Sex Doll Research Articles

“Naughty Japanese Babe:” An analysis of racialized sex tech designs

Recent technological developments and growing acceptance of sex tech has brought increased scholarly attention to sex tech entrepreneurs, personified sex tech devices and applications, and the adult industry. Drawing on qualitative case studies of a sex doll brothel named “Cybrothel” and the virtual entertainer, or “V-Tuber,” known as Projekt Melody, as well as quantitative sex doll advertisement data, this study examines the racialization of personified sex technologies. Bringing attention to the racialization of personified sex tech is long overdue, as much scholarship to date has focused on how sex tech reproduces specific gendered meanings, despite decades of intersectional feminist scholarship demonstrating that gendered and racialized meanings are mutually constituted. General trends in the industry are shown, but particular emphasis is placed on the overrepresentation of Asianized femininity among personified sex tech industries.

"Art Cinema’s Suicidal Posthuman Women”

Air Doll (Kûki ningyô, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2009) introduces a posthuman perspective through its protagonist Nozomi, an inflatable sex doll who miraculously comes to consciousness. Meanwhile, On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről, dir. Ildikó Enyedi, 2017) centers on a surreal romance between Mária and Endre that thrives, in part, on their posthuman connections to animals and objects. Strong narrative, erotic and traumatic elements bind these films—in particular, their treatments of their posthuman women protagonists—which video editing offered the ideal method for unpacking. Air Doll and On Body and Soul explore the posthuman possibilities inherent in their protagonists’ nonhuman and neurodivergent subjectivities, yet the films’ handling of Nozomi and Mária's leaky bodies reveals their confinement within humanist norms. Left bleeding and deflated, what do Nozomi and Mária foretell for posthuman cinema?

Corpse or not? Two peculiar cases of misidentification.

Irrespective of whether they are intended for collectors or for the fetish market, dolls are being produced to look more and more realistic with such a degree of life-like detail that they can be mistaken for a real person. This paper reports two cases of misidentification due to this increasing similarity: In the first case, a sex doll was mistaken for a corpse; in the second case, a corpse was mistaken for a doll. While in the latter case, only medical laypersons were at the discovery site, in the first case, an emergency doctor had issued a medical certificate of death for the purported corpse. The medicolegal examiner who was subsequently called to the scene could still rectify the misconception on-site. Mistakes of this nature are likely rare phenomena. It, however, remains to be seen if the increasingly life-like appearance of dolls on the one hand, and the increasingly doll-like appearance of some people, e.g., through cosmetic surgery, will lead to a rise in such cases. To avoid misidentification as in the first reported case, it is essential to prepare medical students well for the task of performing a primary external postmortem examination; it is equally important that fully-trained doctors regularly refresh their expertise in this respect.

A methodological reckoning for the empirical study of sex doll and sex robot issues

In light of repeated calls for empirically driven analyses of sex doll and sex robot owners and users, I outline key methodological challenges researchers in this field currently face. I discuss how methodological limitations have shaped the field thus far and narrowed the scope of empirical research to date. To resolve these issues, I propose strategies for improving archival, quantitative, and qualitative approaches for future scholarship. Specifically, I attend to issues of historicity, nomenclature, population, sampling, qualitative approaches, and research ethics. I conclude with a discussion of how the stigma associated with sex dolls, sex robots, and sex tech amplifies the need for researchers to respect and adhere to ethical research practices yet still maintain a critical distance that directly confronts, rather than skirts, dilemmas related to use, ownership, and production. This methodological reckoning will help scholars design more robust studies and effectively evaluate innovations in the field.

The Infallible and the Specter – Manifesting (artificial) subjectification in female sex robots

The text outlines a recent artistic practice and theoretical research into a female AI sex doll object, its materiality, and signification. It is a culmination of a three-year study and intervention into the coded systems of control and sites of resistance that play out within the context of an artificial female body. Machine Learning (ML) algorithm is the mediator between sex robots, their users and cloud data storage, facilitating learning from their inter-actions. I examine this engagement and materiality of the sex robot through notions of feminist mimesis, substitute and simulation against emancipatory politics in object formation. I connect these ideas with theories of new materialism and recent scholarship on digital data science.

