The story of Pygmalion goeslike this: A sculptor carves a statue in the shape of a beautiful woman. It'sso beautiful that he falls in love with her, prays that she could become real,has his wish granted, and lives happily ever after. The tale has been reimaginedcountless times since its initial publication as part of Ovid's epic poemMetamorphoses in 8 A.D. Pinocchio, Frankenstein, My Fair Lady, and 90s makeovermovie She's All That all have their origins in that myth.

皮革马利翁的故事是这样的：从前，有一个雕塑家雕了一个美丽的女人。她太美丽了以至于雕塑家爱上了她，他祈祷她能变成真人，他的愿望实现了，从此他们过上了性福的生活。自从公元8年，奥维德叙事诗变形部分首次出版以来，这故事就被广泛引用。皮诺奇、科学怪人、窈窕淑女，以及90年代改头换面的电影里都有这个故事的影子。

But Pygmalion's true modern heir might be Davecat, a man who lives insoutheastern Michigan with three high-end sex dolls. His first purchase, whichhe named Sidore Kuroneko, he considers his wife; the other two—named Elena andMuriel—are just intimate friends. Though he didn't sculpt them, they are hiscreations. He designed their bodies before they were manufactured and theirpersonalities after they arrived. “There was never a moment when [Sidore]—orany doll, for that matter—was merely an object to me," he told me when we spokelast year.

皮革马利翁现代版真实继任者要属戴维猫了，一个跟三只高端定制充气娃娃住在密歇根东南部的男人。订购的第一件产品，他取名为Sidore Kuroneko，他把她当做妻子，另外两个叫做埃琳娜和穆里尔的只是亲密朋友。尽管他没有雕刻她们，但他创造了她们（角色和外形）。在制造成形之前他设计了她们的身体随后才收到货物。“不论是[Sidore]还是其他娃娃，她们从来不会反抗我。”当我们去年聊天时他告诉我。

Though Davecat may be one of the most visible modern sex doll owners—with anactive blog and appearances in articles, documentaries, and TV spots—he's part ofa community called iDollators. These owners of high-end, anatomically correctdolls use them for sex, love, art, and companionship.
戴维猫也许是性爱娃娃诸多拥有者里较出名的一个——他活跃于博客、专栏、记录片和电视广告中——他是这个被称作iDollators的团体一员。这个群体用高端定制、符合解剖学构造的娃娃来满足他们的性、爱、艺术和友谊等需求。

If Pygmalion lived in today's world, none of this would be too foreign to him.In Ovid's original story, there is some implication that the sculptor was notonly in love with the statue but that he had sex with it before it came tolife, according to The Erotic Doll, a book by Dr. Marquard Smith, the head ofdoctoral studies and the research leader at the Royal College of Art's Schoolof Humanities. Other tales of statue-love can be found throughout classicalantiquity. For example, the Greek rhetorician Athenaeus wrote of a man who hada physical love affair with a statue of Cupid. In a somewhat more recentexample, a gardener was reportedly found attempting to get it on with a replicaof the Venus de Milo in 1877.

如果皮革马利翁生活在现代，他应该会很适应这一切。据皇家艺术学院人文院博导史密斯马奎德博士，在性爱娃娃一书中所说，奥维德的原著中有过一些暗示，雕塑家不仅跟雕像坠入爱河，还在他们共同生活前就有过性行为。在其他的雕像故事里——你可以发现，爱情贯穿整个古典时期。例如，古希腊修辞学家阿特纳奥斯写道有人爱上丘比特雕像。最近的例子是1877年，报道说一个园丁被发现试图吃复制品维纳斯的豆腐。

Throughout history, men without access to beautiful statues—but with an inclination to make love to wome-shaped things-have made do in variousways. Sailors often used cloth to fashion fornicatory dolls known as dame devoyage in French, or dama de viaje in Spanish. In modern-day Japan, sex dollsare sometimes known as "Dutch wives"-a reference to the hand-sewn leathermasturbation puppets made by the 17th-century Dutch sailors who traded with theJapanese.

