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The sex doll : a history by Anthony Ferguson
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The sex doll : a history (edition 2010)

by Anthony Ferguson

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249943,491 (2.65)2
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Ferguson, Anthony. The Sex Doll : A History. Jefferson N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2010. Print.

Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1 The origin of the species
2 She ain't heavy, she's just rubber
3 The great leap forward
4 I am your automatic lover
5 Forever young
6 Consumable women
7 Sex doll stereotypes
8 The vagaries of masculine desire
9 The dark side of desire
10 Do androids dream of electric orgasm?
11 Revulsion, lust and love
Conclusion : disengage from society and plug into the network.
Chapter notes
Bibliography
Index

I received this book as a LibraryThing Early Reader copy. While not the typical thing I might read, I requested it because: a) I typically request things through the LT Early Reader program that I normally wouldn't acquire for reading via other means, and b) I was hoping it would prove to be, if not exactly, a bookend, then a continuation, of a sort, to Rachel Maines' Technology of Orgasm. I was correct on at least one count, as it cited Maines five times by my count.

Bottom line: I found this book somewhat frustrating. While interesting enough, and while admitting that some women are attracted to sex dolls and even including a few in his interviews, he totally failed to investigate that angle. Secondarily, and even worse, his theory of sexual psychology is explicitly Freudian; that is, based on Freud's and not even on later Freudians. To support his views on aggressive male sexuality and passive female sexually he cites the originator of that view, Colin Scott, from 1896. Please tell me that we've had some slightly more enlightened, and more accurate, views on this since then.

I do, though, think that there is much of value in the book. Besides Freud, Kinsey, de Sade, and Krafft-Ebing as sources one might expect, there are many sources one might not expect to be present: Ted Nelson, Jaron Lanier, Howard Rheingold, Marshal McLuhan, Terry Eagleton, Martha Nussbaum, F.W. Taylor, David Levy, Alvin Toffler. H. Rider Haggard, Anton Chekhov, Tolstoy and others.

From the Introduction:

"…, the sex doll in its current guise seems to be moving inexorably closer to becoming a fully functioning gynoid, or demonized android" (3).

"… it is my contention that the female sex doll represents woman in her most objectified form. …. A woman rendered harmless, it is immobile, compliant, and perhaps most importantly, silent. What the user of the sex doll seeks is the negation of change and the comfort of always retaining control of the relationship" (5).

This book is "an exploration of the development of the sex doll, from its beginnings as a fantasy of ancient men to it present lifelike state. It is also a study of the type of thinking which led to the concept of an ideal woman, a study of why men would want to "improve" on nature, and an assessment of the many ways men conceive of women as objects of desire" (5).

It is in the first and last of these that I feel the author was most successful. He was least successful in the area of psychology, as far as I am concerned.

The section on Sexualizing Technology (62-66) in ch. 4 I Am Your Automatic Lover contains artist Mike Mosher's thoughts which, according to the author, imply "that technology has allowed sex, which should be a democratic process, to be reappropriated to an act of commerce" (66). His ideas, at least as summarized by the author, are quite intriguing.

Ch.6 Consumable Women (81-92) is also quite good, even in spite of its ending with Freud on infant sexuality and cannibalism. Its subsections are: Objectification, Silencing the Female Voice: Women in Advertising and the Mass Media, Commodifying Desire, Control and Consumption, State Attempts to Control Sexuality, Sexual Slavery, and The Consumption of Women.

"The body, Barthes argues, is natural and organically functional, and is thus the core of the individual's sense of free will. Sexuality, it follows, is a natural expression of free will. This is why the dominant ideological forces desperately seek to control, contain and suppress the free expression of sexuality" (85).

On Vagina Dentata (124-125) all I can say to 'the toothed place' or the 'yawning mouth of hell?' is "For real?"

In ch. 9 The Dark Side of Desire (127-41) I think he goes off the deep end. Certainly these issues are relevant but with comments like "Psychologists argue that there is a link between the desire for sex and the urge to kill" (132), and "There is a subliminal link between the philanderer and the man who kills repeatedly" (133) I begin to lose more than my patience. As I noted in my notes: "something has been bothering me about his argument in places. Here, e.g., he states: "… the unavoidably violent nature of the sex act itself. At it's most passionate, the act symbolically encompasses the consumption of the sex partner” (134). Earlier he has called it "aggressive" and so forth. I disagree. It can be those things, but "unavoidably violent"?"

Ch. 10 Do Androids Dream of Electric Orgasm? (142-66) is a look at the sex doll and related issues in the context of literature, fiction, film, TV and so on. Much of this has been sprinkled throughout the text but here it is collected and expanded.