The Self-Reported Sexual Real-World Consequences of Sex Doll Use

ABSTRACT It is a growing concern that the use of sex dolls and robots could affect human sexuality. This concern has led to a ban of child-like sex dolls in several countries and a call to ban adult-like sex dolls and robots by some scholars. However, empirical data is largely missing supporting this claim. Here, we present retrospective self-reported quantitative and qualitative data of a large sample (N = 224, 90.5% men, Mean age = 31 years, SD = 14.2) of teleiophilic (i.e., sexual orientation toward adults) and pedo-hebephilic participants. Using an online survey, we found that users reported an overall reduction in sexuality-related behaviors (e.g., porn consumption or visiting of sex workers) in response to doll ownership. Users in a relationship with a human were less affected by doll use, while those in a relationship with a doll reported greater effects. Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.

섹스돌(Sex Doll)과 행복추구권

Sex is a part of human life, a reflection of human conditions, and is also a process of completion as a human. Sex is also a mode of existence of men and women's mental and physical lives. It includes not only biological instincts, but also thoughts and behaviors, emotions and tendencies, and different characteristics between men and women. Since sex is a reflection of human living conditions, various social problems arise accordingly, such as adultery, prostitution, human trafficking, pornography, obscenity, sexual harassment, homosexuality, sex doll, etc., which are countless. In addition, with the development of science and technology such as artificial intelligence and sex robots have emerged, the issues and arguments for and against cyber sex and cyber masturbation have begun. These various legal and ethical issues related to sex regulate certain actions according to the social, historical, and cultural environment of each country. Some countries punish them as crimes, and others allow such actions. One of the most controversial issues in our society is a sex doll. Sex doll is a type of sex toy that mimics the shape of a person, ranging from air-injected cheap sex dolls to thousands dollar-worth of sex dolls that embody the shape of the human body and the touch of a human and are equipped with AI. In our society, the pros and cons of sex dolls and sex robots have already begun. The positive stance insists that sex dolls and sex robots are one of adult products that can help the elderly and the disabled. Meanwhile, the negative stance argues that they violate the personal rights of teenagers including children and women to ensure men's sexual right to self-determination. A complete ban on adult sex dolls is undesirable in that it might cause an infringement of an individual's sexual right to self-determination under the Constitutional Act. In principle, the import and sale of sex dolls is better to be allowed, but it is desirable to ban or limit child sex dolls because they are clearly expected to have a negative impact on our society.

The ‘PERFECT’ PARTNER: UNDERSTANDING THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF MEN WHO OWN SEX DOLLS

The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon in recent years, with legal scholars and legislators calling for increased regulation and criminalization of such articles. However, our knowledge of sex doll ownership is lacking, and the peer-reviewed literature is especially sparse on detailed phenomenological analyses of the motivations of sex doll owners and their experiences of owning a doll. In this study, we interviewed nine male owners of sex dolls to investigate these issues. Two main themes were elicited from the data: “the ‘perfect’ partner” and “sex doll or love doll?”. In understanding doll ownership in this way, we hope to add to ongoing social discussions about the types of people who own dolls, why they do so, and how dolls act as a functional aspect of their sexual (and nonsexual) lives.

A Thing like a Human? A Mixed-Methods Study on Sex Doll Usage

Sex dolls have evolved over the last decades and are getting more popular. Whether sex doll ownership should be protected as a sexual right that facilitates sexual health or whether its usage might be harmful to women and society is vividly discussed. In this polarized debate, empirical research is scarce and possible differentiations in the psychological functions of sex dolls remain nearly unknown. To further explore sex doll ownership, this study conducted five in-depth interviews with sex doll users and collected 131 written reports on sex doll ownership in an online survey with open and closed questions. In a mixed-methods approach, the data was then analyzed using Mayring’s Qualitative Content Analysis and quantitative measures. Although the demographics of sex doll users are homogenous (single heterosexual males), results indicate that the use is divers. Sex dolls are mostly used as masturbatory aid, as substitutes for human partners, and as synthetic partners. We explore the similarities and differences between these kinds of usage and propose that a differentiation of sex doll use can enrich current research on social robotics, anthropomorphism, and misogyny.

Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls

There is a fervent social debate ongoing that relates to the ownership of child-like sex dolls. On the one hand, some proponents of dolls suggest that they offer a safe sexual outlet for minor-attracted people (MAPs) and could be used in efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children. On the other side of the debate, child-like dolls are seen as articles that sexualize children, encourage deviant fantasies, and increase offending risk. To date, no empirical analyses have been undertaken with people who own such dolls. In this paper, we present data from child-like sex doll owners (n = 85) and MAPs who do not own dolls (n = 120) recruited from online forums visited by people who own sex dolls or forums for people with sexual attractions to children. Specifically, we compared their psychological characteristics and proclivities for sexual aggression. Among non-owners, 79.2% of participants declared an interest in owning a sex doll, which is higher than the 20–40% rate reported in adult-attracted samples of non-owners. We found few differences between the groups on most personality variables, with doll owners being less antisocial and anxiously attached than non-owners, but exhibiting more schizotypal traits. Related to offending proclivities, doll ownership was associated with lower levels of sexual preoccupation and self-reported arousal to hypothetical abuse scenarios, but higher levels of sexually objectifying behaviors and anticipated enjoyment of sexual encounters with children. We discuss these data in relation to a functional model of child-like sex doll ownership among MAPs.

What Does the Personification of Love and Sex Dolls Explain about Doll Owners?

ABSTRACT Scholarly debates on sex dolls tend to view them in one of two ways. Either the purchase and use of sex dolls reflects and exacerbates misogyny, or that dolls are themselves a technological marvel meeting an array of sexual and emotional needs in sex negative cultures. I complicate these views by analyzing how and why heterosexual men personify their hyperreal sex toys in conventionally feminine, albeit hypersexualized, ways. Drawing on digital ethnographic observations and interviews with 41 love and sex doll owners who use digital media to personify their dolls, I suggest that the creation of hyper-gendered doll personas tends to reproduce culturally specific gender norms due to social dynamics within the community. Specifically, I show how doll community norms privilege heterosexual masculinity and thus limit the doll personas that are imagined and created. By focusing on the social practices of this community rather than how sex dolls are designed, this research suggests a way for scholars to be critical of taboos against technologically assisted sexual pleasure while acknowledging the tendency of futuristic sex practices to reproduce social inequalities. Implications for how future sexual technologies could someday challenge status-quo inequalities are discussed.

HF01-19 EX MACHINA: HISTORIES OF ROBOTIC SEX

You have accessJournal of UrologyCME1 May 2022HF01-19 EX MACHINA: HISTORIES OF ROBOTIC SEX Loren Smith, and Michael Moran Loren SmithLoren Smith More articles by this author , and Michael MoranMichael Moran More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002541.19AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Humanity has a long history of using machines for sexual activity. The relationship between humans and machines reflects technological advances and cultural mores, with biomechanical engineering helping humans become part machine and artificial intelligence (AI) helping machines appear more human. This represents a historical review of sexual machines, corresponding psycho-social-cultural considerations, and the impact on desire, arousal, and intimacy. METHODS: A review of literature and media on all aspects of machines as human sexual adjuncts was pursued including the use of dolls, puppets, and the most recent epiphenomenon, robotic sex. Electronic-enhanced and sex with simulacra were specifically reviewed. In addition, Hollywood stereotypes of synthetic companionship were studied, including Ex Machina (source of our title). RESULTS: Humans have long augmented sexual activities with anatomical substitutes. Dildos from Paleolithic times have been unearthed. Used to treat hysteria in the 1800s, they were enhanced with mechanical and now electrical vibration. More recently the evolution of teledildonics, sex tech hackathons, and flesh pillows has restructured sexual surrogacy and its interface. The paraphilia agalmatophilia, sexual attraction to a doll or mannequin, has a similarly lengthy history. Life-sized sex dolls are described in ancient texts and embodied in 17th century incarnations. In present times, sex doll brothels promise titillation but also companionship, offering enhanced experiences that cannot result from the interaction between real humans. New and sophisticated sex machines are marketed as medical treatments. With the development of interactive AI packaged in realistic skin and features, the sex robot has evolved into a “mechanical bride.” Correspondingly, ethical considerations loom large. CONCLUSIONS: The blurring between reactive and interactive use of sexual technology to accomplish goals beyond stimulation is both a generative and disruptive force within sexual medicine. Technology such as virtual reality sex gaming that was previously considered transgressive is now mainstream. We can expect that the introduction of sex machines with AI will be another disruptive force in contemporary culture. Some of the effects can be predicted, but other outcomes may be quite surprising. Given the importance of sexuality to culture and civilization, study of the effects of technology on sexuality may help us to anticipate the consequences and, perhaps, modify the course of cultural change. Source of Funding: None © 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 207Issue Supplement 5May 2022Page: e218 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Loren Smith More articles by this author Michael Moran More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement PDF DownloadLoading ...

