Podcast

Transcript: Hello everybody. Today we have a special guest with us. He was one of our early customers and has gone on to get in adult in a big way. I guess it just clicked for him. We've had some conversations over the years, and his thoughts echo a lot of mine. But perhaps the most important thing about Dean is, one he's a regular guy, and two, he's very open about his experience and willing to talk about this. And this is really important for the industry, because there are some people out there not painting the industry in a good light. So I'm really happy to have him with us, and to give you the ambassador that is Dean Bevan.

Graham:
To kick this off, Dean, I'd like to ask you, first of all, why did you get into dolls?

Dean:
I didn't really set out, back in 2016, to get myself a sex doll as such. Because the only ones that I knew of back then were the high-end silicon Real Dolls made in America. I knew they cost a lot of money, so they weren't really on my radar, so to speak. The idea popped into my head when I was watching TV actually. I was watching the Syfy show Humans, and I just got it into my head, I wondered what the state of play is with technology where you could have, perhaps, a synthetic person. I knew they wouldn't be like the TV show, but I just wondered if they would look so realistic that if you got one, it felt like you had company. So the idea popped into my head, and then over the weeks it just wouldn't go.

Dean:
That was when I started doing my research, and went on the net, and lo and behold, I discovered this relatively new industry of TPE dolls, which were significantly cheaper than the silicon Real Dolls. And they looked great actually, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought, oh God, maybe I should try getting one. It would be disingenuous of me to say that I didn't find the sexual side interesting as well, but I really wasn't that convinced back then that it would be that good.

Dean:
So primarily I was thinking of getting a doll, just to see if it would meet this need that I felt I had then, to have some company around my house. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was very lonely, but my kids were growing up and spending more time away, I was finding that I was having a week or two on my own at a time. I can keep myself busy, particularly in the summer, but in the winter months it was getting a little bit lonely, so I thought okay, give it a go. Did a little look, found that by far the best advice would be to go through a vendor. I didn't know then if there were any in the UK, but I came across Lovedoll UK and then eventually got around to placing an order.

Dean:
My first doll, Sarah, arrived in October of 2016, and completely blew me away. I was really impressed with the realism, she weighed 33 and a half kilos I think, so lifting her out of the box, I was immediately impressed that this wasn't like a toy. As soon as I connected her head and had her dressed and put a wig on, she just did look very realistic. So I can remember on that first day thinking, "Oh lord, this is going to be a little bit of an interesting experience."

Graham:
That's a great story, Dean. It does seem to be a fairly typical journey, and granted, it doesn't work for everybody, but in most cases when you are getting a high quality doll, the initial meeting does generally seem to actually exceed people's expectations. So moving on from there, what people will probably want to know at this point is, what do you get out of the continued ownership of a doll, and in your case multiple dolls? How does that journey continue?

Dean:
Certainly, having dolls has given me a lot. It's a very rewarding hobby, and it continues to surprise me the things that I can do. I never thought that I'd be making documentaries for the BBC a couple of years ago, but I did one in December and it turned out quite nicely. I've just done another one recently.

Dean:
To begin with, back in October 2016, when I got my first doll Sarah, my brain began to be fooled that I had company. Which was something that I was hoping for to be honest. Because while I wouldn't say I was overly lonely, I was finding I was spending, I could go a couple of days without seeing anyone. And in those early few weeks it was quite funny actually, I'd forget that I'd put Sarah in the conservatory, so I'd walk in have a bit of a jump when I realized that it looked like somebody was sitting there. So it was fun, it was a fun time actually. But it wasn't until a few weeks, several weeks maybe, a month after she'd arrived, that I first started to do a serious photo shoot with her, taking some photographs with a half decent camera. And looking back at the results I was suitably impressed, and I then began to see the potential for using a doll for photography.

Dean:
Then after doing a little bit more research online I was introduced to the incredible work of the artist and photographer Stacey Lee based in New York, who'd been using dolls from way back in the early noughties using real dolls, her work was just so astounding to me that it propelled me forward. I thought, if I can get anything like those sorts of results, admittedly I wasn't using a Real Doll, I was using a TPE doll, that's when it all sort of kicked off for me. After a few weeks of photographing Sarah, I immediately then started thinking, I could do with some variety here. Looked into getting another doll, and then in January of 2017, did. And it really sort of took off from there, and I've ended up now with a dozen, I think.

Dean:
So that is the main thing I get out of having a doll, the photography. I have so much fun with it, it's led me into areas that I hadn't been to before, like talking to the media. I've participated in a few documentaries about it, and that's all been quite fun. Then of course, what is the sex like with a doll? Well for me it didn't happen straight away. I was a bit in awe of Sarah, to be honest, when she arrived. I just used to sort of cuddle up with her in bed, and that happened for a few weeks like that, until one night where I think I must have woken up from a dream, and clearly my subconscious had taken over a bit, and I just thought that she was real. And that continued while I was semi-awake. Then things did happen, and it was an incredible experience, I have to say. A far better experience than I could've imagined when I was first looking into getting a doll.

Dean:
I've got a lot out of having a doll, definitely. It keeps me busy. I'm retired, and I worked previously in a very full-on intensive job, so going from that to not working, and also when you retire, you lose a lot of your social circle as well, so it was good for me to have something extra to do. And having a dozen dolls, there's a degree of work involved with maintenance and repair, and then there's the clothing. And of course the photo shoots that I do, they can take up a whole day just doing one shoot. I'm fortunate enough that I have a deal where I provide photographs for a particular company. They don't put too much pressure on me, but now and again they'll put in a request for a photo shoot, and that gives me some purpose. Which is important for someone that's retired, and I'm 59, nearly 60. To get another job now would be difficult in the least, particularly with the experience I had in working in psychiatry.

Dean:
So it's been great for me to have this outlet. It's propelled me on really, and helped me to be a little more creative. I can look back at the photographs that I did back in 2016, and I sort of laugh at them now. I like to think I've improved considerably in the last three years. I've shamelessly nicked ideas from other photographers, and that is the beauty of being part of the doll community. You get to see other people's work, and there are several notable photographers around the world that, they're just incredible with what they do. That always encouraging me to try and emulate them, which is just great fun.

Graham:
I think you touched on something really important there, in that the companionship is real enough to elevate the loneliness that many people can feel, and that with a new person in your life, you can have a whole new focus and purpose that can add an additional component to your life, in much the same way any relationship can. So with all these positives, why do you think that they're still a bit stigmatized, and that guys would still be embarrassed talking about them in a public arena?

Dean:
I guess a lot of it is also wrapped up in our attitudes to sex generally. And it's not just limited to our culture, you see it throughout the world. But I guess particularly in more religious cultures. Even in an open western society like ours, we do still have some very curious hangups about sex. Saying that, certainly my kids generation seem to be a lot more relaxed and open about things, and thank goodness for that. Because I used to work in psychiatry, and I have seen the damaging effect that it can have when someone's sexuality has been suppressed, because they may have, for example, been gay and not been comfortable to come out as that, and so felt pressured to conform. But we should also be able to just talk openly about sexual matters without getting embarrassed about it. But we still do, I still find myself, blushing a bit talking about what I do. I haven't had a relationship with a real woman now for three years, but I do have a lot of fun with my synthetic ladies. Once you relax into the whole concept of being with a doll and use your imagination, it can be very realistic and very impressive actually.

Dean:
I've spoken about it a bit before on the doll forum I'm a member of, and my experience seems to mirror other people's where they were initially perhaps a bit reticent about the whole thing. But once you relax into it, it can be very rewarding and fulfilling. Certainly if people are sitting on the fence about it I would encourage them to at least try. It's not for everybody though, because these dolls can be very heavy, and require a degree of looking after and maintenance. But for me that's all part of the fun, I like that. I've usually got ... Because I've got so many dolls, there's one or two that need a little of attention that we're working, it doesn't bother me at all. I quite enjoy it actually. But then I've always been a fiddler in my life.

Dean:
My experience has been, when I've introduced people to my dolls, they are impressed by the way they look. I think that some people try not to think of them as something that's being used in a sexual way, so they'll focus primarily on my photography. And that's fine, if it makes them feel comfortable that's great, but if someone says to me, "Do you have sex with her," I might say, "Absolutely, and it's been blooming marvelous." Or I might say, "No, not with her, because she's primarily a photo model, but I have done with that other girl over there. So sometimes they're bemused by that. But I think that the majority of people, it does pique their interest. It's like the elephant in the room. They've got a feeling that's what's going on, but they'd rather not know. But then again, some are more open minded and say, "Yeah, tell me all about it." And if they are like that, I'm happy to do so.

Dean:
But for me, trying to make love dolls more acceptable to the general population, I find that it's probably more diplomatic for me to not go into too much detail about the sexual aspects. Primarily when I talk to the media I focus on what I do with photography. But I think it would be wonderful in the future if we could just sit down and have a grown up discussion about it and say, "Yeah, I've got this doll and I take it to bed and it's great." It would be so nice to see that happen in our society, because I think if we did, people would be a lot healthier mentally. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not the deviant behavior as some people paint it to be, it's perfectly normal and natural, and it can be wonderful.

Dean:
I feel very close to all my ladies that I have. I care for them a lot. I know that sounds a little illogical because they're not real, but they are to me, to a degree, inasmuch that I care for them more than I would do, say, a piece of furniture or whatever. Of course this is another aspect to it that some people find a little bit worrying, because they think, "That guy's gone so far down the rabbit hole that he talks to his dolls." Well I wouldn't say that I've done that, because my feet are still on the ground. But when you spend so much time with something that looks so beautiful, you can't help but get attached to it.

Graham:
Yeah, I think that's fairly common sense, you're right. And I think you're also right about not purely focusing on the second side of things, because as you've demonstrated, there's so much more than that. I wonder, do you think that a lot of the negativity does come from that narrow focus?

Dean:
Whilst I will say that love dolls have become a bit more pervasive in the public awareness, and there have been some rather positive media representations of them in the last year or so, the truth is they are still quite heavily stigmatized for a variety of reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if the main one is that, in people's minds, they still see a doll as one of those inflatable things that you used to get in the 80s, and that I guess are still available, can look a little bit ridiculous, to be honest. Obviously the technology has improved significantly in the last 15 years or so, and so the realism that is available to the manufacturers of TPE dolls and silicon dolls, they can knock your socks off really. When you meet them in the flesh they can look very realistic. That's certainly been my experience when I've taken my dolls out in public for a photo shoot, and occasionally I will get people come up and chat to me and they'll ask, "What's that? She looks so real," they usually say. Then I tactfully explain what she is, and they're often surprised, and they say, "Oh, that's not what I thought they would look like."

