Calling BJDs "It"

Far be it from me to care what pronoun someone else uses to refer to their dolls.

 

Pretty much what Chiba said...

I tend to use "he" or "she" myself, but I don't really care if anyone else does that or not. There's no point in having a problem with "it", anyway, since when you get right down to it, that's exactly what dolls are.

 

It doesn't matter if anyone likes it or not. It's not any of anyone's business what people refer to their dolls as.
They're not people, they are items, so calling them 'it' makes total sense.

 

I get it if they do it, especially if the doll looked really androgenous. Or if they knew that a lot of BJD males that look very feminine, and they call the doll 'it' so that they don't offend me or look like an idiot. Personally, I'd rather call someone's doll 'it' rather than he or she, because I always feel like a moron if I get the gender wrong

 

normally i refer to my dolls as he or she, however when letting smaller children play with my dolls and something happens or seems to happen and their parents or them start freaking out. i refer to them as its. it tends to make me seem less attached, and help people calm down, and understand that everything is alright if something has happened, that i'm not mad. it's a toy, it can be fixed.

example:

it's mostly at renfaire that i refer to my dolls as its and this is usually where the bulk of small kids and poeple in general are allowed to play with my dolls and i don't pay much mind to what they are doing with it. i don't really explain anything about the doll to anyone, they either know or just want to play with it. i'm the freaky doll chick. they all know they are my dolls. they always get back to me. however also because of this most poeple know how much my dolls are. if they don't someone always has to point this out. always. so when the toddler pulls of my dolls wig, and yanks his head cap off trying to shove out his eyeballs thinking they are candy eyeballs from halloween, and someone just told his mom how much the doll he just yanked the top of his head off was , she scream that motherly blood curdling scream that only mothers can do that make you stop everything, of no and omg. i explained to her that IT was all fine that IT's head is sopossed to come off. IT's made that way. then i grabbed the eyeballs out of his head as the kid had manged to push them out. and snapped his head cap back on. told the mom see IT's fixed. no harm done. IT's fine. i then informed her i wouldn't let the kids play with IT if i was worried they'd break IT. then we sat down with her and told her to breathe.

now had i said he in the situtation it would seem more so like i had an emotional attachment to doll as i was personofing it, and that would've made it harder for her to calm down and see that i calm about the whole thing. plus it could get confusing if i said him as not knowing if i was refering to the child or the doll.

TL/DR: so basicly it doesn't matter how you refer to your doll, and sometimes it changes in different situtations for some people what they call them.

 

It doesn't matter to me what people call their own dolls...but, funny thing ~ my sister was weirded out when I refered to one of my non-bjd art dolls by 'she'. (like, "Isn't she pretty?") Whatever!
When refering to other works of art like paintings or sculptures that are of a woman or girl, would it be strange to refer to them as 'she' in a sentence? Go to a museum and listen to how curators refer to works of art. They refer to them in the personal, 'he' or 'she' much of the time!

 

I always refer to my dolls by gender and I don't care about how other one calls their dolls ,but it would made me a little unpleasure if others refer my doll as "it"

 

Like many others, I refer to my dolls as he or she in conversation but also feel it's personal preference. I actually usually just use their name when talking about them moreso than saying he/she. Like if a friend asks me am I taking a certain doll with me I usually will answer something like "Yes, Ash is going with me...why do you ask?" I like to assert that they're not just objects to me to my non-doll friends who think I'm crazy. But, I don't think I would find it weird to hear someone call their doll an "it"...though I've never heard it happen so I can't guarantee my reaction but I don't feel it would bother me. I can understand if the doll has a genderless body as non-doll people may not understand giving dolls characters and all that.

I also understand if the person chooses to make the dolls character not revolve around gender, like say a genderless half robot type character or something of the sort (excuse the junky example was the only thing I could think of right off ^^; ).

 

I don't mind what other people refer to their own dolls as. *shrug*

As for me, the term I use depends on who I'm talking to. Is it a doll person who 'gets' 'him', or is it someone who might not understand me collecting dolls but would better understand if I framed 'it' as a 'sculptural piece'? And what doll am I talking about? A girl? 'She'. A boy? 'He'. I actually have plans for some genderless dolls, but since they identify as male and female despite not having a gender/sexual characteristics, I'll probably still use he and she for them when I get them.

Floating head? Hard to say. I'm expecting one, though, and while I'm pretty sure he'll be a guy, he doesn't have a body and I don't really 'know' him yet. So 'it' works fine there.

And if I'm talking about someone else's doll and I can't tell the gender (though I'm usually pretty good at calling it, even with cross-dressing...), I might say 'it', and hope whoever I'm talking to doesn't get offended.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

I... honestly can't see why anyone would care. I use she/her most of the time because they look like adorable female things... I'm sure I use it as well, because no matter how girly they look they're still objects after all. I couldn't care less what other people call their own dolls, and if someone calls my doll "it" I really don't care either.

 

After reading the initial post I had to think about wether I've ever
referred to one of my dolls as "IT"......I don't think so. I'll say him,
her, they etc. Honestly I don't think it matters what people choose
to call their doll. But when I hear people call their animals IT I do
want to hit them over their head That's just not cool.

 

I don't care at all what others do. I call mine "it" the majority of the time since they are, to me, just objects. I would get irritated if someone spazzed on me for calling them it instead of he or she because it's none of their business what pronoun I refer to them with and it's none of mine what they call theirs.

 

Completely with you there. Animals and babies; it bothers me a lot when people refer to them as 'it'.

As far as dolls go, I often end up talking about them like they're people I know, so I don't believe I've ever referred to them as 'it'. ^_^; While I would notice it if someone else referred to their dolls as 'it', it wouldn't bother me either way.

 

I usually refer to my dolls as "him", "he", etc. But I don't think it is weird if someone calls his/her doll "it". Although it might sound a little distant to someone into the hobby, it'd probably sound alot more "normal" (or less creepy) to people not into BJDs (like your boss, strangers, acquaintance, etc) than if they hear you calling your doll "my little handsome boy" lol.

 

Yes. I was thinking about that..... really horrible! Fortunately I haven't come across
anyone who has called their baby/child "it"....just on tv. *sigh* It takes a certain
mind frame and I'm not sure any amount of reasoning could make such a person
understand. But I would certainly try if possible. Eeek pretty OT...sry.

 

I can see certain situations in which I might use "it" to refer to a doll, though I typically use "he" or "she" with my own. My main exception so far has been the Puki I just put on layaway -- until I put her on layaway, I hadn't even figured out a gender, let alone a name! I've seen Pongpongs adorable as both girls and boys, so mine apparently waited until I 'pulled the trigger' so to speak to tell me her name was Esmeralda.

 

Dolls and characters are always he or she to me, but depending on who i'm talking to, they may or may not have a name. I've had WAY too many weird looks, and questions about names, meanings, etc that I am uncomfortable answering, so I avoid it :p

It doesn't really bother me when people call their dolls 'it' though. Some people are less attached to their dolls than other people I suppose.

 

I agree with this. Occasionally I'll call them he or she, because they look like males and females, but honestly it's not something I really think about much. I think they're cool, but they're just dolls.

 

Well, as long as it's THEIR doll, I couldn't care less whether they call the doll "he", "she", "it" or "Franz Joseph". I think I would insist on my boys being called "he" - two are pretty obviously male and even the elf doesn't really look female. So ... no confusion there.

 

Even with a barbie doll I think most people would say either he or she.