Artificial Emotions and Love and Sex Doll Service Workers

Realistic looking humanoid love and sex dolls have been available on a somewhat secretive basis for at least three decades. But today the industry has gone mainstream with North American, European, and Asian producers using mass customization and competing on the bases of features, realism, price, and depth of product lines. As a result, realistic life size artificial companions are becoming more affordable to purchase and more feasible to patronize on a service basis. Sexual relations may be without equal when it comes to emotional intimacy. Yet, the increasingly vocal and interactive robotic versions of these dolls, feel nothing. They may nevertheless induce emotions in users that potentially surpass the pleasure of human-human sexual experiences. The most technologically advanced love and sex robots are forecast to sense human emotions and gear their performances of empathy, conversation, and sexual activity accordingly. I offer a model of how this might be done to provide a better service experience. I compare the nature of resulting “artificial emotions” by robots to natural emotions by humans. I explore the ethical issues entailed in offering love and sex robot services with artificial emotions and offer a conclusion and recommendations for service management and for further research.

Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls

ABSTRACT The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly controversial social issue over the last five to ten years, with many in society (and academia) calling for the criminalization of such dolls. At the root of these calls is the implicit (and often explicit) assumption that sex doll ownership contributes to increases in negative social attitudes toward women, and sexual offense risk among doll owners. However, there are yet to be any empirical examinations of these claims. In this work we compared the psychological characteristics and comparative sexual aggression proclivities of sex doll owners (n = 158) and a non-owner comparison group (n = 135). We found no substantive differences in most psychological traits. Doll owners scored lower than comparators in relation to sexual aggression proclivity. They were, however, more likely to see women as unknowable, the world as dangerous, and have lower sexual self-esteem. They also had more obsessive and emotionally stable personality styles. We conclude that there is no evidence that sex doll owners pose a greater sexual risk than a non-owning comparison group, before highlighting the need for more evidence-informed social debates about the use of sex dolls in modern society.

Intertextuality, sex and the hollow life in Kore’eda Hirokazu’s Air Doll

Directed by Kore’eda Hirokazu (b. 1962, winner 2018 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or), the 2009 film, Kūki ningyō (Air Doll), tells of a sex doll who comes to life. Once she acquires ‘a heart that I was not supposed to have’, the work moves through rom-com to Romeo and Juliet-esque tragedy. Although rated relatively lowly on reception websites, Air Doll is a complex reflection on the ‘hollow life’ created by hyper-capitalism and related issues including gender and class. The film is enhanced by Korean actor Bae Doona’s whimsical doll performance, while Mark Lee Ping-bing’s cinematic genius invokes the dreamy effect of In the Mood for Love. This article focuses on the film’s dense intertextual references which evoke both E. T. A. Hoffmann’s ‘Sandman’ and Freud’s ‘uncanny’ response. The doll’s CD rental store part-time job further permits Kore’eda to incorporate a tour de force series of other film references.