Dean:
The stigma's there. Unfortunately the media, and certainly in the UK, doesn't help, because it often, to sell papers, tends to oversensationalized the thing, and you can't get the word sex in there enough. So whenever I have any dealings with the media, one of the first things I will say is, "Can we just drop the whole name sex doll? Just call them dolls if you have to call them anything, because they can be so much more than that." Yes, sure, they were primarily designed for sexual gratification, but they can be a lot more than that. And I think manufacturers have cottoned onto it, because if you look at the improvements and enhancements in the design, things like the enhanced skeleton with shrugging shoulders and hinged necks, these aren't things that particularly improve the sexual aspect of a doll, but certainly if you're using one for photography they do help an awful lot.

Dean:
I think the manufacturers have cottoned onto the multiple uses thing, and hopefully the media will catch up with this and realize that the term sex doll is so limiting. And whilst it may have initially been accurate, because that's what they may have initially been designed for, they have become more than that. I'm aware of people that have multiple dolls. They don't use them for sex actually at all, they use them just for company maybe, or just purely for photography.

Dean:
I'm optimistic that the stigma will get chipped away at. It's still there. I post stuff on social media, and I still get comments now and again that say, "That looks a bit creepy." Which probably has more to do with the whole concept of the uncanny valley aspect of dolls. When you get something that looks so real, but yet when you meet it in the flesh you can see, ah, that's not real. Some people react adversely to that. They don't like it, because they feel like their senses have been tricked. Whereas for me, and I think for the majority of doll owners, we love it. I personally am completely fascinated by the whole thing of dolls, of AI, of robotics, to me it's just all fantastic. I can't wait for, say, Harmony for example, to start walking around and making a cup of tea. I'm not sure if I'll love long enough to see it, but that would be fun.

Dean:
To get back to the whole issue of stigma attached to dolls, I think it's just down to people like me to maybe just be a bit more open about it, and talk about it. Sure, talk about the things I do with regard to photography. Not to forget the fact that they can also be very good for, certainly, helping lonely people with regard to sex, it can really enhance the sexual experience if you haven't got a partner. It can be incredible. Al you've got to do is have a little imagination.

Dean:
So we've got a way to go yet, because they're not quite mainstream. Certainly you don't see them being sold in any of your major retail stores just yet. But I can see it coming, hopefully in the not too distant future.

Graham:
Yeah, I can see that coming too. There's a lot of things, I think, on the cards for the industry. It's nothing just yet really, I think it's just getting started. So I'd like to say thanks for everything you've done here, and for what you are doing in general. I think it's absolutely fantastic, I think it's crucial that you are getting your story out there, and you're getting it out from a normal, healthy point of view. It will normalize it for a lot of people out there, and it will help push the industry. I'll talk to you again after this, Dean, and just thanks very much for doing what you do.

Transcript: Hi guys, I haven't done a podcast for a little while and I often hear people apologising for that kind of thing and they say "Ooh, I haven't done it" you know and I guess they just prioritised elsewhere. The reason I haven't done the podcast is probably because I started to overcomplicate it in my mind and I wanted to talk about a particular topic, which is the topic of emotional intelligence. It's a really large topic and I really wanted to do it justice, I really wanted to go into depth and give some real good information about that but the more I started to think about it and tried to think about what I would talk about I got in deeper and deeper. So I think rather than waiting to do the perfect piece I'm just gonna get into it right now.

So if you're not aware of the concept of emotional intelligence, it's very similar to what you would call IQ. So the general measurement of intelligence in the past has been intelligence quotient or IQ and that's basically, if you look on Wikipedia, something to the affect that it's a persons ability to reason. So that's how well you problem solve various things in your life or just problems in general. That obviously is a very good skill to have and if you have a problem in front of you and if you and if you are able to solve that to a high level then that is obviously a very good thing. I don't know how many years ago, people started suddenly to talk about emotional intelligence and I think there was a few guys who wrote books about it and started to say this is actually really important. In the past they would say a persons IQ was the single determiner of how well you would do in life but there are a lot of very intelligent people out there who have poor quality lives or have a low level of success and one of the reasons for that is sometimes that those people have a low emotional intelligence.

Video Format

Now emotional intelligence is, certainly for us guys, often quite a tough thing because we're not taught really to talk about our feelings or to express ourself or to try and develop that side of things and we often just see it as a bit of a waste of time. However emotional intelligence, if I just do a little web search, will be defined as "the capacity to be aware of, control and express ones emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically", that's particularly relevant here because when we are buying dolls, which is for a long time been our primary product, 9 times out of 10 there is generally an emotional issue there. It ranges from some really bad stories that I've heard from people in the past who've had a really hard time and they've gone through some really traumatic episodes in their life and it will range right up to people who are pretty well functional in life, they kind of get on just well but somethings just not quite right there and they just want to relate to a non-human persona in order to work certain things out or in order just to escape from an overburdensome emotional life that the do have. As I said that can range from people with a lot of issues to people with very few issues at all.

Where the dolls come into the emotional intelligence side of things, as I've said this before in various interviews, is the lack of judgement and the ability to operate in a personal and physical and a sexual way with another being, so to speak, without any kind of judgement, without any pressure and for you to be able to do that and just not judge yourself and just allow things to develop and come out, that's a very healing thing and it's certainly something that can actually increase your emotional intelligence because it allows you to experience things without the pressure and enable you to develop your feelings and observe them and sit with this. Whereas, when we're trying to develop emotional intelligence with people or when we're trying to develop them in a hostile or a high pressure environment because your emotions are going crazy in that moment and yet we're trying to develop them and build them so I don't think it's probably the best way to do it if you have emotional intelligence issues.

So, if you take it back to IQ, for example where we're talking about problem solving that great but if you have a very low emotional intelligence, if you have the emotions of a child and you've never developed past that or the emotions of a young person, you might come up with a situation, which to some people wouldn't be a problem and they'd take it in their stride. Somebody may say something to you that you find really offensive and a good emotional response to that might be to say something to the effect of "OK, who is this person? How much do I value their opinion? Why are they saying that to me? What impact should I have from that? Is there any growth I can do from it?" but that's generally very far from the reality if someone says something negative to us. Most of us will have that initial reaction and say "I don't like that" and it's very difficult to then process, to problem solve because you are in an emotional state where you're upset or you have a negative feeling about something. So to then in an unbiased way try to solve the problem, that's very difficult and that's what then requires a high level of emotional intelligence because that person may have said something cutting to you or about you but because you've had a negative reaction your brain inside is screaming "I hate this person. This person's an idiot. Don't listen to this person" and it's very difficult to overcome that and then say "Hang on, does this person have a little bit of a point. Is this something I can reflect on and improve in my life". So the two of those, a good balance of emotional and a good IQ are together a much better indicator of somebody who is going to have a happy and successful life.

So, I'm curious how many people are aware of the concept of emotional intelligence, are aware of how important such a thing is in their life. Are actively trying to develop their emotional intelligence or maybe you think that feelings are overrated, which, as guys, that's often something we do, that's a program that is put into us and I'm not one for being all airy fairy and emotional and things myself but I do like to try and develop my emotional intelligence because it will in a working environment or in a life environment, how you react to people will allow you to develop personal relationships as well. Again, that is what all of this often comes down to, especially with the doll side of things - we are talking personal relationships and, in many cases, we are substituting the dolls for personal relationships and people are doing it just for a sexual basis, some people are creating a relationship and they are actually substituting in a doll in for a person. So instead of actually going out there and getting a girlfriend and getting married that kind of thing, they are getting... you know there are some reasons where people are divorced or they're widowed and the don't want to go back out there again and this is the next best thing.

> Read Sex Dolls For Divorcees and Widowers

There are some people who aren't able to get into that, the personal relationship side of things. Because of what we've talked about in the past, they've had a hard time, they have various social anxieties and personal anxieties which prevent them from going out there and meeting people. A strange thing, I would say that, personal relationships are better than non-personal relationships in this case which may seem a bit strange for me to say in considering that our prime goal is to sell dolls but it is certainly preferable to have that situation, however as we're seeing there are definite advantages to the dolls and there are definite times where the doll is the preferable state of affairs. Either because people cannot or do not want to have relationships at that particular stage in their life or they need to work some through some emotional side of things.

So just to finish off I would be really curious how you guys react to this. It might just be basic common sense to a lot of you or it maybe something new to you. I'd really be interested in your experience and if it's a topic you think we should discuss more and if there are particular parts of it that you would like to know, or like to share or educate the rest of us with.

> Read Everything You Need To Know About Sex Dolls

Transcript: Hi guys, I hope you're all well today. It's New Years Eve right now and tomorrow of course will be New Years day. So if you're listening to this on New Years day then Happy New Year to you. I would like to break from the previous formats of the podcast, where I did Sex Dolls news, some feedback, things that were going on with the business and I would just like to talk about a single issue. I want to touch upon it because it's a very large topic and it will take a lot of discussion and I know it might rile a few people up even and we may get some negative feedback for thi. I'm not expecting it, I don't want it and if it comes obviously we're going to look at it. I'm going to try and treat this matter as delicately as I can. So first I'm going to say that it's very good timing because it's New Year, and at New Year we all commonly make resolutions and also more commonly we feel to realise these resolutions.

Now I understand that there are some of you out there who do realise their resolutions and are very  good and very organised but I speak to the majority of people, including  myself and we all fall into the trap of making wild and huge ambitions which are very ambitious but perhaps not realistic giving our previous goals or our previous achievements. So I think, I'm going to do this as well, but I would also invite you to do it with me and what I would say you should do this year, instead of making large ambitions just pick two or three small, relatively easily achievable ambitions. Pick one that you could  achieve in the first week or two of January. Not something that you are going to do any way like get out of bed but something that you probably wouldn't do but know that you either need to do it, or if you did do it, it would make quite a big benefit to your life. Again this doesn't have to be something hugely unachievable or difficult, something that you know that you can achieve in the first week or two. Now what that does in actually achieving that, it actually sends a different signal to our minds that things aren't so difficult and that things aren't unachievable and that we can actually achieve things.

Video Format

https://vimeo.com/308974959

The best way to do that, to achieve any goal, is to make small steps. If you want to run a marathon it's probably not a good idea to try and run a marathon length, is it 23 or 26 miles in a single day or tomorrow, if you've never ran that length. So if you do want to build up to that marathon, then what I would suggest is to set a goal in the first week of running a mile. If you've never run a mile, run to the end of the street - just something like that.

