69 days 33 men and no bobo

It”s a lot of time to be among men, isolated from the rest of the world. Sometimes the boundaries between an artificial world and the real collapse blurring the boundaries between social taboos and more primal urges. The relationship between thirty-three trapped Chilean miners and love dolls or sex dolls was a bit of a controversial matter as a Western Christian concept; even though in some countries there is a practice of rentals, which shows, that as a substitute, there is a demand for soft silicone against the flesh.Somewhat ambiguously,the issue is whether or not it is inappropriate for men and women to use dolls as a substitute for genuine contact. If placed in a situation where you had the option of a doll instead of no companionship, such as the Chileans, would you begrudge them if they chose a synthetic substitute? Perhaps they are the logical extension of objectifying male gaze. Patriarchy’s cake with sweet and sour icing.

---Lastly on the subject of the BBC's documentary there was one other fantastic quote/moment of the film that I need to share. This part profiled the maintenance man of the Real Dolls who would, um, repair, these Real Dolls. Now, one would think when preforming work on said Dolls that one would wear proper sanitary gear. Not this guy, he hunkers down as he gets into the nitty gritty with no gloves on as he pulls out damaged pieces as he says "I'm running all out of Vaginas."--- Read More:http://imaguylikeme.blogspot.com/2009/03/guys-and-real-dolls.html

Some of the trapped Chilean miners smoked cannabis and looked at pornography during their 69-day ordeal, according to a new book.The book, called The 33, claims that the trapped miners were smuggled drugs in letters from their family. But the drugs allegedly increased tensions in the dark underground shaft. One of the trapped miners, Samuel Avalos, said his fellow miners would isolate themselves to smoke the drug….

Albert Bandura. 1961. Bobo Doll Experiment.---Method: In this experiment three groups of children saw a film which showed the adult attacking an inflatable doll with a stick. The doll was thrown across the room, sat on, punched and kicked. Bandura provided three alternative endings to the film: Group A – Saw only the doll being hit. Group B – Saw the adult being praised and rewarded for hitting the doll. Group C – Saw the adult being punished for hitting the doll. When the children had seen the film, they were given the same doll. Bandura observed their behaviour which showed that groups A and B imitated the aggressive behaviour they had witnessed, while group C were less aggressive.--- Read More:http://www.psychotube.net/learning-psychology/albert-bandura-bobo-doll-experiment/

Non-organic entities already complete tasks that individuals are unable, unwilling  and incapable of doing.  The love dolls assume a role that  most women would be horrified with. In industry, we use machines so often that their place is  accepted without issue. From a Marxist perspective,not to be totally dismissed, is that relations between individuals create society, while those between non-individuals establish techniques and methodology. As real men and women  are sent to pogey, their surrogates are upgraded, amortized and improved. This can be seen through the evolution of the male ‘sex-toy’ from, for example, pornography to poorly-made vaginal constructions to Realdolls and, eventually, to sex robots. If, indeed “what defines our social relations is, for the most part, prescribed back to us by nonhumans,” then the rise of the Realdoll is symptomatic not only of alienation, but a shift away from human interaction and a rejection of procreative sex-Bruno Latour.As Elizabeth Record notes,   all mechanical human delegates have a social role and with Realdolls this is especially obvious. Regardless of whether Realdolls are part of society, they are definitely influencing and reshaping humanity. You can add the caveat here, that the term “human” is a legal construct, thus contractually in the domain of property law…. “studying social relations without the nonhumans is impossible” (Latour).

---Realdolls confuse boundaries, which Haraway argues should be both supported and responsibly analysed. Through this disorder of the natural and abnormal, virtuous and perverse, organic and constructed, we may relearn how to be human and discover our true ethos. The logos of Western male dominated capitalism can be reshaped to be more inclusive and universally relevant. While the occurrence of Realdolls may be seen as the imposition of a totalising and restraining model, ultimately furthering the oppression of women, it may (in time) provide the opportunity to rethink the nature of humans. Moreover, it may provide a space for people to accept “permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints”-Donna Haraway. Read More:http://culturalshifts.com/archives/295 image:http://www.loneleeplanet.com/2009/03/japanese-love-dolls-taboo/

…He told the book’s author, New York Times journalist Jonathan Franklin, the other miners “never even offered me one”. However, according to the book the greatest desire of the trapped men was sexual, with the miners requesting blow-up sex dolls be sent down for relief.This “greatest need”, Franklin says, got doctors working on “how to appease the expected rise in sexual desires”. Once Chilean doctor monitoring the miners’ physical condition while they were trapped in the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, said a donor offered ten inflatable dolls for the miners’, but was turned down. “I said 33 or none. Otherwise they would be fighting for inflatable dolls: whose turn is it? Who was seen with whose fiancee? You are flirting with my inflatable doll,” the medic, Dr Jean Romagnoli, reportedly said.Instead, the pin-ups from La Cuarta, a Chilean tabloid famous its girls known as Bomba 4′, and pornography were sent instead. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356573/Chilean-miners-Cannabis-porn-blow-sex-dolls-case-jealousy.html#ixzz1MEL068ko

Evidently, the issue of the love doll plants itself in the psychological theory of the transitional object as well as the complementary concept of transference within the overall context of the life passage to the significant other. There is a distortion with the dolls given their acute technical resemblance with the “object” one is supposed to relate to. But then, pop culture is so imbued with the plastic of perception, that it is almost comprehensible to juxtapose and  contradict the demarcation between physical and emotional fulfilling of needs mixed with more profound and sometime suspect wants and desires. The doll is in one sense “perfect” and, yet its seduction is equally demoralizing.

