Abstract
This work examines arguments postulated by sexologists, science and technology studies (STS) scholars, and similar fields to highlight the ways in which human-(erotic) doll relationships may move from taboo and into a realm where they may in fact be seen as the next step in human evolution. To do so, this work moves from privileging the human-human relationship to taking seriously the importance of the human-nonhuman-non sentient (NHNS) relationship as an equally important element in building the future and understanding the present (as well as admitting to the importance of the doll as an object of human affection). Here, against a backdrop of questioning what is love, I present two theories within STS: Companion Species and Actor Network Theory (ANT) to argue that NHNS things not only matter in the creation of human relationships, but examines how such relationships fill a gap in understanding how it is that humans may truly love their erotic dolls in a meaningful way that not only removes them from realm of taboo but views it as a reasonable, if unsettling, progression into a sociotechnical world in the twenty-first century and beyond.
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Notes
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There are many different spellings of the terms used to identify the process of loving objects as well as those who claim to love objects. Such terms include, but are not limited to, objectophilia, objectum sexuality and objektophiles. In this work I use the spelling and term used by the individual scholar to whom I am referring and not attempt to cleanse the sometimes confusing terms by forcing forward one true way to understand it or the individual.
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For information on Real Sex: http://www.tv.com/shows/real-sex/; for information on My Strange Addiction: https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-strange-addiction/.
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For information on Lars and the Real Girl: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805564/.
For information on Guys and Dolls: http://documentaryheaven.com/guys-and-dolls/.
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The authors reasoned that to remove the burden of monitoring the technology to keep the person alive, the person could focus on other issues, as they stated in their article, Cyborgs and Space, “If man attempts partial adaptation to space conditions, instead of insisting on carrying his whole environment along with him, a number of new possibilities appear” (Clynes and Kline 1960:30). They continue with a vivid example: “If man in space, in addition to flying his vehicle, must continuously be checking on things and making adjustments merely in order to keep himself alive, he becomes a slave to the machine. The purpose of the Cyborg, as well as his own homeostatic systems, is to provide an organizational system in which such robot-like problems are taken care of automatically and unconsciously, leaving man free to explore, to create, to think and to feel” (Clynes and Kline 1960:31).
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Clynes and Kline began a path of social analysis (and controversy) that few could have imagined, and today’s cyborg imaginings rarely hold a resemblance to the articulation of the first “cyborg.” In most cases, certainly those highlighted in popular culture, the cyborg is generally a human/robot or human with mechanical attachments (though some are cyborgs chemical, harkening back to the initial concept proposed by Clines and Kline, e.g. Oehlert 1995).
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For an excellent analysis of the ways in which cyborgs and Otherness may be metaphorically analyzed in the case studies of Asperger’s and those practicing BDSM or holding such desires, see Mussies and Maliepaard 2017.
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Perhaps the best known and most artistic or realistic doll that emerged during this time was the RealDoll, a creation of the merging of the Hollywood make up industry and artistry with engineering prowess (Blizzard 2014). The dolls were envisioned by artists and the realism and hyperrealism did not go unnoticed. RealDoll transgressed the boundary between art and sex; a boundary often blurred throughout the history of art (e.g. surrealism and the use of mannequins, see, Dali and Newton e.g. Fergusson 2010).
- 11.
Taking the lead from Freud’s analysis of the uncanny, in 1970 roboticist Masahiro Mori turned an eye toward the robot, a figure newly emergent from the twentieth century imaginings of those creating humanoids and the willingness of individuals to accept or reject them. In his path breaking work, “The Uncanny Valley” Mori hypothesized that as humans and robots begin to form relationships it is generally enjoyable, however, if the robot appears too human it may prove repulsive to the human viewer – it is close, but not close enough. Something is off. Red flags are raised and some viewers stammer away, unsettled by the realistic entity that falls short of convincing the viewer it is real. In response to this revulsion, some artists and technologists have tried not to replicate the human fully and to stay in the realm of fantasy. Instead of making the entity look human they imbue the entity with human likeness in the form of language, morals, and other aspects within the cultural metanarrative of the human condition (c.f., de Fren 2009; Barber 2017).
- 12.
For an excellent discussion of competing claims of objectivity leading to an overall generally accepted objectivity see, Harding (1995) “Strong Objectivity”: A response to the new objectivity question. Synthese 104(3): 331–349.
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Blizard, D. (2018). The Next Evolution: The Constitutive Human-Doll Relationship as Companion Species. In: Cheok, A., Levy, D. (eds) Love and Sex with Robots. LSR 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10715. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76369-9_9
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