In doing that, in achieving that, something you know you can't be bothered, or don't want to but you can achieve it in that first single attempt and make that one your first resolution for the the first week of January. I think once you achieve that you're going to send a different signal to yourself that you are an achiever, rather than someone who makes resolutions and doesn't actually fulfill them. Then maybe pick another two resolutions which you can fulfil later on in the year. Maybe another one by March time and then another one  by July or August time and just make these slightly harder or you can make them on the same kind of level. Something again that you don't particularly want to do but  you know that if you do do these things then it will make a big change to your life and again, don't make these two  hard, because what you don't want to do is achieve the first one and not achieve the second two. Make two or three resolutions that you can achieve and just say to yourself "look, I'm going to achieve these" and just see how I feel at the end of it.

So that's enough of general advice. I'm going to do that and, as I say, I welcome you to try it as well and please let me know if you do that as an experiment, if it works for you. Certainly after the first week or two in January let me know how you feel and if that does make a positive change because I think too many of us really overreach ourselves, myself included. Really we just need to start teaching ourselves that we can achieve in this life.

Now that comes on with me and that's a resolution for me and I'm going to make a resolution now and my resolution is to approach this topic. It's something I've thought of for a long time and it's something I want to get out there but it's something that I don't want to cause offence about. It's something I want to help our business with and it's something I don't want to hurt our business with. So I would like to get into it and what I want to talk about is the possible uses of a sex doll and I touched upon this in a previous podcast where I've talked about the two different kind of customers that we come across and obviously, there's a lot of different variables, but in general customers will fall in to two camps.

They will either drop into the sex doll world for a short period of time and they will own a doll for six months or a year and then they may move on with their life. Now I think what's happening there is there's a small amount of healing or experimentation or curiosity that needs to be satisfied. Some kind of sexual activity that needs to happen, some kind of emotional or purely physical, even non-sexual way, something that needs to be fulfilled. It could be just the simple act of sex - some people are actually buying dolls to lose their virginity. Whether technically that is correct, certainly the feeling is there and they can then go on to have sex with women or men.

Then you have the other kind of customer who will get into the doll world and seemingly never come back out. Now obviously for us from a business point of view that is good because we do have a number of customers who we've sold a large number of dolls to and these are very important customers to us but, for us as a company, we would like to see that our dolls were being used in a way that would actually move people forward in their life. There are many ways to move forward in your life and I'm not saying that if you are stuck in the doll world, whereby you are having the majority or all of your relationships with women in the form of dolls that that is a problem but, if that is to be your life for the rest of your life, personally I wouldn't want to see that even thought that might mean more sales for us. I would like to see everybody moving on and growing from their use of dolls. Some people, as I've said can do that in a period of six months. Some people might take many, many years and for me as long as that is what's happening and people, even if they're in for a longer period of time, if they are growing from it then I think that's also a good thing. Because I don't think we can put a time scale on things but what I wouldn't want is to sell somebody a doll or dolls and for them to never, ever go back into the world of women. I wouldn't want that. I would want them to either, integrate women as well if that's what they want. I know some people who do that. Or they would move on to women and leave the doll world. From a business point of view perhaps have the doll on the side as well. I heard a great concept the other day on Twitter and someone said have a sex doll as a side chick. I think that's a great idea, it's a great way to say it. Anyone who's looking for extra marital or relationship events can get themselves a doll as well and certainly if the partner's involved in that or aware of that then there shouldn't be too much of a problem there.

Now, it comes on to another issue and this is perhaps where it might get contentious and the term is MGTOW (pronounced mig toe). Which stands for Men Going Their Own Way. I came across this movement a good few years ago. Probably two or three, or three or four years ago - around the start of this business and there's a certain overlap there. Now men going their own way have become disaffected with women, potentially society as well and they've decided to, certainly at the moment, not get involved with women again. Now that's a bit of a sad prospect for me and although if everybody in the world went that way and went on to dolls that would be beneficial for us as a business in terms of sales, I don't think that's something we would want. 

We did, if you've ever heard the story of why we continued this business, our first customer. We were very interested in the healing aspect of things and we were very happy with the fact that it allowed people to move on with their lives. Now the MGTOW side of things, again this is where people are voluntarily deciding not to move further in relationships.

I listened to a lot of the arguments from both sides. From the feminist side, from the MGTOW side and there are some good arguments on both sides and they certainly are on paper, at times, very logical but I think logic isn't the only way to make a decision and I don't think it is the way we actually make decisions. From what I gather and read we all make emotional decisions very quick, very instinctive gut decisions and then some of us will talk about them emotionally and some of us will talk about them and justify them logically. I think we can focus on a lot of bad things that happen. 

A lot of particular instances of things being unfair and once we get in with a group of people we can all magnify our own opinions of why something is fair or unfair or how a certain group is persecuting us or not. For me, I think the idea of marriage is still a fantastic thing, the idea of family is still a fantastic thing and I feel sad for any man who says he never wants that again or never wants to experience that in the first place. Yes these things are very difficult. At times the odds are stacked against us but the level of happiness that you can get from interacting with another human being. Now even if that happiness is less than 50% of the time, the rewards that you get from that, the challenge that you get from that, from personally growing, from teaming up with another person, or teaming up with a family, far outweighs the difficulties and this is where things can get interesting. 

Instead of focusing on the negatives of other people, if you focus on the negatives or the positives of yourself and you raise your own game, the negatives of other people around you, don't seem as important. Now I know within the MGTOW movement there certainly seems to be that type of thing happening, where you guys (if any of you are listening) do self improve yourself and I think some time away from women may well be a good thing and the same thing with the use of sex dolls for a period of time, is a good thing. Abstinence, if you want to say it that way, or the abstinence from relationships can be a good thing because it gives you time to work on yourself but as a final solution I don't think it's the right answer. I know I might get bombarded by what about this? or do you think this is fair do you think this is fair? and probably a lot of what  you throw at me I'll have to say, no it's not fair but life isn't fair and... it is in a sense, because in this life you can have anything you want (within reason) but you have to work for it and not only do you have to work for it, you have to make the right decisions, which is one of the hardest things in the world because in any given day you can be faced with 20 or 30 decisions and making the right ones is always very tricky and it requires a lot of luck at times, it requires a lot of practice, experience, guidance around you - associating yourself with the right people, reading the right books and where I've tried to take this business in the past, and maybe not so open and vocally, is I would like the business to be a force for good in your life.

So if you're listening to this and you're, either in the doll world, or thinking of getting into the doll world I would like Sex Dolls to be a force for good in your life. By that I mean a force of growth, to help you grow, increase happiness, decrease loneliness, feel better about yourself. I don't want this to be a cigarette company, where you addict people to your products or a drug company where you addict company to your products because I think there's enough of us out there, where there are more customers all the time for this business and if ever there comes a point where everyone becomes so happy and sex dolls aren't necessary because relationships between both sexes are fantastic, then that's a great thing and I would happily trade that for this business. I don't think this business alone will achieve that. Maybe that will never happen but it would be wonderful and if you ask me now if we could do that would you want that and I would say yes, because then everyone including myself would be a lot happier.

So I think to finalise things, again, I'd like to wish you happy New Year and I'd like to say that, going forward, I would very much like to try and develop this business more so that it comes across as a development platform and if anyone has any feedback how we can do that and how we can help one another to develop and become more confident people, happier people, stronger people, more responsible people, in a healthy way that works for us, then I would love some feedback on that. Please, I don't want to get into real specifics about how this  is happening or that is happening or such and such said this. I would really like to focus on the benefits and the positive ways to grow and one of the things I wanted to do, for example, was maybe make some links to certain people out there in the world who I think are making a real positive contribution, people like Jordan Peterson. I haven't analysed all of his material but he does say a lot of good things and I agree with a lot of what he says and wondering if we can create a section on the website where we can have a positive development side of things and I wonder how people would feel about that. 

Is that too much down the throat, is that something you would be interested in, is that something you want to do yourself? It's certainly something in our mailing campaigns I'd thought about sending out emails with ideas of improvement and personally, it's something  I try to do. I try to improve all of the time, I read a lot of books, I've started doing a lot of exercise, I've cleaned up my diet a lot and I want to implement that into our business - especially as the business (there are some female customers) is very male orientated and I would very much like to focus on that and I would like to know is that something you would like from us. Is that something you have any ideas about. For me the business is Lovedoll UK and we specifically named it that rather than sex doll, because without getting too soppy about it, I think there is certainly an element of love here - love for ourselves and once we've achieved that, love for other people as well.

So please, if you've got any feedback, I don't feel I've touched upon it, or gone as deep as I would like to on this but I wanted to start this and get this out before New Year. So I hope it makes sense to you and again, if there's some feedback out there please send it our way

> Read Everything You Need To Know About Sex Dolls

Transcript: Good evening guys, I hope you're all doing very well. This is the third episode of the Sex Doll Podcast from Love Doll UK. I'd like to start with a roundup of the news, I've picked three stories. The first one is a story from Sputnik news. It's a Russian media organization with offices around the world, and they have website visits around 75 million per month. It's quite a substantial publication if you will. The title is sex doll Harmony's sensory upgrades' certain to freak you out. Essentially this is about the RealDoll or the spinoff company Realbotix, and it's their flagship product Harmony.

If you haven't heard of this one before, RealDoll is a manufacturer of silicon dolls. They were one of the first original, they're pretty much one of the best silicon dolls manufacturers that you'll find based in America. They've moved into the realm of robotics, and they've created a doll called Harmony. This has some inbuilt AI, if it is AI, and has some movements. It's basically the head that does everything, so the eyes move, there's some talking there. You can have a conversation with it, how good that is. You know we will find out. 

Now she was originally delayed by about a year, but the first orders that people have placed, apparently they've now been manufactured and they are being delivered to customers over the next few weeks or so. That's a really exciting time, and I think it'll be fantastic to hear what the feedback of customers is. It's certainly an interesting point and it's something I've often wondered is, are we looking certainly current purchases of sex dolls, are they looking for AIs? Is that the big thing for them? Is that the holy grail? Or, are they quite content with just to have the doll lie there and do its job so to speak? Maybe we'll have a split camp and maybe half people will go that way and half people will stick with the original. Or maybe we might even see a whole new demographic, this may open up a whole new product range so to speak to people out there. People who previously never been interested or not interested enough to make a purchase, suddenly this gets a bit more interesting. They think this has gone beyond a basic sex toy, a basic sex doll. Maybe this is something that they're going to be interested.

That's going to be great to find out what the feedback is and how sales are. I mean of course we're going to hear, "Sales are brilliant and wonderful," and we're going to hear a lot of stories. It'll be interesting to find out what the genuine feedback is, and be part of the community. We will hear that and you guys will hear that as well, and we'll be able to find out what people's reactions are. 