纵观历史，男人们没有特别去关注漂亮雕像——只是在很多方面有和女性形象事物滚床单的倾向。过去水手们在法国或者西班牙经常使用一种叫做‘夫人之旅'的时尚fornicatory（某种性爱玩具)布制玩偶。现代——在日本性爱娃娃，有时候也被称作“荷兰爱人”——是指17世纪荷兰水手同日本人买卖的一种全手工缝制的手淫木偶。

Though sailors'dolls were just generic substitutes for the female form—anyfemale form—there are some instances of men creating dolls as stand-ins forspecific women. In 1916, after the Austro-Hungarian artist Oskar Kokoschka wasjilted by his lover, the pianist and composer Alma Mahler, he wrote that he had "lost all desire to go through the ordeal of love again." (This is a refrainthat doll owners have repeated through the ages.) He still desired Mahler,though, so much so that he provided her dressmaker with incredibly detailedinstructions for a life-sized replica of Mahler, specifying not only herappearance but everything down to how her skin should feel. Historians differon what happened after Kokoschka received the doll. One thing is for sure—itwas extremely furry, covered in "skin" more reminiscent of a plush stuffedanimal than a human woman. One account says he was "enraptured” by it all thesame; others say he was disappointed. He made several drawings of it, and,according to some reports, eventually destroyed it at a party, either burning itor burying it in his garden.

虽然水手们的娃娃只是一般女性形式的替代物——任何女性属性——这有很多实例表明男人们发明娃娃只是作为特定女性的替代品。1916年，奥匈帝国的艺术家奥斯卡柯克西卡被他的情人钢琴家作曲家阿尔玛马勒甩了，他写道他“无法忍受失去的折磨而不敢再次尝试爱情”（这是这年代玩偶爱好者们重复多次的高潮部分）他如此渴望马勒，以至于给她的裁缝提供了一份详细的说明——制作一个真人大小的马勒，他不仅对外形有要求，还对皮肤的手感也提了标准。历史学家对柯克西卡收到娃娃之后的事情持不同看法。但有一件事情是可以肯定的——它的皮毛，比一起个人类女性来更容易让人想到毛茸茸的动物。有报告说，他对它的相似程度“欣喜若狂”，也有人说他失望极了。他替它做了好几张画，有数据说，它在一场聚会中被毁掉了，也有说是是烧掉的或者被埋在了他的花园里。

In 1877, a gardener wasreportedly found attempting to have sex with a replica of the Venus de Milo.

1877年，新闻报道称一名园丁被发现试图跟纳爱斯复制品滚床单

But the most public prelude to the modern sex doll was the mannequin-based artcreated by Surrealists like Man Ray and Salvador Dalí. A work called "MannequinStreet," featured at the Exposition International du Surréalisme at the Galeriedes Beaux-Arts in 1938, included 16 mannequins outfitted by different artists,while Dalí's "Rainy Taxi" centered on a female mannequin whose half-undressedbody was crawling with live snails. Man Ray once claimed that the Surrealistsnot only infused these works with eroticism but personally "violated" their mannequins.

对大部分公众来说，现代充气娃娃发展的前奏就是由曼雷和萨尔瓦多·达利这样的超现实主义者发明的人体艺术。1938年，在“模特街”美术馆举行的国际超现实主义展览，16位艺术家都带了自己的展示模特，达利的作品“雨中的士”是一位爬满蜗牛的半裸女模。曼雷说，超现实主义者的作品不仅仅揉进了色情，艺术家们还会“潜规则”他们的模特。

A persistent urban legendholds that Adolf Hitler charged one of his SS commanders to design sex dollsfor German soldiers during World War II, to prevent them from slaking theirlust with non-Aryan women. Whether or not this is true, the commercial sex dolldoes find its origins in Germany. The Bild Lilli doll—invented inthe 1950s and modeled on a sexy, outspoken comic-strip character calledLilli—was an 11.5 inch plastic model, not a penetrable sex doll. In his bookThe Sex Doll: A History, Anthony Ferguson calls the Bild Lilli "a pornographiccaricature." Although it was marketed to adult men, the doll is widely cited asthe inspiration for Barbie, so, you know, take that and run with it.

