Kenneth R. Hanson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon in the Department of Sociology who studies the cutting-edge intersections of culture, technology, and sexuality. His insights on the love and sex doll community are empirically driven, based on extensive interviews with doll owners. Kenneth's dissertation, The Silicone Self: An Ethnography of the Love and Sex Doll Community, is a multi-site digital ethnography funded by internal grants and awards from The University of Oregon Department of Sociology. It explores a subcultural community that has arisen as a result of heterosexual men, women, and LGBTQ+ people purchasing love and sex dolls to either permanently act as relationship partners or augment their existing sexual relationships.