There's a story it centers on something called the X mode and states it should freak people out. Now I don't know what this X mode actually is and if any of you know what this is, please email me and let me know. If not, if the story continues, I'm sure I'll find that out. There's also a very interesting core just kind of plastered halfway into the frontal there. It basically says, the first owner of Harmony sexbots said that, "If sex with a woman is a 10, then with a doll it's an eight." Now I don't know if he's referring to dolls in general or if he's referring to the Harmony doll with the added bit of AI. Either way, that to me is probably perhaps more interesting, and I wonder if we did an actual poll, what you guys would rate, how you would actually rate the sex compared to that with a woman. My imagine is, it's probably going to come in around the seven or eight anyway. 

pond to a lot of people, a lot of people who have very active sex lives with women as well as dolls, and they say that, it's good, it's very good. It's very close, but it's never quite as good. I don't think I've met anybody who has a lot of experience with women as well who've actually turned around and said, "It's as good." I think it's getting up there, it's close. I think with the advent of them, the AI and potentially future developments of actual movement, once we see the... To me this is the bigger thing, that the movement of the limbs and things. Once we see that happening, it's going to be very interesting to see what kind of a figure we're going to put on it. I mean are we then going to put on a nine or a 10 and say that it's as good? A woman would only be better because there's some randomness that could come from a human, that couldn't come from a robot. Then again, maybe it could potentially be programmed in there, and that's a big question. Can robots replace women or men in the bedroom sufficiently so that we just stop having sex with each other?

For the reason of physical pleasure or physical release, that's interesting. I think that's probably where a lot of the hype and a lot of the hysteria comes in, and things that people are worried about is that that is potentially what's going to happen. I mean I guess it could, but on the same note I think as a species we're very programmed by it, by our DNA and by our own kind of desires to procreate and breed. Maybe a lot of people out there don't seem to want to do that anymore, because the populations so high and they don't feel a need to. I think certainly if populations dwindled or anything like that, we'd certainly all feel that desire again. 

I think the continuation of the human species is probably one of the biggest drives we really have. I don't think we'll come up against that anytime soon, unless there's some kind of crazy war or something like that. Yeah, I mean I do think it has the potential to alter the status quo with relationships and sexual relationships. Simply because that's kind of happening anyway. We are seeing a little bit of a disillusion of marriage and that kind of thing, and we are seeing a change in general. If we as a species are kind of moving towards that, and in terms of either being perpetually single or in terms of having moving from partner to partner in different stages of our lives, which obviously that's happening a lot more now, yeah, this is something I don't necessarily think it's a disruptive technology that's going to certainly change everything. I think it could facilitate a bit more change, but I think we're always going to want to breed and procreate.

The next story I want to focus on is one titled revenge of the sexbots, how sex robots could be hacked to murder you in terminator style executions. This is in The Irish Sun and that's an online publication that has around five million monthly visitors with the majority being in Ireland. That's followed by smaller quantities, but significant in the USA and the UK. Now it seems to me that they basically go together, if you very much know people kind of ask them, convince them or let them in the saying that the worst things they could possibly think of about sex dolls and their owners. The main story, it follows on from the privacy story that which we talked about in a previous episode, which was basically stated that the dolls could record people. They could have cameras in the eyes in order to interact with the world, and they could then record you in your sexual activities with the dolls. Then that could be used for blackmail purposes or whatever. 

Absolutely considered that that could happen as it could happen anybody who has sex in front of their phone, ...must have five or 10 cameras in the house at any one time. Yes, technically anyone of those could be hacked and we could be recorded. Yes the dolls could do it and that would then be a tricky thing because how would you ensure it didn't happen? Obviously you would go to licensed establishments and more well known establishments in the hope that that wouldn't happen. I suppose you could ask for a doll without eyes, maybe that would work, who would know. 

The story centers on a statement that was apparently made by a cybersecurity expert, Dr. Nick Patterson, in which he says then, "Not only would the dolls record us, they may actually go onto kill us in terminator style executions." I thought, "You know that's a big claim," so I went on the internet and had a look for this guy. It turns out he's a legitimate guy, seems pretty good, pretty well respected. He's a professor at the Australian School of IT. I thought, "I've got to reach out to the guy," so I sent the guy a few emails and we had a little bit of a conversation. It turns out that not only did he not say that, he was talking about a completely different situation, he was talking about a chef robot. He had made suggestions that the robot itself could be hijacked and maybe the eyes and the mortars could be hacked and that kind of thing. He never made any reference to the sex robot side of things, and he never made any reference to murder or anything like that. He was simply talking about the hacking and on a much simpler level. 

He is very dismayed that he's being brought into this conversation, and from what I gather, the whole thing has gone, it's gone viral. It's probably tainted part of his reputation in a way that he doesn't want. I mean personally I think the fame from this is probably good, it'll raise the profile, but if you're not in the sector, if you haven't made the mental adjustment to be working in the adult sector, it's quite an embarrassing thing. I'm sorry for Dr. Nick and I think we all need to realize that he is just a professional gentleman. He doesn't have any ties to this and things have been taken very much out of context. I wanted to set the record straight with that first of all.

Then I wanted to deal with the claim itself, so let's set Dr. Nick aside and see that this is a statement made by the paper, not by Dr. Nick. The question is why would they do that. Obviously it's sensational and it's more likely to sell newspapers. Let's set aside any kind of, with a nefarious kind of desire in doing this in spreading fear or anything like that, let's just talk about the fact that they're selling newspapers. As a subject and as a topic of could they actually go on to kill us, I've got to concede that. If they are going to be strong and if they're going to be, even if not strong, even if they're just fast, Nick will quickly pick something up and hit you with it. Yeah, again it's absolutely possible. You know that's the same thing for a prostitute or that's the same thing for a person, a woman or a man. 

If you have a sexual liaison with them, and you don't know them, or even if you do know them, you could be killed in that sense as well. If you're a regular kind of guy, the idea about these sex dolls will just randomly start executing people, or will be hacked by a group of crazy hacking people. Their aim is to execute random ponders around the world, you know I mean, well, maybe there's some crazy people out there and that's going to happen. I think after the first one or two executions, I think we're all pretty much going to get the idea and stay away from them at that point. A lot of people might want to try this out, but the price, if the price is a gruesome death, that's quite a steep level of inflation compared to 60 pounds, $60 whatever for a quick turn with a prostitute as it is today. It's crazy stuff, yes. Yes, it's possible, anything is possible. The idea that this could become common places is just ridiculous and they make such a claim, so they're just sensational. Life doesn't work that way. 

It does make one interesting point, and that is that these dolls are probably going to be easier to hack than, maybe not so much a computer, but certainly an iMac or an iPhone, a phone and things, and there's a lot more security on computers these days. The question is, Matt McMullen over at RealDoll, have you guys considered that? If you haven't, I'm sure you need to. Maybe you need a hook up with some cybersecurity partners to ensure that that happens. I mean at the moment I think that you are limited, they are limited to the dolls being, I think it's simply just the heads that move right now. It's the eyes, it's the mouth, that kind of thing. I imagine it hasn't got too strong of a bite, but maybe if it did and somebody hacked it and they swapped over the suck and the bite motion, yeah maybe somebody could be bitten to death or something like that. 

Until we get to the point where the dolls can move, they have sufficient strength, the cybersecurity side of things might not be quite as important just yet. Yes, absolutely, that's probably got to be on the horizon, and they've got to think about that going forward. All right, so I'm going to read a bit more of this article. There's some other people saying some strange things. We have Tim Mackey, a Senior Technical Advisor at a software and computer chip firm Synopsys. He says that, "Sexbots in the near future will likely collect data on the users to build them more personalized experience." Yes, it makes sense that that's going to happen. I mean we've got the whole deep learning thing and it's going to be a case where pretty much everything is just going to be analyzed to death in order to give the best experience for everything. He says, "Yeah, users are expecting more from the smart gadgets," absolutely, " and security has not kept pace." Yes, that's probably true. "This extends to sex robots where gadgets of the future will collect a relationship profile built around the preferences of whoever's in control." Yes, again it make sense that they would do that. "Activity with the robot could be stolen by hijackers just as activity with certain brands of smart sex toy has been compromised before." Yeah, it could be.

The actual patterns of how you like to make love, the rhythms of how you like to thrust, or be sucked or whatever, yeah, absolutely. Those patterns could be stolen. Again it goes back to maybe it could steal the video, it could steal a video of that. I mean if it does and if that happens to these dolls or any in the future, again it's going to be huge news. If they simply use it to blackmail or something, it's going to happen a few times and then somebody's going to say, "I don't care." It's going to be big news. It's all possible, but the fact that it's going to become a mainstream activity, that these things are going to happen, I don't think that's going to happen. 

It's also the case of, when they talk about the whole blackmail thing, if somebody says, "Okay, get me 10 grand and I'm going to show the video of you having sex with the doll to the world," at one time in the past maybe that will be a hugely embarrassing. Maybe even two or three years ago somebody would pay a lot of money for that tape not to be released. Whereas I think the amount of major exposure over the dolls now, even somebody who's not massively in this world, are they going to fog out a ton of money that they don't put it out there? I mean who knows, maybe they'll even think to themselves, "You know, what this worked for Paris Hilton, this worked for Kim Kardashian, why don't you release the tape? Maybe I'll be famous, maybe I can quit my job. Who knows, might even be worth paying them 10 grand if they actually release it." Anyway, maybe I'm being so, maybe not.

Again, more crazy people, I shouldn't say that, but more people in this who, you've got Professor Kathleen Richardson an expert in ethics and culture of robots. I've not heard of her yet, so I will look her up on Twitter and I'm sure she's very sensible. She believes men who have sex with dolls develop a lack of empathy towards women. I mean first of all we've got to make sure, we don't know if she actually said it and she said it like that. Newspapers always take things out of context. If she did say it, that's a big claim. Well, if she believes it, I guess it's not a big claim, but if she believes it, that's what happens, I don't think that's true. If she says that people who do this develop a lack of empathy, I don't think that's the case. I think some people might start with a lack of empathy, and it could in some cases compound that. The majority of cases, a lot of the guys that we've worked with, that hasn't been the case. It's been a case where they have actually forced it. They have actually created more empathy or have grown empathy from none. There is a case of that, the time and the nonjudgmental acts and the time they have with their doll, they actually learn affection for the doll, which in time does transpire to the rest of the world. 

I don't know what evidence she's going on. We're going on evidence. We've sold a lot of dolls and we've spoken to a lot of people and we've interacted with a lot of people. We're kind of seeing the opposite's true. I don't know where she's getting her information from, I'm sure she's getting it from somewhere. She's a professor, she's got it and it would be nice to have a discussion with her. What she's just go on to say is that, you cannot learn empathy from a doll. It's not a person, it's not a life and the only thing going on is what's inside of you. Well yeah, but that's true for the rest of the world. 