---To the untrained eye, the clusters of synthetic body parts scattered on the floor of a vast warehouse in Italy’s heartland looked very much like — well, like clusters of synthetic body parts. But to an expert like Andrea Bonaveri, whose family company has been making mannequins for 60 years, each slick torso, each sculpturesque limb, has its own story. “These are waiting to be delivered to Burberry,” he said, pointing to one bunch of white bodies. “Those legs are for Emilio Pucci. The somewhat prune-colored ones are for Louis Vuitton, and those gray ones are for Hugo Boss.” There were more: bronze bodies for Roberto Cavalli. Mannequins in transparent fiberglass for Giorgio Armani. Projects for Max Mara, Zara and Loewe, the luxury leather brand. In the world of mannequin makers, Bonaveri is among a handful of companies whose brands are as recognizable as the fashion designers whose styles their models show off.---Read More:http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110219/ZNYT01/102193010 image:http://www.exhibitingfashion.com/post/3380605495/a-nice-nyt-photo-essay-about-the-top-mannequins-to

Elizabeth Record:The Realdoll Doctor mentioned earlier is where these women are sent when they go on strike. Their work stoppage is frequently the result of sexual abuse. While some of the reasons Realdolls are sent away are for routine maintenance (joint tightening, vaginal replacement), there are many cases of maltreatment which can only be described as cruel: Realdolls have been mutilated and left in dumpsters, dismembered or snapped in half …Finally, the vast majority of Realdolls are white, blonde and thin, with the heaviest model being 113 pounds. Read More:http://culturalshifts.com/archives/295

ADDENDUM:

The next time you’re shopping in Milan, take a close look at the mannequins: Some of them could be looking back. International Business Machines Corp. is testing a tiny camera installed in a mannequin’s eye that uses biometrics to recognize humans based on physical or behavioural traits. IBM, perhaps realizing that some customers might be uncomfortable with this scrutiny, has not identified the store.

---Mannequins have their heads covered, in accordance with the local culture. The photograph is from a shop in Jakarta (Indonesia). Read More:http://www.anindianmuslim.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

1,500-2,000 ;Number of mannequins produced by Italian firm Bonaveri each month, destined for designers and high-end retail.

50,000; Number of mannequins sold in Germany each year.

$1,800-$2,200; Price, in U.S. dollars, of one Bonaveri mannequin, the gold standard.

$830-$1,100; Price of an average Italian-made mannequin.

---Love Doll brothels aren’t new to Japan, but it seems that business at these establishments has been booming lately. For those who don’t know what a Love Doll brothel is, it’s like a regular brothel except the prostitutes aren’t human, but rather blow-up sex dolls. Now, I can sort of see the appeal of dolls. You can dress them up however you want—many of the brothel customers like to make up the dolls like their favorite manga or anime characters. You can do whatever you want to them without them protesting or calling you a sick degenerate....But in Japan, these dolls are big business and the high quality, realistic models (complete with a metal skeleton and multiple joints that allow the doll to move like a real woman) could cost more than $6,000.... Read More:http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/japan%E2%80%99s-booming-love-doll-brothels/

$138; Price of a mannequin imported to Europe from China.

$135; Price of a used “Amber” or “Enid” model from Mannequin Madness in San Francisco.

---For Request Mannequin Like This You can contact us: Email: endo.fiber@yahoo.com Or Visited official site @ waterpark.co.id Ir. Hendro Prasetyo / Neni S.W 081808127049 / 08176988578 PT. GREAT PUTRAPRASENDO Jl. Lingkarsari No.16B Kalisari Jakarta 13 740. Tel: +62-21-8720620--- Read More:http://www.dzakwan12.co.cc/2011/01/impression-mannequins-for-attract-more.html

Sources: The New York Times; Mannequin Madness Read More:https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20110304/RBDAYBOOK0304MANNEQUINSATL

---An employee works on a mannequin at a Top Mannequin factory in Kuala Lumpur July 10, 2010.--- Read More:http://fotowarung.bazuki.com/?paged=16

—Lately in the media there has been a keen awareness to exactly how creepy/humorous it is to own a Real Doll. Two Years ago Ryan Gosling starred in the heartwarming Rom-Com “Lars and the Real Girl” about a delusional young man who strikes up an unconventional relationship with a Real Doll that he finds on the internet….The BBC  put out a documentary 2 years ago called “Guys and Dolls.” The documentary profiled the lives of 4 Creeps  who owned Real Dolls. One of the owners by the name of “DaveCat” lived in the suburbs of Detriot. “DaveCat” reminded me of this guy that I used to work with both physically and mannerism/personality wise that it creeped me out….

