A Male Dominated Dollfie World?

-nods- I know, personally, as someone entwined with anime and visual kei in particular, the demand on my end is for mainly male sculpts, especially the more feminine males, as that's what's portrayed in most VK bands. And as people pointed out before, a lot of the base for this hobby stems from people who enjoy these outside hobbies. With a mainly female base with these interests, the market demands more male sculpts than female. Therefore, if more people want male sculpts, more will be made... business interests and whatnot. You have to make what makes money, otherwise the business will go out of business.

That said, I do see a decent amount of girl sculpts as well and enjoy them.

 

I purely don't see this lack of female doll options that some people are talking about. I think it's selective. If people want to see injustice, they'll find it. For every doll company that gets singled out because "they don't do girls", you can point to another company that doesn't do boys. Any perceived lack of variety can be solved by more thorough shopping.

One also shouldn't expect every company to offer everything-- some companies just have a better time with a certain size/style/gender of doll, and they prefer to work in their niche, where their strengths lie. If a company really excels at male sculpts, & their attempts at female heads/bodies are surpassingly lame [or vice-versa], I would prefer them to stick to what they're good at, rather than try to "fake it" for the sake of appearances.

Yeah, I'm in this camp too! Never had a Ken. My Barbies always dated the action-men (Big Jim & the Six Million Dollar Man XD). Once I outgrew my last Barbie, I didn't think I'd ever be into dolls again-- at all. I have no use for women as objects in my own home, nor for the frills and trappings of traditional femininity. And the male-doll alternative was usually either Little Lord Fauntleroy or Ken. When I discovered BJDs, it was the popularity & glamorization of the male dolls that first caught my eye; you could get them jeans, boots, leather jackets, glamour-wear, street-wear, fur hair, punk hair, just SUCH a far cry from a Ken in a pink scarf with molded hair. It is nice to have that whole other avenue.

And I maintain there are STILL more girly clothes & shoes & wigs out there than boyswear!
(Have you any idea how hard it is to find a YoSD-sized wig that doesn't feature straight-bangs or kandy-kurls?)

 

That pretty much sums it up for me. I'm delighted at the variety of lovely female dolls there are out there, but it's just way more interesting to me to see male dolls that are treated as more than just add-ons for the girls.

Which... is funny from someone who grew up while women were still definitely just add-ons to men in society. Go figure.

I am not sure it's male-dominated so much as that the influx of really beautifully done guys in the last few years has led lots of us to some intense - and loud -- squeeing!

ETA: and I see Manda-chan said exactly what I wanted to say, as well. It's just so much more fun than it was back in the wayback

 

Exactly. Super Dollfies evolved out of regular Dollfies, which were entirely targeted at men. Personally the huge-boobed, vacant-faced aesthetic can't get out of this hobby fast enough for me. What we have now is a female-dominated market, which means a) male dolls exist, and b) female dolls are much more charming. I have an equal number of male and female dolls, although I think appealing female dolls are a trifle harder to find, perhaps because of the lingering male-influenced aesthetic.

 

I'm fine with the big boobs -- or small ones, or tiny ones, or HUGE ones, or medium ones, because we see all of those in reality. I'm somewhere in the realm of a J-cup and I'm not a slut, or trashy, crawling with horny men, or a number of the other things I've heard (not here, not saying it's in this thread) bandied about in regards to this one physical trait all over this forum. That, IMHO, is a horrible stereotype that should be put out to pasture, too, but it's generally considered 'fair game'. Instead of canning any given breast size, let's see some of the smaller-busted girls presented in sexy-sexy outfits (provided they're adults/mature sculpts, I'm not talking about tinies in teddies here) or some of the big-busted girls NOT dressed like they fell off a truckflap sometimes. (Nota bene: I love pinups of all shapes and sizes, so the 'slutty' ones don't bother me, but it'd be dumb of me to not note that the trend is there.)

It's the 'we need to make this girl as vapid as humanly possible so it looks like any thought she might struggle to contain in that little head of hers is going to flee immediately out of her ginormous eyesockets lest it die a lonely death in isolation' thing that needs to get out-out-out-out-out to me as soon as humanly possible. Sometimes, it comes out sweet. More often, it seems to come off as, well, yeah, very vacant. Finding a strong woman is not easy. (Which is why I love love love my Mecha Angel girls -- which most people screamed at length had to be men, because 'women don't look like that'. ...they don't? Coulda fooled me.)

