Ageing and BJDs

I don't think it is possible for a real human to be as "perfect" or "beautiful" (I put the words in these little marks because of course, beauty is perceived subjectively, and while we as doll hobbyists think our dolls are perfect or beautiful, other people might not) as a doll in the first place. Thus I don't even try to compare myself to my dolls. I would lose in this beauty contest anyway
So I don't think a couple more wrinkles will change anything.

 

I was younger than the age his character was supposed to be when I brought Morrigan home.
But now I am 3 years older than him. It feels weird and a bit sad. One day I will be dead and he would still be 25.

 

I don't think any good will come out of comparing yourself to your dolls, or any dolls for that matter. The beauty of a doll is the fact that it's unable to age and will forever stay at it's prime. However, I think while dolls have the advantage of looks, we have the advantage of life. So if you prefer looks over life, then sure there might be a reason to be upset about it (shrug) In my case, I let dolls be dolls and instead of being jealous of them, I simply admire their beauty.

 

Most of my dolls' characters are pretty ageless to begin with... So having them remain unchanging, even while I get grey hairs, wrinkles, and obtain the ability to predict weather with my joints doesn't bother me in the least. It's strangely comforting to me to think that my dolls will always look the same (making room for yellowing and me changing my mind).


But then... I already have all those problems, so I just might a little biased here.

 

How do you view the fact that you are ageing but your dolls stay young and beautiful forever?
It fits most of their characters, since most are supposed to be ageless vampires or otherworldly entities
(and of course the random video-game/anime-character).

Do you think it will(or have it?) ever affect you that they never age?
No. I do own a lot of other dolls and I'm not exactly a child anymore (will turn 30 soon T___T;;.),
yet I've kept all of my dolls – even the one when I was a baby. I don’t find their “eternal youth” affecting me in the least.


Is it different when you do not stick to the doll forever? Like, is it different to trade/buy/replace the doll(s)
for newer/different dolls over time? Do you notice it much less then..?
I haven't yet sold or replaced a doll, nor do I plan on doing so. But I have modified a few of them and it doesn't
seem to affect the fact that they are ageless and I'm not. I think it would affect me if they were real, then I would
be pretty jealous of them, probably a bit traumatized as well as I’m a bit scared of wrinkles and gray-hair. XD



- Enzyme ^ ^

 

Well the art I hang on my walls doesn't change at all whereas my dolls at least can get different fashions and makeovers so they actually change more than most of the art I've collected. Not aging necessarily but changing with me as I age. For instance, when I was younger, I favored more modern/street clothes whereas now that I am older, I prefer more complicated designs.

 

Well, that's WHY I have these dolls! I want lovely things to look at. There are a few demon or imp characters (and a merman) who don't have ages, so they certainly don't bother me being ageless. The human characters are all teenagers-to-twentysomethings, and I like keeping them around to turn my living-room into a sort of perpetual party. I also like that I get to keep accessorizing them differently anytime I want.

I'm already old (OK, 41) and I like getting to put clothes and boots on these guys that I'm not suited to wearing myself anymore. Or, for that matter, stuff that I have the room to collect in my own size-- human-sized boots take up so much closet space, and I still have a fairly ridiculous amount of them, so I can't buy too many for myself anymore!-- but I can still get my fashion ya-ya's out on a small scale & be able to store tons of them in boxes.

I don't sell or replace these dolls, so I expect they'll be here with me for a fairly long haul, as I keep aging.

 

I don't mind that they don't age -- they don't need to be the same age as me. It's not like I wouldn't have been that age at one time anyway, so they're still perfectly relateable. Plus their characters come out of my own head anyway and therefor will always have a connection to myself. Some dolls may be moved along over time, but I don't buy with the intention of selling them later and I still have some dolls that I've had for years now. How permanently a doll may end up in my doll family doesn't really have anything to do with my age vs their age.

 

Well, I figure if you give them a birthday, they could "age" if you want them to. But as for actual aging like a person who changes physically as they get older, well, what's the point of having a doll if it did? If you want something that ages... I don't know, have a kid or something HAHA!

As for comparing yourself to your doll, we already have enough problems with the media turning women into objects to only be looked at, some weird thing that's obsessed with fresh and new and young. I think subjecting yourself to that kind of treatment would be painful and unnecessary

 

No it doesn't bother me nor should it. It's an inanimate object so why should it age like I do? I'd be rather disturbed by a doll that seemed to age like a human and I'd very likely burn or otherwise destroy it because such a thing is just wrong. If I wanted to show a doll "ageing" I'd get a childlike doll, a teen doll, a young adult doll, and a full adult doll and just say they're all 3D snapshots in time of the same idea.

 

See, in my case I've got a doll in the attic who ages while I stay forever youthful and beautiful.

 

polyhymnia, you win the internets. XD

The inevitable yellowing/greening is as much ageing as I want to see in mine.

 

actually I'd worry more if my doll aged, hehe. I want them to stay the way they are. im so worried about the yellowing and the wearing out already.

 

Um I figure you dont age that fast a year is a long amount of time and it only seems like it was fast when the year is over to me.

I feel somewhat pretty its more that dolls dont have to work to be pretty and people do XD. Like my dolls never get acne and with people it can be bad or appear under their skin >< But if dolls did that to we'd need alot more skin care products in the house XD

 

Well, I think it's different for me for a lot of reasons. I'm more of a mommy to them than anything. I buy them clothes. Food (fake food, but still). Toys.

I brush their hair. I hold them. I take care of them. I fix their 'boo-boos' when I find marks on them. And I tend to their needs.

So, it's only natural that I'm going to age, and to me they're always going to be my 'babies', looking young and beautiful forever, no matter what happens. Ever hear of a face only a mother could love?

Also, I have a degenerative disease and its comforting to know that no matter how ugly and disgusting I may feel or think I look (or actually do some days), they won't ever look that way, even if their characters are sick as I am. I can look at them and forget for a moment how terrible I feel and see how beautiful they are. :3

 

I don't realy pay much attention to it, but then again, I grew up in a home with quite a few realistic porcelain baby dolls... the ones about the size of a real baby... As I grew up, they didn't. In some ways, I love dolls more for not aging... I have a strange obsession with immortal things, or things that appear not to age. It's so bad, that I once saw a woman who clearly had that disease where you stop aging as a child. She was dressed as a business woman, had dyed hair, manicured nails, and almost carried herself overly feminine... Probably over compensating for the fact that she looked between 9 and 13. I found myself in the kind of obsessive, delusional state you can read about in many of Edgar Allan Poe's writings, adding fancy unto fancy, until I could fully believe she was either a vampire, or a hobbit... my eyes kept wondering to her without my control, and I know my body language had to have a serious creep factor at that moment, given I wanted to throw the poor thing over my shoulder, kidnap her, and keep her in my closet... If I were a man, I'm fairly sure she would have had her hand firmly on the pepper spray, or her phone if she wasn't that well prepared... I'm only glad to say, this is the only time I have been in such a deranged state... THAT'S how much I love thing's that don't age... So in the end... I only love BJD's more because they don't age... shoot... If I had the option, I would have myself put into one...

Note: sorry if I rambled here... Three cups of coffee make me ramble... and painfully honest...

 

KohakuTenshi,

Your last post is inspirational, and beautiful. I may be blessed with good health, but I understand what you are saying. Dolls are wonderful, because even when we age, and eventually pass on, they will remain almost as if time had not moved an inch. Testaments to the beautiful creative abilities of man, and indeed the fact that 'we' ever existed in the first place.

 

Thanks, and you've got a pretty way with words! :3