Warning: Contains Nudity
Here’s your question of the day: what’s better, a prostitute or a sex doll?
Some people clearly have a preference, as one Swiss brothel has decided to swap the majority of its female staff for sex dolls.
The Arsenal 51 brothel – located in Kriens, a city in the district of Lucerne in Switzerland – has replaced most of its prostitutes with sex dolls due to popular demand and cheaper prices.
Here’s a video of one of the dolls below (don’t worry, nobody is shagging it):
If you decide to enjoy the facilities the brothel has to offer, you’ll have more than 12 sex dolls to choose from. If you’d rather have sex with a prostitute, there’s only a couple left.
Need some convincing? Here’s what the brothel has to say:
The sex doll is the sex doll you have always dreamed of. She is always up for it, never has a headache, no periods or bad moods. She is always sexy, willing and ready for you and she will do anything you want with her. She can fulfill all your fantasies.
Cash-strapped clients seem to favour the sex dolls, but what’s the cost difference? Well, the brothel offers the dolls’ services at just 90 CHF (£70) a session whereas the services of a real-life prostitute start at 200 CHF (£157) per session – so more than double the price.
If you don’t want to go all the way to the brothel, they also provide a service where they can bring the chosen sex doll to the punter’s home if required.
In terms of hygiene, the brothel insists all dolls are washed and disinfected after use and there are cleaning products in each room in the brothel should people wish to give them another clean.
According to Brigitte Snefstrup from Verein Lisa, a organisation that is committed to improving the living and working situations of sex workers in Lucerne, sex dolls are common in brothels, however the notion that they could replace prostitutes seems unimaginable.
Snefstrup explained:
It is a new phenomenon that a brothel has almost only sex dolls on offer and not many prostitutes. The fact they have more sex dolls than people is something I see as a one-off. I do not have any knowledge that this is something widespread.
Sex dolls are something offered by most brothel operators though, and most offer this service to keep up with the competition. Sex dolls were never something that have come up as a topic of conversation between the sex workers and myself.
I cannot imagine sex dolls taking over completely from prostitutes. I can’t really comment on customers’ wishes but I know many punters want more than just sex. A sex doll can not replace human contact.
Alas, it seems like they’re popular with the male population. In a study of 9,000 men, one third admitted they would like to try sex with a doll.
Felix Neuenschwander of Praeventionsangebot fuer Freier Don, a group for men’s sexual health, said:
It is simply a fetish of some men, just like some men enjoy leather. Sex dolls are used to fulfill certain sexual fantasies. And some men think they can’t get sexually transmitted diseases from a doll.
However, that is not true. If a man puts his penis in a hole in the doll and ejaculates, then there is a chance the next customer can catch a disease if it is not cleaned properly. It is recommendable to still wear a condom.
Not for me.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.