Quick edit: Perhaps a better way to put it might be this: female sculpts with some diginity are in fairly short supply as compared to the quantity of males.

 

I'm a Dollfie Dream fan, and that world is female-only. I would LOVE to see Volks do a Dollfie Dream boy and maybe introduce him with a Shinji and a Kaworu (Eva) licensed doll. I would totally get into the lottery for a Shinji, I think. We'll probably see a Mari Illustrious Makinami before we see a Shinji or a Kaworu, alas.

 

Oh yeah, Z was the only boy at the Danny Choo CGM Night LA meetup. It could have turned into a harem anime but Yumiko kept Z pretty damn close. And Namiko had her skateboard. I suspect if Z would have hit on the other girls on the table he would have gotten the skateboard upside his head. ^____________________^



http://www.flickr.com/photos/msgeek/4763682937/

 

Surreality, I meant no offense to large-breasted women. In my experience though, there are not a lot of women with DD-cups who are otherwise anorexically thin. That's the aesthetic I was referring to. You're right that there are other contributing factors though; one is that they tend to be under-dressed, and another is that they tend to have faces that are too young for such a body. The overall effect is a lack of dignity.

 

I don't really see it that way at all, but that may be because I am very into lolita-styled dolls and therefore am really good at hunting down the girl molds and clothes makers in styles I like.

I think where one company misses the mark on a part of the market another company easily makes up for, kind of like how your first post described. Company X doesn't have many male dolls, but company Y does, while company Z has about equal of both. Company B might make punk-styled clothes, but not make many casual clothes, however company C makes casual clothing and company A makes lolita, etc. Therefore as a whole (the whole hobby of BJDs), it is balanced back out to equal, or at least it seems that way to me with how many people we have in this hobby with different tastes.

Some companies might prefer one gendered doll over the other just as doll owners do, too! I'm personally in the corner of owning only girl dolls and mostly lolita dresses, therefore you will probably never find me with a punk-styled boy. I imagine some companies feel the same, trying to get too far outside their element is bound to end as a failure. If you can't understand, relate to or have a passion for something, it will show. I don't want companies to start making dolls outside what they know just for the sake of having it, I'm sure it wouldn't be as good as what they already know how to make and love to make.

Also, to me a lot of the sculpts are very gender-neutral, even if they come on one gender of body, it can almost always be switched out for another gender if you so wish. For example, Volks SD Kun is made on a girl body and most Kuns are girls, but I think the sculpt can easily be a boy and I've seen a lot of handsome Kun boys. Likewise, Delf El is sold on a boy body but I think the mold makes a lovely girl as well. And I'm very spoiled to Volks YoSDs! They almost always release a boy and girl version of the same mold, so I think that may have taught me how most molds can be male or female easily just depending on the way it is customized with wigs/eyes/face-up/clothes.

And regarding extra parts for dolls, I've seen a lot of companies that are about split or else also make gender-neutral parts. Such as hands/feet/horns/wings, beyond that I don't know much about. I don't normally dig that deeply into fantasy style dolls as they're not really my thing. They may make more parts for one gender than another in one month, but that doesn't mean it won't be equaled out by the next month, it just requires a bit of waiting work most of the time.

 

Perhaps it's just that Asian Helpless-Chick Aesthetic at work again. Even in the 21st century, people just love their chicks helpless. Pretty is 'supposed to' equal Non-Manly, which is 'supposed to' equal a total lack of strength or wilfulness or hardness in the features. If I were in the market for a female doll, I would probably want a male head on a female body, by way of getting a half-ounce of gravitas into her. I would do all sorts of mods to get her as far away from that Silicone-and-Rohypnol-with-Eating-Disorder look as possible. But I don't see a lack of materials on the market for doing so; any number of hybrid bodies & option-parts & sandpaper & sculpey can be employed.

And I love your big Mecha Angel women that everybody says "looks like drag queens" because "women don't look like that". -_- In reality, every one of those chicas grandes looks everything like an adult human female. It's merely that, for most, they don't register as a "doll female". Vega, for example, is a dead ringer for the real-human-female model Shalom Harlow. But Ms. Vega was not a big seller on a female body-- even on that kapow goddess body in a see-through gown-- so they turned her into a Mr. Merman. (Whom I adore for his strong features, oh the irony. XD)

You know whose tall womanly charms I really like, but never see anymore? - Volks Unoss. ^.^ She has a dainty bosom, massive girly rolling-thunder thighs, and huge hands & feet like a tall girl would have. She is just different, bless her.

