Lifelike 60kg love dolls are booming after being imported into South Africa for the first time ever.
In just 10 days every single silicone model has flown out the shop window at R16,000 (£1,000).
And the sudden frenzy has sparked a rush of orders for more dolls to be imported – with 45 due this month alone.
Just six JY Dolls were initially ordered by South Africa sex toy firm LuvLand in December to test demand.
Operations manager Patrick Meyer said at the time: "We were in China in October, where I ordered six of them.
“They were delivered a few weeks later and now we've only got one left. I've got another 45 coming in January.”
A month later and they have all sold out, and so Meyer has just ordered 100 more.
The JY Doll is “lifelike” as it weighs as much as a real woman and is made of a "thermoplastic elastomer material" which means she feels more "real”.
They can be altered to lie in any position, but Meyer thinks the dolls’ appeal go much beyond sex.
“It’s a big market and they cost between R16 000 and R25 000,” Meyer said.
“It’s basically like a love doll and is built or moulded on real women weighing about 60kg.
"It’s like having someone to communicate with. Some people put them in their kitchens or lounges and have conversations with them.
“For men who are disabled, for instance, it’s a way for them to have a sex life, or for men who are more socially withdrawn and lacking in confidence – they seem to be the ones who are most drawn to sex dolls.”
But Sorika de Swardt – a social worker who specialises in mental health, addiction and complicated marriages – is less positive about the sudden demand for sex dolls in South Africa.
She fears men will eventually prefer sex with robots over humans, with scary results.
“Our sexual egos are fragile things. The moment we take our clothes off in front of someone, we also expose our vulnerability,” she said.
"We want to please and be pleased, but many of us struggle to verbalise what we actually want from the sexual experience.
“As a result of this lack of open and honest discussion around intimacy, relationships and sex in the real world, we tend to opt for any easier way to get our needs met.”
She added: “There will be no consequences for the owner who abuses or degrades the sexbots. We can already see the objectifying trend when we look at social-media responses [about the doll].”
Yet De Swardt admits that despite her fears, the dolls have finally arrived on the South African market and are there to stay.
“While still flooded in controversy, sex robots are a natural evolution of the plastic sex doll industry, and of the combination of sex and technology,” she said.
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