tgormer
stranger
Reged: 07/02/2006
Posts: 10
|
|
This is THE most fascinating thing i have seen in a womens magazine for a long time. It is quite creepy, yet also fascinating.
I dont know how i feel about these people owning these dolls. Part of me thinks, at least it keeps them off the streets, but then part of me thinks its all very weird and wrong.
I also cant believe these mens partners and wives allow them into the house...
Thank you marie claire for publishing such an interesting story.
Has anyone else seen this feature?
its in the issue thats in the shops now. (meg cover)
|
diamond
stranger
Reged: 27/02/2006
Posts: 11
|
|
I can't believe the pictures! One of them is playing computer games with his - it's a doll, it's not real! Originally, I thought these men were just sad and couldn't get girlfriends, but it's a bit disturbing when they start saying that they think of them as teenagers. Mind you, I suppose that at least if they're at home with their dolls they're not going out looking for real girls.
|
tgormer
stranger
Reged: 07/02/2006
Posts: 10
|
|
Its all very dark yet VERY fascinating... i have shown it to all my friends who all have different views.
Its stories like this that make me appreciate marie claire. its not all about celebrities and love and sex.
Would you let your boyfriend have a 'love doll'? i certainly wouldnt.
|
diamond
stranger
Reged: 27/02/2006
Posts: 11
|
|
I love stories like that, although it's a bit like watching a car crash.
No way would I let my boyfriend get one!! I don't understand those women in the feature who live alongside their partners' dolls. It's just bizarre!
|
missjersey2006
stranger
Reged: 16/03/2006
Posts: 14
|
|
I read that feature and found it pretty shocking - but I agree with you, tgormer, at least it keeps them off the streets. The men who imagined their dolls to be young teens were creepy to say the least, but I think if a husband and wife want to involve a doll in their relationship, let them do it! Different strokes for different folks and all that...
|
tgormer
stranger
Reged: 07/02/2006
Posts: 10
|
|
but why would anyone want to involve a doll in their relationship... isnt that just as weird... isnt any type of love doll for any type of 'activity' wrong?
|
missjersey2006
stranger
Reged: 16/03/2006
Posts: 14
|
|
Well, if they make them, someone must be buying them. I wouldn't be too happy if my boyfriend had a love doll, but as long as he wasn't trying to hide it from me, maybe I could try to understand where he's coming from. Hopefully it wouldn't mean that he's a necrophiliac or something. That's what it must be like with those dolls, though - they don't move! Forget it, if he bought one of those dolls, I'd dump him...
|
tgormer
stranger
Reged: 07/02/2006
Posts: 10
|
|
But they have 'working parts' dont they...
When i saw the words on the cover, i thought it would be a boring feature about blow up dolls or something... the fact you choose what you want it to look like and get it customised for you, makes it all the more creepy...
I never knew people like this existed...
Edited by tgormer (12/04/2006 14:44)
|
missjersey2006
stranger
Reged: 16/03/2006
Posts: 14
|
|
I don't know if they have working parts, but you can customise them to look like certain people. What about that one guy who got his to look like his "favourite actress" Brooke Shields. First of all, what era is he in????
|
gawd
stranger
Reged: 13/04/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
I think you are what is wrong with these people... "at least if they're at home with their dolls they're not going out looking for real girls" and makes you feel "creepy"... Maybe you simply don't have an idea what their lives are like. I'm not pretending it's right but the attitude to adopt to respond to such human problems (and as far as we're concerned, they're good human beings, with high end jobs, who can afford these things, and are far from comitting a crime). First you call them pervs, or similar abusive names, then you take the piss! I an era of genetical manipulation on foetuses and cloning humans, you go and cuss some socialy retarded IT kid who probably has less time to himself (until he got the sack, I'd suppose) than most of you, and gets to play (adult games) with a doll that he gets to shape.
What is essentially wrong isn't what they choose to do or to believe, it's the way the masses look at them.