Ch. 11 Revulsion, Lust and Love is a continuation of the previous chapter but with a focus on the horror genre. This is understandable due to the author being a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association, according to the back cover. In fact, much about the narrative becomes clearer when this is known.

His analysis and argumentation is weak in certain points, which leads me to wonder how it is in areas I am less familiar with. For example, in the Conclusion: Disengage from Society and Plug into the Network (199-204), when discussing " the increasing popularity of online communication forums such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter" he argues that the "benefit of this form of interaction for the consumer is twofold. Not only is it clean and safe, bringing little risk of disease or disappointment, but its very structure allows the user to retain complete control of the situation" (200). Do I really need to unpack how naïve, and dangerous, that view is?

Nonetheless, I think there is value in this book. But get it from your local library before spending the money on it.
  mlindner | Aug 1, 2011 |
Showing 10 of 10
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
A severely underwhelming history of the sex doll.
  pensivepoet | Sep 9, 2023 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Ferguson, Anthony. The Sex Doll : A History. Jefferson N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2010. Print.

Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1 The origin of the species
2 She ain't heavy, she's just rubber
3 The great leap forward
4 I am your automatic lover
5 Forever young
6 Consumable women
7 Sex doll stereotypes
8 The vagaries of masculine desire
9 The dark side of desire
10 Do androids dream of electric orgasm?
11 Revulsion, lust and love
Conclusion : disengage from society and plug into the network.
Chapter notes
Bibliography
Index

I received this book as a LibraryThing Early Reader copy. While not the typical thing I might read, I requested it because: a) I typically request things through the LT Early Reader program that I normally wouldn't acquire for reading via other means, and b) I was hoping it would prove to be, if not exactly, a bookend, then a continuation, of a sort, to Rachel Maines' Technology of Orgasm. I was correct on at least one count, as it cited Maines five times by my count.

Bottom line: I found this book somewhat frustrating. While interesting enough, and while admitting that some women are attracted to sex dolls and even including a few in his interviews, he totally failed to investigate that angle. Secondarily, and even worse, his theory of sexual psychology is explicitly Freudian; that is, based on Freud's and not even on later Freudians. To support his views on aggressive male sexuality and passive female sexually he cites the originator of that view, Colin Scott, from 1896. Please tell me that we've had some slightly more enlightened, and more accurate, views on this since then.

I do, though, think that there is much of value in the book. Besides Freud, Kinsey, de Sade, and Krafft-Ebing as sources one might expect, there are many sources one might not expect to be present: Ted Nelson, Jaron Lanier, Howard Rheingold, Marshal McLuhan, Terry Eagleton, Martha Nussbaum, F.W. Taylor, David Levy, Alvin Toffler. H. Rider Haggard, Anton Chekhov, Tolstoy and others.

From the Introduction:

"…, the sex doll in its current guise seems to be moving inexorably closer to becoming a fully functioning gynoid, or demonized android" (3).

"… it is my contention that the female sex doll represents woman in her most objectified form. …. A woman rendered harmless, it is immobile, compliant, and perhaps most importantly, silent. What the user of the sex doll seeks is the negation of change and the comfort of always retaining control of the relationship" (5).

This book is "an exploration of the development of the sex doll, from its beginnings as a fantasy of ancient men to it present lifelike state. It is also a study of the type of thinking which led to the concept of an ideal woman, a study of why men would want to "improve" on nature, and an assessment of the many ways men conceive of women as objects of desire" (5).

It is in the first and last of these that I feel the author was most successful. He was least successful in the area of psychology, as far as I am concerned.

The section on Sexualizing Technology (62-66) in ch. 4 I Am Your Automatic Lover contains artist Mike Mosher's thoughts which, according to the author, imply "that technology has allowed sex, which should be a democratic process, to be reappropriated to an act of commerce" (66). His ideas, at least as summarized by the author, are quite intriguing.

Ch.6 Consumable Women (81-92) is also quite good, even in spite of its ending with Freud on infant sexuality and cannibalism. Its subsections are: Objectification, Silencing the Female Voice: Women in Advertising and the Mass Media, Commodifying Desire, Control and Consumption, State Attempts to Control Sexuality, Sexual Slavery, and The Consumption of Women.

"The body, Barthes argues, is natural and organically functional, and is thus the core of the individual's sense of free will. Sexuality, it follows, is a natural expression of free will. This is why the dominant ideological forces desperately seek to control, contain and suppress the free expression of sexuality" (85).

On Vagina Dentata (124-125) all I can say to 'the toothed place' or the 'yawning mouth of hell?' is "For real?"