Funny, but I had that same passing thought! - Perhaps some of us (esp of the 1970-and-earlier vintage) enjoy male dolls because now it's OUR turn to be the ones who get to turn the other gender into pretty playthings. OK, so that was grossly oversimplified & tangential, but still food for thought.

 

I'm actually going for the male head on a female body thing soon, actually. (And I want to turn a Vega into Sargeant's "Madame X" some day. I just do. That is one regal-looking sculpt right there. Mmm... Shalom Harlow and Uma Thurman's love child. Deneb is hardcore channeling a fusion of Famke Janssen and Angelina Jolie, too -- but she's another 'man', apparently. Can be? Sure! And a stunning one at that. But ONLY EVER a man? C'mon now, people.)

Though, think of it this way: if someone wanted a delicate feminine male similar to a Sard, and the only options out there were, say, Iplehouse Luo and Soom Corvi, wouldn't it seem reasonable to say, "Hey, what gives? People want a prettyboy, and we only have manly masculine man's men from Marlboro country goin' on in here." 'Just mod it' can't always be the answer, to be entirely fair, from either side, especially for what is a fairly broad category of sculpts -- some people can't, some people are scared to, some people really are just that lazy. The answer isn't to force the sculptors to do something they don't have the feel for, either. That results in miserable artists doing work they dislike, and that does often show in the end result -- bad for them, bad for us, too.

I think that's more it -- "doll female" seems to have a very small vocabulary. It's more broad than "math is hard", but I don't think it's quite hit parity with the variety of male sculpts out there. Basically, it's a matter of there being a niche there, and seeing very few people aiming to fill it. Iplehouse does quite well at it, Soom... did more two years back than they do now. (Soom, to be fair, probably got iffy sales on these since people who liked their sculpts kept delaying a buy to go for their limiteds rather often; I've seen a lot of people express interest in those sculpts, and state as much at least. I'd be very inclined to call a lot of their regular line a victim of their own success.) There are others, too, but if someone is looking for 'powerful, realistic, mature woman', there is a lot of 'no one's home' faces to go through first. That said, there's a ton more of them now than when I started buying, but it seems like that's part of a general swing toward making more realistic sculpts available over all in SD size.

Bear in mind, this is all coming from someone who thought they only wanted girls, ever. It's the variety and dazzling quality of the male sculpts available that ended up changing my mind about that, not interest in male-oriented fandoms. I have to wonder how many people might be won over to look at some more female sculpts if more of them had, well, a bit more dignity, or spark, or -power-.

While I actually get the 'boys no longer an accessory' backlash -- I'm a 1973 kid, so I saw a lot of the same things growing up -- I think it's possible to go further than that. The boys back then might have been accessories, but the girls? Were just empty vessels for fashion. And while the boys are better than accessories, the girls are better than being empty-headed little fashion plates covered in enough ruffles to make a Victorian christening look sparse, too. So, yes, we have the power to play with the boys and make them dance to our own tunes now, but at the same time, we're also in the position to help define how we ourselves are represented, at least to some extent. That's a big, big thing.

 

I think that's very possible -- sometimes all it takes is one really great sculpt to grab someone...that's why I've given up saying I'd never buy this or that type of doll, because I never know what might be released that will cause me to have that got-to-have-it-NOW reaction.

Also though, I wonder too if it's not just the sculpts themselves, but also how they're presented. A lot of sculpts are quite versatile, but if all people ever see is them done up in the stereotypical sweet & innocent or on the flip side highly sexual manners, then it might not occur to them that they can look very different. It's not always easy seeing through default faceups and wigs.

Though I admire a lot of different styles, my preference is still very much for the more stylized sculpts, but I don't find my girls to look vapid or sappy sweet either (granted, they're my dolls so I might be biased ), though sometimes the company pics w/ the default faceups gave that impression. But then, my boys are also stylized as well, so perhaps that causes me to not automatically see things like large eyes as girly/innocent/what have you. I find that eye placement and size (the eyeball not the socket) along with the faceup makes an enormous difference. Of course if a person really wants the more realistic sculpts this might be beside the point, but still I think there are a lot of female sculpts that deserve a bit more credit than they get.

