Calling BJDs "It"

I only say 'it' to non doll people, but since most dolls have an obvious gender I like to use the proper pronoun.

 

Hmm, I see it suiting some situations. Such when you are buying some dolls that come in either boy or girl bodies with the same face and you are deciding which to get? Perhaps teh character itself is gender confused, or what have you? While going through heavy modding that sometimes deforms the original body and would hurt someone made of flesh I would feel bad calling it a her or him, I'd rather jsut htink it was in a creation stage where it couldn't feel pain(sorry if that sounds weird to you), since the thought of casueing someone pain would be horrible.

 

I can not think of one situation where I use 'it' to refer to dolls. I certainly don't use 'it' with non-doll people I don't give a fart if they get "weirded out." If I don't know the gender of a specific doll (meaning there is not an apparent one) I say something like "who is this darling/sweetheart/cutie?" (I do the same thing with babies) or if I know the mold and the who the owner is I'll say "Tell me about your 'mold name'?"

The only problem I've had is actually with my own doll who is two characters. Although the body is female one of the characters is male. This is further complicated by the fact that they have the same name. I've sort of gotten in the habit of calling them Brother Ezra and Sister Ezra so as not to confuse people when I switch pronouns.

 

Aside from being a doll and all, they still are objects, so I have no problems referring them as 'it', especially if I'm talking to people who are not familiar with dolls. I don't usually use the term since I'm used to calling them 'he/she' but I wouldn't get offended if someone called them 'it'. I don't see why anyone would either.

 

There are a lot of threads on naming your doll, but I haven't seen one about not naming one.
(It might be that I'm not looking hard enough, but...) I don't mean keeping the sculpt name and not giving it its own name... I mean simply calling it "my doll" and "he/she/it." Does anyone do this?

I'm thinking about getting a genderfluid doll to be both boy and girl. And it would be anything I want it to be in terms of dress/wigs/etc. So after thinking about what I wanted in a doll and identifying a few potential sculpts, I got to thinking about names. Honestly, I don't know if I want it to have a name, since naming a doll solidifies something about its character/personality, and I want it to be fluid in every way. I might just end up calling the thing "my doll" and "it" (since it wouldn't have a gender). It almost seems blasphemous in this community, but it might just be the best course of action in this case.

Has anyone else done this (not naming a doll)? Would you ever consider doing it? Why/why not? Have you ever even thought about it before?

 

I suppose that sounds like a rather interesting concept... I imagine it would make things alot less complicated for sure. XD

I haven't quite done this -intentionally- as it were, but I do have a doll at current that just doesn't seem to have 'fit' with anything I've thrown at her... I thought she fit one character, but now it seems a little less likely than it was before and she stands as she is, nameless and without any sort of set character. Normally this sort of thing drives me sparse, but either I've gotten far more mellowed out in the hobby or it just doesn't seem to matter with her.

I can't say I'd consider getting a doll without a -name- persay, but I have toyed with the want for just -a doll-.... One that I could dress up in any sort of clothing, change out wigs and eyes at my whims (my 'character' dolls all have -very- strictly set ideas of 'what they must look like') and just generally not having any of the headache of 'discovering who they are'... It seems at times that the heart of the idea of BJD owning is what I love the most, and obtain the least... XD

I can't say that I want to keep it that way of course, I would certainly like to eventually have a little more to 'that one' than there already is, but currently it seems alright and I don't quite think it constitutes as 'blasphemous'- although if I start seeing any torches and pitchforks gathering suddenly, I suppose we'll know. o.O

 

So like...instead of just having a doll whos character is genderless/androgymous, or crossdresses, it will simply be a blank canvas to fit whatever suits your fancy? Interesting! I don't think that would be up my boat, since I like to character bond, but it's defintly a good idea. In which case, it seems to be, that since the doll ITSELF has no character, it wouldn't need a name. Would you name the individual personas you created?

 

Xhai-Pan Gale Yeah, it would definitely take the stress out of owning one. You wouldn't have to worry about whether or not this wig or that one fits a certain character, and if you loved a whole bunch of different eye colors, you could just get them all and interchange them freely. And it just seems like this hobby emphasizes the importance of naming dolls and creating characters for them, so as far as I know, I'm going against the grain here xD

Syri Yes, exactly! A blank canvas is precisely what I'm after. And no, I don't think I'd name the personas... If I did, it would solidify a character and I would eventually feel the need to shell that character permanently. Instead, I would take pictures of the doll in different outfits and say "here is my doll wearing ____." That'd be it. I think you can bond to a doll without it having a character (like I did with my Elfdoll Wu), since a 'character bond' to me allows you to swap shells around to fit that character. I'd rather have one doll and no shells.

 

I have this feeling with my new doll. I love the doll and I do think of it as a "boy" even though I would happily dress "him" in dresses and girl clothes... but I just can't decide on a name. Personally, I bond with the doll itself and not a "character", so this is probably why the idea doesn't bother me.

