BJDs in American Culture

I agree-- I haven't seen very much American pop culture mention of them either. Not sure if this really counts, but one of the first places I heard about BJDs when I was younger was in the book Japan Ai, which is about the American author's trip to Japan (she's a BJD collector and visits a Volks store).

 

Nope. The hobby is just extremely niche and the only people I meet that know about them are the ones I tell or the ones I meet because of them. I have seen them in the "wild" at anime conventions but I hardly think that counts.

@pashades That author is actually one of the founders of this site

 

I've never seen them referenced or depicted in any American media, not even news stories or anything. Like others, I've seen them out and about at anime conventions, but they're kind of on topic there anyway. I have once seen bjds out in the wild being photographed, but I should note there was a convention in the area at the time.

... And that's it. I really think that, aside from online spaces, bjds are a pretty unknown in the west. To be honest I'm not even sure how common it is to see them in the east. A long time ago they appeared in a music video, and they were featured in the anime/manga/novel "Another", but that's all I know of from Japan.

 

i’d guess because you’re looking more for the aesthetic of asian ball jointed dolls in, well… american media the kinds of dolls that are on topic for this site definitely wouldn’t be in main stream movies and stuff unless a character was specifically known to be into niche/anime hobbies… which like. yes anime is decently wide spread in the states these days but it’s still very surface level. You’d probably have more luck picking out warhammer models or magic the gathering cards in a background of a scene that features someone with a niche “nerdy” hobby in american media. Or if it focuses on dolls, they’re definitely not the type of bjds we talk about here probably fashion dolls (joints or not) or articulated action figures.

artist bjds would be getting closer stylistically, but there’s still some that fall into the ABJD category enough that they wouldn’t be something a set designer is looking for for a character who inherited their grandma’s weird doll collection. There will be dolls with ball joints for sure that are also ball jointed dolls, but not dolls in the sense that we collect here i’m sure!

edit: i meant to also say, the average (american) person probably would assume you’d be talking about bisque dolls and the like from my experience. yes, i bring up dolls a decent amount because my grandma is a bearmaker, and she even knew a doll sculptor in the area she did work with who made “ball jointed dolls “ (they would not be on topic here though!), and was pretty prominent in the craft shows and at the local college sculpture studio. basically, all the ball jointed dolls i’d ever interacted with before getting into the (on topic) hobby was the checklist for making a doll off topic here. my grandma tried to kindly explain these dolls are not ball jointed dolls until i showed her how people in the hobby break it down

 

I think there was a music video awhile back that featured a BJD?
Not sure of the nationality of the artist, though (nor do I remember who it was).

 

Other than Barbie, and the occasional sensationalised documentary about Reborn collectors, I bet you don't see much mention of other collectable dolls either...?

Teddy

 

Maybe one day we will see a collector on "Hoarders" So far the dolls collectors I've seen on that show had barbies or teddy bears. Haven't noticed a bjd yet!

 

You haven't missed anything at all. It's a niche within a niche, something that's true even in the places where most of our dolls are made. Probably better this way considering how pop culture tends to massacre anything it touches.

 

I think the highly gendered history of doll play in American culture means you're going to get closer with "action figures," which were pitched to boy consumers and their parents as dolls that don't count as dolls because dolls are for girls. G.I. Joe got more and more articulation while Barbie stayed pretty rigid. ...but even these never got to the level of bjds. I like to think I know a fair bit about American pop culture and I was astonished when I saw my first bjd a year ago.

 

Kerli (Estonian singer currently based in USA) released at least two English language music videos featuring DIM BJDs, for her songs Walking On Air and Tea Party. This was a decade ago, but it was a very exciting time to be in the community and see BJDs "break out" into more mainstream culture. Not exactly ubiquitous, but certainly more mainstream than us.

There is definitely more recognition than there used to be within other hobby communities, at the very least. For example, my friend and I were at the fabric store the other day getting doll project supplies. The associate at the cutting counter asked what we were making, and was really curious when we said it was doll clothes. Once we gave her a little info about them, she said "oh, I think I've seen those on youtube! I paint Gundams, so sometimes i get other painting videos in my feed." Since Volks also makes Gundam kits we mentioned that connection, and she seemed delighted! We recommended she check out DoA, actually. (We went back two days later for restringing elastic and she was on the register. She said DoA was a really cool site, so hi Jo-Ann's associate if you're reading this!) So in this case, definitely the youtube algorithms shoving dolls into people's suggested videos, lol, but that sort of interaction would have been pretty rare fifteen years ago.

 

Closest thing I’d say has achieved something like widespread awareness here is Monster High customizing. Some YouTube channels like Dollightful are quite popular, and while hers seldom features BJDs, a few others do.

Doll collecting in general is a widely known hobby, but people tend to have only a vague idea of what it entails. Most of them think Barbie or “antique dolls” (which, thanks to Hollywood cheaping out on props, tend to get conflated with crappy 1970s-2000s “collectible” porcelain dolls). Every time I’ve explained BJDs, people accept the idea readily enough, but have no prior frame of reference.

 

You don't say! I still have Walking on Air on a pen drive I use for listening music in my car...
As the years will pass, probably bjds too will make its way into pop culture, and then all will be ruined thanks to market saturation and media exposition.

 

Singer/songwriter Tessa Violet has a SDGr that can sometimes be seen chilling in the background of her tiktok videos, and she’s shown him off in another video for curious fans.

My non-hobby friend sent me the video with the message, “she’s one of you doll people!”

 

I have to say, I'm glad they aren't more in the media. I already sigh whenever non-hobby people on sites like Instagram or Tiktok stumble into our community.

All we'd get out of them popping up in media would be a flood of people buying recasts, let's be honest

 

I think dolls in general in America tend to get seen as either childish or creepy, although it does seem like fashion doll collecting/customizing/etc has been getting more mainstream.

The only BJD representation I've seen in the wild here was a Haute Doll magazine in my local bookstore in. It was the April 2007 issue (I bought it because of the Pullip feature lol) and it also had, as I recall, a lot of pictures of resin BJDs. I was aware of BJDs at that point but that was my first real exposure to them "up close." It doesn't look like this magazine is still around though, which is a shame... it was really cool to see dolls in amongst the other hobby magazines, being taken seriously in a way.

 

I know Pullips aren't BJD and are off-topic, but there was actually one (a Pullip Prunella) in the background of an episode of Hannah Montana of all things! That's the closest to a BJD i've seen in American media, personally

 

The closest I've seen is the awesome Blythe collection Emma Roberts has, but I haven't seen BJD.