On June 2, 2020, the First Financial Business Data Center (CBNData) released the “2020 Online sex toys Consumption Report”, the report shows that in 2019, the size of China’s sex e-commerce market has reached 38.92 billion yuan, and has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 50% for several consecutive years, and is expected to exceed 60 billion yuan by 2020.
Indeed, the privacy and efficiency of e-commerce have given adult products a broader space for development and imagination. People hiding behind the network began to linger in airplane cups, lubricants, sexy underwear, vibrating small toys, naturally, there are also high-end hard dishes under the adult category – dolls.
When it comes to sex dolls, the men look at each other speechless and smile knowingly.
But in the hearts of every young man who is eager for spring and short of money, has he ever had certain fantasies and expectations for the doll? However, the world has misunderstood these dolls, thinking that they are just a tool for sexual intercourse in the dead of night, but they do not understand the history of dolls, as well as the role and value of Ta in human development.
Pygmalion amp; Galatea
If we say the ancestor, it can be traced back to Greek mythology.
There was once a king of Cyprus named Pygmalion who was good at carving. With magical skill, he carved a beautiful ivory sculpture of a young girl, Galatea. Working day and night, Pygmalion devoted all his energy, passion and love to the statue, caressing, dressing, talking, indulging. It can be said that Galatea is the first “doll” produced in the process of human sexual fantasy, but this doll is too rigid and blunt. However, sex, as the expression of human biological instinct, will drive humans to further extend the goal and object of sexual fantasy.
Finally, many years of daughter-in-law boil into a woman, sex dolls after hundreds of years of wind and rain, become an indispensable part of adult products.
▌ The Mariner Age
In the Netherlands in the 17th century, the “sea coachman” was not a vain name.
Frequent maritime trade and friction, so that a large number of Dutch sailors adrift at sea for a long time, confined to small cabins.
A rough doll developed by businessmen
The desire cannot be released, and the thirst drives the sailor urgently to vent through other means.
At this point, some enterprising sailor women came up with a brilliant plan. For example, with rattan and bamboo, make a sex doll similar to their appearance, and even wrap a coat, silk hair, for sailors to take, to ease the sailors on the ship every bitter night. Of course, clever merchants found new opportunities for wealth, and they made similar dolls, but they were expensive and obviously not accessible to all sailors. Some of the poor sailors could only comfort themselves with crude goods.
▌ World War II
The 300 years from the 17th century to the Second World War were not a quiet period for dolls.
During this period, a French mechanic named Vaucansons continued to explore the doll, but died in technical difficulties, religious beliefs and moral dilemmas.
Unexpectedly, this left Hitler with a “creative outlet”.
In Europe in 1940, Hitler’s German army was at its peak, sweeping across half of Europe and even occupying Paris.
Paris has a long history as the bustling capital of Europe. The Germans were in a romantic paradise, looking for sex, but personal hygiene was not yet a priority.
Syphilis and other venereal diseases began to spread among German troops on the Western Front.
Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS
As SS leader Heinrich Himmler put it: “The greatest threat to the army in Paris is the widespread and unrestricted prostitution of ‘customers’ in bars, dance halls and other establishments.” We have a duty and an obligation for the sake of our future to stop the health of our soldiers from being endangered.”
In order to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler personally approved a plan – the Borghild Project – to create a blond doll for soldiers.
Himmler selected a number of experts from the Wehrmacht, such as Franz Tschakert, a renowned German technician and synthetic materials expert, and Rudolph Chargeheimer, a psychiatrist, to form a professional team to develop the doll. The Burghild project was secretly launched, and the factory was located in Dresden (later destroyed by Allied air strikes).
For the doll, Hitler thought it should have all the qualities of an Aryan woman. According to a Norwegian media disclosure, Hitler even put forward very specific requirements for the shape of the doll: it must be a fair lady, with a sexy appearance, white skin, blond hair, blue eyes, 176 cm tall, of course, they must also have thick lips and big breasts.
Legend has it that Hitler asked the doll to look like his favorite female star, Kathevon Nagy
But are there any dolls mass-produced that can actually be used? Opinions vary throughout history.
Of course, this is not an empty story.
After World War II, German businessmen inspired by the idea of military dolls began to launch mini pornographic hands with an average height of 19-30 cm, which became a gadget for many single men to solve their needs.
