At a brothel in the western German city of Dortmund,customers can rent sex dolls depending on their needs.”Lu Xiaofu looks at Europe”pays a special visit to this brothel.
in a quiet cul-de-sac south of the centre of Dortmund lies Germany’s first sex doll brothel.for 80 euros an hour,customers can rent and use silicon doll in the brothel to satisify their sexual needs.the store has a selection of 12 of them,including a male doll and an androgynous doll with both breasts and penises.
the brothel is owned by Evelyn Schwarz,30,who funded the sex doll brothel,which is also a place of BDSM.
Schwartz herself was a mistress of BDSM.she opend the brothel last year after finding it diffcult to find german-speaking female sex workers.in BDSM,she says,it’s important to communicate with each other.sex workers from overseas who do not speak German may miss key information.
“one day i saw a viedo of a Japanese sex doll and i though might work in Germany,”she said,sitting on a sofa.next to her were three busty silicon dolls,and oporn was playing on the TV in the room.
she first orderd four sex dolls from shenzhen,china.the sex dolls were quickly rented out,and she orderd several more.the purchase price of each silicone doll is between 1000 euros and 2000 euros,or 7000 to 14000 yuan.
“they look beautiful,they don’t get sick,they don’t feel anything,and they can provide any service without complaint,”people can use them to their liking,”Schwartz says of the sex doll’s merits,the sex doll rental business sees about five to 12 customers a day–mostly men,but occasionally woman or a couple,she said.
at the brothel,Ms.Schwartz has an assistant who helps clean the sex dolls,as well as dress and make up them.how to clean the doll is a “secret”here,she said,but “they get cleaned,washed and disinfected every time they are used”
who is customer?
On an online sex forum,one comment gave the sex doll Anna a perfect 10.the user described his “very hot new experience”with the doll sexually.his only regret was that the doll weighed 30 kilograms and he struggled to get her to change her position.
Schwartz said the dolls were too “passive”for some customers.but other customers are satisfied that they don’t have to talk about “special”services,she said.a man can be selfish without thinking about the doll’s feelings.”
she says 70 percent of customers come back.their backgrounds were mixed,young and old,rich and poor,”like any other brothel.”others come for the new experience,and others who have never had sex with anyone else.but Mr.Schwartz emphasized that customers must be 18 or older.
”A lot of people who come here have social difficulties and can’t make eye contact and stare at the floor during a conversation.”
others are full of dangerous sextual fantasies.”it’s better to abuse a child than a woman,”Schwartz said.
others even develop an emotional attachment to the dolls.some customers come every week,she said.”it’s clear that they prefer dolls to real woman.some begin to feel affection for the doll,always looking for the doll.when the doll finally broke down one day,they were very sad.
is it socially acceptable?
Bordoll is not the only brothel in the world that rents sex dolls.there are dozens in japan,a new one in Barcelona and a ”escort service”in Berlin that rents and sells sex dolls.
with advance in technology,brothels may one day have ai sex dolls.but Ms.Schwartz said she did not think this was ideal for brothel,given the high price of artificial inteligence and the need for constant cleaning in such environments.
it’s too early to say how this will play out in Europe,but there are signs of increasing social acceptance that could pave the way for sex robot brothels.
Catherine Richardson,professor of ethics and culture in robotics and artificial intelligence at DE montfort university in UK,is concerned.
Richardson co-founded the Campaign Against sex robots,which questioned a “deeply anti-human part of society that is defining what it means to be human”.
“how can we live in a world where sex with doll is ok?””she demanded.we are entering a world that is self-centered….
we’ve created a world of sadism through pornography,prositution and child sextual exploitation,and now we’re going to give sadism sex dolls so they have fewer opportunities to nurture their humanity.”
a doll factory in California,USA.File photo.
the idea that people and things can be swapped is problematic,she says.”we’re moving toward a….Sexuality is defined as a cultural advance bryond human relationships,it’s not sex with a doll’it”s masturbation.”
Richardson also pointed out that many sex dolls look like children,and that violence against sex dolls has a symbolic meaning of violence against people,which is unacceptable and may reveal other problems.
in the Dortmund brothel’s back room,Ms.Schwartz pointed out that the silicon in the genital parts of two sex dolls,damaged and cracked,lay motionless,waiting for second-hand buyers.
she said each doll has a lifespan of about six months and has used 10 since the store opened in April 2017.