据说二战期间，希特勒给他的党卫队军官一条指令是设计性爱娃娃，以满足士兵的需求并防止他们同雅利安女性啪啪。传说的真假不确定，但是现代性爱娃娃的商业化确实源于德国。Bild Lilli娃娃出现在1950年，取材于漫画中性感豪放女角莉莉——高11.5英寸不可穿透性爱玩偶。在他的书《性爱玩偶》中写道：在历史中，安东尼弗格森称莉莉系列为“色情漫画”。虽然她是销售给成年男性的，但正如你所知，芭比娃娃的来源和灵感都出自于她，并还在不断延续。

Custom-designed heads are mounted on a display at the RealDolls showroom inSan Marcos, California. (AP)

客户定制的头部会在加利福尼亚的圣马科斯陈列室被安装好

In the United States, sexdolls were first advertised in porn magazines around 1968, when it became legalto sell sexual devices through the mail. By the 1980s, they could be found inmost sex shops—though they were the inflatable kind, more suited to be gaggifts at a frat party than to actually withstand sex with a person. "Most ofthe attention and craftsmanship was focused on the penetration areas, themouth, vagina and the anus," Ferguson writes, but "the inflatable can onlysupport a certain amount of weight or repeat usage before the seams in thematerial deteriorate."

在美国，第一次性爱娃娃广告出现在1968年的色情杂志上，后来邮购成为合法途径。到了80年代，你会在成人用品店找到很多——虽然充气玩具的类型，比起性爱玩偶更适合在聚会上当恶作剧礼物。“工艺的大部分重点放在了可穿透区，比如口腔、阴道和肛门，”弗格森写道，但是“充气玩具承重和反复使用受到材料限制。”

The realism and utility of sex dolls took a giant leap forward in the late 90s,when artist Matt McCullen started working on a lifelike siliconefemale mannequin and documenting its progress on his website. Before long, hebegan getting emails asking if it was … anatomically correct. At the time, itwasn't. But the demand was there, and so McCullen provided the supply. Hence,the eerily lifelike RealDoll was born. After shock jock Howard Stern got holdof one and seemingly had sex with it on his radio show, McCullen's company grewquickly, and he now sells anywhere from 200 to 300 high-end customizable sexdolls per year.

性爱玩偶在现实中使用的巨大飞跃出现在90年代后期，艺术家马特麦卡伦开始在网站开放他同硅胶真人版女模特的工作记录。不久，他收到邮件询问是否……符合解破学构造。那时候，还不是（高度仿真）。但是出现了需求，所以麦卡伦供给满足。不久，高仿真办娃娃诞生。百无禁忌的主持人霍华德在个人秀上无意提到他有性爱玩偶，节目播出后，麦卡伦公司迅速发展，现在每年售出2、3百个高级定制的性爱娃娃。

Most of McCullen's dolls are female; he makes a small number of male ones, butthere are fewer options for customizing them, and they account for just 10percent of his sales. "As an artist, I was always drawn to the female form, sothat's what my subject matter was," McCullen says. “The female form was mymuse." He insists that actual women have nothing to fear from his dolls."Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Do I think the dolls will replacewomen or threaten to replace women? Absolutely not."

麦卡伦制作的玩偶大多是女性，他也会制作一点男性玩偶，但是定制的不多，只占销售额十分之一。“作为艺术家，我总是被女性形态所吸引，这才是我擅长的，”麦卡伦说，“女性形态是我的灵感来源。”他坚持认为女性们不需要担心高仿真娃娃。“模仿是真诚的恭维。我从来不认为认为她能取代女性并威胁到女性的地位。”

Two female RealDolls wait to be shipped as an employee puts thefinishing touches on a male doll. The company's founder, Matt McCullen, saysfemale dolls account for 90 percent of his sales. (AP)

两只女性玩偶在等待完成组合安装，公司负责人麦卡伦说，女性玩偶占销售额的九成

Throughout history—from Pygmalion and his marble bride to Oskar Kokoschka andhis fuzzy companion—the creators and users of sex dolls have beenoverwhelmingly, if not exclusively, straight men. "In the content analysis Idid of magazines and books, I don't think any of [the examples] involvedwomen," says Cynthia Ann Moya, vice-president of the erotica databaseAlta-Glamour.com Book Gallery, who wrote her Ph.D. dissertation at theInstitute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco on artificialvaginas and sex dolls from the late 19th century through the 1980s. "This isnot to say that it never happened. But the mythologies that people tell eachother about these sex dolls all involved men."

