort of thing you know must be out there...

...but you'll still never, ever get used to actually hearing about.

[anarch]

8. I have to say, if I had $6,500.00 to spare,

even if I was extremely shy and lonely, I can't see spending it like this. But then again I don't qualify in any of those categories (except I guess I'm a little bit shy, but I mean come on...) so I can't really identify with these people.

Also: I wonder who wins at the video games....

[soleft]

9. That is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen

[mongo]

21. Is it just as creepy for a woman to own a vibrator then?

Men who get upset about their woman owning a vibrator are (properly) labeled as uptight freaks.

[anarch]

26. it might be,

if the vibrator was attached to a realistic, $6,000.00 mannequin that the woman played video games with and, like, propped up at the dinner table and stuff. And she didn't have any human friends.

But hey, to each his own, I say. If somebody wants to have "relations" with whatever inanimate object, I have no problems with it. Better that than assaulting animals, or children, or what-have-you.

[mongo]

32. So like I said the author found the creepyist guys she could to interview

To flaunt her misandry without question.

Better that than assaulting animals, or children, or what-have-you.

And you're falling right into her hands.

[Shakespeare]

33. Bullshit. The story was very balanced. n/t

[mongo]

38. No, the article was a freak show

If by comparision, someone had posted an article about how the average crack ho was a souless user of people, there would be outrage on DU.

People would be posting about how she was probably abused, a product of her environment, yada yada yada.

But if there is a post about abnormal men, we make veiled jokes about them being potential rapists.

[Shakespeare]

42. Perhaps that's because a large segment of doll owners ARE freaks.

As I've already said repeatedly on this thread, the writer goes out of her way to show that not all Real Doll owners are freaks. That so many of them ARE is a reality, whether you like it or not.

And the rapist comments aren't coming because they're "abnormal;" they're being thrown about because of quotes by the men themselves.

[anarch]

41. well, I admit I didn't actually even read the article,

just what was posted here. Anyway, I'm really not morally censuring anybody...I don't care what people do in the privacy of their own homes (as long as nobody gets hurt, which was my point as quoted above).

It should be noted that the Real Doll people seem to be pretty unbiased as far as their products are concerned...check this out, from their FAQ's:

"Question: When will you offer a MALE REALDOLL?

A MALE REALDOLL is now available! Please look under the dolls page for photos of the male Realdoll.

Question: When will you offer a SHE-MALE REALDOLL?

We have sold a few custom made "She-male" and/or Hermaphrodite dolls. For photos of these and some of our other "special projects", please visit our STUDIO page. Custom dolls such as these vary in price depending on requirements and are handled on a case by case basis."

http://www.realdoll.com/faq.asp

[anarch]

43. OK, and I just have to add this, from the FAQ...

"Question: Can I use my REALDOLL as a pool toy?

You can use REALDOLL as a pool toy, but prolonged exposure to sunlight and/or chlorine may bleach the doll's pigmentation."

Sweet! :D

[lakemonster11]

74. She specifically says in the article

that she tended to interview the "creepy" guys. She admits it, so the reader won't think they represent the users as a group.

She also talks about reasons why non-creepy guys would want them.

[geniph]

68. It's not their using the dolls for SEXUAL intercourse that bothers me...

it's their using the dolls to replace ALL intercourse.

And I would feel exactly the same about a woman so detached from the rest of her own species that her most intimate relationship was with an expensive piece of sculpted silicone, whether it was sculpted in the shape of a penis or an entire man.

[alarimer]

96. A vibrator is rarely mistaken for a human being

Plus not too handy for video games.

[devilgrrl]

108. Come on Mongo! Admit it! You have a Realdoll!

Your hyper-sensitivity throughout this thread is kind of scary. Get over yourself.

:argh:

[Bunny]

10. Wow, that's creepy. I guess some people are so socially

backwards that having relationships with living beings are too much for them to handle.

But I guess if it keeps them off the street and not in a position to hurt others, why not???

