The Stereotype of the Woman-Object in Japan: Playing with Dolls, Playing the Failed Man

Abstract : Gender stereotypes reveal changes in society and the contradictory currents running through it. In the hands of certain actors, these stereotypes can even become tools for breaking down the gendered order—which is shown by the unusual case of love dolls. Love dolls (rabu dōru) are produced by a niche artisanal industry in order to serve as sentimental and/or sexual partners and they are designed with puerile or idiotic appearance, reproducing negative gender stereotypes, those of weak, intellectually deficient women. Is this a form of misogyny? But it would be contradictory with the fact that men who “play with dolls”—an activity that does not conform with their gender— are often stamped "emasculated wimps". What if love dolls were used as parody tools?