My disdain for harmful sexual deviants runs deep into the dark, dripping-stalactite core of my being, and if in a swift swoop they could all be gone from the earth, I’d sign those discharge papers.
But child molesters and rapists are never going away completely. They're not. They’ve spanned history, and “cures” have always proven ineffective. Also, sometimes they get out of prison.
It’s impossible to really understand for most of us, but an article article called “Inside the mind of a pedophile” at neuroanthropology.com explains these perversions as being caused by both biological and environmental reasons. Child predators were often molested themselves as kids, brain issues, etc. — basically, the article says it can’t be cured, as it’s ingrained in their nervous systems.
Rapists have a complex variety of motivating factors that y’all can Google, because it’s too much to squeeze into this space. Suffice it to say, both are like the anal herpes of society: vehemently unwanted, yet here to stay.
So is it worth considering a new approach? Other than lifelong cognitive behavior therapy, say, or chemical castration, neither of which is a sure fix?
Enter childlike, anatomically correct sex dolls for the pedophiles. And Frigid Farah, the sex robot who resists sexual advances — a doll for the quintessential Date Rape Dave.
The made-in-Japan child sex dolls, which are female only even though boys are well-documented victims of predators (because I guess it’s okay to molest kids in Japan as long as they’re the lesser of the genders), have actually been around for a few years, and are literally made for pedophiles who need an outlet for their urges.
Some convicted of sex crimes against children report they actually do want to resist those urges, and that these dolls help, according to an article in The Atlantic. The magazine interviewed the maker of the Japanese child dolls, Shin Takagi, an admitted pedophile who says he has not molested a child. He said, “We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes, I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It’s not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire.”
Frigid Farah, a "personality type" of the three options available for the RoxxxyGold sex robot, got a lot of flack this year, and was accused of being created so that men can live out their rape fantasies. Frigid Farah does things like tells you you’re moving too fast, because she’s shy and reserved. Her programming is about resisting, but eventually your smooth moves win, because after all, she’s your very own $10,000 toy sex machine.
The manufacturer denies that Farah is a rape simulation doll, though, with a letter on their website that rebuts the media freakout, saying, “Roxxxy, our True Companion sex robot is simply not programmed to participate in a rape scenario and the fact that she is, is pure conjecture on the part of others.”
She plays hard to get, see, and some fellas like a challenge — but ideally one that can’t call the cops.
So the question is, are we at a place now, as a society, where we’re feeling like we should supply abusive sexual deviants with decoys in order to protect the innocent? Do we accept that this is a behavior, that no one can stop the urges of others, so let’s just help protect future victims by creating outlets to stand in for their would-be attackers?
The article in The Atlantic likened it to giving methadone to heroin addicts.
Other groups are concerned that these dolls will actually have a desensitizing effect, like too much porn has been documented to do, and may lead to stronger desires to act out their fantasies upon the living.
Research on the effects of these types of dolls and how they may affect the rate at which pedophiles and rapists act out is, not surprisingly, lacking.
Whether or not it would help, the whole damn thing is disturbing at every level. Personally, my answer to these afflictions leans toward the medieval.
In the meantime, at least some entrepreneurial outliers are making some sweet coin off a few sexual predators.
Yeah, there's just no way to spin this thing as a positive.