[trogdor]

16. Some folks just dislike people in general.

I still find the doll thing creepy, although I bet one might come in handy for driving in carpool lanes (make her earn her keep, I say). Pose her reading a trashy novel or something. I'm waiting for the animatronic one that flips people off when they get too close to the passenger-side window.

Anyone for a DU misanthropy group?

[Susang]

84. Carpool lanes!

Brilliant! :applause:

[UncleSepp]

93. I've actually thought about that!

If I could get one made, male, with a custom head like one of my long-standing RPG characters, I would - it would be a giant action figure!

[mongo]

22. What a misandrist comment

But I guess if it keeps them off the street and not in a position to hurt others, why not???

Yes, any man who uses something other than his hand is a potential rapist.

If this had been some article about women and vibrators that was this misogynist in nature, it would have been deleted from DU.

[Bunny]

31. Actually mongo, I'm surprised you didn't catch that I never once

said the word "man", or gave any other indication that I was referring to males. I guess you're just reading WAY too much into my comments. And frankly, I don't understand why you're turning this into such a blatantly sexual thing. The excerpt from the article barely mentioned sex. Your mind really is fixated, isn't it?

[mongo]

35. Well, since the article was about men

your I never said the word man comment is a cop-out.

Yeah, some men have problems relating to women. Some women have problems relating to men.

But the original insinuation you made was that anyone who owns one of these is a potential rapist.

[Bunny]

45. That's really a crock, mongo. Cop-out? How about "stretch"

on your part? You are reading WAY too much into my comment. It's certainly interesting, but not surprising, that you could take a comment about social backwardness and turn it into potential raping. You keep right on reaching, and feeding your strange sense of righteous indignation, but frankly, I think you are protesting way too much.

[mongo]

49. Ok then explain this comment

But I guess if it keeps them off the street and not in a position to hurt others, why not???

And go ahead and tell me that if you saw a thread that was negative about an entire sub-set of women, who maybe deserve some sympathy and understanding instead of ridicule that you wouldn't be righteously indignant.

[Bunny]

51. mongo, mongo, mongo. You're becoming a caricature.

I don't *have* to explain my comment - why don't you explain why you equated it to raping? You made quite a stretch there. Seriously, I'm bewildered.

[mongo]

53. Gee I don't know where I ever got that impression

NOT.

Maybe from the article (see post 52 and the OP), and your reply along the sames lines.

If there is a caricature here, it is you posting an off-hand comment and then basically denying you said it.

[Bunny]

54. I'm not denying anything. What you need to do is point out where

I said that any of these people are rapists. Go ahead, point it out. I'm waiting... Oh, I'll just go ahead and save you the time - I never said that. If you want to call that "denial", there is no point in continuing with this.

My comments stand by themselves. And again, you appear to be much too fixated on sex and raping. Not everything revolves around porn, mongo. Really. And now, I've wasted enough time on this. In the words of the immortal Barbara Bush - "I'm done with you". Ta ta.

[mongo]

57. I'm sure you meant something else...

But I guess if it keeps them off the street and not in a position to hurt others, why not???

Yeah, you must be insinuating that someone who owns one of these dolls was a potential arsonist. Yeah, That's the ticket...

Thankfully, I'm otta here too...

[Sugar Smack]

58. Arsonist? LOL!!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Bunny]

61. Heh. Try to follow THAT line of thinking!

It's hard to wrap your brain around, isn't it?

[Sugar Smack]

70. I tried, and it HURT! My poor brain-pan-

this is like staring into an abyss. I can't make sense of it!

[Bunny]

59. You're outta here too? Oh good! Then I get the last word.

And that word is: projection.
:rofl:

[Sugar Smack]

52. From the article:

"Tucker says pedophiles or doll owners with violent tendencies toward women -- a group that he speculates is a small subset of doll owners -- possibly could use a doll to "rehearse" offending behavior. And while it's not known whether fantasizing about pedophilia or violence leads to action, in the psychiatric community those fantasies are considered very troubling. It would be dangerous for a pedophile to use a young-looking doll, for example, because it would reinforce his fantasies with orgasm."

