This scholarly study of the centuries-long history of fornicatory dolls examines the enduring obsession with creating an idealized, silent female sexual object and the manifestations of this desire through the ages in mythology, literature, art, philosophy and science. This particular sexual impulse has been expressed in a great variety of forms such as statues, mannequins, sex dolls, and gynoids (robots). In particular this study focuses on the evolution of the sex doll through its original incarnation as a sack cloth effigy, through the marketing of inflatable dolls, to the current elaborate cyber-technology figures, in an attempt to discover the hidden drives and desires which fuel this ongoing fantasy of creating a perfect, powerless, silent partner.

Anthony Ferguson is an author and editor living in Perth, Australia. He has published over forty short stories and non-fiction articles in a range of magazines and anthologies in Australia, Britain and the United States and is the secretary of the Australasian Horror Writers Association.

Anthony Ferguson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 236
Bibliographic Info: 22 photos, notes, filmography, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4794-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5662-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1
Introduction      3

ONE. The Origin of the Species      9
TWO. She Ain’t Heavy, She’s Just Rubber      24
THREE. The Great Leap Forward      40
FOUR. I Am Your Automatic Lover      56
FIVE. Forever Young      71
SIX. Consumable Women      81
SEVEN. Sex Doll Stereotypes      93
EIGHT. The Vagaries of Masculine Desire      108
NINE. The Dark Side of Desire      127
TEN. Do Androids Dream of Electric Orgasm?      142
ELEVEN. Revulsion, Lust and Love      167

Conclusion: Disengage from Society and Plug into the Network      199
Chapter Notes      205
Bibliography      211
Index      217

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