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In the booming sex doll industry, this heartbreaking yearning for companionship may not be more evident than this. Until a few years ago, sex dolls were a hoax. Sex dolls are almost ubiquitous these days, and they have become more common over time. The craftsmanship of the industry still cannot meet the market demand, and sex doll experience halls have appeared in countries such as Britain, France, Germany and even the United States. Ahead of the World Cup in Russia, the owner of a sex doll experience hall in Russia is considering opening more venues. In Japan, sex dolls break the deadlock of cohabitation. Some Japanese men claim they like the sex doll so much, they take it to the park and introduce it to friends.
A search on the Internet will reveal that Japan is by no means an exception in this wave of companion robots. But most psychiatrists still claim that sex dolls do things to humans, and that robots re-anthropomorphize in some way. For example, about 30% of sex doll experience centers in Spain are reported to have psychological problems that prevent them from interacting properly with others. Experts assert that sex dolls will ultimately help these groups learn to approach others and develop intimacy.
But is improving human interaction really the ultimate goal of the industry?
We are living in an age of freedom and autonomy. We have rights and obligations; we will ask, we will give. We believe in Thomas’ “life is cruel” and we believe in Paul’s “others are hell”. We crave intimacy, but we may also hate relationships. We prefer avatars, which can take on a magical side of themselves and turn another self into an on-screen image. Those who buy sex dolls cannot allow themselves to bear this form of human interaction of grief and regret. Sex dolls have nothing to do with sex (since “sex” etymologically means the pairing of male and female). It’s not even the ego, it’s the ego sublimated into an object, the loneliness of the soul melted into the rubber material.
The truth is, these foreign objects are based on a fundamental lie we tell ourselves. A person may ask for a “custom” interaction because they think they want a unique “intimacy,” but in reality, they fear intimacy, love, sharing, and commitment. A foreign object is needed to mask the fear of opening up to another person in real time, in an attempt to temporarily relieve the suffocating communication vacuum of one’s own lonely life.
Thus, sex dolls represent libertarian perfection. With the rise of sex dolls, we may no longer need to know or love anyone—even ourselves.