The Silicone Self: Examining Sexual Selfhood and Stigma within the Love and Sex Doll Community

While previous research has theorized the potential benefits and consequences of intimate relationships with robots and dolls, little empirical research has been conducted on today's love and sex doll owners. By drawing on digital ethnographic data and interviews with 41 love and sex doll community members, I explore how love and sex doll owners account for their transgressive sex practice. I argue these accounts reveal the underlying sexual selfhood project of doll owners, what I term the silicone self. I analyze silicone selves to show how doll community members manage stigma by emphasizing sexual individualism and drawing on pro‐sex, feminist, and anti‐feminist discourses. I further highlight tensions within the community that stem from conflicting views about gender and sexuality.

The Sporting Bubble as Gilded Cage

The Sporting Bubble as Gilded Cage

Design, Use, and Effects of Sex Dolls and Sex Robots: Scoping Review.

BackgroundAlthough sex toys representing human body parts are widely accepted and normalized, human-like full-body sex dolls and sex robots have elicited highly controversial debates.ObjectiveThis systematic scoping review of the academic literature on sex dolls and sex robots, the first of its kind, aimed to examine the extent and type of existing academic knowledge and to identify research gaps against this backdrop.MethodsA comprehensive multidisciplinary, multidatabase search strategy was used. All steps of literature search and selection, data charting, and synthesis followed the leading methodological guideline, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. A total of 29 (17 peer reviewed) and 98 publications (32 peer reviewed) for sex dolls and sex robots, respectively, from 1993 to 2019 were included.ResultsAccording to the topics and methodologies, the sex doll and sex robot publications were divided into 5 and 6 groups, respectively. The majority of publications were theoretical papers. Thus far, no observational or experimental research exists that uses actual sex dolls or sex robots as stimulus material.ConclusionsThere is a need to improve the theoretical elaboration and the scope and depth of empirical research examining the sexual uses of human-like full-body material artifacts, particularly concerning not only risks but also opportunities for sexual and social well-being.

Male homosocial bonds and perceptions of human–robot relationships in an online sex doll forum

Debates about human–machine relationships have intensified following the launch of the world’s first commercially available sex robot ‘Harmony’, a hyperrealistic sex doll with AI-capabilities. With the likely consumer market for these devices among white, male, heterosexual sex-doll owners, their views about sex robot technology and the niche online communities in which they discuss their doll relationships have received little scholarly attention. Through a qualitative analysis of the discursive practices of male users of a major sex doll forum, this study found complex and dynamic homosocial relations characterized men’s online interactions. In their discussion of a sex robot future, men negotiate competing structures of masculinity and sexuality and create a safe, online space for others to express their sexual desires and preferences. Using the concept of the ‘seam’ or join, the results reveal the way male users of sex dolls position themselves subjectively and are positioned by technology and the increasingly porous interface between human and machine.

From manga to film: gender, precarity and the textual transformation of Air Doll

This essay situates the Japanese film Kūki ningyō/Air Doll (Koreeda Hirokazu, 2009) and the manga upon which it was based, Gōda tetsugakudō: Kūki ningyō/Gōda Temple of Philosophy: Air Doll by Gōda Yoshiie, within the context of discourses on precarity in contemporary Japan. In Air Doll, a blow-up sex doll comes to life and tries to find love, but fails to connect with alienated Tokyoites. Whereas Gōda’s original manga focuses on dysfunctional masculinity and the artificial management of emotion in late-capitalist society, Koreeda’s film adaptation deals more broadly with miserable singles, broken families, and a pervasive sense of disconnection. In the film, the air doll’s acquisition of an identity through imitation is contrasted with the unhappy function that role-play, repetition and substitution play in real people’s lives. The movie begins as a lightly comic and largely affirmative depiction of mimesis as learning, transformation and aspiration. However, imitation soon becomes a trope for emptiness and failure. Gōda’s manga critiques the role that rigid gender roles play in late capitalism, but Koreeda’s emphasis on the air doll’s ‘emptiness’, her failure to find love, and the collapse of the family evince a melancholic attachment to heteronormative ideals that played a central part in Japan’s postwar high-growth economy. Close analysis of both texts reveals how Koreeda’s use of live action performance and other original contributions rework the manga’s themes.