A Male Dominated Dollfie World?

I wonder if it depends on the size you're looking at as well. I, for the most part, stick with minis, and to me it feels like there are a lot more female minis than male. Iplehouse, for example, had three female JIDs (four if you count there were two versions of Amy) before they ever made a male, and still have more girls than boys. Fairyland has more female MiniFees than they do males. LeekeWorld has, what, two male minis? All the rest female. And at a glance it looks like Luts has twice as many girl Kid Delfs than they do boys.

So I do agree there are probably more male SD+ dolls being made, but I don't think it applies with all BJDs across the board.

And don't get me started on finding boy clothes for minis. .>_>

 

I haven't had trouble finding girl dolls -- there seems to be quite a lot out there to choose from. Plus many heads are fairly gender neutral and can work for either. My own group started out being only male, but is close to evenly split now, and I find my self relating to my female dolls more and more. However, it was the boy dolls that got me into this hobby, and outside of bjds it can be tricky to find really attractive male dolls -- they're something bjd companies seem to do particularly well so I don't begrudge them making more

Some of the amount of male vs female sculpts may also depend on the company -- some might be putting out more boy dolls, while others are more evenly split or even offer more females. BBB has more 60cm girl sculpts than boy, Volks standards seem to lean pretty heavily towards girls, B&G are split fairly evenly and so is Angel Region the last time I checked (though they offer boy and girl versions of a lot of the same sculpts) -- those were just off the top of my head. If people are feeling that companies are not offering enough female dolls in whatever skin tones/with special parts/etc, then the best thing to do is to contact the company and let them know that you would like to see more female dolls. If a lot of hobbyists show an interest, they'll be more likely to release them in the future.

Agreed -- as someone with a lot of boys and girls from different companies to compare, I don't see a big difference in amount of detail at all (and there are other details to be had on a doll besides big muscles). Bust size, hip size, waist size/shape, the shape of arms, legs, hands, facial features etc can vary greatly between one female doll and the next. Usually amount of detail is something that varies by company across their doll line rather than being split male vs female. Plus, there is a variety out there in female face sculpts. What often makes female sculpts look soft/sweet/innocent is the way they are presented as like male dolls faceups make an enormous difference in terms of expression.

 

Coming from the childhood background where Barbie was the star and Ken was considered an "accessory", I am excited that male dolls seem to be just as important, if not more popular as their female counterparts.

 

Not that it matters, but... Dimu (original Gems, mini Gems, and Sabik) is male. I thought he must be a woman too, then there was the story of how he created Uyoo to fit in his wife's purse. There were photos of him when Sabik came out. I was altogether too obsessed with Soom from '05 to '08, I might as well have lived there.

 

I haven't noticed the phenomenon, but I'm fairly oblivious a lot of the time. Honestly I seem to see it backwards, as I see tons of girl dolls and girl limiteds with lovely extras and parts and costumes.... But the boys get shorted on their end. Maybe its because I'm always actively hunting for just that 'specific' doll that will work out as what I want, but I have trouble finding it. I know I see a lot of companies coming out with really nice fantasy parts for their girls, and not so much for the guys.

I'm happier to see guys because I'm one of those that grew up with GI Joe and Ken and it always was the focus on Barbie and the guy was almost like her purse, just something she happened to have sitting around. I'm happy to have male dolls that actually are MALE. I've yet to see a girl doll with a beautiful yet strongly-featured face that makes me happy. They all seem very bland and blank, or they're too wide-eyed and sweet. Sadly, this is what women are 'ideal' as. *sigh*

 

I think that's kind of a shame, because it's very easy to mistake a boy in a dress to be a girl, but to mistake a girl in some pants with short hair to be a boy? I looked at your pictures and I could tell right away which one was the girl because girls have breasts, however small.

I think that doll companies tend to lean toward androgyny, personally. A lot of sculpts marketed as male tend to be very feminine and I see a ton of boy to girl mods with sculpts like that. However, I also see a lot of female sculpts being made male. Perhaps the lean towards feminine males, and maybe just males in general, has something to do with the hobby's association with anime? A lot of doll collectors are also fans of anime, which is rife with male main characters. If there's more of a demand for male dolls from a market that's used to seeing male characters, the doll companies will probably try to cater to the market, since that's how they make their money.

Then again, I'm not seeing a lack of female dolls, personally. Dollzone just released a new size of female dolls, Fairyland always has a nice balance of male and female sculpts, even Dream Realm which was boys-only for a while released a bunch of 60cm girls! I find that a lot of the disappointment for myself comes from the lack of more "strong"-looking female dolls. All of the ones I see are the cutesy, frilly lolitas, and honestly they don't interest me at all. The only female doll I own is a Dollmore Glamor Ipsae, because she's the only female doll who appeals to me that isn't a SOOM MD, and I could afford her (and I think her thirty pound boobage is all my poor display table can take, lol). My dream girl is a SOOM Cass because of her very strong features - she's not a little girl, she's ALL woman, and she is absolutely gorgeous for it.

And yet someone has told me that they think Cass has a man-face. I think we are so barraged with feminine males that a lot of collectors lose sight of what is truly MASCULINE anymore, which disappoints me, because I manage just fine loving girly boys and manly ones. Now when some people see a female doll with a strong jawline, or a large nose, or pronounced cheekbones, they immediately think "man" instead of "mature woman".

Think I may have gone OT somewhere along the line...

 

Those are nice new bodies! A bit skinny, though. You're right, the female does have better detail than most of the female bodies I've seen (so far, and Gods know I haven't seen them all!) mostly in the torso. Her ribs are sticing out too much for my taste, same with the boy. I think it actually sort of proves what I said earlier a bit... In order to have a more "detailed" female body, it has to look half-starved to bring out the bone structure in the body. Real female bodies have a natural padding to them that men don't (because we have children), which conceals the bodie's bone structure and smooths the contours. A more life-like female body gives a sculptor less natural detail to work with, in my opinion. (Just talking about the bodies now, not the heads since those are more easily interchangable!)