Jean Leon Gerome. ---His art was so perfect that it concealed itself and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and gave it presents such as young girls love, - bright shells and polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues, beads and amber. He put rainment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a necklace about its neck. To the ears he hung earrings and strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her, and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife, and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if she could enjoy their softness. The festival of Aphrodite was at hand... Read More:http://thisismyhole.homestead.com/pygmalion.html

…Another Gentleman, and I use that term loosely, profiled in the BBC documentary was a gentleman by the name of Mike. Mike owned a beyond phenomenally creepy count of 8 Real Dolls. Mike also supplied 2 hilarious moments in the film, one where he was cleaning out one of his dolls unmentionable parts with a Swiffer duster as he stated that particularly doll was “beginning to smell like fish.” Read More:http://imaguylikeme.blogspot.com/2009/03/guys-and-real-dolls.html

---A street vendor walks past a fashion shop with partly dressed mannequins in downtown Hanoi on July 2, 2009. Shop mannequins displaying underwear will have to take cover under a regulation passed by authorities in Vietnam's commercial capital. The models must no longer be visible from shop fronts under the rule controlling various forms of advertising in the southern Ho Chi Minh city, former Saigon. --- Read More:http://adikmaisarah.blogspot.com/2009_06_28_archive.html

---As Everard talks in the programme, his face bears a burden and he seems to space out, as if remembering things in the past. Here’s another owner’s views on owning a doll: When she first came into my life it was sex, sex, sex, sex, and now it’s just tapered off to where it’s just like we’re there for each other; we’re always there for each other. She’s an anchor, She-chan is an anchor to me, ‘cause it’s just like I know what to expect. With women you don’t really get that. – Davecat. Michigan, USA---Read More:http://www.loneleeplanet.com/2009/03/japanese-love-dolls-taboo/

…Each has a name. Ta-Bo often watches television with his toys before bathing them, powdering them so that their skin feels more human, dressing them in lingerie and then taking them to bed. “A human girl can cheat on you or betray you sometimes, but these dolls never do those thing. They belong to me 100 percent,” says the engineer who has spent more than 2 million yen ($16,000) over the past decade on the dolls. “Sometimes it takes too much time before I can have sex with the person I meet. But with these dolls, it’s just a matter of a click of the mouse. With one click, they are delivered to you.” The man, who says he has had sex with five women but prefers the dolls, is one of a gradually increasing, though secretive, group of Japanese men who have given up on women. Read More:http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/18/us-japan-sex-dolls-idUSSP10422420070718

Elizabeth Record: The libidinal repression embodied in capitalism does not disrupt the social order so long as man desires what he is “supposed to.” These restrictions are universalised and rationalised so that they permeate both man’s conscience and his unconscious and become the collective “desire, morality and fulfillment” of man (Marcuse). His societal and sexual performances are assimilated so that man feels relatively satisfied and society is adequately reproduced. The only activities which are “protected from cultural alterations” and remain committed to the principle of pleasure are those of fantasy (Marcuse). It is obvious, however, that fantastical erotic aspirations – epitomised in, for example, the use of anthropomorphised sex dolls which are incapable of refuting any type of advance or leaving abusive situations – are generally considered immoral. Perhaps more importantly, the realm of the “perverse” has often been judged as any sexual fulfillment which is devoid of procreative intention. Perversions, therefore, “express rebellion against the subjugation of sexuality” to procreation and oppose those institutions which shape this morality (Marcuse). Marcuse also notes that the termination of the production of wasteful and destructive goods, signalling the end of capitalism and instigation of non-commodified pleasure will be driven by technology and liberated Life Instincts . It is possible, then, that the continued employment of Realdolls (and eventually, it is assumed, robotic sexual partners) may fatally injure capitalism. Read More:http://culturalshifts.com/archives/295

…If it has become an arduous pursuit to form relationships and this is a result of alienation, then the general automisation of labour in a post-capitalism may rectify (or alter) preconceived notions of sexuality for the better. As notions of both civilisation and perversion are changed and Freudian explanations of repression become less valid, the future of society may well be predicated on social evolution which encourages the increase of interactions between humans and non-humans….

Bruno Latour stresses the importance of considering the roles of nonhumans in examining society. Through the metaphor of a nonhuman door closer which has definite social implications, Latour examines the character of the countless objects which substitute for humans. This metaphor is applicable when considering Realdolls and the human roles they fulfill. For Realdoll buyers, it has been impossible to find a sufficiently attractive woman who is willing to completely submit to the whims of her partner, always be young and never leave. Given the unlikelihood that these men will find such a women, they are left with two options. Either to discipline women in such a way that they will fulfill these functions (an obvious impossibility) or to “substitute for the unreliable people another delegated human character” who will perform this role (Latour:300, emphasis in original). The use of Realdolls as surrogate women, of course, hardly provides the same experience of living with a real woman, which for some is the appeal of using such a construction. ( Record )