In ch. 9 The Dark Side of Desire (127-41) I think he goes off the deep end. Certainly these issues are relevant but with comments like "Psychologists argue that there is a link between the desire for sex and the urge to kill" (132), and "There is a subliminal link between the philanderer and the man who kills repeatedly" (133) I begin to lose more than my patience. As I noted in my notes: "something has been bothering me about his argument in places. Here, e.g., he states: "… the unavoidably violent nature of the sex act itself. At it's most passionate, the act symbolically encompasses the consumption of the sex partner” (134). Earlier he has called it "aggressive" and so forth. I disagree. It can be those things, but "unavoidably violent"?"

Ch. 10 Do Androids Dream of Electric Orgasm? (142-66) is a look at the sex doll and related issues in the context of literature, fiction, film, TV and so on. Much of this has been sprinkled throughout the text but here it is collected and expanded.

Ch. 11 Revulsion, Lust and Love is a continuation of the previous chapter but with a focus on the horror genre. This is understandable due to the author being a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association, according to the back cover. In fact, much about the narrative becomes clearer when this is known.

His analysis and argumentation is weak in certain points, which leads me to wonder how it is in areas I am less familiar with. For example, in the Conclusion: Disengage from Society and Plug into the Network (199-204), when discussing " the increasing popularity of online communication forums such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter" he argues that the "benefit of this form of interaction for the consumer is twofold. Not only is it clean and safe, bringing little risk of disease or disappointment, but its very structure allows the user to retain complete control of the situation" (200). Do I really need to unpack how naïve, and dangerous, that view is?

Nonetheless, I think there is value in this book. But get it from your local library before spending the money on it.
  mlindner | Aug 1, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
More accurately titled “The Sex Doll: Its Origins and Functions”

(Full disclosure: I received a free advanced review copy of this book through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.)

Upon requesting this title from Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program, I was nervous that author Anthony Ferguson’s discussion of sex dolls would present a view largely uncritical of these increasingly popular sexual aids and, more importantly, their owners/users. (So much so that I was actually relieved when the first copy was lost in the mail!) Happily, Ferguson (a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association - a detail that seems only slightly less odd in light of chapter eleven, which turns to dolls as a common trope in the horror genre!) manages to outline the potential anti-feminist implications of sex dolls while retaining empathy for (at least some of) their users. All in all, the book manages to find middle ground, even if it is at times shaky.

THE SEX DOLL: A HISTORY might be more accurately titled “The Sex Doll: Its Origins and Functions,” as there’s more theory than fact in this volume. By Ferguson’s own admission, the history of sex dolls is somewhat sketchy – which is wholly unsurprising given society’s conservative and oftentimes oppressive attitudes toward sex and sexuality. Sex dolls present an added complication, as Western religions have historically regarded lifelike representations of the human form (i.e. dolls) with suspicion and distrust. Thus, Ferguson relies less on the historical record and more on the theories and conjectures of philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and ethicists, seemingly indiscriminately and with mixed results.

While some of the views represented are intriguing (in particular, I’m keen to read David Levy’s LOVE + SEX WITH ROBOTS after seeing several excerpts in THE SEX DOLL), others are nonsensical, offensive, and downright misogynistic. Colin Wilson, for example, is paraphrased as saying that “a subverted worship of women” drives men to rape (WTF!); elsewhere, Ferguson himself extols the “value of war in pre-technological societies as a means of channeling masculine aggression” (never you mind that physical and sexual violence against women is nearly universal, or that rape is commonly used as a weapon of war; also, gender essentialism much?). Naturally, erstwhile misogynist Sigmund Freud and his sex-obsessed, woman-hating theories litter every chapter.

Likewise, the words Ferguson chooses are sometimes problematic. For example, he uses the terms “transgender” and “she-male” interchangeably, the latter being widely regarded as a derogatory slur within the trans community. Additionally, instances of rape are often referred to using variations on the phrase “had sex with,” implying consent where there is none. (“With” suggests that the sex is a mutually shared experience, which is not the case in rape. In this vein, it’s erroneous to say that one “has sex with” a sex doll, since a doll as an inanimate object cannot consent to the experience. In this case, “masturbate with” is more accurate.)

In chapter seven, “Sex Doll Stereotypes,” Ferguson analyzes sex dolls – objectified, silent and subservient (representations of) women, the “perfect” partners, if you will - in relation to their human counterparts, namely sex workers such as prostitutes and pornographic actors, as well as other sexually exploitable women, including mail order brides and mistresses. Since each of these topics could easily fill its own volume, the discussion is necessarily brief and lacking in nuance. Rather than add to my understanding of sex dolls, I found this chapter in particular a distraction.

Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity comes in chapter eight, “The Vagaries of Masculine Desire,” in which Ferguson lets “doll users speak.” Whereas a demographic/psychological survey of doll users would have been incredibly enlightening – who are these people and why and how do they choose to use sex dolls? – Ferguson instead presents us with a Q&A involving just five respondents. It’s rather obvious that Ferguson hand-picked these individuals in order to represent the spectrum of users: they run the gamut, from a single, older disabled man who’s heavily emotionally invested in his dolls, to a sexually active younger man who regards them as just one of many sexual outlets at his disposal. Curiously, two of the subjects – or a full 40% - of the respondents are women, which must surely be out of whack with the actual statistics. (Although we’ll never know, as Ferguson doesn’t offer any such numbers.) Since women are otherwise absent his discussion (Ferguson almost solely focuses on male users of female dolls), their inclusion here is doubly puzzling.

Ferguson is at his best when looking at representations of sex dolls in popular culture, as he does in chapters ten and eleven (“Do Androids Dream of Electric Orgasm?” and “Revulsion, Lust and Love,” respectively). His discussion of sex dolls and gynoids (female robots) in literature, film, television, music and art is by far the most engaging section of THE SEX DOLL - although his omission of the Cylons in the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA reboot is disappointing at best. (Particularly since it’s in these chapters that Ferguson introduces the question of human-robot love and marriage. Caprica Six! Athena! Hera!) Additionally, while the Terminator franchise is mentioned in brief, Ferguson fails to examine the evolving representations of the cyborgs in this realm; i.e., the possibility of a romantic and sexual relationship with a terminator is only raised when the female cyborg Cameron is introduced in THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. This observation might have provided a nice window into the gender dynamics of sex dolls, and how they’re reflected in popular culture.

Ultimately, THE SEX DOLL concludes that the uses and functions of sex dolls are as varied as are the men who utilize them. For some men, a sex doll represents the “perfect” partner: silent, non-responsive, subservient, powerless, never aging, changing or evolving. For others, a doll is merely a sexual outlet: safe, both physically and psychologically, affordable (perhaps), convenient. It might be just one of many sex toys a man utilizes, or it could be more: a willing companion to socially isolated men. Whatever the case, the fact that feminized sex dolls are visual representations of women – real, flesh and blood women – cannot be escaped:

“Given that sex dolls are as of now still inanimate objects, they are understandably treated as lacking autonomy, and yet they represent real women and are utilized as substitutes for real women. Despite the fact that some sex doll owners seem to treat their dolls with affection and anthropomorphize them, it is the dolls’ inability to respond, react or reject which most attracts men. This objectification is mirrored historically in the treatment of women, the ‘thing’ most dolls represent.” (Chapter six, page 81, “Consumable Women”)

http://www.easyvegan.info/2011/07/11/the-sex-doll-a-history-by-anthony-ferguson/ ( )
  smiteme | Jul 11, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
This book is not accurately titled. Rather than a history of sex dolls, it is an examination of the psychological and sociological issues surrounding the objectification of the female form.

The book goes to some very dark places, covering topics such as rape, serial killers, and necrophilia. Horror stories involving dolls are also discussed. This fits with the author's strengths -- Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association and is working on an anthology of "devil doll" fiction.

Anyone expecting amusing anecdotes about Victorian sex toy manufacturers will be disappointed.

I would recommend this book as a good starting place for research into either female objectification in modern times or instances of dolls and automatons in movies, myths, and written fiction. The research in this book is not precise, deep, nor polished enough to be a one-stop source for these topics. However, "The Sex Doll: A History" includes an excellent bibliography for further study. ( )
  alexmuninn | Jul 5, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Like many a thesis, this one is not always an easy read. The author is exploring a topic that is fairly recent, coming largely into existence with the development of plastics. Several chapters are very interesting and I commend the author for his relatively non-judgmental, but still strongly feminist tone.

Nonetheless, the author's thesis advisor should have done some serious butt-kicking before this was passed on to the reading public. Chapter 4, should have been condensed into a table and put in an appendix; it reads like a page of classified ads, and I'd advise skipping it. It's clear that the author did nearly all his research using the internet. I hope he expands his sources to libraries if he does any future research. Much of the "missing" history of sex dolls may possibly be found in diaries or court transcriptions.

The book is heavily weighted toward social and psychological analysis and commentary, again it is short on research, and fairly scattershot in approach. Overall, it's about average for a Master's thesis.