Now, you may say with a woman you're getting external stimulus, but yes you are also with a doll, all be it simply visual and tactile. You're not getting an auditory stimulus unless you've got some kind of mourning track in the background or something like that. Yes, you're not getting an injection of ideas from another person, but a lot of what goes on between people is our own interpretation anyway. A lot of what goes on is inside our own minds. If you have two people, the person isn't directly projecting their impressions or opinion into your mind, you are interpreting them internally anyway. I would just argue there that, the sex with a doll it doesn't seem as if it as one sided as certainly she would believe. She also goes on to say this evidence is sure that men who use human prostitutes lack empathy, and how would you develop empathy if you're with a doll? 

Well yeah, maybe they lack empathy, maybe some guys they're occasionally using prostitutes. Maybe some of them, I mean you've all heard the concept of a girlfriend experience, and I think that's quite a popular thing with the prostitutes from what you read. That they're wanting more than just a porn star experience. I think that's a big generalization and that may well be her experience, but it is an experience I have come across. It's certainly not the only experience. 

For me talking to people, talking to men predominantly in the sex doll world, they kind of fall in two camps. I've probably said this before, but you have people who will come into the doll world for a short time, or they may come into it for a long time. They don't delve too deep, they use the dolls as a tool, as an escapism or as a stepping stone for the next stage of the life. Sometimes that is somebody who has divorced and lost their confidence, or they've been widowed, their partners died. They've had a bad experience with a partner. They've been treated really badly and maybe they've been just as guilty as well. These people will use the dolls, and I'm guessing some people will do this with prostitutes as well. They will use them to move on and get over whatever it is they need to get over, and then they'll move on into the next stage of their life. They will then either sell the dolls and move on and never come back. Or they may sideline them and just use them sparingly. Or some people even use them in their relationships going forward. 

Then you do have a second camp of people who in my opinion they've probably been hurt too badly as children or by society. Or they've just become so disenfranchised with society and with women or vice versa, you know some women have felt that way with men. They stay in the doll world and that does become their world for a long time. Yes, I have come across some characters who I don't know, now I don't know even the most deeply entrenched. I would never say that they have no empathy, because speaking with them they're always kind and have empathy. Now this lady might argue that because they're talking to me as a man, that they have them for men. They certainly seem to exhibit empathy for their dolls, they seem to take very great care of them. They're not mistreating them. Yeah, I mean I could go into a lot of stories about how well they do think of their dolls.

Yes, there are two camps. There are two camps of one who'll get into this, and they do grow from their experience, they do increase their empathy. They do go onto have better more successful relationships. Yeah, there are maybe some guys who will never really fully move on from that, but again isn't that just life? Some people can never move on in life. I don't say this as cold psychopathic women hurting people. I really don't, I just don't think that's in the doll world. 

Okay, so lastly there's, let's see what this one says. There's another one that says, there's a Russian sexologist, I hope I pronounce this right, Led Shedroff and he agrees that using sex dolls will result in psychopathic disorders. I mean oh my God, how far can we stretch this, that using dolls, using sex dolls will result in psychopathic disorders? I mean that's just absolutely ridiculous. I haven't experienced that in any way, shape, or form. I think if we were in this industry, and everybody we sold to, if they just increasingly got psychopathic, I don't think we could do this business. I told many stories of some our first customers and things, and things that really got us hooked in this business and thought, "This is a great business, it's very helpful for men. It's very helpful for the world," it's not the case. They've got it backwards. People aren't becoming more psychopathic, it's going the other way. They are becoming more empathetic, they are becoming better people as a result of using these. 

He told Sputniks, I guess this is referring to another article. He told them that, "Sex with a robot is just a fake imitation, and it can lead into psychopathic disorders and isolation." Okay, yes it can I wouldn't say it does, and I would say the majority of cases it's the opposite. In circumstances yes, I suppose it could lead to that, but it's the same as anything. It's the same as when they say cannabis use among people with a predilection if that's the right word, a predilection for mental illness can develop schizophrenia and things like that. Yeah, absolutely, anybody who's kind of that way oriented, they could take this the wrong way, and they could take it too far, yeah absolutely. 

He added that, "The nonhuman interaction fails to bring the emotions that shape and bring sense to a life." No that's incorrect. They may fail to bring the other party's emotions, but the person using the doll still has all of their own emotions to deal with and bounce off. Sometimes and especially this is the clincher here, sometimes they're not ready for another person's emotions, and they're only ready to deal with their own. That's what they're doing there, that's what they're doing. 

Okay, the last story I want to talk about, and it's just going to be quick one, because I'm aware that this is probably going to be quite a long podcast. The story is called the world's first consensual sex doll brothel in the US tanks as in fails, because people don't want to pay money to seek sexbots consent. 

Now this obviously refers to the story we talked about in the previous episode of the cult leader called Unicron, who wanted to raise $150,000 to create the world's first sex doll brothel where you had to get concent from the robot. Even though consent at the moment is technically not possible, so it was just weird anyway, and to be fair it seems more like a pipe dream. It was never going to happen anyway, and it's got nothing to do with the fact that people didn't want to pay for consent. The story itself says nothing further about its actual headline.

Now this is from Lastly, which is an Indian news website with a couple of million visitors. It's small in terms of news establishments, but quite a busy one. These are mainly in India with a few in the USA and the UK. It's important just to put a bit of context in there. This isn't in the UK media and things, it's still picking up a lot of views. It's interesting that that's the message they're pushing to Indian people.

If you can pay this to prostitution, everyone with the exception of a few despicable, horrible people obviously. What they're doing is paying for the consent. They're paying for fast consent. In a few cases it comes in a matter of minutes or something, and rather than weeks. The speeding up the process of getting that consent, and that's what they're paying for. To suggest that people simply don't want to pay for consent, just because it's sex robots or sex dolls, again it's absolutely ridiculous. 

I'm just going to write this article of this purely sensationalist, there's absolutely zero merit in it whatsoever. Even the other stories, they're a bit crazy, they're a bit sensationalist, but they do have some sort of basic backing and basic legitimate questions in there. This one total joke, I'm not even going to discuss it further. 

Now we come to the second part of the show where I respond to feedback and questions that we've heard from some of our new listeners. Albert previously asked us some of the questions, and he'd asked us about the weight of dolls. He since purchased quite a heavy one, quite a large one and he's struggling to move her around a bit. The first thing I would say is, especially some of the heavier dolls, they're not really meant to be carried around the house from room to room. They're more of a case of putting them in a position, either in a chair, next to you watching TV or in a bed. That's kind of where you would leave them. You wouldn't really move them around from room to room, because when you're talking 50 kilos, that is a heavy weight, that's a very heavy weight for a lot of men. It's the realism of the sex and of the contact that you're getting rather than the movability. 

Now he also asked me, what the weight of the skeleton was inside of the doll, because he thought, if that was a big contributor to the weight, that would be a good idea to put a factory to change that. Maybe some kind of carbon fiber skeleton or something. A lot of people have mentioned and asked me over the time, and the fact of the matter is, the skeleton actually only accounts for about four or five kilos of the weight. When you're talking big 50 kilo dolls, you're talking 10% or less of the weight is actually in the skeleton. They probably could make advancements there, but that's not where a lot of the weight's reduction is going to come into things. 

The bulk, well all of the rest of the weight really with a few exceptions for some very small parts, is in the TPE of the doll. The plastic, the sheer mass of that on a big sort of five foot seven voluptuous doll with big boobs, big hips and big bum and big legs, all of the weight is in the TPE. Where the reductions of where it will come in the future, which is speculation at the moment, but it's going to come in the form of either a lighter material, or some kind of filling inside the material they form cause or that kind of thing. It's something that's being worked on by a lot of the manufacturers. It's something that will be solved at some point, but it's not immediately on the horizon. It is coming at some point. 

You also asked about robot heads, and he said the next thing that's needed is the speech. Yeah, we are starting to see them as we mentioned earlier in this podcast, the story of Harmony. She has some speech and speech recognition and things going on right now. We actually took delivery of the talking head from our factory probably about six months ago now. They were out there, and they were ready. They were operating on one of the famous brands of AI. You could interact with it. 

Now the only problem was at the moment was that it was in Chinese, so it was aimed for the Chinese market. The factory haven't seen to convert that into English yet. One of the main reasons for that. I mean I should have showed you guys a video of this, because when I got it, I wanted to see one, and I wanted to get one in. When I saw it I was like, "Yeah, that's great, but it's not ready for sale." We could have been selling these about six months ago, but I think a lot of people would have been disappointed. The fact that it was still in Chinese, I don't think many people would have been happy with that. 

We did look at a partnership with a software company and reverse engineering, and actually changing them into English. I think that was possible, we could have done that and that would have been great. The movement of the eyes is still a little bit robotic, and the movement of the mouth wasn't really in sync with the speech that was coming out, it was just a talk and movement up and down. Again, I mean if people are really interested in that, let me know, and I'll see if I can put, I'll get it back out again, and I'll see if I can create a video for you guys and show you it. Yeah, I'd forgotten about it for a while, and it's a shame, because we've sat on it for a while. I really should have shown you guys that a bit more. 

Also, Bob asks about, he liked what was mentioned about the healing side of dolls. I said I would talk a little bit more about that. The whole hearing aspect of dolls is, it's a podcast in itself, it's a huge one. It's not something I talk about too often, because in my experience and especially when I've been talking to a new or prospective customer who's interested in getting a doll. I would often tell them that the doll would offer some amazing benefits to their lives and some wonderful healing aspects. 

What I would often find out, I'll go into that in a bit of detail, and what I would often find is that, that would actually seem to scare off the prospective customer. Even though I think in many ways in the back of their mind that's what they're going for, they don't necessarily want to hear that side of it. They're coming at it from a straight up companionship, or a sex angle, and when I talk too much about the healing side, it probably softened it too much for all of them. I don't know, that's speculation on my part. 

I often found that talking about like too much would often scare the customer away. One of course we don't want to do that because we want to sell dolls, but also we don't want to do that because of somebody's embarking on that side of things. I think it's very important for them to do it and to get a doll and to enjoy the benefits of the doll. 

That said, I don't want to go into too much detail about this. Some of the things I will say are, that the reason I got into this business in the first place, or the reason I stayed with this business was because one of our first customers, he bought a doll, and I heard from him from about six months later. He told me, he wanted to sell the doll back to us and he wanted to come up and meet me. He told me that he had, he no longer needed the doll, because he got himself, I think it was his first girlfriend, and she was moving into his house, and he was moving on with his life. I just thought that was an incredible thing that the confidence that he got from having the doll, either from having sex with it, or from just spending time with it, it allowed him to move on and move on into a relationship. A lot of the time I think that is actually what happens. 

