TOPSHOT - EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / This photo taken on February 1, 2018 shows a worker preparing a silicone doll at a factory of EXDOLL, a firm based in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian.
With China facing a massive gender gap and a greying population, a company wants to hook up lonely men and retirees with a new kind of companion: "Smart" sex dolls that can talk, play music and turn on dishwashers. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR / TO GO WITH China-sex-lifestyle, FOCUS by Joanna CHIU (Photo credit should read FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)
We are familiar with the harmless, misunderstood recluse trope often associated with men who buy sex dolls or robots (see: 2007 Ryan Gosling film, Lars and the Real Girl). But anyone who has visited a pro-sex doll/robot forum will quickly realise that in reality it’s not all as harmless as the movies might make it appear.
