A sex doll named Koyuki on display at the showroom of OrientIndustry, a high-end manufacturer based in Tokyo (Reuters)
東京高端定制商，陳列亞洲工業(yè)廳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.
購(gòu)買娃娃的原因可以理解，甚至是值得同情。一些人為了找樂(lè)子。一些人患有社交恐懼癥甚至很難維持社交關(guān)系。還有些人只是想拍些藝術(shù)照。整件事情很難去細(xì)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."
“你想用這做論點(diǎn)，不是嗎？”在這堆長(zhǎng)篇討論之后我問(wèn)他是否有結(jié)論了，史密斯反問(wèn)我道?！耙?yàn)槟阄乙苍S會(huì)試著弄一個(gè)出來(lái)。關(guān)乎自戀，關(guān)乎幻想，關(guān)乎創(chuàng)造，關(guān)乎人和物。還關(guān)乎同性欲作斗爭(zhēng)。我想這才是真正關(guān)鍵的?！?br />
This is thedoll-lover's frequent lament: Women are unpredictable and dolls are steadfast;women will leave you and dolls are loyal.
對(duì)玩偶有這樣的感嘆：女人是多變而娃娃是堅(jiān)定的，女人會(huì)甩掉你而娃娃會(huì)一直忠誠(chéng)。

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.
這些問(wèn)題不可避免地回到了兩性間的親密關(guān)系上。我們可能無(wú)法推斷某人購(gòu)買性愛(ài)娃娃的動(dòng)機(jī)。但是它像哈哈鏡折射了整體現(xiàn)象——男女關(guān)系的扭曲，著重顯示了某些我們不愿意看到的方面。玩偶主人可以隨意擺弄的這些女形物體，代表了社會(huì)態(tài)度的一個(gè)范疇。很多男性希望女性更像這些性愛(ài)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，當(dāng)我跟戴維貓說(shuō)起這個(gè)想法，他感覺(jué)被冒犯了。“我認(rèn)識(shí)的iDollators中百分之98的人像女神一般對(duì)待娃娃，”他態(tài)度堅(jiān)決地表示，“很多人單身因?yàn)樗麄兒ε聜Γ@是真的，其他一些人單身，因?yàn)樗麄冞_(dá)不到女性的期望?！彼又f(shuō)，“娃娃不會(huì)有真人那樣令人不愉快的品性，這種合成物從來(lái)不會(huì)欺騙、指責(zé)或者是其它令人不愉快的事情?！?br />
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.
對(duì)玩偶有這樣的感嘆：女人是多變而娃娃是堅(jiān)定的，女人會(huì)甩掉你而娃娃會(huì)一直忠誠(chéng)，女人會(huì)毀掉一些事而娃娃會(huì)接受真正的你。女人是人類，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的發(fā)明者，1995年提交了一項(xiàng)“功能女模特”專利（作為專利提交的，一個(gè)模特形狀的“腔體”，像子彈狀充滿油脂的彈性物）根據(jù)史密斯書中所寫。發(fā)明家例舉“該發(fā)明的真實(shí)原因是因?yàn)榕詡儦埧?、貪婪、膚淺，侮辱和傷害男性們的心靈。娃娃們則相反，她們可靠、順從、友善、可愛(ài)。”

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.
瓦爾韋德的研究（以及足夠的證據(jù)）表明，娃娃可以給那些不能或者不愿同人們維持一段浪漫關(guān)系的男人們提供安慰及性欲宣泄。在這個(gè)時(shí)期的歷史中，女性和同性戀們會(huì)感覺(jué)被拋棄和孤獨(dú)——異性戀男性們則沒(méi)有這種感覺(jué)。

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."
巴爾韋德也有自己的解釋，對(duì)于為什么許多男人使用‘女人是殘酷的'這種說(shuō)辭來(lái)解釋他們被娃娃吸引。“瑪格麗特阿特伍德的論斷：‘男人害怕女人會(huì)嘲笑他們。女人害怕男人會(huì)殺了他們。'我認(rèn)為就這樣的。”

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.
擁有一個(gè)性愛(ài)玩偶不是暴力行為。但是這些發(fā)明越來(lái)越逼真，這些無(wú)生命的硅膠體提醒我們?cè)诂F(xiàn)實(shí)世界中性別權(quán)利（女權(quán)、男權(quán)）的不平等是動(dòng)態(tài)的。當(dāng)女性獲得越來(lái)越多的自主權(quán)時(shí)，玩偶給男人們?cè)谶@種關(guān)系里提供了一條后路——他們還是掌控者。女性形狀的玩偶讓男人感到安慰，忠誠(chéng)，不會(huì)孤單。它永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)挑戰(zhàn)他，任何時(shí)候都不會(huì)讓他覺(jué)得自己很可笑。