Counter culture v. Mainstream

I think it's definitely a rare hobby. I plaster my FB with doll pictures and coworkers sometimes make comments to me like, 'That doll you posted pictures of is SO NEAT!' (namely Frankenstein), or 'Those dolls freak me out. How can you stand them?'

I never hear, 'I collect, too!' or 'My niece has some of those BJDs,' etc.

 

It depends on which circles you operate in. One of my non-doll friends was visiting, and he snapped a picture of my doll table & posted it online while we were waiting for our other friend to show up.... Immediately, like within 3 minutes, one of his random followers from around the globe (he has zillions) tweeted back "ZOMG who has all those amazing BJDs?!!" (Further tweets went on to the effect of "that lucky bitch LOL" ^^.)

So, there's plenty of people out there who know what these dolls are-- and chances are you know somebody who knows them. It's like model-train people or bird-watching people; everybody knows someone who knows (or is) a doll-person. Among them, I wouldn't say BJDs are a counterculture, more of a subculture.

Sadly, we already have that. ;; Every time BJDs make it into any mainstream media outlet, it's always painted in terms of freaks. Even journalists who seem to be asking sane, respectful questions can turn out to write these hideous scaremongering freakshow articles... several years ago the Dollectable convention got quite screwed-over by some chick from NPR. Thankfully, thanks to NPR's point-counterpoint format, the next week featured a holler-back editorial by DOA's very own Baakay that made the critics sound like morons. But the damage was done, lots of people's fun spoiled, so we stopped allowing press unless it was someone we knew.

I personally prefer as little exposure as possible. In general. But that's just the way I've always preferred all my hobbies, music, style, etc. Always had to be That Kid wearing the t-shirt from the band nobody else had ever heard of. ~^ Some of us are just that type. I think it's hardcoded onto a chromosome.

 

Don't forget that Yahoo article that recently popped up about the girl who aimed to look like a doll. Even though people don't really respect the Yahoo writers (so it's been said) the damage has still been done there, too.

I wonder if BJDs are one of those things that're just hard to explain properly?

 

No, I don't think it's any harder to explain one kind of hobby than another.... It's just that people are sheep, are accustomed to being told what to think by their favored echo-chamber media outlet, and have huge mental blocks against anything that doesn't match what they're used to being fed every day. Human condition.

 

I do not mean that [people] choose what is customary, in preference to what suits their own inclination. It does not occur to them to have any inclination, except for what is customary. Thus the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they like in crowds; they exercise choice only among things commonly done; peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes: until by dint of not following their own nature, they have no nature to follow: their human capacities are withered and starved: they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions, or feelings of home growth, or properly their own. Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of human nature? -- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

 

That Mr. Mill was a sharp one. He always turns out to have already bitched about something 150 years before I got to it.

 

I had never seen the NPR thing, but I am glad we were offered to counter any of their negative points. I've always been curious if anyone ever saw the article that was going to be in that indie teen/fashion magazine that interviewed people during the one NY Dolpa. I always wondered what the final product was going to be like since the interviewer and photographer at the time seemed to get the hobby and weren't condescending about it.

 

-Do you consider BJD a sort of counter culture? [clarification in post 19]

It probably is for a lot of people (inside said culture), but since I'm not personally involved in the social aspects of collecting - except for information-sharing here on DoA - I don't feel that I'm part of a counter culture. I just dig dolls.

-Do you believe that BJD should remain an "exclusive" hobby? (I use that term loosely)

No. I don't see the point of exclusivity. This may be a weird comparison, but just as Gay marriage doesn't invalidate my straight marriage, a wider enjoyment of bjds does not invalidate my personal enjoyment.

-Would it matter if it became popular? Like would you just stop collecting?

I mean no disrespect, but this question seems to me a very young question. Popularity, exclusivity ... in my experience, these things become less important the older a body gets.

-Do you feel special because you collect these dolls? Would you feel less special if more people were active within it?

This strikes me as another essentially young question. If I, personally, feel "special", it's not because of external objects.

I collect these dolls because I think the dolls themselves are special. They're madly cool and beautiful. Buying them doesn't make me madly cool and beautiful.

 

THIS. So very, very this.