People believe in god, love, instinct, people daydream, hope, and project. How hard is it to understand the life of someone who might not be as attractive to men/women or who might have had his heart hurt so bad that he chooses to do everything to avoid that pain, so much so that it takes him slightly off the reality path. How hard is it to understand that maybe this make-belief "friend" of his is merely a wall to keep the pain away. A very funkt up wall indeed but I am not saying that they are well.
These people need help not an accusing finger pointed at them. That's just cowardly, mean, selfish, and despicable, and a straightforward display of ignorance! 
|
GrumpyDog
stranger
Reged: 15/04/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
These men are severely narcissistic individuals who would be far better served by professional psychiatric services than by pathologically directing their emotional needs upon an inanimate object.
Yes, guys who obsess on their cars to such an extent are also in need of professional help. I have a wife, I have children. They are treated like people. Inanimate objects in my life are treated like inanimate objects. Even before I had a wife and children, I had my act together enough to be able to go out and relate to human beings. Unfortunately, these men don't seem to have that ability.
Of course, to some extent, society must shoulder some blame for these poor, sick individuals. We don't blink an eye at the idea of someone with a severe physical disability getting some physical therapy. As a culture, we even praise people who are obese or lacking in physical condition when they go out and hire (and listen to) professional physical trainers and dieticians. But if a man lacks fundamental social ability and seeks professional counseling, he must run a gamut of stigma and likely a great deal of pre-socialization against seeking such help.
|
JustAThought
stranger
Reged: 16/04/2006
Posts: 2
|
|
"I also cant believe these mens partners and wives allow them into the house.."
"No way would I let my boyfriend get one!! I don't understand those women in the feature who live alongside their partners' dolls. It's just bizarre!"
Do either of you have vibrators?
That these guys become so emotionally attached to their dolls is pretty messed up, but if it's just a sex toy, I don't see a problem with it.
|
diamond
stranger
Reged: 27/02/2006
Posts: 11
|
|
If you actually read the feature you'll discover these are not blow-up dolls - they are silicone 'companions' these men have designed themselves and value as highly as human partners.
Of course it's not bizarre or worrying for men to have sex with dolls - they are, as you say, just sex toys. It's the real dolls phenomenon that's disturbing. It objectifies females - why bother with the real thing when a doll that looks like your ideal woman will obey your every command?
What's to stop these men then assuming they can have this power over real women?
|
KayDee
stranger
Reged: 18/04/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
My thought is what about afterwards (cleaning them up??) YUK!! What a bunch of nutters!
|
JustAThought
stranger
Reged: 16/04/2006
Posts: 2
|
|
diamond, the dolls, no matter how realistic, are just sex toys. I suspect that there are a number of users who think of them simply as that and that the article grossly exaggerates the number of oddballs that become deeply attached to them. As for "It objectifies females - why bother with the real thing when a doll that looks like your ideal woman will obey your every command?", hell, £30 spent at Anne Summers will provide you with more sexual pleasure than 99.9% of the men out there. Vibrators objectify penises. This is true. If I just want penis, I use a vibrator. That doesn't mean I don't place value on having a boyfriend, because I do; a partner provides far more than sex. I'm guessing that it's the same for a majority of the users of real dolls: guys that have an excess of money and lack of skill at or desire for hooking up with randoms just for sex buy one. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't prefer a girlfriend, just that they are either unable or unwilling.
"What's to stop these men then assuming they can have this power over real women?" - I don't know about you, but I've never looked for a switch on the bottom of a man to control him.
|
sunita
stranger
Reged: 18/04/2006
Posts: 2
|
|
I just read the article on men who have sex with dolls..... Found it all rather strange especially as they are imagining that these dolls are 15...or so..!! Can latex really be a substitute for human contact???
|
citygent
stranger
Reged: 20/04/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
As technology improves, this is going to become a bigger issue, so get used to it. As far as I can see, some women are upset by this in the same way that some men are upset by vibrators, seeing themselves made redundant by a lump of shaped plastic. (There are numerable stories of couples who've bought them as something to add spice in the bedroom, and even one tale of a Japanese man who bought a doll to encourage his wife to finally grant him a divorce - he took it a restaurant with them!!)
