#CelebrateingtheRainbow at the workplace – share your stories of Pride!
Netflix’s latest anthology, Ankahi Kahaniya reminded me of a man I read about who had a relationship with and married a sex doll. Ladies, would you romance a plastic male, knowing you wouldn’t have to pick up his socks?
Some time early this year, I read of a Kazakh bodybuilder first dating and then marrying a sex doll. By the honeymoon, she was broken (which has me feeling relieved that she’s a silicon toy, and not a human being). The latest news is that he cheated on her, has now divorced her, and is on to his next toy, which is part-woman, part-chicken.
No I’m not raving; you couldn’t make this up if you tried. You’ll find all details at the above link.
In the Netflix anthology Ankahi Kahaniya‘s first story, Abhishek Banerjee plays Pradeep’s part as the desperately lonely migrant, eking out a living in the big city with his daily grind of work-commute-tenement-and-back-again, to perfection.
Witnessing other men around him engaged in flirtations and relationships with women, he longs for someone to unburden his feelings to. Enter Pari, a mannequin he is smitten with, and slides into a one-sided romance with.
If you think the story of the Kazakh bodybuilder is one freaky tale and I’ve picked up a single incident, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Objectophilia, or romantic/sexual attraction to inanimate objects, has been documented across the world. From persons marrying a chandelier, to the Berlin Wall, and the ghost of Jack Sparrow, to being the subject of a novel, this story from Ankahi Kahaniya made me wonder if this ability to engage with an object by imbuing it with human traits is more than a fetish, and why it is that men seem far more comfortable with sexual partners shaped to imitate women than vice versa.
Sure, women use sex toys. Indian cinema has finally ushered in a screen era of women’s sexuality, as seen in Veere Di Wedding and Lust Stories. But we don’t marry our dildos! And no woman I know has pledged her troth to a cucumber either. So what is it about men—who (incel alert!) either can’t find female companionship or prefer not to deal with an actual person—that makes them gravitate to inanimate objects and mimic a human relationship?
Some may say it is a harmless fixation. That if this keeps women safe on the streets, why question it? I beg to differ. Because it intrigues me that one gender has whittled down emotions and sex to something that can be either foisted on an unwilling recipient, OR they do away with the recipient entirely and continue satisfying their urges with silicon and plastic, all the while pretending to have a human relationship.
So women are reduced to objects and objects replace women? Like Alice in Wonderland said, curiouser and curiouser!
While we consider these bizarre gender-specific behaviors, I’d love to hear from you. Would you romance a plastic male, knowing you wouldn’t have to pick up his socks? Ladies, what is the one object in your life you would marry?
Since this post can’t get any crazier, I’m going to confess that for me, it would be my Instant Pot. It looks cute, feeds me, and creates minimal fuss. Not all the men I’ve dated can fit that description. Over to you!
Dilnavaz Bamboat's heart occupies prime South Mumbai real estate. The rest of her lives in Silicon Valley, California, where she hikes, reads, hugs redwood trees and raises a pint-sized feminist. She is the read more...
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