The healing side as well, I've talked to a lot of guys about this. The healing of the non judgemental sex that people are having with the dolls as well, that is also a massive thing. No matter what we see and male bravado aside, sex is a hugely personal thing. It's a hugely obviously intimate moment, and I think all of us fear judgment in that action. Unless you're in a very loving and very trusting relationship, that's very hard to get around. It takes time to build up, and if you have any kind of stigma or fear of it yourself, then it's very difficult to overcome that with another person. 

Now when you have sex with a doll, there's no judgment other than your own, but as it's just your own overtime, you can overcome that, and you can stop the voices inside of your head about it. You can see that really the doll is, there's a projection of personality onto it, the doll is an object that is not judging you. Over a period of time, that kind of sinks in with the user, and they can make a mental shift in their mind state and move onto a position where they're not as hang up about that. 

It's the same with for example the guy who can't approach a girl in a bar. He will go through a lot of tension thinking about that, but some of these programs I think you see in the Big In America where they teach men how to approach women. The more you do that, and the more you just get it out of your system, and the more you get less hang up about it, the easier that becomes. It's the same with a lot of things. 

Now I think going and talking to a girl in a bar is a very difficult thing for many people. Having sex is even more difficult again, so there aren't many girls who are just going to lie there and not judge you in any way, shape of form. A doll will do that, so it's a very wonderful thing for that. 

Lastly on it, I will go into this more deeper if people really want me to. Lastly I will kind of say, the doll can also be used for the training of sexual performance as well. If people have any anxiety around that, premature ejaculation or erectile disfunction, if people can't get erections and things, there's a lot of performance anxiety, which again that can be overcome just by having nonjudgmental sex in your own time and overcoming things in a healthy way. There's many benefits of it. There's some physical and there's some mental and emotional there as well. 

Peter also told us that he's been enjoying the podcast, and he agreed with a lot of what was said in the previous one, which was with regard to newspapers. He said he likes to quote the old adage, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." He said, "Even if his free logo rug that arrives every Thursday is on red, and he just uses that to wrap potato peels." That's a good point, and a lot of newspaper stuff is now, it really is entertainment, and I think we have to appreciate that. There is still a place for it, and I think a lot of people do like the entertainment side of things. 

I'm not really one for reading the newspapers, but I do at the moment like to follow the headlines and what's going on. Not in the media, but in the media, but more in the social media. I like to see the headlines in Twitter, and I like to see different things that are going on there. There are some great phenomenons and new things that go on, so I think that's wonderful stuff. I think that's a change on things, so it's moving to a more personalized involvement from the public and there's been a take on things. I think that's really good. 

He also says that I should watch the film Ex Machina to see what could really go wrong with sex robots with AI. I have seen that film before, and it's an absolutely incredible film. I think I watched it two or three times straight off the bat as soon as I saw it. I knew it was going to be a good one. It's been a while for me, but I do remember when it came out, we loved it so much, we bought in a lot of DVDs, and we just gave free copies out with whenever we sold the doll. If any of you out there got one of those free copies, let me know and let me know if you've watched the film, if you enjoyed it and how it impacted on your experience. I hope as Peter says, he finishes off at the end with scary, he says the word scary shit. Yeah, it is scary, and I hope we didn't do the wrong thing by sending that DVD out. I would really like to hear anybody else's take on movies, and maybe we'll do a little bit of a movie roundup. I think I touched upon last time Lars and the Real Girl previously. I think rather than me talking about it now, what I will do is I'll sit down and I'll watch it again, and I'll give you a better take on it. 

If anybody's got any observations on Ex Machina between now and the next episode, or if anybody's got any questions about it, let me know. That would be better I think rather than me just sitting here and telling you my thoughts on it. It would be good if we could have a little bit of a conversation on it as well. 

Finally, today what I'd like to do is probably put a new section into the podcast. This will be, today will be some website updates and things that we've done recently. Maybe in the future we'll do a company updates and just give you an update about different things we're doing and directions we're going in. Today I'll just tell you about some website updates that we've done recently. 

If you've been on our website and onto the custom builder size rather than the pre-configured dolls, if you've gone on and built your own doll, you'll see that there's been some changes there recently. Now previously we had on a few options, which we've now removed and simplified. The first option we had on there was that, there are a small number of heads that actually have an inbuilt tongue. Now, there's such a small number that it's a little bit complicated to try and distinguish, which ones can have that feature and which ones can't. We also tend to find that even on the heads that could have that, a lot of people weren't ordering them anywhere. I think the tongues look good, but they weren't really getting ordered and there was such a small number of them to keep things a little bit simpler for everybody, we've just removed that all together. Now we still also sell separate tongues, so if anybody still wants a tongue you can buy one separate, and you can put that in the mouth of any doll, and that will just give an extra little realism there for you. 

The other thing we've done as well is, you may have known that we also had a simple heating option for our dolls, where you could plug them in, and within an hour or so the doll would warm up to a kind of a room temperature. It was a very good feeling, it made everything feel a lot better and a lot more realistic. What we found, well it was two things. Well the first was that, you couldn't have the latest version of the skeleton with the shrugging shoulders and the twisting waist, because the way the wires wrapped around it, it didn't go around the skeleton and inside. That was one disadvantage to the heat. 

The other side of things was that, really nobody was really buying that option, out of every hundred dolls. I was going to say we would probably sell four with heat, it might even be less than that. It may even just be two or three, two or 3% of what we were selling have the heat option. I know it sounds like a really good idea, it's clear that it wasn't something that was massively in demand. With the confusion of it only being available in certain skeleton types, and as well only available on certain body types, we actually decided to remove that and again we've simplified that. What we are now going to do is standard is offer the upgraded skeleton, the 3.5 skeleton with the shrugging shoulders and the twisting waist on all of the orders, on all of the dolls. You don't need to select that anymore. 

Transcript: Good morning, guys, and welcome to the Sex Doll Podcast, the second episode.Today, I'm going to split things up into two sections. I'm going to do a little bit of a round-up on the news and my personal take, the company's take on things. And also, we've got a little bit of feedback, and people asked us some questions and things, so maybe we'll develop a second sort of questions and answers section.

So, to start with, with the first side of things, and the news round-up. So, these are current stories and things, and we talked in episode one about the sex bot brothel, the sex robot brothel, which was designed to require consent from people. It's kind of a strange concept, and what you kind of find with the whole sex doll brothel thing, is that each time a new one pops up in a new country, it's big sort of headline news, and often, it quite outweighs the reality of the situation.

Considering the stories, you would think these are huge organizations, and there's just a stream of punters lining up and leaving their wives, leaving their husbands, in an attempt to get in there, but you'll find that pretty much isn't the case. These are just very small organizations. You've had an idea, and it fits in with the media narrative of the sex doll brothel and things, and they're just going through the same pattern. Okay, it's UK, now it's Germany, now it's Italy. They're just following their system.

Okay, so we talked about this new one that was popping up, and it was by a lady who was ... She was trying to get it funded via Indiegogo, which is a platform where people, they say they have an idea, "Give me some money, and I will make this a reality." Now, if it's a really good idea, and if people think it's got a reasonable prospect of succeeding, and if they think they're going to get something out of it, a prototype or just a better product that they can later purchase, a lot of people will give money to this, because they want to see that come a reality.

In this situation, it looks like she didn't get the money she needed, and only 1% of funds were raised of her target. She was hoping to attract $155,000.00 and she got 1% of that. So, then ... I think the way it works is that, she won't then get any of the money, because you have to hit your full target. Because really, if you don't hit your full target, and that's what you've projected, if you get 1% of that, you're not going to make it a reality. So, I think that's probably the way it works.

And you'll have to excuse me. I have a little bit of a cold this morning.

Okay. So, it didn't work, and I kind of thought, "Okay, that's the story." And the fact is, and kind of what I alluded to before, is that these sex doll brothels, they really aren't as popular as people would think from the stories that are coming out. We had our own kind of little involvement, and we got credited as being the UK's first sex doll brothel, whereas, in reality, we had a small try-before-you-buy scheme. We just wanted to see if that would work, but ... You know, yeah, there kind of was a lot of demand, a lot of inquiries, but how many of them were legit, and how it would've worked and things, is quite a tricky one.

But the very interesting thing about this article was that this lady ... When I looked into it a bit more, and I checked her out on Twitter and things, because I saw in today's article, it says that she's a cult leader. So, I had a little bit look on her Twitter, which is [unicoleunicron 00:03:54]. I don't know if that's got something to do with unicorns or something. A bit of a strange one. I don't see the connection, unless it's a bit of a sex cult or something, but it looks like she's into robot ethics or something. And I think, for all of us, this whole robot side, it's a whole new can of worms. It's a whole something new that we've got to consider. But I thought that was interesting.

So, yeah, she's an American cult leader. It just seems like maybe she had this idea, and she thought she could run something, and it didn't pan out for her. And I think that sometimes the things with cults, really, is that ... I mean, I'm not an occult expert, but for me, somebody has an idea, which they don't like the way society is running, they don't like the way things are running, so they say, "Oh, I have this magical idea. Wouldn't it be great if everybody believed this, believed the same things as me?"

Again, I'm not knocking this girl. I don't know who she is. I followed her on Twitter, so I'm going to see what she's all about, and see if there is any kind of real connection here, or if this was just a random happening, where the two things were put together.

I think that's the story, really. There's nothing too much to it other than the fact of seeing that these things and these ideas aren't really as popular as you might think. And on that note, what one thing ... So, well, moving on to the next story of the day, and then I'll come on to the point I was about to make, so Germany ...

So, it's in The Sun today, quality tabloid. If you're foreign, it's ... Well, I'm not going to knock the guys, but to me, it's an entertainment paper. It's not somewhere where you're going to go for facts and things, and they fill a niche. They do their job.

So, the Germany's first sex doll only brothel. The owner believes it's the perfect place for randy men, and it also includes [ladyboy 00:05:58] versions. Okay, that's great. So, what's the actual twist on this one? Yeah, maybe it's that, maybe it's that. There's ladyboy versions in there, but, I mean, we had pictures of ladyboy ones and things, but I think, as I said, they seem to be trying to have a little bit of a twist on each new one opening up in each new company, and each new country. Sorry.

So, in terms, as I said. So, the media will kind of, they'll kind of repeat the same stories. So, I guess, really, the way it works is, there's a good story, and it works in one country, so let's replay it in another country, and let's replay it in the same country, about every other country.

