Syftet med studien var att belysa erfarenheter av att använda en sexdocka, så som de framkom i ett svenskt internetforum. Debatten som förs i media kring sexdockor tenderar att återuppliva polariserade ståndpunkter som handlar om genus, sexualitet, pornografi och kommersialism. Samtidigt är sexdockor inget nytt fenomen utan användandet går långt tillbaka i historien och erotiska avbildningar som används sexuellt är införlivade i konsten och mytologin. Forskning som fokuserar på användare av sexdockor saknas dock. Det empiriska materialet består av inlägg från ett svenskt internetforum, där inläggsförfattarna sinsemellan diskuterade ämnet sexdockor. För att få en djupare förståelse för användandet av sexdockor har en hermeneutisk ansats använts. Materialet har sedan analyserats med hjälp av queerfenomenologisk teori. Resultatet visar att flera, vitt skilda erfarenheter och motiv finns hos personer som använder sexdockor. En del av användandet är kopplat till svårigheter med relationer och sexdockor används i dessa fall som substitut till relationer. Erfarenheter av dåliga relationer beskrevs samt erfarenheter av ett ofrivilligt singelskap. Studien bekräftar även tidigare forskning kring att sexdockor används för andra ändamål än för samlag. Ett slags omvårdnad av sexdockan beskrevs i termer av handhavande, hygien, samt att göra dockan fin och tilldragande för ögat. Även det stigma och tabu som omger användandet av sexdockor togs upp och diskuterades i forumet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras att en sexdockeberättelse är en berättelse om lust och åtrå men också om de normer och livsvägar som omgärdar relationer och sexualitet. / The aim of the study was to shed light on experiences of using a sex doll, as they appeared in a Swedish internet forum. The debate that is taking place in the media about sex dolls tends to revive polarized standpoints which surround gender, sexuality, pornography and commercialism. At the same time, sex dolls are not a new phenomenon since the use goes a long way back in history and erotic images for sexual purpose are incorporated into the art and mythology. However, research that focuses on the users of sex dolls is lacking. The empirical material is based on posts from a Swedish internet forum, where the authors of the posts discussed the topic of sex dolls with each other. To gain a deeper understanding of the use of sex dolls, a hermeneutic approach was used. The material was then analyzed with queer phenomenological theory.  The results show that there are several, widely different experiences and motives of persons using sex dolls. A part of the use is linked to difficulties with relationships and sex dolls are in these cases used to substitute relationships. Experiences of poor relationships were described, as well as experiences of involuntary being single. The study also confirms previous research regarding the use of sex dolls for purposes other than intercourse. A kind of care-taking of the sex doll was described in terms of handling, hygiene and making the doll pretty and attractive to the eye. The stigma and taboo surrounding the use of sex dolls is also addressed and discussed in the forum. Finally, there is a discussion about a story of a sex doll being a story about lust and desires but also about the norms and life paths which surround relationships and sexuality.

Material artefacts to be used during sex is today commonly known as “sex toys”. This thesis has aimed to understand the discursive practices preceding this late-modern conceptualization, and what the previous historical conceptualizations testified to in terms of sexual morality and constructions of sexuality. The focus has been on a Swedish expert-led discursive context, spanning from the late seventies to the mid-nineties. Despite a general idea of Swedish sexual progressiveness, the results show that the discourse around these objects were all but welcoming. The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) considered the selling of “sexual technical aids” as a difficult topic. Good sexuality was to share an emotional loving connection. Thus, it should not overemphasize sex and the body, which sex aids did by being used for sexual functioning or corporeal sensations. I have shown how a discussion of sex aid-use by men with certain physical disabilities dealt with this problem, by providing a context of enabling sexual activity within a romantic union between the men and their partners. Thus, erective aids were especially in focus. I argue that this shows a somatification of male sexuality, which has previously been discussed as taking place in Sweden after the introduction of pharmaceutical erective pills in the late 1990s. Parallel to this, I show a development of heralding female use of “sex toys” in the early 1990s media. Whereas male masturbation with sexual objects were still ridden with an idea of social inadequacy, women were increasingly championed to consume to masturbate. I argue that the developments of how to conceptualize sex aids in Sweden indicate a larger discursive change regarding sexuality. Not only were men and women increasingly considered as beings with separate sexualities, and thus given separate sex aid-markets to court this – but acceptable sexual expression overall broadened. Good sexuality in the Swedish 1990s had begun to embrace the bodily sensations felt during sex, as well as accept sex itself as an independent aim, and in consequence sex aids – or “sex toys” – as a more acceptable means to this end.