No, ‘child sex dolls’ don’t keep pedophiles from offending
Japanese porn company, , is producing lifelike female child sex dolls, claiming that they will
“save children from sexual abuse.” The argument behind these dolls is that men
will use them instead of raping an actual little girl — that using these pornified
dolls* will “satiate” their desires.
If we assume that porn and
sex toys prevent men from committing sex crimes, the problem of rape should
have been solved ages ago. But that is not the case: today, there is more porn
than ever before and it’s far more easily accessible than ever before — yet men
continue to sexually abuse women and girls daily, across the globe.
That’s because porn-use
doesn’t actually work that way. It hasn’t and won’t succeed in “satiating”
men’s desires, effectively preventing them from unleashing these “desires” in
(other) violent ways. Medical experts have confirmed this, pointing out that the child
sex dolls will have the exact opposite of a satiating effect on pedophiles, and
instead will create a “reinforcing effect,” causing men to “act upon [their
pedophilic desires] with greater urgency.”
Despite this, recent media coverage
of the child sex dolls has fallen in line with a liberal media trend of
portraying pedophiles with sympathy and understanding. A recent
feature in The Atlantic depicted the pedophile owner of the
child sex doll company, Shin Takagi, as a Zen-like philosopher: “Being a
pedophile is like living with a mask on,” he opines. (Those poor pedos…) The
article seems intent on downplaying child sexual abuse and on promoting
pedophilia apologism. The author, Roc Morin, writes: “People like Takagi who
struggle with pedophilic impulses but have never acted on them have been the
subject of much media attention.”
Are we to believe that the
desire to commit a heinous crime against the most vulnerable human population
is akin to “struggling” with a condition? Are we to view these men as brave and
celebrate their ability not to
rape children?
Morin goes on: “With a
paucity of reliable scientific data about their circumstances…”
“Their circumstances??”
Getting a sexual thrill from violating children is now simply a “circumstance”
that arises out of the blue? Right. These men are clearly just victims of
happenstance…
“And [with] no known medical
or psychiatric cure, many of these individuals rely strictly on self-control to
avoid acting on their urges,” Morin writes.
How difficult for them! They
want to get off through child abuse and they have to exercise self-control not to do it. Surely society
must rush to the aid of these men and offer them some respite from the burden
they so nobly bear.
Pedophilia apologism such as
this has plugged into the zeitgeist of “born this way” ideology to claim that
pedophiles have no control over their “sexual orientation,” because they were
simply born wanting to rape children. (It’s convenient how “born this way” is
now used in order to prevent people from identifying any harmful mechanisms of social construction and to maintain the status quo…)
Mr. Takagi defends his
creation by arguing that he is doing a great service to society by offering men
an outlet for their violent sexual desires. He says he often receives letters
from buyers, who are respectable men — doctors, celebrities, teachers *shudder* — claiming his product prevented them
from committing a crime.
But again, porn doesn’t work
that way. When a man degrades and objectifies a woman by using porn, it doesn’t
magically lead him to respect or to stop objectifying the “real” women in his
life. The idea that the child sex dolls
will work to absorb some of society’s pedophilic urges is reminiscent of the
flawed argument made in favor of prostitution: that a class of women must exist
to absorb the brunt of men’s “sexual needs,” lest men lash out and start
uncontrollably raping women everywhere. In reality, the more society validates
male sexual entitlement by offering them “outlets” for their so-called “needs,”
the stronger their “needs” grow and are normalized. Certainly the existence
of prostitution hasn’t made the world a less violent place – the idea that
child sex dolls will somehow keep children safe from pedophiles is no less
delusional.
The societal problem of
pedophilia won’t be alleviated by allowing men to simulate the crimes they wish
to commit. We wouldn’t give a would-be murderer a “murder doll” they can
practice on, under the guise that this would function as a kind of therapy that
will make them less violent. Why are magazines like The Atlantic taking Takagi’s excuses for his sick
business seriously instead of expressing concern for the girls who are
endangered by it?
It seems to be yet another
instance of men’s boners being prioritized over the safety of women and girls,
as the media continues to portray porn-use (even child porn-use) as an
innocuous — and even beneficial — activity.
*We are not linking to the website that sells
these dolls. Google at your own risk — the images of the dolls are quite
unsettling, to say the least.
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