A sex doll named Koyuki on display at the showroom of OrientIndustry, a high-end manufacturer based in Tokyo (Reuters)
东京高端定制商，陈列亚洲工业厅的一只叫做小雪的玩偶

There are many understandable, even sympathetic, reasons for owning sex dolls.Some doll owners are just having fun. Some suffer from social anxiety or evendisabilities that might make human relationships difficult. Some people justwant to take arty photographs. The whole phenomenon is surprisingly hard tonail down.
购买娃娃的原因可以理解，甚至是值得同情。一些人为了找乐子。一些人患有社交恐惧症甚至很难维持社交关系。还有些人只是想拍些艺术照。整件事情很难去细追究的。

"You want a quote, don't you?" Smith asks at the end of our wide-rangingconversation, when I ask if he can summarize all we've discussed. "I'll try andmake one up for you. It would have something to do with narcissism, somethingto do with fantasy, something to do with creativity, something to do withpersons and things. It has to do with struggles over questions of intimacy. Ithink that's really quite key."
“你想用这做论点，不是吗？”在这堆长篇讨论之后我问他是否有结论了，史密斯反问我道。“因为你我也许会试着弄一个出来。关乎自恋，关乎幻想，关乎创造，关乎人和物。还关乎同性欲作斗争。我想这才是真正关键的。”

This is thedoll-lover's frequent lament: Women are unpredictable and dolls are steadfast;women will leave you and dolls are loyal.
对玩偶有这样的感叹：女人是多变而娃娃是坚定的，女人会甩掉你而娃娃会一直忠诚。

These questions of intimacy inevitably come back to the relationship betweenthe genders. We may not be able to extrapolate much from one person's motivesfor buying a sex doll. But the phenomenon as a whole is like a funhousemirror—it may show a skewed reflection of male-female relationships, but itemphasizes some aspects we'd rather not see. These woman-shaped things, whichcan be whatever their owners want them to be, represent the far end of aspectrum of social attitudes. Plenty of men would like real women to be alittle more like dolls.
这些问题不可避免地回到了两性间的亲密关系上。我们可能无法推断某人购买性爱娃娃的动机。但是它像哈哈镜折射了整体现象——男女关系的扭曲，着重显示了某些我们不愿意看到的方面。玩偶主人可以随意摆弄的这些女形物体，代表了社会态度的一个范畴。很多男性希望女性更像这些性爱娃娃。

When I spoke to Davecat last year, he was offended by this idea. "Ninety-eightpercent of the iDollators and technosexuals I know treat their Dolls likegoddesses," he insisted. "A lot of men are lonely because they're misogynistpricks, true, but a lot of other men are lonely because they don't meet women'sexpectations." But then he went on: "Dolls don't possess any of the unpleasantqualities that organic, flesh and blood humans have. A synthetic will never lieto you, cheat on you, criticize you, or be otherwise disagreeable."
去年，当我跟戴维猫说起这个想法，他感觉被冒犯了。“我认识的iDollators中百分之98的人像女神一般对待娃娃，”他态度坚决地表示，“很多人单身因为他们害怕伤害，这是真的，其他一些人单身，因为他们达不到女性的期望。”他接着说，“娃娃不会有真人那样令人不愉快的品性，这种合成物从来不会欺骗、指责或者是其它令人不愉快的事情。”

This is the doll-lover's frequent lament: Women are unpredictable and dolls aresteadfast; women will leave you and dolls are loyal; women demand things anddolls accept you for who you are. Women are human and dolls are not.
对玩偶有这样的感叹：女人是多变而娃娃是坚定的，女人会甩掉你而娃娃会一直忠诚，女人会毁掉一些事而娃娃会接受真正的你。女人是人类，而娃娃不是。

The inventor of the Fleshlight, a popular masturbation toy for men, alsosubmitted a patent in 1995 for a "female functioning mannequin." (Within themannequin's "cavity," as the patent puts it, would have been a cartridge fullof "oily elastomer.") According to Smith's book, the inventor cited "as thereasons for its invention the fact that women are cruel, venal, superficial,that they humiliate and break the hearts of men and that dolls on the contraryare reliable, compliant, companionable, and loving."
流行男性自慰玩具FleshLight的发明者，1995年提交了一项“功能女模特”专利（作为专利提交的，一个模特形状的“腔体”，像子弹状充满油脂的弹性物）根据史密斯书中所写。发明家例举“该发明的真实原因是因为女性们残酷、贪婪、肤浅，侮辱和伤害男性们的心灵。娃娃们则相反，她们可靠、顺从、友善、可爱。”

Valverde's research (along with plenty of anecdotal evidence) suggests that thedolls do provide comfort, and a sexual outlet, for some men who can't find ordon't want a human romantic relationship. But in the grand history of time,women and gay men have surely felt rejected and lonely—straight men don't havea monopoly on those feelings.
瓦尔韦德的研究（以及足够的证据）表明，娃娃可以给那些不能或者不愿同人们维持一段浪漫关系的男人们提供安慰及性欲宣泄。在这个时期的历史中，女性和同性恋们会感觉被抛弃和孤独——异性恋男性们则没有这种感觉。

Valverde has her ownexplanation for why many men use the "women are cruel" argument to explaintheir attraction to dolls. "Margaret Atwood's quote: 'Men are afraid that womenwill laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.' I think that'strue."
巴尔韦德也有自己的解释，对于为什么许多男人使用‘女人是残酷的'这种说辞来解释他们被娃娃吸引。“玛格丽特阿特伍德的论断：‘男人害怕女人会嘲笑他们。女人害怕男人会杀了他们。'我认为就这样的。”

Owning a sex doll is not a violent act. But as these creations come to lookmore and more realistic, their lifeless, prone silicone bodies are reminders ofunequal gender power dynamics that play out in the real world. And as humanwomen become more empowered, sex dolls offer a way for men to retreat intorelationships where they are still in control. A doll is a woman-shaped thingthat may bring a man comfort, may inspire devotion in him, and may drive awayhis loneliness. It will never challenge him, and it will certainly never doanything to make him feel ridiculous.
拥有一个性爱玩偶不是暴力行为。但是这些发明越来越逼真，这些无生命的硅胶体提醒我们在现实世界中性别权利（女权、男权）的不平等是动态的。当女性获得越来越多的自主权时，玩偶给男人们在这种关系里提供了一条后路——他们还是掌控者。女性形状的玩偶让男人感到安慰，忠诚，不会孤单。它永远不会挑战他，任何时候都不会让他觉得自己很可笑。