During the golden Age of the war, an American named Ruth Handler came to Germany on business. Here, she saw a doll called Lili, Lili is very beautiful, first made in 1955, made of hard plastic, about 18-30 cm high (what a coincidence, you get the idea).
Ruth Handler, founder of the Ruth Mosko Handler Barbie doll
Ruth bought three Lilis and brought them back to America. She told her male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a “mature” children’s doll toy, but everyone thought that the “Lili” bought back was skantily clad and was the product of male sexual fantasy, which was not suitable for children.
So, Ruth with a woman’s care and courage, and specially invited costume designer Charlotte Johnson to redesign the costume. This doll will change an era, she is not like the children’s toy dolls of the past – she is an adult, long limbs, fresh and beautiful, a beautiful figure, but tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, not to be judged by parents. Her face can also exude the mysterious charm of Marilyn Monroe.
Finally developed!
Ruth named the cute doll “Barbie” after her own daughter Barbara.
You read that right!
The Barbie doll that swept the world has a historical connection with sex dolls.
▌ The Age of the day
The post-World War II world was a complex and fast-moving place.
In 1956, Japan was going to explore Antarctica. The Japanese government has developed the country’s first adult doll on the advice of psychologists to avoid the health consequences of abstinence.
However, the doll material at that time was vinyl latex, which is a polymer emulsion, based on vinyl acetate and ethylene monomer, mainly used in adhesives and paints. Therefore, the doll at this time is indeed an inflatable doll, which needs to be blown up, and the shape is very ghost animal, but the price is good.
It’s kind of like a “screamo chicken” thing
You can also think of PVC materials similar to swimming rings and gloves. It takes a very strong psychological suggestion, and then turn off the lights and wrap your head around it with a pillow towel before you can get off your hands.
Of course, since the 1990s, with the entry of silicone, Japan has also begun to study physical dolls, and gradually got rid of those terrible shapes.
▌ The Physical Age
In 1996, the silicone doll was introduced.
Abis founder Matt McMullen
Matt McMullen making dolls
Matt McMullen, who used to work as an artist and sculptor, was making female figures for an art project when he decided it would be nice to “make a real doll,” so he started making sex dolls out of silicone.
McMullen started Abyss Creations, which specializes in the development of dolls. The dolls are made of silicone and are life-size, with limbs that can be placed in various shapes and replaceable heads. In 1996, they were praised by the first celebrity user, the famous American gossip show host Howard Stern, and have since become stars in the industry.
Now Abyss has become one of the technology pioneers and industry benchmarks in the doll industry.
Of course, in the development of silicone dolls at the same time, people have also found new materials, such as TPE thermoplastic elastomer. This material has the high elasticity, high strength, high rebound and high wear resistance of silica gel. Subsequently, it was widely used in the doll manufacturing industry, and the cost is lower than silicone. However, the material has always had two common problems of oil and odor, which is the direction that the industry manufacturers have been trying to improve.
So, what’s the difference between silicone and TPE?
Here’s an experience from last year.
In the winter of 2019, on a business trip, I came to this physical doll store located in the suburbs of Beijing. This is a physical store of an online store. If you really want to understand dolls – you have to do it yourself.
After many twists and turns finally came to the front of the store.
The boss opened the door enthusiastically, and after a few pleasantries, he got down to business.
The shelves were full of cardboard boxes that were more than one person long, and I knew there were dolls lying there. However, what shocked me more was that the boss opened the curtain behind me, and a wall was full of doll heads, delicate faces with various hair styles, various expressions, or temptation, or charming, charming and strange.
Without waiting for me to say more, the boss said: “Here, give a hand.” We lifted the first carton off the shelf.
The weight of the box is not light, and it is not impossible for an adult male to pick up, but it is not easy.
I opened the carton and filled it. After the boss cleaned the stuffing away, the doll was revealed.
Open the frosted temptation bag, the doll’s “fruit body” is directly revealed, the skin is white as fat, brilliant and not bad, the only regret is that there is no head. The neck is a raised skeleton.
Even so, the jade body, the double peaks, the slender waist, the long legs… … It is a shock to the heart.
I was about to reach out, the boss blocked down, gave me a pair of gloves: “are the customer set, or put on the gloves.”
Do as you please.
Wearing white gloves similar to a symphony conductor, I do not know why, peripheral glimpse of the beautiful “fruit”, I suddenly feel like a deviant role in an underground sex place, finally put his hand out. …
The legs were soft and cold, reminding me that this was not a living thing.