回顾下历史——从皮革马利翁和他的大理石新娘到柯克西卡跟他的毛绒伴侣——如果不排除直男，创造和使用性爱玩偶的数据也是有具压倒性的。“从我的杂志和书反馈的数据来看，这不涉及到女性，”阿尔塔魅力情色数据库的副总裁Cynthia Ann Moya说，她在圣佛朗西斯科研究19世纪后期到20世纪80年代人类性福发展时，写过篇关于人工阴道和性爱娃娃的博士论文，“不是说一定不存在，只是从神话到现实，性爱娃娃总是跟男性有关。”

The twin questions this raises are: "Why aren't more women using sex dolls?"and "Why are so many men drawn to them?"
有两个问题调查：为啥女性不太用性爱娃娃？为啥男人都爱性玩偶？

Some answers are purely practical. For instance, only 25 percent of women canconsistently orgasm from vaginal sex alone, which makes a doll far from themost efficient sex toy. Also, when it comes to RealDolls and their ilk,everyone I spoke with told me how heavy they are. (Female RealDolls weighbetween 75 and 115 pounds.) Some mentioned it sheepishly, othersmatter-of-factly, but there was a general consensus that the dolls aredifficult for many women to move around.
一些答案很纯粹实用。例如，只有四分之一的女性能从阴道获得性高潮，性爱玩偶对大部分人意义不大。再说说RealDolls家族的娃娃，老有人跟我抱怨太重了。（女realdolls重达75磅到115磅之间。）也许有些人不好意思说这个，但其它人都在说这问题，但普遍的共识是女性很难挪动这些娃娃。

There's also plenty of speculation about the difference between men and women'smasturbation styles. In his 1936 book Studies in the Psychology of Sex, theEnglish psychologist Henry Havelock Ellis wrote that men are more visual, whilewomen are more imaginative and rely more on their sense of touch. Both Smithand McCullen reiterated this conventional wisdom, and, allowing for individualdifferences, it seems like a plausible enough explanation for why most dolls,like most porn, are made with men's interests in mind. Most women care mainlyabout the actual tactile sensation, while men like things to look real, thethinking goes. When a man is getting it on with a doll, especially a modern onewith its silicone skin and almost-human expression, it's easier for him topretend it wants him back.
也有很多男女自慰款产品。1936年，《性心理研究》，英国心理学家亨利哈维洛克埃利斯写道，男人是视觉动物，而女性则富有想象力，更依赖于她们的触觉。史密斯和麦卡伦重申了这一点，在允许个体差异的情况下，这是最合理的解释，为啥性爱娃娃和色情作品大都以男性利益为主。大多是女性更关心触觉感受，而男人，只要看起来像真的就行。一个男用玩偶，尤其是现代硅胶产品，更容易让男性们进入状态。

There are some women who buy female dolls. But McCullen says many of thempurchase the dolls with a male partner—or with the intention of dressing themup and enjoying them as fashion dolls. "A lot of women like the dolls becausethey're like life-size Barbies," he says.
也有女性购买女玩偶。但是，麦卡伦说——他们提供给男性的娃娃——都配有时尚的衣服供他们装扮，“很多女性买玩偶只是被当做真人版等大的芭比娃娃”他说。

Barbara, a 61-year-old small business owner from California, is one of the fewwomen involved in the community. She says she first heard about the dollsthrough a news story about people who were using them to cheat their way intocarpool lanes. Then she saw Davecat on the TLC show My Strange Addiction, gotin touch, and found him "extremely welcoming." The community as a wholeembraces female members, despite being mostly male, she says.
芭芭拉，61岁的加利福尼亚小老板，她是iDollator玩偶群体为数不多女性拥有者之一。她知道这种娃娃是在一则作弊占用共乘车道的新闻里。然后她又在戴维猫电视秀的奇异癖好中看到了这种娃娃，订购了一只，摸上去“简直太好了”。这个团体应该接受女性成员，尽管这是大多数是男性，她说。

Barbara and her husband own four dolls, which she says they use only forphotography, though she has "not the slightest objection to people who use themfor their 'intended purpose.'"
虽然芭芭拉和老公有4只玩偶，但是她说她们只是被用来拍照，而不是“她们通常意义上的‘正常用途'”

"Feminists seem to be totally horrified by these dolls, which puzzles me, as Iam a feminist," Barbara told me in an email. "They say that the dolls 'objectify' women because they are so beautiful that real women cannot hope tocompete with them on the basis of looks."
“女权主义者担忧这些娃娃，这同样困扰我，我也是个女权主义，”芭芭拉在邮件中这么告诉我，“这些'实物化'的女娃娃看上去如此美丽，而女性们不希望有这么漂亮的竞争者。”