[lakemonster11]

71. Yeah, but I thought that was a weird that for him to say

because it says earlier in the article that the guy who designs them flat-out refuses to make dolls of children or animals (and he's been asked).

[Sugar Smack]

75. This one looks like a 13 year old girl-

[lakemonster11]

78. It is young looking.

[hfojvt]

111. some of them have the dolls

because they find that in relationships with living beings (or more likely living human beings is a doll that much different than a pet, except it gives more of an illusion of human contact. More like watching TV and thinking television characters and celebrities are your friends.) that the other people often end up hurting them. It keeps them off the street and not in a position to be hurt by others as well. Hell, as Sartre said, is other people. Andrew Greeley counters that so is heaven.

[Bunny]

114. That's what I was trying to say in my post, before I got accused

of calling them rapists. Social isolation and backwardness - it's really a sad, and yes, creepy thing that they've attributed human characteristics to a lump of rubber and latex - rather than try to have satisfying relationships with other humans.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

113. Is there even a remote possibility

that maybe, just maybe, they're socially backwards because of a culture that promotes the physical aspects of humanity as trumping all others? The guy in the article wanted a hottie. He got a hottie, albeit a silicone one. But since women are largely portrayed as a life support system for a huge rack and a bubble butt, what did he get that hadn't already been marketed to him from the moment of his birth?

OK. Maybe dude's just a freak. But maybe, just maybe, his freakiness has something to do with a manipulative corporate-driven culture of greed and selfishness and a deliberate desire to see people isolated. For, in isolation, no seeds of change can germinate.

[Bunny]

115. Your first paragraph makes a lot of sense to me. He got his hottie,

alright.

Something that struck me was his comment about finding a woman who wouldn't hurt him, or take advantage of him, etc. I think that's related to his own personality - I think anyone (man or woman) can choose the wrong person once, or maybe even twice. But if you keep ending up with people who hurt you, you have to step back and wonder what it is about yourself that causes you to be attracted to hurtful people. Perhaps that is too much introspection for some folks, so they seek solace and a weird type of companionship with an inanimate object.

[no name no slogan]

11. Why does this make me think of Roxy Music?

In every dream home a heartache
And every step I take
Takes me further from heaven
Is there a heaven?
I`d like to think so

Standards of living
They're rising daily
But home oh sweet home
It's only a saying
From bell push to faucet
In smart town apartment
The cottage is pretty
The main house a palace
Penthouse perfection
But what goes on
What to do there
Better pray there

Open plan living
Bungalow ranch style
All of its comforts
Seem so essential
I bought you mail order
My plain wrapper baby
Your skin is like vinyl
The perfect companion
You float my new pool
De luxe and delightful

Inflatable doll
My role is to serve you
Disposable darling
Can't throw you away now
Immortal and life size
My breath is inside you
I'll dress you up daily
And keep you till death sighs

Inflatable doll
Lover ungrateful
I blew up your body
--But you blew my mind

Oh Those Heartaches
Dreamhome Heartaches

[Splatter Phoenix]

83. Zeromancer, Raising Hell.

Boom
Semi-automatic pulse
Psyched up for the next level
I plug you in
Make life flash before your eyes

Oh God so fixated
It's love labeled X-rated
Oh God so fixated
It's love labeled X-rated

Nonstop mentality
You better learn your lesson well
Nonstop mentality
You better know your heaven well
Before

Raising Hell
Raising Hell
Raising Hell
Raising Hell

Boom
Anti-Depressive eyes
Try to hide in an alibi
Smashed up
But feel no pain
Doesn't mean you're in the game

Oh God so fixated
It's love labeled X-rated
Oh God so fixated
It's love labeled X-rated

Nonstop mentality
You better learn your lesson well
Nonstop mentality
You better know your heaven well
Before

Raising Hell
Raising Hell
Raising Hell
Raising Hell

Nonstop mentality
You better learn your lesson well
Nonstop mentality
You better know your heaven well

Nonstop mentality
You better learn your lesson well
Nonstop mentality
You better know

Edited because lyrics-download have a bunch of shitty "speelurs."