 

Male dominated? Really? I thought it was boys made for girls, by girls. :P
I certainly prefer having male dolls, whether it's because of my limited childhood "female only" dolls, because I have no female characters, or because I get along better with human males than females. Or maybe I would've liked being a boy. A gay boy. Not that I dislike female dolls, there's just something about the boys that makes me fell fuzzy inside. :B

And uh, I just saw volks DollfieDream Dynamite body. Wow. I guess they're competing with Dollmore's strippers. lmao. Creepy and hilarious. I guess those type of things is where the male dominance shines.

 

I think it's more a matter of "I want something really (or relatively) specific & I'm having a hard time finding it" rather than a gap in boy dolls vs girl dolls.

Like others have mentioned, sure there are several companies that seem more focused on male dolls, but there are also companies that are more heavily skewed towards making female dolls.

Personally, I prefer "realistic" (as opposed to "cartooney" or Anime-esque) sculpts & know there are only a few companies that cater to this preference of mine. Ultimately, I'd rather have a few of something awesome than a lot of something mediocre, y'know?

 

You know, what really bugs me is the general lack of companies who make females in the 64cm+ range. Spiritdoll, Iplehouse, Resinsoul/Bobobie, and Domuya all do this, and I'm sure there are more companies who do... but what about Luts? Dream of Doll? Doll Family? How about the 90cm AoD dolls? And once again, many more companies who I've failed to list? And Dollmore's Glamor Model line of dolls are all REALLY girly males which I'd love to turn into females, but alas, there's no Glamor Model females... and 75 cm is a bit of an odd size.

Oh, one more complaint. Sure, there are companies like Impldoll who have 64 cm females, but their females are such bad posers compared to the males! The males have more torso joints, for one thing. Argh! T_T

Plus, I can't think of a single flat-out 70 cm girl body aside from Resinsoul and Dollmore (which are actually 68 cm). The next-largest girl body (excluding the Mecha Angels of course) that I know of is Spiritdoll's 66 cm girl body. I suppose there's always the possibility of modding a 70 cm boy body into a girl one, but a lot of the male bodies in that size are fairly muscular.

Anyway, that's my own little rant about larger dolls.

 

It's interesting being on this side of the hobby, as it sometimes seems here like Volks fans are more into the girls than the boys. That may just be a holdover from the fact that Volks started with girls and focussed on them first. The boys certainly do sell, but there's just more stuff for girls and overall there are more female sculpts. The overseas market, if DoA can be used as a judge, does seem to be more into the lads. I certainly am .

I think there's a lot of truth to what some people have said about male dolls giving women/girls a chance to play around and dress up guys. That's why I'm quite content to see all the guys at Volks events with their DDs and SD girls drowning in frills or wearing sexy stuff. I'm doing much the same thing to my resin bishies (Except my charas have a distressing tendency to want to wear casual clothes -_-.

Sure, there are gaps in types of female sculpts/bodies. That's also the case with male sculpts/bodies. Whenever you're looking for something specific, it's hard to find just the right thing.

 

KittyFields- I think the reason why most companies have 64-66cm female dolls instead of 70cm is because, in general (and yes I know there are exceptions) women are not as tall as men, and I think a lot of people probably want their female dolls to be a little bit shorter than their male dolls in the same scale/supposed age range (again, of course there are some exceptions).

 

Thanks for making this post. I have see recently more male dolls but still the Ball Jointed Doll world is dominated by female dolls. Just like others have mention above, I like Soom doll balance in their monthly dolls. I am happy for that now. In my case i have most of the females with me in our doll family and my best friend has the males. I am happy that there are more male dolls since it will bring a balance in the BJD world.

We never can forget that all started with female dolls (The four sisters and U-Noss) and that's not gonna change. There is nothing better than balance

 

I have all male dolls and just one girl, and will keep on being like that (my sister's dolls don't count). However, I do think that as mentioned before, there are several factors to take in mind. It depends on the company, as said, Limwha and Supia just have female dolls (my only female doll is a Supia), and they are just lovely. And then there are some companies which only release boys, or mostly boys (most likely new companies, since they notice bjd owners like pretty boys and stuff). I think it also depends on the sculptor... I see that male sculptors tend to sculpt male dolls and viceversa. We have to also take in mind the size range. There are several companies that will have lot of tiny females, and none or almost no boys counterpart. And then there are companies which offer only big sized dolls (1/3+) and female dolls this size would look odd, even next to a male their same size.
However I have to agree I see better pose-able male dolls than female ones ^^U