Periodical Political Post *135

(Goes and reads the article…) Yes it is.

Okay, I’m not really “into” Beiber, so a doll like this probably wouldn’t be to my taste. This does bring to mind something that is one of those grey areas out there, tho: People become public, popular figures, they become part of the overall culture. And then people make likenesses of them, sometimes for satire, sometimes for fun, sometimes out of love or… in this case, to make love TO.

On the one hand, yes there is a feeling that public people would need and want to control their image…. but at the same time, that sort of thing can only go so far, because once your image is out there, the general population has as much control over your image as you do, in fact they have more control, and they can make you bigger or they can destroy you, their call. Or they can mix and match and remix you like a techno version of a pop rock song to their whim. In short, at one point you get big enough that goofy, fringe stuff like this shows up, and somewhere into this the matter crosses past the point where you SHOULD have any say in the matter. Whether this sexdoll is on the one side or the other side of that border is subjective though. Maybe he can stop it, maybe he can’t. Maybe he *should* be able to stop it, maybe he *shouldn’t*. But I imagine we’re going to see more cultural mashups like this show up as time goes on, good or bad.