[bridgit]

13. macabre, bizarre...

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Shakespeare]

30. That is an absolutely irrelevant comparison.

And I think you know that. A "pocket pussy" vibrator is the rough equivalent of a vibrator. A $6500 human substitute isn't even on the same planet of comparison.

[redqueen]

34. Thanks. That's the 3rd time I read that comparison.

I couldn't believe my eyes, really.

[grace0418]

60. Thank you. Now if the vibrator was attached to a $6500 life sized

man doll, we might be able to make the comparison. But I don't mistake a vibrator for human companionship and never will.

[lakemonster11]

72. They actually talk about that in the article.

There's a psychiatrist who is quoted as saying something like a Real Doll is not comparable to a dildo because it looks and feels like a real human woman and therefore has emotional "pull."

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bridgit]

63. why, so you can sell me one....

[Sugar Smack]

65. Ooh, SNAP!

:rofl:

You back-sassin', mouthy, backtalkin' woman! LOL! :loveya:

[bridgit]

66. the game, Mine Czarina, is both: Ancient & Old...

acceptance, rejection, peer review...the latent affects of 'separation anxiety', none of these genuine regards having been addressed by the post above from another individual whose answer it is to sell the world more separation, more anxiety, and yet...

your precious little cheeseball is by decree deleted when pricked with a bent, rusty needle :rofl: perhaps only in this world my darling

:nopity:

[Sugar Smack]

69. LOL! "Me-supreme being. Me-protect-you."

Yes, deleted, and I feel lucky to have caught it while it still existed. Oh, I went to the doll website and found one with my name on it!!! LOL! "She's" HOT! LOL! And the photographers have placed this thing in the frothy waves of the ocean. I wonder how many men I've driven into the accepting & pliant arms of this doll.



Betcha I give better back rubs.

[bridgit]

81. again i reiterate redundantly, "macabre, bizarre..."

hubby, you know, he's always think'n that guy, he says, "her nipples aren't quite right and she looks like she's wearing a fully soaked maxi 'mouse-bed' of some kind" (his mom used to call Cotex = mousebeds, bwahaha)...

but i say: eh whatever; to each his, or her own, right :thumbsup: in either event = Mine Czarina does not "drive them off" to my mind in that she is the doll ;)

[Sugar Smack]

86. MOUSE BED! Neat!

:rofl:

Bleeding, actually bleeding once a month is distateful and unattractive. So's "urinating" and "defecating". Sweating isn't so charming either. OK, my mind's made up! Give me rubber.

Can you imagine "breaking up" with one of these things? Taking it back to the factory and saying, "This isn't working out", and having no argument from the SO?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[bridgit]

99. mouse bed...

:rofl:

[no name no slogan]

100. Ew. Looks like she got a bad boob job, to boot

But you gotta love that vacuous look in her eyes.

[MissB]

14. Yeegawds

that's pushing the boundaries of my mantra "whatever floats your boat".

eeks.

[LostinVA]

15. At least the Stepford Wives could walk and talk....

[Arugula Latte]

17. Anyone recall the couple who kept a doll as their second child?

They treated it exactly as a living human, and, in fact, favored it over their living, breathing daughter.

Freak-eeeee.

[trogdor]

20. That's messed up.

Kinda like Spielberg's A.I. movie.

[XemaSab]

18. Remind me

never to leave the house again. :scared:

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Shakespeare]

23. That's not the scary part.

The truly disturbing part is the vitriol so many of those men directed at women in general (and the author goes out of her way to make this a really balanced piece, and stresses that not all "Doll" owners are scary).

on edit, since you seem in other posts to be focused only on the corollary comparison to vibrators, I'm including some of the more disturbing snippets so there's no confusion why I find so many of these men disturbing bordering on dangerous (and I'm a female who owns one or a few of those, and am pretty open-minded about how anybody wants to get their freak on).

"He also chronicles the wrongs done to him by real women, like the girl who dumped him at the door of the prom, the woman who asked him to baby-sit her son while she went on a date, and the one who "used" him to move furniture."