Most feminists, however, probably aren't objecting because they're worriedabout entering into a beauty competition with the dolls. Complaints aboutobjectification centered on men who treat women as objects—disregarding theiragency or feelings and viewing them as mere tools to be used for selfish ends.Sex dolls are objects; they're also, critically, objects you can own. And theseobjects you can own are shaped, almost all of the time, like women.
大多数女权主义者不会否认担忧，她们要进入一个跟玩偶们比美的竞赛。大多数的投诉集中在男人把女人当做物品——无视她们的情绪感受，只是自私的当做满足目的的工具。性爱玩偶只是个玩物，她也是真实存在的物体。而且大多数时间里她看上去就像个女人。

In her Ph.D. dissertation, Moya questions why there is something uniquelyperverse about owning a sex doll. As she puts it, "A better spatula does notinspire lengthy monologues about human alienation and the reifying effects oftechnological mechanization on our lifestyles." Sexuality is an appetite, notunlike hunger, but we treat the devices used to satisfy that appetitedifferently. If the doll owners aren't hurting anyone, why should we condemn somethingthat is basically just fancy masturbation?
莫亚的博士论文里提到了这个问题，为啥玩偶拥有者就是不正常嗜好。她写道“一个好用的自慰器不会引来人们彼此疏远冷漠的长篇大论，因为科技机械化才会影响我们的生活。”性福是种欲望，不同于饥饿，我们有不同的东西来满足不同的欲望。如果玩偶拥有者没有伤害到其他人，我们为什么要仅仅因为他喜欢自慰而去谴责他？

But sex dolls do retain something of an ick-factor, even asvibrators and other sex toys have become more mainstream. That's because thedolls are tied up with questions about gender and power in a way that spatulas(and even vibrators) are not.
即使振动器和其他性玩具变得更为主流，性玩偶仍然有存在的理由。因为娃娃可以SM（好操蛋的一句，领会意思吧）自慰器（甚至振动器）做不到。

According to Smith, any sort of non-reproductive sexual behavior hashistorically been seen as perverse. These days, though, many people are okaywith sex that isn't reproductive. We're less okay with emotional attachmentsthat aren't socially productive, and so it seems the distaste is strongest forthe small subset of men who consider themselves to be in romantic relationshipswith their dolls, rather than just using them for sex. We expect a relationshipto involve mutual consent, a kind of equality and reciprocity that isimpossible with a doll. By its very nature, the relationship is one-sided—ateeter-totter with only one person sitting on it.
据史密斯说，历史上任何不以传宗接代为目的的滚床单都被认为是邪恶的。近年来，很多不生孩子的人也很性福。跟缺少情感的替代品（玩偶）在一起不是有效的社交行为，更令人强烈厌恶地的是他们认为同玩偶是种很浪漫的关系，而不仅仅只是性行为。但我们期待的双方认可互惠平等的关系，是不可能在玩偶身上得到的。由于这种本质，这段像跷跷板样平衡呃关系就只有一个人坐在一边。

But realistic dolls often do inspire real affection, and even devotion. Somemen assign personalities and preferences to the dolls they design (Davecat'sdolls even have Twitter accounts), and they talk about them as one would a livepartner. "There is genuine empathy here,” Smith writes, "what the Germans callEinfurlung, an entering into the feelings of an other."
但现实中玩偶也激发了真正的情感，甚至忠诚。一些人设计的娃娃还设定了个性和喜好（戴维猫的玩偶有推特。）他们像生活伴侣一样谈论她。“这是最典型的移情心理，”史密斯写道“德国人称之为Einfurlung（大约好像是恋物癖这类意思），进入了另外一种感情。”

A love for one's own creation, though, is also, in a way, self-love, ornarcissism. "This is why so much of it has to do with masturbation," Smithsays. "These things are not unconnected."
虽然，个体用这种爱自己或者说自恋的方式创造了爱。“这也是为什么那么多人手淫，”史密斯说“这些事物之间并未没有关联。”