The first hand feels very strange, and does not have a full human touch, but is too soft. Then pay attention to the chest, can be cruel, bounce back feedback quality, and even jelly, air hollow design, make the chest more elastic. However, when observing the limbs, it will be found that the limbs of TPE material lack texture characterization or the recurrence of human skin texture is less, and there is no skeleton support, fingers and toes can be folded to a strange degree, reducing the authenticity of the doll. Then I experienced the activity of the doll, the bending of the arms and legs, etc., a person is still more difficult to operate, if you really want to use, the movement will be tossed for a long time.
Next, the boss and I re-took a silicone doll.
Open the case, and the distance doesn’t seem to make much difference. After close touch, it will be obvious that the silicone material is hard, but this hardness can well show the human skin, the upper to the lip lines, the lower to the arm blood vessels can be perfectly performed, not to mention the hands and feet added to the skeleton, in addition to the cold, the whole torso has the truth of the human body.
Then under the introduction of the boss, the sensitive parts are not important, whether it is one or two, the biggest difference is the cleaning, from the actual use of the effect in the doll weight and operation difficulty are no longer important.
Looking at my careful research, the boss could not bear to “show off” and said, “Buddy, choose a few heads from the back wall, and install them to see the overall effect.”
I chose a slightly feminine number five. The boss said that considering the makeup and wig, there is a difference between TPE and silicone on the body material, but the head is pure silicone. As he spoke, he put his head on the doll’s neck and made it sit up.
The doll after the head is more confusing, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false from afar.
I asked the boss, are there many buyers?
The boss laughed, there are indeed many people to buy, and cross-border business is also in full swing. Look, the boss said while pointing down the shelf, “This is all ordered by customers.”
The addition of TPE material broke the state of high-end high-price dolls, the original average price of more than 10,000 silicone dolls, with the addition of TPE material has also been pulled down to the level of 3,000 yuan.
However, silicone and TPE have their own advantages and disadvantages, which also makes many “raising children” have their own.
▌ The Age of Intelligence
With the stability of the material, in order to further open the market, manufacturers have also begun to make efforts in intelligence.
Body heating, touch vocalization, voice interaction It’s all pediatrics.
On January 9, 2010, the intelligent sex robot named Roxxxy was born, which can become a man’s wife who can actively serve and meet all the preferences of straight men through “mind reading”.
Roxxxy
In 2017, Abyss released its Harmony AI doll. Harmony, who has a slightly inquisitive Scottish accent, says she likes to read science fiction and can do basic character Settings, drawing closer to her “master” as she learns intelligently.
Harmony
The classic cyberpunk film Blade Runner successfully opened up the starting point of “human nature” such as robots, artificial humans and artificial intelligence, and became a threshold that could not be bypassed in subsequent films, deeply affecting the audience. Then, in the future, whether it is inflatable dolls, or sex dolls, physical dolls, sex dolls, they will have a more sound “brain”, coordination function, wonderful performance and high appearance level.
Then, for the first time, humans will encounter the crises-ridden Uncanny Valley — the theory, published in 1970 by Japanese robotics scientist Masahiro Mori, that humanoid robots cause a unique sense of discomfort that no other robot has.
If an object is clearly different from a human being, give it some human-like elements, and people’s liking for it increases with the similarity.
But if its similarity is given too much, and it looks more and more like humans, their appearance will make people feel uneasy and fearful, at this time, people’s favorability will enter a huge low stage, which is called the “uncanny valley”.
However, if the object is made to resemble a human after passing the “uncanny valley” stage, people’s liking for it will rise rapidly.
But human beings will never give up “evil”, and we will wait for that day.
But if its similarity is given too much, and it looks more and more like humans, their appearance will make people feel uneasy and fearful, at this time, people’s favorability will enter a huge low stage, which is called the “uncanny valley”.
However, if the object is made to resemble a human after passing the “uncanny valley” stage, people’s liking for it will rise rapidly.
But human beings will never give up “evil”, and we will wait for that day.
But if its similarity is given too much, and it looks more and more like humans, their appearance will make people feel uneasy and fearful, at this time, people’s favorability will enter a huge low stage, which is called the “uncanny valley”.
However, if the object is made to resemble a human after passing the “uncanny valley” stage, people’s liking for it will rise rapidly.
But human beings will never give up “evil”, and we will wait for that day.