In reply to “Love In The 21st Century” post on Guys and Dolls Documentary

In addition to your reactions to “Guys and Dolls” the documentary on men who have chosen to use dolls as mates instead of real women, I had recently read about a few men who had similar replacements for the real thing.

The first one that comes to mind is the man who fell in love with his pillow case:

The pillow case depicts an Anime Character named, Nemutan, from an X-rated PC video game called “Da Capo”. Nisan, the man, takes Nemutan, the pillowcase, with him to restaurants and events as if she were a human. He expresses a deep and passionate love for her as you can see in the photo of him holding her tightly in public and how he has placed her meal in front of her at the restaurant. (actually spending money to set food out that won’t be eaten). I couldn’t help feeling both disgusted, intrigued and then sorrowful as I read the story and thought about what leads to this sort of intense need for love, so intense, that it drives a person to project love and imagine love returned by a PILLOW CASE! Looking into blank eyes and seeing yourself reflected with adoration? How does someone come to this place mentally and emotionally? However, what may seem akin to that Homeless person you see talking to themselves is actually widely accepted in the “2-D” set and referred to as being “moe”.  This SAD man has become a bit of an icon to the Otaku (video game obsessed youth) and is a level TEN moe! Nisan doesn’t want to be anyone’s icon though and was quoted as saying““I’m not saying that everyone should throw away hopes of real romance right away. I am simply saying that guys like me who have gotten to a point of no return can be happy living in 2-D.” A very profound statement.. just when does “THE POINT OF NO RETURN” occur?

SAL9000, Boy meets video game…

The case of someone who would clearly know came up just a short time after Nisan…  Twitter was lightly a buzz with the story of a man named, SAL9000 (he calls himself) who was playing a popular 2-D game called “LovePlus”. LovePlus offers you  a virtual girlfriend who can actually get pissed at you if you don’t give her what she wants and spend enough time with her. Most of these virtual girlfriends are of High School age and range from very compliant to pissy, snobby or even Hard-Ass, as noted in the article “My Husband has a Virtual Girlfriend”. Apparently however, they can also be very loving, kind and amusing….

SAL9000, unlike the hubby in that article, was single and soon found that HIS virtual girly, Nene Anegasaki, was the perfect woman for him. So much so that he decided to marry his  SIMULATED lover and take her on a honeymoon to Guam. When people heard about it, they made sure cameras were at the wedding and that his honeymoon was documented as well. In America this would be a PR Stunt to get your own reality show, but when you hear this young man’s adoration for Nene, you wonder if he could be for real…  Sadly, I think he may be. His story was covered by BoingBoing, FOX, CNN, and many others and became a case in point for Japanese author Hiroshi Ashizaki who studies Internet addiction, he said many Japanese youths cannot express their true feelings in reality, only in the virtual world. It is a trend that could become increasingly common as the entire globe socializes more online and less in person, but I don’t think this just applies to Japanese youths as we become ever more virtual – talking on Facebook instead of grabbing coffee and texting instead of ringing each other up on the phone.. but that is an entire other blog.. (watch for “Sorry I can’t talk to you right now, I am tweeting!”)

Introducing, ROXY! The Sex (& Conversation) Robot…

So on top of all this, we now have ROXY, the SEX ROBOT, which you HAD to know was going to happen.. but this you may not have expected.. consumer research (would hate to have compiled this data!) showed men wanted the sex robot to TALK- (OH YEA? So you can pretend to listen to her too?) So, the company made Roxy as a life size chatty Kathy, who can talk to men about Sports and respond to touch with phrases like “I love when you hold my hand…” Roxy is surprisingly displayed as a brunette and although I am sure you can order any hair you want on her… the display choice still surprises me…  having her look more like one of Heff’s plastics would have been expected on my part, though whatever hair they put on her/it, to me she still looks frighteningly similar to a lingerie clad cadaver which scares me for numerous reasons…

In fact all of this information sends my mind reeling in several directions at once.

ONE: Why do Heterosexual men  seem to be the adopters of this 2-D lifestyle, what is the difference between their life experience/view that allows for this to become more easily acceptable (apparently) than for women. I dare not answer… although I have opinions.. I want to hear yours….

TWO: The objects of affection in the video game obsessed 2-D/Moe’s seems to center around “children”. Girls of a tender age, that were they live, would be jail bait and cause for alarm…  Why is this acceptable when the objects are not real, and will these loving relationships between men and virtual children ever cross over from fantasy to reality? Would you feel okay about someone you know virtually dating a simulated child (HS freshman)?

THREE: Is there an element of what many women believe to be true about real women being threatening because we are no longer the doting housewives of the 50′s whose childlike fawning was ego-candy for men, that the modern woman is only fit for a man who desires a challenge.. and these men (whose numbers are increasing) prefer fantasy to a challenge… (please don’t read this as man bashing, I am just posing the question).

PLEASE DON’T BE SHY… TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?