Narcissistic or not, that attachment can become isolating. Smithpoints out that, especially in the age of technology, intimate relationshipswith objects aren't so uncommon. "Think about the way you use your iPhone," hesays. "You hold it, and you stroke it, and you scroll. You're holding it toyour ear as we speak. It's kind of a part of you. It's an extension of you." But things are different when the object is human-shaped and the relationshipis sexual. Owning a doll can have "social and psychological consequences formen who want to develop these intimate and erotic relationships with aninanimate human form. I don't want to pathologize anyone, but I think there's adanger around the way that processes like that objectify men's relationshipswith themselves in a way that restricts an authentic emotional intelligence."
不管是不是自恋行为，替代品（玩偶）都会让人变得更加孤僻。史密斯强调，尤其是在科技时代，同物体的亲密关系很常见。“想想你用‘爱疯'的方式，”他说，“你拿着它，抚摸它，来回翻转。当我们说话时你拿它贴着耳朵，就好像它是你的一部分，是你的身体的延生。”而跟人形物体滚床单则是不同的一件事。玩偶拥有者“同无生命人形物品发展出的这段亲密而色情的关系中，社交和心理占据重要地位的需求得到了满足。我不想说谁病态，但这确实很危险，男人们用他自己想要的方式来物体化一段关系，这制约了真正的情感发展。”

Sarah Valverde, a researcher and mental health therapist, did her mastersthesis in psychology on the demographics and psychological characteristics ofsex doll owners. She says that many of the men she surveyed for her researchfelt shame or embarrassment about owning sex dolls. But contrary to popularstereotypes, they were just as satisfied with their lives, on average, as thegeneral population, and didn't suffer higher-than-normal rates of depression orother mental illness. Owning a sex doll "is certainly a deviant sexual behaviorfrom our norm," she says. "But unless it's all-consuming and it impacts otherareas of life, we really can't define it as a disorder."
SarahValverde研究员和心理健康专家 ，她的硕士论文是关于玩偶拥有者心理特性的。她说她研究调查很多略显害羞尴尬的娃娃拥有者，与传统观点相反，他们对生活满意的满程度与普通人持平，没有遭受过抑郁症或其他精神疾病的苦难折磨。拥有一个性爱娃娃“无疑阻止了我们的出轨行为”她说，“除非它到处出现并影响到其它方面，不然我们真不应该定义它为障碍。”

A sex doll named Koyuki on display at the showroom of OrientIndustry, a high-end manufacturer based in Tokyo (Reuters)
东京高端定制商，陈列亚洲工业厅的一只叫做小雪的玩偶

There are many understandable, even sympathetic, reasons for owning sex dolls.Some doll owners are just having fun. Some suffer from social anxiety or evendisabilities that might make human relationships difficult. Some people justwant to take arty photographs. The whole phenomenon is surprisingly hard tonail down.
购买娃娃的原因可以理解，甚至是值得同情。一些人为了找乐子。一些人患有社交恐惧症甚至很难维持社交关系。还有些人只是想拍些艺术照。整件事情很难去细追究的。

"You want a quote, don't you?" Smith asks at the end of our wide-rangingconversation, when I ask if he can summarize all we've discussed. "I'll try andmake one up for you. It would have something to do with narcissism, somethingto do with fantasy, something to do with creativity, something to do withpersons and things. It has to do with struggles over questions of intimacy. Ithink that's really quite key."
“你想用这做论点，不是吗？”在这堆长篇讨论之后我问他是否有结论了，史密斯反问我道。“因为你我也许会试着弄一个出来。关乎自恋，关乎幻想，关乎创造，关乎人和物。还关乎同性欲作斗争。我想这才是真正关键的。”

This is thedoll-lover's frequent lament: Women are unpredictable and dolls are steadfast;women will leave you and dolls are loyal.
对玩偶有这样的感叹：女人是多变而娃娃是坚定的，女人会甩掉你而娃娃会一直忠诚。

These questions of intimacy inevitably come back to the relationship betweenthe genders. We may not be able to extrapolate much from one person's motivesfor buying a sex doll. But the phenomenon as a whole is like a funhousemirror—it may show a skewed reflection of male-female relationships, but itemphasizes some aspects we'd rather not see. These woman-shaped things, whichcan be whatever their owners want them to be, represent the far end of aspectrum of social attitudes. Plenty of men would like real women to be alittle more like dolls.
这些问题不可避免地回到了两性间的亲密关系上。我们可能无法推断某人购买性爱娃娃的动机。但是它像哈哈镜折射了整体现象——男女关系的扭曲，着重显示了某些我们不愿意看到的方面。玩偶主人可以随意摆弄的这些女形物体，代表了社会态度的一个范畴。很多男性希望女性更像这些性爱娃娃。

