April 30, 2012

MS. BLUE

Ok. A lot has been going on around here lately.

Our Rose has returned, Sam and I attended (and had a blast at the FPAS with our crew (more on that soon…promise!), trying our hand at filming some very short shorts (you’ll be able to see the fruits of our work in the coming days) and most importantly, we’ve been prepping for the Asses to Asses, Bust to Bust Book Launch party that happens at 7pm tonight at Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen St. West). HOORAY!  We’re sooooo looking forward to seeing you (at least those of you who live in the T-dot) there.

And as if that wasn’t enough as today is the brand new month, we’re about to start in on a fresh new topic. So now you’re all wondering just what we plan to hit you with this month. Don’t worry, we’ll get that real soon. Right after I share this…

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For those of you who’ve never had the opportunity to spend a bit of time here, Toronto is a film lover’s paradise. In addition to hosting the world renowned Toronto International Film Festival annually (which incidentally is only major international film festival that is open to the general public ), our city hosts myriad number of other well attended film festivals throughout the year including: The Toronto Jewish Film Festival (a personal favourite),  The Worldwide Short Film Festival, and Hot Docs, which just started this weekend.

Now, as luck would have it, Sam and I were roaming the streets of my hood together last night and as we passed the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre, a volunteer who had scooped a few free tickets for the final showing of the evening, Mechanical Bride, offered us a pair. We were about to politely turn them down, as it was late, we both had to work early the next day and neither of us were into sci fi flicks, until she said,

“Come on. Don’t you want to see a film about men and their life sized, almost as good as the real thing sex dolls?”

Davecat and Real Doll wife, Sidore, one of the couples featured in Mechanical Brides. You can follow them on twitter at @Davecat & @leahtype.

Once we heard that we were in the theatre in a flash. And what can I tell you? Although I left the theatre feeling more than a bit disturbed by the creepiness** (if only IMO) of some of the relationships – and yes, I mean relationships – the men in the film had with their customized, beautifully crafted and very woman-like sex dolls, I have to admit I am glad I saw Mechanical Brides. The film was a revelation and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a keen interest in human sexuality. Not only did it give me insight into a whole new subculture of fetishists (specifically ASFR or technosexuality) I knew next to nothing about, but I was also blown away – as were some of the commentators in the film – by the depth of love and devotion (again, I really mean love and devotion) the men felt for their dolls. The film was unlike anything I’d ever seen before and really brought home (once again) the fact that homo sapiens can be aroused by and form intimate emotional connections with virtually anything – even high tech synthetic humanoids.

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What’s my point? Well, you see folks, this month our topic is…

Technology and Sex

So, in addition to discussing the wonders of online porn, the prevalence of both online hookup dating sites, the joys(?) of sexting, and myriad sex scandals we know way too much about courtesy of the world wide web, we may even get around to talking about an ever-ready sex-starved silicone honey (like the ones pictured above and to the left) or two. Yep, we’ll be touching on the pros and cons, benefits and risks we are all afforded and/or forced to suffer through when technology and sex collide – all month long.

So stick around. It’s going to be wild ride.

**For the entire duration of Mechanical Brides I was fighting an internal battle. The intellectual and very open side of my mind was saying “It’s just another fetish, no big deal”, while the other half of my brain had me squirming in my seat as my stomach churned itself into knots. I’m still not sure why I had such a strong visceral response to what I was seeing, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say I was more than a little creeped out by the fact that the dolls (as beautiful as they were) who had such such vacant, empty eyes were often being spoken to and about as if they were, and I quote one of the gentlemen featured in the film, “‘organic women.”

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