"I realized not long after I got Ginger that I don't really need anybody ... I feel safer and more secure knowing that I will never waste my time and money on another human female that just wants to use me."

"Everhard set to work repairing Caroline, documenting the process in photographs and mechanical drawings he posted for the group -- the propping up of her hips, the cut into the small of her back, a belt hoisting her backbone close to the surface. Then a photograph shows the belt striking her bare buttocks. "And this for all the trouble you've caused me ...(whack)," the caption reads."

"Some of Fiero's stories are the stuff of horror films. He once got an e-mail from two garbage collectors who found a Real Doll hacked to pieces in a dumpster. One owner sent Fiero a mutilated corpse of a doll. "The jaw in the doll was still in her skull, but behind her neck. Her hands were ripped off and fingers were missing. Her left breast was hanging on by a thread of skin, like your bra strap," he tells me, gesturing at my shoulder."

"Her vagina was so blown out," Fiero told me. "I was appalled. I couldn't believe someone could fuck something like that up so quickly. It blew me away. How could somebody be so callous?"

"I was offended in so many ways," he continues. "He put her feet behind her head and reamed that doll with whatever cock he's got. He fucked her violently. She was achieving positions she shouldn't achieve or be forced to try. Her vagina and anus were a giant gaping hole."

[mongo]

25. Not much different from the vitriol directed towards the men

in this article from the article's author and the replies here on DU.

[Shakespeare]

28. Uh, wrong.

I don't cozy up to my vibrator because I hate men (and my husband will giddily vouch for that). The author was very careful to emphasize that not all men who own these things do so because they hate women, but there's no question that a sizeable subset of Real Doll owners have serious, serious issues with women.

[rockymountaindem]

29. Now Mongo, keep in mind that I think you're a great poster, but

I have to disagree with you here. I think the people are a little bothered by this (myself included) because of the psychological aspect. It's not about the fact that the dolls are a sex toy. You're right, if people want to use them, that's their choice. The problem with the people in this article is that they seem to be conflating the doll with a real person.

The man playing video games with an inanimate object is no different than a grown woman having a pretend tea party with dolls like a 4 year old. If the doll were just for physical stimulation, that would be one thing. However, using them as a substitute for real relationships (whether sexual or not) is probably not healthy and definitely out of the mainstream. I mean, if you saw a grown man sitting at a restaurant talking to a teddy bear like it was a real person, you would think something was wrong. Just because there is a physical stimulation component to the dolls in the article doesn't make the psychological dependence on them a healthy thing.

[mongo]

37. I'm not saying that the men profiled in the article weren't messed up

but the article was more of a "let's gawk at the freaks" peice than anything.

[redqueen]

44. That's complete and utter bullshit.

It covered the freaks, and the somewhat normal, and the normal.

The closing paragraph:
----
And those without dolls in their bedroom -- specifically those with spouses and families and maybe people reading this story -- should keep their judgments to themselves. "It is not weird," he insists after recounting the many expressions of gratitude he's received from men, including a burn victim who thanked him for giving him back a piece of his life and a paraplegic who just wanted a body beside him at night. "What if you lived all by yourself, and what if you didn't want or couldn't have a relationship, and you were just lonely, and you just wanted to feel that contact? he says. "You can't possibly identify with that person because you've never been in that situation. To feel contact, to feel a body next to you, is a human need."
----

[XemaSab]

67. Agreed...

I went to the RealDoll website and read the letters there, in addition to the article, and it seems like most of these men are either very sad or very angry.

The sad men don't scare me, but the men writing letters saying that the doll should come with a TV remote control or saying that's it's a lot cheaper than a divorce, there's an anger there and a sense that they are substituting the doll for a real woman that's a bit scary.

Using it as just a sex toy is one thing, but endowing it with a personality like the men in the article is a bit much. I don't think there are many women out there who give their sex toys personalities, and that a man would do that is pretty disturbing.

[khashka]

107. Precisely!

It's not the sex toy aspect - hell, I own a whole chest full of 'em. And burned out the motor on my Hitachi Magic Wand (damn it!).