When I spoke to Davecat last year, he was offended by this idea. "Ninety-eightpercent of the iDollators and technosexuals I know treat their Dolls likegoddesses," he insisted. "A lot of men are lonely because they're misogynistpricks, true, but a lot of other men are lonely because they don't meet women'sexpectations." But then he went on: "Dolls don't possess any of the unpleasantqualities that organic, flesh and blood humans have. A synthetic will never lieto you, cheat on you, criticize you, or be otherwise disagreeable."
去年，当我跟戴维猫说起这个想法，他感觉被冒犯了。“我认识的iDollators中百分之98的人像女神一般对待娃娃，”他态度坚决地表示，“很多人单身因为他们害怕伤害，这是真的，其他一些人单身，因为他们达不到女性的期望。”他接着说，“娃娃不会有真人那样令人不愉快的品性，这种合成物从来不会欺骗、指责或者是其它令人不愉快的事情。”

This is the doll-lover's frequent lament: Women are unpredictable and dolls aresteadfast; women will leave you and dolls are loyal; women demand things anddolls accept you for who you are. Women are human and dolls are not.
对玩偶有这样的感叹：女人是多变而娃娃是坚定的，女人会甩掉你而娃娃会一直忠诚，女人会毁掉一些事而娃娃会接受真正的你。女人是人类，而娃娃不是。

The inventor of the Fleshlight, a popular masturbation toy for men, alsosubmitted a patent in 1995 for a "female functioning mannequin." (Within themannequin's "cavity," as the patent puts it, would have been a cartridge fullof "oily elastomer.") According to Smith's book, the inventor cited "as thereasons for its invention the fact that women are cruel, venal, superficial,that they humiliate and break the hearts of men and that dolls on the contraryare reliable, compliant, companionable, and loving."
流行男性自慰玩具FleshLight的发明者，1995年提交了一项“功能女模特”专利（作为专利提交的，一个模特形状的“腔体”，像子弹状充满油脂的弹性物）根据史密斯书中所写。发明家例举“该发明的真实原因是因为女性们残酷、贪婪、肤浅，侮辱和伤害男性们的心灵。娃娃们则相反，她们可靠、顺从、友善、可爱。”

Valverde's research (along with plenty of anecdotal evidence) suggests that thedolls do provide comfort, and a sexual outlet, for some men who can't find ordon't want a human romantic relationship. But in the grand history of time,women and gay men have surely felt rejected and lonely—straight men don't havea monopoly on those feelings.
瓦尔韦德的研究（以及足够的证据）表明，娃娃可以给那些不能或者不愿同人们维持一段浪漫关系的男人们提供安慰及性欲宣泄。在这个时期的历史中，女性和同性恋们会感觉被抛弃和孤独——异性恋男性们则没有这种感觉。

Valverde has her ownexplanation for why many men use the "women are cruel" argument to explaintheir attraction to dolls. "Margaret Atwood's quote: 'Men are afraid that womenwill laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.' I think that'strue."
巴尔韦德也有自己的解释，对于为什么许多男人使用‘女人是残酷的'这种说辞来解释他们被娃娃吸引。“玛格丽特阿特伍德的论断：‘男人害怕女人会嘲笑他们。女人害怕男人会杀了他们。'我认为就这样的。”

Owning a sex doll is not a violent act. But as these creations come to lookmore and more realistic, their lifeless, prone silicone bodies are reminders ofunequal gender power dynamics that play out in the real world. And as humanwomen become more empowered, sex dolls offer a way for men to retreat intorelationships where they are still in control. A doll is a woman-shaped thingthat may bring a man comfort, may inspire devotion in him, and may drive awayhis loneliness. It will never challenge him, and it will certainly never doanything to make him feel ridiculous.
拥有一个性爱玩偶不是暴力行为。但是这些发明越来越逼真，这些无生命的硅胶体提醒我们在现实世界中性别权利（女权、男权）的不平等是动态的。当女性获得越来越多的自主权时，玩偶给男人们在这种关系里提供了一条后路——他们还是掌控者。女性形状的玩偶让男人感到安慰，忠诚，不会孤单。它永远不会挑战他，任何时候都不会让他觉得自己很可笑。