A Gap in our Selves? Erotic manipulation of our purchasing decisions.

Do you worship at the The First Church of Christ, Mallwalker?

This video by Jessedocs explores the intersection of art, religion and marketing via the classic manikin. While I abhor stereotypes, it's difficult to say which are more stereotypical, the artificially perfect female manikins created by this company, the males creating them, or the marketing of them.

Personally, I can't say that the artificial perfection of display manikins has ever done much for me, artistically or erotically. But then, they don't exist to work on me - these forms are not aimed at men; they are made by men in order to construct in women the ideal of a perfect form.

I must be honest, at first, I thought I was watching a documentary about the people behind the "real doll" poseable sex toy.

By the way guys, if you are going to do portraits of your dolls - hire a hairstylist!!!

I was surprised and more than a bit creeped out to find that the people at realdoll seem far less creepy - and their products a little more realistic - at least, unless they are just utterly absurd.

My wife watched a full documentary about the men who buy real-dolls, sort of creeped out by the idea, but you know how it is; you keep waiting for the trainwreck. Well, there were indeed some creepy scenes - but more simply moved her to tears. Here's some YouTube examples - take your chances, if you will.

They actually have several fairly realistic bodies to go with faces that could easily be Faux News Spokesmuffins. In other words, these are not perfectly idealized faces. Yep, even men that want to have sex with a manikin would like a little more individuality than the people who make store manikins think is appropriate.

But then, when it comes to self-image, we have no sense of humor about our own appearance and far less tolerance for individual variation than the people looking at us. I've always found that the most attractive women who are accepting of their bodies whatever shapes they may be blessed with, and however divergent their faces are from the current whims of fashion

So, if you want to go for an idealized stereotype ... consider something like this.

It's no harder to have your head inflated and your skin plasticised than it is to become a perfectly symmetrical 35, 24, 36.

Come to think of it, Miss July reminds me of Dolly Parton. But then, they are both cartoon-inspired.

(The thing I most love about Dolly Parton is that she'd laugh and agree with the statement. Personally, though, I prefer her interpretation. On the other hand, she's a lot harder to book. )

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We need to get these devices into our schools...

Japanese Sex Toy Culture

Is cultural acceptance of masturbation toys and lower birth-rate correlated? (PG)

clipped from www.literaryescorts.com The Japanese are famous for their love of technology as well as their embracing of sexuality, at least compared to most Western cultures. The combination of the two has produced a state-of-the-art sex doll that has led to a widescale sex doll fetish. But it's also produced other devices, three of which I'll cover here. A more compact and cheaper alternative is provided by the Japanese company Tenga, which has the tagline "New Adult Concept." This is a modern company all about new masturbation devices. These cups come in various styles, each with their own color: "standard" is red, "hard" is black, and "soft" is white. A larger-size "U.S. Tanga" style (red with silver stripes) was the most recent edition (parallel to the recent development of larger-sized condoms in the U.S.). Because this is Japan, where seemingly everything has to be sold through cute characters, each color even has their own anime girl character.

Why? Well, because the Japanese are now complaining of a low birth rate - JUST as Jocelyn Elders predicted!!!!

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