These things are really nothing more than a souped up version of the old blow up dolls. And if a guy wants one for maturbatory purposes fine. And some people can't get laid for many and varied reasons... and this could be a helpful outlet for such men.

It's that some of these guys seem to have used them to replace real interaction with another human being. Any way you slice that, it's sad and disturbing. It's not the sex, it's the emotional investment.

Khash.

[redqueen]

36. Not even close.

I'm shocked by this comment.

[Sugar Smack]

39. "She".

Thank you for the quotes, Shakespeare. They go a long way in explaining my utter disbelief and revulsion at the attitudes of the freakier guys. I know that mongo owns a sex shop, and perhaps he's run into a wide variety of different attitudes among his customers. I've seen the inside of a sex shop, myself. But the "companion" thing is spooky. Calling a rubber doll "she" is spooky. Call a cross-dressing male "she" and I'll have no problem with it. Call a boat "she" and I have no problem with it. Call a non-living representation of a woman "she" and it'll make my skin crawl.

[no name no slogan]

27. It's not just about sex

Read the article and the snippet above.

The men are NOT just having sex with a blow-up doll. The dolls are substitute companions. They play video games with them. They project personalities onto them. They dress them up and take them places, as if they were real human beings and not just inanimate objects.

THAT is the scary part-- not the sex.

[Tsiyu]

46. I guess I'm from the Old Old School

I think that the way someone gets their freak on in the privacy of their own home is their own business.

The subjects of the story were brave to share their experiences.

This doesn't indicate creepiness; it indicates how wounded people are, and how they are trying to adjust. To each his or her own.

[mongo]

47. Thank you for saying this better than I could

[Oeditpus Rex]

73. That's been lost in the back of my brain

since I read the Salon story last night.

Thanks for pushing it to the front where it can cut through all the weirdness to see the reality.

:applause:

[JVS]

105. right on

[La Lioness Priyanka]

48. boy we are a weird nation

i mean there is one thing to be emotionally distant..but this distant?

[Arkana]

50. Okay, that's fucked up.

Get a real girlfriend, guys--that girl you met on Everquest doesn't count.

[El Fuego]

55. Because of "the media" some losers think real women aren't adequate

There are a lot of unattractive, unsuccessful men who think that only a supermodel type is good enough for them.

I know this guy in his 50's who used to be grossly obese, just had gastric by-pass to slim down, and now he wants a woman. He is desparately lonely, and had the surgery so that maybe he could finally meet somebody. He is not what you would call attractive, but he's a nice guy and I'm sure there would be a lot of women who would love to settle down with him.

BUT, he will only settle for someone who looks like Jessica Simpson. :eyes: It's unbelievable.

He is probably a prime candidate for a DOLL.

[mongo]

56. Yep, it's all TV's fault

NOT.

[El Fuego]

62. Mongo, I note from your homepage that you own a sex toy shop.

Interesting! ;)

[Nikia]

64. Isn't there a Greek myth about this?

A man sculpted a statue and fell in love with her. I am just saying that this sort of thing has precedance.

[lakemonster11]

77. Pygmalion and Galatea

[Splatter Phoenix]

79. "Sculpt your nature within, I am your Pygmalion..."

Yes, it does. :D That quote's from ThouShaltNot's song about it.

And no, I don't find anything wrong with it. It's kind of like a little kid carrying a doll around though... nonsexually, of course, it touches on the same caring and nurturing and loving levels.

[CanuckAmok]

76. I don't see the difference between this and hiring a hooker.

I mean, prostitutes are supposed to be basically "uncarved blocks", to borrow a phrase from the Zen Master. That is to say, they laugh at your jokes, they agree with your opinions, they fuck the way you want to fuck and when you want to fuck, and they go away when you don't want them.

Sex toys come in all shapes and sizes, and the sexual mind is far too complex to even begin to categorise.

That said, I don't think I'd be interested in the Real Dolls, unless there was one who could make decent pancakes and wrap presents with flair.

