(The second of three parts)
4. “But when I saw Mayu in the showroom, it was love at first sight,” says a Japanese man. This doll has become the only love of his life. It caused him to give up having sex with humans, considering Japanese women to have become cold and selfish. While his doll is always there waiting for him: “I love her and I want to be with her forever. I can’t imagine going back to humans. I want to be buried with her and take her to heaven”.
Another Japanese man says: “People always want something from you.” His heart beats viceversa when he goes back home to his doll: “I will never have a real woman again, I am heartless.” As I read in ‘HuffPost’ (2017), these men belong to the growing group of Japanese people who build love relationships with plastic dolls, going beyond marriage and traditional values. Around 2,000 sex dolls are sold each year in Japan. Many men buy them because they believe they can communicate with them better than with humans.
Japan famously produces a large number of dolls of different shapes and functions that express their daily lives through habits and aspirations. In 2016, the exhibition entitled “Dolls from Japan, form of prayer, expression of love”, was held in Rome at the Japanese Institute of Culture.
5. The creator of the first “whorehouse” with silicone dolls in Paris (2018) declares that the idea came from reading on Facebook that, in some European cities, there were already shops where they rented these dolls per hour for sexual games. After Barcelona, Paris, Moscow and other cities, the first meeting house with extremely realistic inflatable dolls was opened in Turin in September 2018.
This experience, which has garnered interest and immediate bookings for months, ends in just over a week for seizure by the municipal police due to some regulations. Technology is so advanced that these “love dolls” seem increasingly real. In their deluxe version they are equipped with soft skin that warms up with the contact of a human body.
6. Dolls are often used for the red rituals of love magic. Magic dolls have recently become an obsession in Thailand, “so much so that an airline has decided to accept reservations for toys. Dolls, which would be endowed with extraordinary powers (…), can even cost thousands of dollars “(as reported by La Stampa ‘, 2016). Its worshipers believe these dolls to be bearers of a “living spirit” that brings luck and spiritual well-being to those who own them.
(to be continued)