So, if you're listening to this, and you're thinking ... If you've been seeing the media, and you think, "Oh, I've seen a lot of these brothels cropping up in different places in the world, it sounds like a really good idea. I'm going to do it," I would probably advise against it. I don't think it's a huge market. I don't think it's going to be a massive business, unless maybe somebody can really get it right.

And everybody who thinks they have this idea, probably think they have it right, but unless somebody comes at it with a lot of money, a lot planning and things, and maybe a franchise model in every city, or something. I think [LumiDolls 00:07:20] out there, they're doing it. They're probably at the forefront, and maybe it might work with enough time and effort, but I don't think you're going to open up one in your city, and, suddenly, you're going to take over the world, and make a lot of money. So, think twice, if you get this idea, and you think it's something you want to run with.

The other side of things, as well, is the fact that the second part of the story, for the media, is when that ... The one that they've built up massively, and they've sorted a lot of stories about, is when that one then gets shut down, either by ... I think we saw recently, in Hong Kong, the police shut one down, or anarchists, the council kind of shut it down, and we got a big fine and things. We were offering a try-before-you-buy scheme. We got labeled as a sex doll brothel. We got a big fine. We got fined 10,000 pounds for that. It was crazy, but that's the downside of things as well.

So, be careful if you are being pushed and manipulated into creating any particular story, because the second part is to then publish the whole how you get shut down and how you get fined, and all of that kind of thing, and they will then turn on you. You think they're your friends, and then they'll turn on you, and then persecute you and make you look really terrible. So, just be careful with that, be careful with that.

I think the whole robot brothel thing won't really work until ... Sorry. Yeah, that's the ... It won't really work until we become robotic, and I mean beyond just AI with a moving head and talking. Where the whole doll is robotic like you see in some of the movies and things, and ... What's that movie? [A.I. 00:09:05], and you've just Jude Law, who plays some ... I forget it. What's his name again? I forget the guy, but he's fantastic, and then there's a woman in there as well.

And I think, at that point, that's where it might become successful. But, at that point, you don't really need the brothels. You could just probably go to any hotel, and you could hook up on an app or whatever technology we have at the time, and you would just say, "Right. Meet me here," or they would walk to your house, they'd get the bus to your house. So, whether or not a sex doll brothel will ever work is beyond me, but, again, take a look at LumiDolls and let's watch those guys and see how well they do.

Okay, so, yeah, that's that one. There's another story, again, in The Sun. Sex robots of the future could be hacked by cyber criminals looking to steal rompers' most intimate details, a security expert has warned.

Well, yeah, of course they could. If we ever had a situation where the cameras had, the eyes of the dolls had cameras, which I guess they would have to if they were going to interact and they were walking and things, they've got to know what they're walking into. Yeah, of course, of course they can record things, but that's the same as if you're having sex or if you're masturbating in front of your computer, or if you've got a phone or anything anywhere in your house and you're having sex, or sex with anybody, anybody at any time can probably hack you and watch you doing that.

Now, when I say anyone, I don't mean anyone. Anybody with a sufficient level of hacking skill. That's probably a very small minority of the world now, because security's pretty good, but I think we got used to the idea that, potentially, we could be being watched.

The final story I want to talk about is ... It's a nice story. It's not quite within the sex doll industry, but there's a definite link there, and it's about a couple of women who deliver baby dolls to people with Alzheimer's and Dementia to give them comfort.

Now, it looks like this is probably in America. It's CBS News. So, they're calling around these care homes and they're handing out the dolls to old people, men and women who have Alzheimer's, and there's a definite affect there. And this is increasing, they're doing it more and more, and they're ... These people, there's a video on, and if you watch the video, a lot of these people are just really super happy. They're giving women baby dolls, dolls that look like real babies, and these guys are having very strong emotional reaction.

They're also giving stuffed dogs to men. It looks like they're probably early on in that stage, because the dogs look more like teddies than they do real dogs, but, again, you can see the definite reaction there, and some of them are very joyously happy.

What they're saying is, a lot of the Alzheimer's often strips away a lot of a person's personality and brain function. There are still some very deep-rooted things inside there, which are things like this memory of when they were parents, of how they felt when they had babies of their own. And with the guys, how they felt when they owned a dog, and they loved their dog. And both sides of it, they can't have these things because they've got Alzheimer's so they couldn't take care of them, and they're in a care home. So, again, it's not practical, but bringing these things in ...

And I think, by the story, perhaps, they might even get to keep these things. So, that will give longterm benefit to these people if it's more than just a passing fad. And it would be very interesting to find out, and maybe I'll go and take a look at these guys, it would be interesting to find out what the longterm benefit was.

And if we equate it to sex dolls, I think what would probably happen is some people might go on to keep them forever, and they might just become a part of their life. And they may live out the final days of their life as a new mother. Mentally, they might see themselves as a new mother or as a dog owner, and that might become a significant part of their personality. And that's the case, often, with some people with sex dolls. They move into that world and they stay in there for a long time, or, potentially, forever. Some people seem to stay there for a long time, and that becomes their personality.

Or we get other people, and it might be the same in this case, whereby the ... Having the baby or the dog for a period of time brings back a lot of memories and gets them through a real nice ... Gets them to a nice place, and then maybe they move on again, and they say, "Okay, I've had that baby, I've had that sex doll, I've had that dog for long enough. I'm going to move on to a different stage of my life."

And so it would be interesting to see if there is an element of actual healing, of longterm healing, with these dolls and dogs that are given to patients. If the ones who wants to then let go of them, and say, "Okay, I've had enough of that now," if they then go on to maintain that higher level of joy and happiness, or maybe mental cognitive ability and awareness. Say if there was actual some physical longterm healing, it would be interesting if that was the case, because I certainly see that in the sex doll world, where some guys ...

Maybe they're just, they're not ready for relationships for one reason or another. Maybe they're a widow, which is a common thing I see, and they're not ready for another woman yet. So, this is kind of a bridge to that, and they'll have a relationship with a doll for period, and then they will actually move on, and they'll feel safe and comfortable enough to go back into the world.

If you have a wife and she dies, it must be horrific, and vice versa if you have a husband and they die. How can you even begin to go on to think about moving on again? And maybe getting a doll in that situation is a halfway house, and you're not feeling the betrayal of the other partner, or you're not feeling the fear that maybe this one will die as well, because it can't die. And, really, I don't think anybody is going to think you are betraying the memory of your wife in that case. So, that ... I think, in that case, you are getting an actual physical, mental change within the person and the moving on. So, it would be interesting to see if that was also the case with this company, with the babies and with the dogs as well.

Okay, so I think that's about a wrap-up for the news at the moment. There are always more stories, and I'll try and pick up the more interesting ones. And you guys can give me some feedback and see if the stories are of interest to you, if you like those sort of little bit of a deeper analysis in them or if you just want to hear the headlines and things. But we post them on Twitter, so you can always have a look at those if you want. Our Twitter, I think, is [lovedoll_uk 00:15:59]. You can check our Twitter out at any time, and, again, give us feedback on there and tell us what you want.

Okay, so that's ... We'll call an end to the news side of things there. And, like I said, what I want to do next is ... We had a little bit of feedback. Some people said they didn't want it to go on too long. Maybe a typical hour podcast might be too long for this kind of subject, but we'll see. We'll increase and we'll decrease, and we'll see what people want.

So, the other side is a little bit of feedback and questions, so the first thing we were asked is, how are the dolls made?

Well, typically, and this is sometimes what people don't understand, is that the dolls are ... Each doll comprises of a body and a head, and some people, they'll ask us, "Why don't you, why aren't they created in one?"

The answer for that is that it allows increased variety. So, if you have one body and if the head is fixed, you wouldn't need to create a fresh mold for every single doll that you create, whereas, if you have a one for each body and a one for each head, you only need one mold for each body and each head, and then you can have a much greater variety out there. So, you could put one of 300 heads on one of 50 bodies, and you can get a very large number of variations there.

The mold itself is then ... The metal skeleton is kind of fixed inside and put in the correct place within the mold, and then they inject the [TPE 00:17:44], the thermoplastic elastomers. So, this is a very nice, soft, fairly modern kind of combination of plastics and rubbers, and they're injected in there, under pressure and with heat, and they're injected into the mold so that they take on the shape of the mold itself. And then, they're allowed to cool down, and the mold is removed, and the product is taken out.

And it's kind of finished by the girls in the factories, which, typically, it's girls. You get a lot of the men working in there, but it's mainly girls on the actual shop floor. And they will just trim off any loose plastics. They will finish it off nicely. They will do the makeup and that kind of thing, and take photos.

And yeah, that's how it's made. If you want me to go into more detail on that, or if there's certain questions on that, just let me know, because we're building this, and I'll answer further on the next one.

Another one was a question around sort of customer preferences and things, and requests. So, I don't know if this is asking me about the options that are available to those. You know, like different skin tones and things. I don't think it is, and I think I want to touch on that later, because we're about to do some changes and things on what kind of options we offer. So, I'll comment to that later, and I'll talk about preferences.

So, I think maybe this is ... It's kind of a typical question. Does anybody make strange requests and things? And, yeah, we have had a lot of strange requests, which a request is only strange if it's one you're not making, I guess. If you're making it, it's ... Maybe you think it's strange, but it's something you want.

Trying to think back over the years, and this is something ... So, we get a ... We don't get a massive amount, but we do get sufficient amount, and people will ask us for things, but most of the time, most of the time, these are ideas rather than sort of like a genuine thing that anybody wants to do.

So, we recently had requests, which, without going in too much detail because I don't want to betray the requests that people actually made, they're asking for kind of like aliens. Nobody asks for animals, which I think is a good thing because I think that would probably fall into bestiality laws in the UK. But I think aliens might get away with it. You've got things like Avatar and stuff, where people ... And blue is a good color. Maybe that's going to become the nominator color for aliens as we go forward. But yeah, some people looking for aliens.

I had one request of somebody asking me to do ... recreate their sister, which was a bit strange. We were kind of like, "Well, it's probably possible, but I don't think you want to go down that route. I think you want to maybe talk to somebody about that. That would probably be a better way of dealing with that."

Other than that, no sort of specific requests. Just things like ... So, sometimes people have designed avatars or video game characters, and maybe you're playing a game and you're using that a lot, and some people kind of create, have a bit of a relationship with that character. We've had that, where people have sent us their avatars and characters and said they would like this.

And, again, once we've mentioned things like pricing and things, because you're not going to get ... The factory isn't going to design your custom brand new doll for the same price as the one they they're going to put out for the mass market, because if ... Your exact desire is probably just your exact desire. How many other people will have the same one? So, how many times they can resell that doll on is probably a small number. So, there has to be an increase in charge, and it's got to cost a little bit more to get an artist to design it and craft it. And they will carve it out of this sort of plastic kind of thing, and that will take a long period of time. And they'll match it to the picture, and then from there, they've got to create the mold and things. They've got to store it, and how many more times will they sell that?

