Sign of the times: "Domestic affections" strained with "interesting" consequences

Lionel Tiger in The Decline of Males quoted a 19th century commentator, Charles J. Fox, in which he said that the rulers of the time had implemented policies that contributed to the "rapid decay of the domestic affections among the lower orders of society." Today the classist part of his observation would be criticized, but the general observation held then as it does now. Chalk this one up to that phenomenon in today's world.

What is perhaps most noticeable about the article is the way in which the president of the company openly states he seeks to support men's happiness. This is rare. One may dislike or find distasteful in one or more ways the subject matter of the article, but no one can deny that what is happening here is indeed... happening here. Excerpt:

'TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters Life!) - Real love is hard to find for one Japanese man, who has transferred his affection and desires to dozens of plastic sex dolls.

...
Orient Industry Co. now makes 80 dolls a month in an eastern Tokyo factory to nine designs that sell for between $850 and $5,500 each. The more expensive models are made of silicon and have 35 movable joints.
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"Nowadays, women are sometimes more dominant than men in the real world, and they don't always pay attention to men," said Hideo Tsuchiya, the company's president.

"More and more men are finding themselves miserable so we're making these dolls partly in support of men."'