Worth the read if you're interested in the topic, but not an expert. I'd advise skimming and skipping as needed. ( )
  Helcura | Jun 30, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
After taking a history of human sexuality class in college, I've been interested in reading academic works about specific sexual communities or fetishes. Sexuality in many respects is an interesting reflection or counterpoint to the society of the times. So imagine my excitement when I saw I was picked through Early Reviewers to receive a scholary work on the history of sex dolls!

That excitement lasted about one chapter.

The Sex Doll: A History isn't really a history. Rather, it is a badly written and poorly research opinion piece on how sex dolls are really man's attempt to control female sexuality. Seriously. I often times wanted to yell at the text, "Thanks for that interesting point, Captain Obvious! As if I didn't understand it the first thousand times you pointed it out!"

I could go on about how much I hate this book. Instead, I'll point out the one positive to reading it (and at this point, the only positive): Ferguson cites some interesting works that look like academic texts which actually analyze the culture of sex dolls and their history.

So in conclusion, if you are interested in the history of sex dolls, you may want to look at the bibliography of this book for some interesting reads. Other than that, I'd stay clear. ( )
1 vote greeneyed_ives | Jun 25, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The title is misleading. This is not anything like a "history" of sex dolls- which I would have found intriguing; it would be more accurately described as "Sex Dolls: My Thoughts About".

The history aspect- which was what intrigued me- was skated over pretty lightly. Our author made references to historical dolls- such as ones used on long sea voyages- but offered very sparse info about such.

One chapter seemed to me to be a set of advertising for modern sex-doll manufacturers, including contact information. Another couple consisted mainly of our author describing the plots of various novels and movies, many of which involved robots or female androids rather than sex dolls per se.

So- he did not focus on sex-dolls- he brought in robots, prostitutes, statues, and various other things that may be arguably related... but which he did not offer a solid reason for including.

in short, I'd have to summarize this as "scattershot". I was never really sure what point he was trying to make- if any; the "historical" data was sparse and simplistic enough to make me question it in areas i am not familiar with (I do not believe, in any way, that the concept of "mistress" was a result of the industrial revolution; being fond of Regency and Georgian romance novels myself, these are rife with mistresses, and predate the Industrial Revolution).

In short- there's some interesting stuff here, but it needed an editor. I really wonder why he wrote it; the overall result seemed to me to be incoherent.

And even after reading it- the combination of sex-positive and sex-negative rhetoric seemed incoherent to me (I have qualms about both, and also some approval of both myself).

An editor would have- maybe- tightened it up some and made it more coherent and thus more readable. ( )
  cissa | Jun 24, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The book began rather strongly with the history of sex dolls. However, it very soon devolves into the pushing of a rather sex-negative perspective on male sex toys. Though it is true that some men might have terrible attitudes towards women, that doesn't quite justify how bleakly the author seems to view men who choose to use sex toys. It's telling that such negativity is not present in discussions of female sex toys, and it's sad that this book presents sex-negative opinions as facts. ( )
  heinous-eli | May 22, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Initially, when perusing the April Early Reviewers choices, I selected "The Sex Doll" because I had just seen a PBS program recounting one individual's interaction with a sex doll. In that program the gentleman seemed to be using the doll as a surrogate "wife" to avoid social interaction. This reason for any "relationship" with an overtly anatomically-correct version of a female would have been my assumption. However, this book goes into much more detail regarding the psychological and sociological reasons why these sometimes extremely expensive fem-bots are sold in great numbers. He does this in part by surveying doll users with in-depth questioning.

It is well written and certainly a comprehensive examination of human sexuality. However for me, as a female, it came under the category of More Than I Wanted to Know! ( )
  Read2Me2010 | May 11, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
When I first sat down to read Anthony Ferguson’s “The Sex Doll: A History”, I expected a somewhat raunchy tromp through recent history, and, perhaps, a bit of dalliance into recent social developments in the industry. Instead, I found myself immersed in a well-thought you, and thoroughly researched academic study of the subject matter, authored in a way that keep pages turning, and curiosity churning.
Beyond the titular “History”, Ferguson deals with many of the fundamental aspects of human sexuality tied to objects of love, from both genders. The historical citations woven through this psychosocial and sociological exploration do an excellent job of bringing the matter up to modern day, where there are truly explosive issues on the verge of birth. The idea of creating pleasure-bot – something beyond an animatronic blow-up doll, but, rather, a truly interactive but subservient sex item, is not something the reader is just thrust into – Ferguson does a good job of building the foundation and ramp up to the discussion.
A worthwhile read for anyone interested in the lesser-discussed aspects of human sexuality, as well as how those aspects tie in through our species’ history. ( )
  delascabezas | Apr 15, 2011 |
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