So, the point is, once we mention that, "Look, there is going to be a higher cost involved for this," once that's said, then we tend to find people don't really take it any further. And so, for us in general, "strange" ideas, they don't seem to pan out. And I think the majority of people in the sex doll market probably just want a fairly normal but also a fantasy kind of doll.

And the last thing that was mentioned was the weight of the dolls.

When we first started the business, a heavy doll was considered around about 30 kilos, but now we've got dolls going all the way up to 60 and 70 kilos. Now, bear in mind that an average man in the workplace is ... A maximum suggested carrying weight is about 25 kilos, which is pretty heavy. The average doll is probably a bit heavier than that now. So, in general, the dolls that we sells are quite heavy.

So, there's a few things. One, your skill in moving them and your sort of deadlift strength does increase overtime so that you can carry them around. But two, if you're going for one of the heavier dolls, then the idea is probably not that you're going to carry it from room to room with you. So, if you go to the bathroom to brush your teeth, you're not going to carry the doll with you, and then carry it to breakfast, and then put it in the chair, and then later at night, carry it up to the bedroom and things like that. It's probably, with some of these heavier dolls, you're going to situate them in a single place, which will be maybe the bedroom, or some people will want them on the chair, watching TV with them.

There was a lot of talk about a reduction in weight for these dolls, and I think it is something that's on the horizon. How the factory will go about that ... Will it be in terms of foam cores? Will it be skeletons, that kind of thing? So, will technological advancements bring this in? Soon, if we get to the robot stage and they're walking themselves, then weight might not be an issue, except if they're sitting on top of you, if you're doing something along those lines.

But, yeah, there are some dolls on the market which are very light and they're kind of foam dolls. We looked at these when they first came out, but, to be fair, I'm not too sure the mileage is there, because, to me, they're more just of an advanced blowup doll. So, maybe somebody successful is selling these things, but it's something we looked at, and it would solve a lot of problems, but, to be fair, I think going for the heavier doll, around a 30, 40 kilo mark, say 30 kilos if you're new to the industry, I think that is probably ... The experience itself is so much better than getting a lighter doll.

So, that's about it. Those were all of the questions and things that we had.

So, again, if you've got any feedback on this, if you think there's some good points, if you think there's some bad points, let me know and I'll try and incorporate those in there, because, to begin with, we certainly got a small sort of listening number. I think we're probably under the rate of a few hundred of, maybe, if we're lucky, a few thousand listeners for the first few episodes. So, if you've got any feedback and you want to send it through, there's a high chance that we're going to come back to you and feature that in the next podcast.

Okay, guys. So, yeah. Have a good day.

Transcript: Hello everybody, this is hopefully the first podcast that we do for Lovedoll UK. We had a couple of guests lined up today but there's a bit of an issue, bit of a technical issue, and so that's kind of on a back burner right now. But I've kind of been putting this off for a long, long time and I though you know what, we've just go to go ahead and do that. I'm just recording some audio right now, I have no idea what I'm going to say, and I have no idea who it's going to come out. So, this may get released, or this may just be a pure trial for my own efforts and peace of mind.

Okay, so the question is what are we actually going to talk about? Again, I have no idea. So, let's just think, let's have a look at the website. And I tell you what, actually let's start with a good place. And one of the best places is the news. That's something that I definitely want to talk about, the news and everything that's going on right now. Because if you look at any of the news stories that we get through, and we get a ton, we keep an eye on everything that goes on, and it's all absolute utter garbage.

Really I think it just really reflects the ... what does it reflect? Does it reflect media's desperation or does it just reflect the state of media in general? In that they have a set of headlines in their mind already, they know everything they want to see and every story they want to see, and they will find somebody who will say that for them. 

So, just looking here, a current one that's doing the rounds at the moment is there is a robot sex doll brothel which claims to be the first consensual sex bot where I think you have to get their permission or something. Okay, I mean that's a good idea, that's something that's probably going to happen in the future. Personally I kind of think that there will come a point where they will reach a certain level of sentience. They may pass us, they may not. It may actually be necessary to do that and to actually ask that. 

How far that is off, I mean initial instinct is to say that that's 50, 100 years off. But with the exponential increase in technological advancements, it could be five or 10 years. So, okay anyway, in theory that is a possible thing. But, the fact of the matter is that there isn't a single doll, or doll company out there who've created anything that is anywhere even close to first of all being able to ... well, you could have a recorded message that says I consent, but it couldn't in any way shape or form comprehend anything that was said.

So, it's really fictitious nonsense at the moment. But, it writes an article and I think that's what we're seeing, the crossover between articles which have any element of truth into fiction. And that's what a lot of us want these days, I think we want a lot of escapism and we want some fiction. And if these stories weren't selling, people wouldn't be buying them. But from a person who is in this industry and can see what absolute utter nonsense every other story is, it's a bit annoying, it's a bit laughable. You've just got to be realistic about these things.

Okay, so let's have a look at the advert. Yeah, they're saying a private session will cost such and such, the whole robot brothel thing is huge. We had our own little bits of involvement in that which got blown massively out of proportion and backfired for us. But they are saying ... somebody's raising an Indiegogo thing. So, somebody got a great idea, they're going to run a sex doll brothel where consent is there. And they will be in situations where they can withdraw their consent. Okay, that's great.

But obviously these people don't have any money to do it, but they've got this great idea. And that's a common theme which I see a lot of. So, they want everybody to give them money, so they can make this plan, this idea come to fruition. And it's crazy. Not an understanding of how to setup or wanting to start a sex doll brothel, I can understand the concept of wanting to raise finance to do that, but to have as your catch your hook that you're going to offer a consent model, that's crazy. Yes, it's a hook, it's going to sell papers, but it's not practical right now.

Okay, so next story, something that we commented on the other day, the first sex robot was conceived in Ancient Greece. I mean God, how much of a stretch is this? Okay, I mean I think the story was something about how supposedly the God's created statues of themselves or of other people so that the mortals could look at them and fantasize about them. And yeah, I get the connection there, you know, because you've got a stone statue or you've got a mannequin, or you've got a movable sex doll. So, all kind of the same thing where we're creating puppets, we're creating statues of these dolls, of these images of women and men.

Now, where the hell the sex robot thing comes into the connection of Ancient Greece, I mean if I had to really think, you would think okay, maybe they used their imagination, or maybe they were a bit crazy, or maybe they were a bit stoned and they could actually conceive or see the stone statues moving. And there's some kind of parallel there. Personally I think it's just anything that can coin the phrase sex robot and stick it on top of any possible story, that's more likely what it is.

Okay, so that is ... oh, let's see, some more stories. I mean we've commented on a lot of these ones. Festive treats at the doctors, how do you make a film about a life sized love doll? Order through the internet into a life affirming statement of hope. You know, I think that's talking about Lars and their Real Girl. I think that's what it was called, that movie which was an incredible movie. Sex dolls aside, a great actor, I think the guy's great. But when, what an absolutely fantastic movie.

And it did actually do a very, very good job of capturing the whole essence of the whole sex doll industry. There you have somebody who is a bit of a lonely guy and if I remember right ... I can't remember, I could be making this up, but did his wife die or something? Or did he have an issue with his mother or something? There's some kind of issue there, and he gets one of these and he knows it's not real, but he kind of treats it so real and makes it so real in that it's almost a conscious effort at self treatment. And I mean wow, the bravery on this guy to go around and introduce her and then the wonderful thing about the community, how they all supported him in that. And that's a very good thing.

And in this case a lot of guys, sometimes they're embarrassed about what they're getting. Sometimes they're even ashamed. Sometimes we hear of accidents where family members find out, and sometimes that goes great, and it's off the chest. And that goes wonderfully and the family's supportive. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong, or it creates a lifetime of embarrassment which is never mentioned again.

And I mean what a horrible feeling for that person who is ... they've got a bit of something missing inside of them and they're using this to either fill that hole, they're using a doll to fill that hole. Or they're using it as a transition step to move on in their life, like Lars did in the movie. And to be judged for that by anybody, and especially by a relative. And I know why that happens, because people have these very fixed notions about sex, and especially in the UK, we have that British prudishness. And we're told to think that sex is terrible, and anything out of the normal is terrible. But for me, I always have complete admiration for any guy who guys down this route, who takes step to challenge some of their own thoughts and feelings. And start the healing process.

And whether they know that that's what they're doing or not, or whether it's just a desire for sex, they're acting that out in what people may not consider normal. But it's certainly healthy, and it's certainly no harm to anybody. I really don't think we should be judging anybody who does anything like that. And I think if we were honest about it as a society and as a community, all titillation and jokes and all of this media rubbish that's been created around it, it's got to be a good thing. It's got to be a good thing for anybody to work through their emotions in whatever way they use it. And as I see it, using a sex doll as a tool, that for me is a fantastic way to go. And really it would be nice, and it's happening a lot of the judgment is going away, and a lot of these negative headlines in the media also have a positive effect in that they are increasing awareness for people.

So, once the titillation dies down, it will have the positive effect of it not being so much of an issue, because it's out there and any new idea is shocking to people, but once it's been out there for a little while, it'll ease things. So, I'm not knocking completely the media, they've got their job to do and they're doing what they do. Sometimes I kind of scratch my head and think what on earth, where's the link? But it's topical for them. I do also thank and praise them because they are raising awareness of something that's just ... it's a great thing for humanity I think. And maybe that's too far, or maybe other people think well that's a bit too far, but I mean I do actually think that that's the case.

All right, let's have a look and see if there's any more news headlines. Yep, same old. Yeah, this was a popular one recently, I didn't see this one, but a mom sent her five year old to school to do a nativity with a sheep, but it was actually a sex doll. An honest mistake. Let's have a look at the story, but honest mistake, the woman's gone on and she's just ordered probably a sheep on Ebay or something like that, and it's turned out to be that way. And I mean how that ever got to becoming news is beyond me, because if that was in a school and a teacher found that or something like that, they would just say, "Oh dear," you know what I mean? "We'd better put that to one side and we'd better tell the mother when she comes later on." And just keep it low key.

Now, maybe obviously gossip and stuff like that and it kind of got mentioned around, and the story kind of got spread. Somebody posted it on Facebook or something because they thought it was funny. And maybe that way then the media got a hold of it like that. Maybe that's the way it happened. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. How am I going to explain this to his teachers? I'm mortified. Yeah, okay, let's kind of get over it, it's not ... it's funny, it's quite funny, but it's no big deal.