 

I've seen that more male dolls are being released because that's what the market wants currently. You have a predominately female market, with a strong Anime leaning, and with that a leaning towards Jrock and/or Yaoi, and so the want is for 'male dolls'. Thus the companys make male dolls first, as that's where the money is. Once they have made their money on the male doll, they can bring out a female doll that will not make them as much but will keep their buyers happy.

You can also look at it that there originally were mostly female dolls, as such, people bought a bunch of female dolls and now they need boyfriends for their dolls. Thus the large sale in male dolls.

 

vampireanneke: True, there does seem to be a heavy yaoi influence. I think that's why so many of the male dolls are more feminine.

 

For me it's mainly refreshing to have more male dolls in the market as in the fashion doll scene where I came from it's way too female dominated. I can't wait to get oodles of gorgeous men to my collection - besides, most BJD men are so feminine it's difficult to tell the difference, especially in a kimono etc.

 

I personally haven't noticed a difference in amount of either gender in the BJD world. I think part of why boys tend to get more noticed is because of their anatomy- My mother has a an artist friend who used to work for disney who wants either to get a boy or for me to get a boy BECAUSE she heard the boys have bits. That and the fact that the rest of the doll world is primarily female dominated, males have that "ooh" factor because they're different. Not to mention to fact that BJD's are heavily linked to Anime communities, where an androgenous man is considered super sexy, and from there JRock and Yaoi fandoms, as someone else previously stated.

I once went to an American Girl store in NYC because my mate's sister collected them at the time, and we saw ONE boy doll in the whole store (that was 3 or 4 floors) and he was a baby doll from a set of twins (granted the company is called American Girl but still...). If you look at an issue of say FDQ, male dolls are far out numbered by females in the fashion doll world. Only in the BJD community does the field seem to be somewhat even next to the Reborn Babies.

And even then that's not very true, I find most companies cater to female dolls for clothing. There's almost always more cutesy frilly dresses and sexy skimpy outfits for girls than there are pants and shirts or suits for guys. And as for limiteds, of the companies that do limited edition dolls that I know of- all of them seem to produce an even amount of each gender.

 

I too would love to see more girly dolls. That Luts Bory boy with the wings? I don't think I would have been able to resist a winged Bory girl.

Male dolls are simply more popular at the moment, and there certainly seems to be more collectors of all boys rather than all girls; the companies need to make money using the best strategies that they can. Bigger companies like Volks and Soom can afford to release equal amounts of gender-specific dolls, whereas other companies don't have that luxury, and perhaps they don't want to take a chance. Iplehouse has found a special niche with their lady dolls, and other companies have yet to find that perfect niche to catapult a specific line to success.

But I completely agree and notice your argument. I am heavily drawn to female dolls much more so that their male counterparts.

 

well from what i've seen, a lot of people prefer to have boy dolls. so if its the boys that sells, of course the company will create more boys than girls!
it DOES bother me though. i would like to have a few girls, but i'm having hard time finding one i love! è_é

 

Well, for VOLKS, perphas the SD seris proportion is 1:3 for female and male, but the I believe for DD its all female.
I guess its the target of market, if later more male buyer are interetsed the proportion can alter easily.

 

*blush* Oops. I definitely must be thinking of something else then! Thank you for that info. (Major apologies to the sculptor for thinking he was a she, too.) I remember seeing the pic with Sabik, but thinking that was a different person (a new sculptor joining the company).

 

I would say that from what I have noticed, big companies that can afford it will make a variety, while the companies that really seem to want to "cash in" (usually cheap and so-so sculpts that look slapped together as much as one can slap together a sculpt) focus only on guys.

Guy dolls seem a lot more popular with overseas customers, just from my point of view (which is Japan-oriented). Here in Japan it seems pretty split between a girl or boy preference. And the girl dolls exist to be traditional dollies while the boy dolls exist to be cool yaoi fantasy type ... er ... things. I'm sure there are people who go for both, but this is kind of my observation.

I do like that companies like Soom and Iplehouse are pretty even with their releases, although Soom did cut out most of their regular girl dolls ... and kept all the boys, even though those regular release boys are not, IMO, very good looking. Luts would do well to get with the program and release a female SSDF.

 

I tend to buy the boy dolls most, but there are more boys made than females I think , there must be more of demand for the boys.....I love mine.

 

Well... about that, I think just 'cause most of the people who wants a BJD are girls. Personally i have all my characters created. And for me, I'm a girl, I like boy's love, I draw just men's body. And with all the exhibition on TV, about the girls showing her boobs and all of that shit, WTF is left to the girls? (not the lesbian ones.) I 'm really not interested to see boobs and boobs but that all i see on tv, on the street, etc etc. So, I like this world, dominated by girl and there are more naked beauty boys XDDDDDDD!!!!! It's fun!!!

 

This. There was pretty much only one boy doll in the barbie world, that was Ken, any other boy still looked like Ken's twin. Growing up Barbie and Ken were together and my Theresa and Lea [I loved her most] were a couple as well.

I don't think company's are too bias to gender though. There are male dominated companies and female dominated companies. Some are even, but overall I think it balances out.

I definitely prefer males myself and would be named one of those 'yaoi fans' but I also have a plan for a lesbian doll couple and such too. My preference comes from a lot more than 'I think gay guys are hot' though.

It's also size for me. Tinies: I tend to like the girls better. Minis: I like both just the same, but my priority was to get my 'couple' first. Larger dolls: I like the males better but there are always though female dolls that make me swoon.