If you have ever wondered what it is like to be in bed with something that looks and acts like your sexual partner, you have found the answer in the form of the “sex doll.” A sex doll can be an entire body or only a specific body part, such as a head, pelvis, or other sexually appealing body part.
History of Sex Dolls
The history of sex dolls dates back to the 16th and 17th century. The sailors of Spanish, French and Dutch ships were the first to sleep with life-size puppets. The purpose of these puppets was to make long-distance travel more bearable for seafarers. At the time, these dolls could not be referred to as women since they were only stitched together from plain rags.
Rubber sex dolls from the early 1900s are hardly ever documented. The vulcanization method, invented in the 1840s, opened the door to a more flexible and long-lasting material. This chemical process improved the physical properties of natural rubber. The finished rubber had better characteristics and was more resistant and elastic. Iwan Bloch published the first mention of sex dolls in 1908, stating that they were made of rubber as well as other plastic materials. These were available in both female and male versions at the time.
Hans Bellmer, a German surrealist artist who worked in the 1930s, was named “the father figure of the modern sex doll” for his sex puppets. He made more realistic models that carried further forward in history. Bellmer created three dolls, each becoming more and more advanced in design. However, this caused outrage in the worldwide art community back then.
Pornographic magazines in the US began selling inflatable dolls via mail in 1968, making them widely available. Sex doll penetration points were located in the mouth, vagina, and anus of these air-filled inflatables. Because they were made of an inflated material, these dolls quickly lost their resiliency and could not be used consistently. In the 1970s, materials like latex and silicone were used to make sex dolls in order to make them last longer and look more realistic.
Modern Sex Dolls
A British firm named Sex Object Ltd. has integrated sound into the dolls, transforming them into something more similar to a sex robot at the end of the 90s. However, it was not until 1997 that they created the first lifelike doll using silicone. At that time, these dolls already had a more accurate face and their hair looked more real. Furthermore, their genitals have now become truer-to-life representations of human anatomy. Matt McMullan was the man behind the creation of Leah, the world’s first realistic-looking doll.. Its starting price was $6,000, and the total cost of the device, including batteries, could reach as much as $10,000. This type of doll also appeared in the movie Plastic Love, which was made in the 1980s.
McMullen had some development ideas in the past, but they were not really appealing to clients or users. Such was the groaning sound made by the dolls when users pressed the built-in sensors installed in the erogenous areas. Another feature was the hip movement, which significantly raised the price due to the complexity of the equipment and made the doll’s movement noisy and robotic.
How to choose the right Sex Doll?
It has been a long time since the first sex dolls appeared on the market. Inflatable models are very inexpensive due to their false and unpleasant nature, which makes them difficult to use. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that people used to accept them as a reasonable alternative option. Sex-dolls have developed significantly as a result of advances in technology and materials. As a result, synthetic materials began to resemble human skin and muscles in appearance. There are two main materials that modern sex dolls are made of. Let us take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of these materials to see which one is best.
Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE)
It combines two ingredients: thermoplastic and elastomer. Stretching it to five times its original length, it has the ability to be flexible and soft. The cost of these dolls has decreased as a result of mass production. The cost is now $800 to $2000 for a doll. Due to the special properties of TPE, the doll’s breasts and bottoms will bounce and respond realistically. TPE is more versatile in terms of sex positions, making the dolls more adjustable, which also increases the doll’s ability to manage additional sex positions. A soft and stretchy combination provides a lifelike touch. Compared to silicone, it is more authentic. TPE is compatible with both silicone-based and water-based lubricants. TPE is a substance that is very porous. Consequently, it is vulnerable to stains from clothing as a result of its porous nature. The tendency to absorb moisture from humidity is another drawback of porosity. Mold can also develop on the doll, which is unsanitary. After cleaning a doll, we have to make sure to dry it completely. It is heat sensitive since TPE is partly thermoplastic, and temperatures over 40 °C can damage the shape and quality of dolls made of TPE.
Silicone
Silicone is a thermoset quite different from TPE; its form and properties are fixed once bonded. It is heat resistant and rubbery, which makes it ideal for a variety of applications. Silicone’s ability to hold form under immense pressure is one of its major features. It can also endure high temperatures, so you can use a doll in hot baths or sterilize it in a steaming pot of water. The non-porous nature of silicone makes it resistant to garment stains, so it is easy to clean. Unlike TPE, its non-porous structure means it does not retain moisture. This material is a lot harder than TPE, so dolls made with it have no wobbly breasts and buttocks. Manufacturing silicone dolls is pretty expensive, with prices reaching $2,000 to below $5,000 in certain cases.
Future
Sex dolls come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but they are often separated from sex robots, which are humanoid constructs that are supposed to be capable of engaging in more complicated interactions with their users. The latest generation of sex dolls comes with built-in artificial intelligence and the capacity to perform deep learning operations on the data they collect. We can certainly say that the future of sex dolls will be sex robots.