 

I'm not sure naming a doll would really limit you so much. Then again, it seems like you're very into a 'character' idea, where as my dolls have almost no real existing characters. I keep them 'fluid', even though they may have a bit of a personality and name. For me it's as simple as if something looks good on them, they wear it. The only reason they don't wear 'anything', is because some of my dolls look very awkward in a certain color or style. One of my boys can only wear long sleeves because his arms are a little funny looking, and another doll cannot wear anything neon because it looks atrocious against his cream toned resin. Names don't have to be a character thing- but, if you feel like a name WOULD make it a character, then I say avoid it.

Of course though you could do something dorky like calling it 'no-name'

 

I don't know, I'd feel really uncomfortable having a doll I just called "it" mostly because of the book "A child called 'it'" so I'd feel like if i didn't name my doll something i'd be really uncomfortable calling them 'it' i'd think that gender neutral names would be a good compromise for naming a doll but still keeping the gender fluidity. Also i don't really think someone's name defines who they are, the personality a choices the person makes do. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of transgender people out there who have masculine or feminine names that don't really fit who they really "are". so while the name is important, i don't feel it is important when defining the personality of a doll.

 

Eh to me names are really important in my life...I actually spend a lot of time hem and hawwing over my characters names and such...I literally named one character Nanashi which is Japanese for Nameless because I had NOTHING in mind. (My Deadman Wonderland OC the Finch.)

 

There are a few dolls I'm looking at that I would like to keep the sculpt name, since I think of the doll by that name and it is already "stuck" in my head that way, but I don't think I could just not name one. I have to have something to call it, even though I don't have characters for them or anything. It's just easier to have a name for them, seems strange to me not to.

 

Well, my friend and I have a character we want to shell, (He will be on the DC "swan" bodies, with the extra limbs, and possibly a heavily modded DZ head) that we do not have a name for. So far we've just been calling him "the nightmare"... But only time will tell if we give him another name...

This character has been dead for a very long time, and does not remember his own name, or life, and never will... So in that way, we wanted to keep him nameless. Perhaps we'll give him a name that others in our story line refer to him by, but he has little identity left of his own.

He could easily be called an it, or "that thing"... A lack of a name could say more than a name itself, in some occasions.

 

This is such an interesting question. It's so true that naming the doll is the start of the character evolution process. I had not thought about this question from this angle. I have a story, characters and outfits that I'm developing that has a specific style. My dolls (even the ones I'm waiting for) have names and looks that fit this story, naturally enough.

However, I have a very strong urge to design and make outfits that have nothing to do with the story or characters. It just doesn't 'feel' right to put my named crew into non-story garments. I wasn't sure how to resolve this question until I saw this thread. Unfortunately, I don't have a such a doll, so now I have a new problem but I would consider buying a doll in order to have, literally, a blank canvas to work with.

I found the reasons to name or not name interesting and I don't feel strongly one way or the other about the naming concept. Since the goal of the doll is to be a canvas, then a name means very little, although I admit I am tempted by the irony of naming them "nameless" in a non-English language.

This idea will change how I look at the next doll to get in order to find a versatile sculpt. It's an elegant solution to my problem.

 

my Feeple Mirwen has been with me for 5 months and is still nameless. I refer to her as "my mirwen" or "my doll". but it's not on purpose I'm just bad at naming and haven't really taken time to think about anything for her.

 

I've never done that, it just doesn't really fit what I want from this hobby right now. Right now, I'm looking to create a character. But I don't see anything wrong with doing things that way either. One of the best things about this hobby has always been its flexibility, not just in the actual appearance of the doll, but also the flexibility in how you "use" your doll. And to be honest I don't know what I'll want from this hobby in the future. Tastes change, and for all I know I could be right where you are, wanting a fluid intentionally nondescript doll, in a month from now. So yeah, just do what makes you happy I guess

 

I don't consider a name to have any kind of style-fixing power like that. I have a couple of dolls (and one in particular) who have names but not much characterization beyond that - so mixing up their looks doesn't seem odd at all.

But then I don't even find having a character or a backstory limiting - If I want to dress up a doll in a way that don't match whatever imagined background they have I just do. I mean, regardless of what they represent to you, they're still dolls - playing dress-up is one of the reasons they exist!

 

Out of the 30+ dolls I've owned, only a few had names that lasted. At first, I tried to name my dolls, but then if I changed their look, sometimes the original name didn't fit the doll anymore. For instance, I named one of my dolls Caspian when he had a frilly prince outfit on. Once I gave him a more casual look, calling him "Caspian" felt wrong. So, I renamed him (I can't remember the name). Then he got another frilly look and I named him "Florian". Eventually, I gave up on naming altogether.

Some of mine don't have fixed genders either. I recently changed up the looks of several dolls, and three gender swaps occurred. When I refer to my dolls, I'll say something like "the white-haired doll in the purple dress" if I'm talking to someone IRL. (My family/friends appreciate this, because they don't have to bother memorize names.) Online, I use the sculpt name but I don't really consider that a "name" - it's just a way to identify the doll. Plus, I hate some of the sculpt names.

 

I know what you mean, thats kind of what have in my volks nasia. Although I do refer to her as she. She doesnt have a specific name or persona or whatever, she's just... my doll.