Whatever - would these women feel better if these guys spent their money on hookers, instead?
|
Meg
stranger
Reged: 21/04/2006
Posts: 4
|
|
Fascinating article but I did not find it shocking - in a way it's fiction becoming fact. When I was younger I read a Roald Dahl story about a woman who kept a stuffed male companion, dog and cat in her house and treated them like they were still alive although they clearly weren't. I don't think she slept with the guy, she just gave him cups of tea and gently scolded him when he didn't drink them!
Science fiction is full of fantasy female android/cyborg type creatures. Computer games have blurred the line between fantasy and reality for a generation, and as Citygent said, technology is making these fantasies more sophisticated and therefore more difficult to separate from reality. Introverted men who have spent a lot of time playing computer games on their own find it harder to deal with a real, feisty, opinionated woman than a more "out there" man who would spend his spare time socialising and playing sport.
I would also imagine that any man who spends time around animals (vets, farmers, horse-breeders and trainers) would not find the idea of a silicone companion appealing as she is not a living creature. These are the sort of men I go for - a doll owner would not appeal to me!
It is signficant that a high percentage of doll-owners work in IT and engineering. However, the subject matter in your article isn't as simple as boys shagging female dolls and leaving it at that. I think the imagined age and occupation of the companions reflects the owners emotional age (14, 15), level of maturity and psychological state. I found it very disturbing when one man outlined his difficulty in taking his doll's "virginity". It is highly likely that was a virgin himself! Men like him choose silicone "companions" because they are not emotionally equipped to deal with a real woman. They probably do not interact much with other people and have few friends - male or female. These men would not make good partners because they are not psychologically equipped for it. One man imagined his doll to be more animate than a dog - this is not normal!
I don't even want to think about how these dolls would be cleaned after use - if they are not cleaned properly they would be a right harbour for bacteria and would make their owners (physically) very sick!
It will be interesting to see how advances in technology blur the lines between man and machine in the future and how humanity will cope with these advances. Will it hasten our extinction and will these advances influence how we reproduce in the future?
|
Tabitha
stranger
Reged: 29/04/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
I have just had a look at the website (adult content obviously) and am astounded. I was impressed by the life-likeness of some of the dolls. I was disturbed by the fact that some are dressed like schoolgirls/ teenagers in sexually explicit poses. Reading the FAQs revealed:
Delivery and storage of the doll:
“the doll is safely hanging by a neck bolt on a removable mounting bracket which can be installed in your home for safe storage of your doll” Nice!
About the robustness of the doll:
"The doll has the poise and relaxed state of a sleeping girl."
Hmmm. Still not sure if I think it creepy but harmless or creepy and very scary.
|
TheMan
stranger
Reged: 14/05/2006
Posts: 1
|
|
I find the innocence/ignorance and naivete in this thread shocking, and to be honest, almost laughable. Do you all honestly think that everyone is able to talk to the opposite sex without any problems, regardless of their profession?? I find that hard to believe...
Let's break it down. I am 27 years old, I am an IT professional, in the process of changing careers, but that is neither her nor there. I am generally a pretty shy person, I find it damn difficult to get on with girls pretty much all of the time.
And that's the problem. Many of us guys find girls very hard to even just approach (any guy who tells you otherwise is quite blatantly talking out of his ***), let alone talk to. From my own point of view, maybe that's because of social conditioning, where a guy is expected to make the first move in any given social situation, or maybe it's because girls generally give off this kind of aura where if you don't have enough balls to talk to them, then you're not worth bothering with (I have felt this on many an occasion, and I am not alone). Sometimes it feels like the forces that you're dealing with, are just too much to handle and are just not worth the trouble.
Can you really blame some guys for going via this doll route for their own personal satisfaction? If so, why do you find it creepy??
And to those of you with boyfriends/husbands... in the story i just read, i saw nothing mentioned of guys who already had girlfriends or wives, it appeared to me to be all about single men. Do you honestly see this as an issue?
I welcome any replies regarding this via pm or posts.
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
Get Marie Claire feeds directly to your desktop