[Sugar Smack]

80. "wrap presents with flair" LOL!

:loveya: , Canuck.

[CanuckAmok]

87. gee, thanks! You should buy the CanuckAmok Doll.

Batteries not included.

[Sugar Smack]

92. Does it speak Freeper?

If it does, sign me up! Will it deplete my reserve of Ice House? Heh heh heh. Weekend at Bernie's.

[khashka]

104. I can't speak for all prostitutes

But I actually became friends with some of my clients. I sure didn't feel like an uncarved block, nor exactly act like one.

Then again, I wasn't a streetwalker or doing it cuz I needed the money. More like casual sex with cash benefits :)

Khash.

[Sugar Smack]

82. The company that makes them is called "Abyss Creations, LLC"

Although I'm sure I don't know what that has to do with anything.

[bridgit]

85. as in 'fall', or 'look into the abyss' is my thought...

a 'new world order' = 'heart of darkness' imho, though again, you should see my gay friends 'billy dolls' if you wanna see something that is a hoot all right

:rofl:

http://www.overtherainbowshop.com/billy.htm lift up the flap on 'tattoo billy' for a real treat :thumbsup:

[Sugar Smack]

90. NOT SANTA!

Jesus! I will never be the same! *halp!* Santa? And I've seen some things. I have, just to let you know, seen some things.

Hold me. :hug:

[bridgit]

97. gekommen zu mir myCzarina SugarSmack...

halte ich Sie, meinen Liebling mein Geliebtbonbon :spank: O8) :hippie: :hug:

[ismnotwasm]

88. That is so sad

Just sad. And scary. I'm thinking about that old Twilight Zone episode where the guy was put on a prison planet and was given a robot women for company. That and "Seed of Chuckie"

[gollygee]

89. How do they clean those?

Ewww.

[ismnotwasm]

94. Oh gross.

Didn't think of that. You'd need a antibacterial cleaner, since "feminine hygiene" products ain't gonna cut it. Bleach and water? blech.

[Taverner]

91. How long before mechas and when we can go to Rouge city?

open your mouth!!!

[alarimer]

95. totally creeped me out

Especially where they talked about the mutilated dolls. You know those guys (that mutilated the dolls) are an inch away from becoming serial killers.

[really annoyed]

98. Reminds me of "Buffy!"

For anybody who watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," there was a character who created a "Buffy" bot. :evilgrin:

Who knew it really happened?

[Splatter Phoenix]

102. Spike...

Poor, desperate, abused Spike... :cry:

[Orangepeel]

101. HBO "Real Sex" did a piece on this years ago

the people profiled there were less pathetic. I remember one woman who bought it so she and her husband could act out a threesome fantasy, a male artist who used it in performance art, and a bunch of guys who just used it like a sex toy.

[KamaAina]

103. Couldn't he just go to Georgetown and pick up a repuke?

I hear Ann Coulter throws herself at anything that moves. If he's into plastic and soulless, what could be better?

[khashka]

106. Whatever floats your boat

I'm certainly in no position to criticize other people's sexual idiosyncracies.... no one is getting hurt, after all. And it's just an elaborate form of masturbation. Still, it strikes me as sad, as an inability or unwillingness to connect with a real woman.... and so they're missing out on something profound.

Khash.

[enigmatic]

109. Bah

Who cares? I think it took a helluva lotta guts to be interviewed for that piece; I give those guys credit for that.

There are all kinds of stuff on the kink spectrum involving one person and a sex toy; if it's not hurting anyone else, what does it matter?

[cleofus1]

110. if i had 5 to 6 k to spare

i would buy a custom gibson guitar...all things being equal...you woould have to be seriously lonely to buy a doll for companionship...

[LaurenG]

112. As long as they aren't hurting anyone

I see no harm in it except that they may be unskilled in interacting with other real people. They will have no reason to look within or stretch themselves as human beings. I guess they are like hermits and wish little or no contact with the "outside" world.

Me, well it gets mighty cold in the winter around here and another warm body in the same bed is very nice.

[Fox Mulder]

116. That's really disturbing...