 

Yes, I always wondered about that magazine too, after that chick interviewed so many of us! The magazine was called MissBehave , it was just getting off the ground, and it seemed like your Edgy-Downtown-Chick type of mag, something that might actually 'get it'. But I never followed up on finding a copy... what was that, 2008? ;;

Anyway, that's the type of publication that I'd bet the most money on getting any actual fair-and-balanced exposure for BJDs. Doesn't mean that I'd be surprised if they'd screwed us (people who seem to be nodding-and-smiling often turn out to be storing up notes for "jeebus, what a freak"). But, if anything would give good press, it'd be something like that. Geeks get us; stick to the geek press. ^^

 

no matter what, I would always love and keep my dolls
however, I am kinda afraid of how the community would turn out if this was a super common hobby. imagine all those duckfaced 13 year old posting sh**load pictures of themselves on facebook. imagine if they all had a BJD. They are annoying on facebook, they would be here too. and I have a feeling their dolls wouldn't be pretty or interesting.
so I would most likely back away from the community, but not from the dolls themselves.

 

this is an awesome topic, when you say culture and mainsteam, I assume you mean the American Mainstream. But of course there are so many others and they vary from country to country. As an american I can only answer these questions from an american standpoint. it would be very interesting to see what others in different countries have to say about it compared to the american views we think of as so normal.

I find myself to be very counter culture. I tend to dislike things I previously liked cause it gained too much attention or became main stream. as for ABJDs I cannot say that I will ever lose interest or stop liking them because others do.

-Do you consider BJD a sort of counter culture? [clarification in post 19]

I don't think I do, I just think it hasn't reached america the way other asian things have. Such as fashion, anime and the like. I think as more people see and collect them they will become more recognizable. weather or not people will spring for the money it takes to buy, clothe and maintain them is a whole other story.

-Do you believe that BJD should remain an "exclusive" hobby? (I use that term loosely)

No, I totally don't. I love to share my hobby with others. It would be fun to see them all over the place.

-Would it matter if it became popular? Like would you just stop collecting?
Nope, I love my dollies! Nothing will ever keep me from having them. even if half the people in my town had the same molds as I do. None would really be just like mine.

-At what point is the exposure too much?
I think if I saw commercials for them on TV it would weird me out.

-Do you feel special because you collect these dolls? Would you feel less special if more people were active within it?

I don't, no. I love my dolls and I collect them for me alone. I don't care what others think or feel about them. if they want to get into the hobby awesome. If they think it's stupid or juvenile I don't care either.

 

I just did a search for the magazine and sadly it looks like it's no longer in production.

 

The bad PR thing happened here in Sweden as well. We have a TV-show here called "Outsiders" and one of the episodes were about people with unusual hobbies. Their main focus were on a girl from Stockholm who had just started collecting BJDs.
They interviewed her and followed her to a meet. She was a quiet and calm girl in her late teens or early twenties who liked to sew for her two dolls. That was it.
The interviewer made it seemed like she was some kind of socially awkward nutbag who thought of her dolls as real people and the meet like some kind of cult gathering. And they kept referring to her BJDs as her "Japanese dolls" even though she had two Dollzone.

The positive thing is though that a lot of the comments from people after that show were "where can I buy those dolls?".
So not all bad but still annoying as hell when journalists do that. So damn unprofessional.

 

This may sound kinda jerky, but the only thing i can think of to answer all these questions:
"-Do you consider BJD a sort of counter culture? [clarification in post 19]
-Do you believe that BJD should remain an "exclusive" hobby? (I use that term loosely)
-Would it matter if it became popular? Like would you just stop collecting?
-At what point is the exposure too much?
-Do you feel special because you collect these dolls? Would you feel less special if more people were active within it?"

is "i am not a hipster".

i'm a geek. proud of it, and more than happy to welcome other geeky people into whatever geeky hobbies i have. If the type of people it brings in have a personality type i can't stand, well, that's the benefit of the internet, plenty of other sites to look at.

geek as in http://bitsandpieces.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/imagesgeek-hierarchy.jpg
so noone take offence. ya geeks. :P

 

Do you consider BJD a sort of counter culture?
No, can't say that I do. I don't think collection BJDs is any different from collecting stamps or music, anime or whatever.

-Do you believe that BJD should remain an "exclusive" hobby?
Certainly not. I think that whoever wants a doll should be able to get one. Im not very fond of the "Hipster" way "I did it before it was cool, you're just a stupid newbie who knows nothing" which, sadly, is quite common in this hobby.

Would it matter if it became popular? Like would you just stop collecting?
I wouldn't care whatsoever. Im in this hobby because I like it, and I will still like it even if it was more wide spread.

At what point is the exposure too much?
Exposure is good, but when there is rumours going around that all doll owners are pedophiles who likes to play with dolls it's.. A bit disturbing. However, that is only because of lack of information. So in the end I think almost all exposure is a good thing.

Do you feel special because you collect these dolls? Would you feel less special if more people were active within it?
No, not really. People collect different things, in my case it's dolls. I don't feel special now and wont feel less special if more were collecting either.

 

You took the words out of my mouth