Dolls and the Boys who love them (and I-Grope, and Projector Girlfriend)

I think dolls are creepy, what with their implausible feet, fused fingers dead eyes and all. I've felt this way since I was about 15 or so, when in a state of exhaustion I hallucinated that a porcelain doll in my room drew a breath and blinked. I'm sure any of several Twilight Zone episodes didn't help (though to this day I have a crush on Rod Sterling).

That being said.

I'm a fan of sex toys and pro consensual, mutually beneficial, age/emotionally appropriate sexuality*.

I am also noted in my personal life for my willingness to let things go or otherwise walk away from a situation that dose not meet my expectations and desires.

This is all well and good, but it percolates into a position on things like Real Dolls that may seem counter-intuitive for a self-identified feminist.

(Real Dolls, for those of us who have well integrated personalities and social lives, are a sex-toy silicone version of My Size Barbie's, with fully articulated limbs and three orifices. There is a fantastic documentary on the Dolls and the men who love them called "Guys and Dolls," which you can enjoy with an organic or synthetic friend or loved one. I have to warn you though, it's a little depressing, because the men the documentary follows tend to express sentiments like, "...but unlike an organic woman, my dolls never walk all over me, so with them I have self-respect," and "really, I've always been attracted to stillness and things that don't change," and "I don't think my [dead] mother would like it, but I think she'd rather I have the dolls and be happy then not have them and be lonely." There is also a Salon article here.)

Anyway, the dominant opinion on these dolls is that they are weird and creepy and more then a little pathetic. And I'm backing that 100%. The general consensus on Feministing is that these things are weird, creepy, pathetic, and sexist, and therefore not OK. And I get that too. Because you really can't call it anything but reducing-"woman"-to-a-tangible-object, unless you want to call it elevating-an-object-to-the-position-of-"woman".

But it keeps coming back to that 'age/emotionally appropriate sex' and 'willingness to walk away'. Because really, if somebody is at an emotional level where they can't have a relationship with another person, well,wouldn't you rather them have that relationship with an inanimate object? I find it as creepy and gross as the next person-who-exclusively-sleeps-with-other-organic-people, but also a lot less upsetting then I'd find it were somebody with that level of emotional intelligence dating my friends.

So though these men/dolls objectify and replace 'woman-as-a-group' with a silicone proxy, this is me, coming out in favor of Real Dolls for people who can't have Real Relationships, and by extension, the I-phone application that lets you play with a line drawing of boobies in profile, and the projected responsive image of a girl on a bed, as well as any number of odd things that cull people with negligible relationship skills out of the dating population.

These folks are doing me a favor.

And throw those creepy Re-Born babies into that category too.

(Most links go directly to Feministing)

*Due to my liberal education, it is almost impossible for me to make a statement about sex without multiple qualifiers.