Creating your own additional universe [Experience through a doll]

Not really (I'm a female that leans to the straight part of the spectrum BTW)--I like yaoi quite a bit--I find it more visually interesting and appealing than looking at het erotic art. I actually like some yuri too, though I'm a bit picky about what appeals to me. It isn't a matter of exploring perspectives on sexuality, because neither are supposed to be realistic depictions, just fantasy.

I would type more, but I'm running late for work : P

 

With all due respect, isn't this topic similar to all the other "Do you live vicariously through your doll's body type/ fashion sense, through controlling your doll, blahblah" debate topics? I am not sure how this is a "debate". It's more of a discussion as to how people relate to their dolls.

Speaking just for myself, as a mature person I have a sense of my own sexuality and also that of various real-life friends of mine that is sometimes different from my own, and therefore I don't need dolls to explore that subject any further. I haven't even given most of my dolls a sexual preference or backstory in that regard. I would imagine if someone was young and still kind of experimenting and figuring out their own feelings maybe they could project that onto a doll.

 

As a teenage girl- we're notoriously fickle you know- I can't declare anything for sure, but I'm fairly sure I'm asexual. Say what you will. My characters tend to fall into one of two camps- hypersexual but definitely off-kilter somehow, and asexual and more typically 'normal'. I guess the second ones are just an idealisation of how I aspire to be myself and the first is kind of taking a peek around the corner to see what life would be like doing something else. This has a lot to do with those 'vicarious living through dolls' threads I loathe so much but is that somehow wrong? Having a character who isn't me? It's good to take a look around the corner once in a while...

 

I'm bi, all my dolls so far, in concept, are also. *L* I guess I want to share SOMETHING with them, since I live vicariously through them the rest of the time. *pokes Rhoswyn and winks, being a dork*

 

My doll is based on one of my characters. Most of those characters relate to me in someway. If you want to look deeply into it.

(If you read really really deeply into it you could say. And I did not relise this at the time.) I think my doll is based on something I can't have for medical reasons (unless I get better). That may sound a bit crazy or morally wrong. (I am only 18) But I don't care it will make me happy and feel a little better. I want to look after something and I considered getting a pet. But the money for those is abit much and I am going to Uni so it might be abit of a handful? Also I just genrally like ABJD.

Mines proberly going to end up being gay. I am bi myself though I consider myself polysexual so that means I really don't care about it all XD My characters sexuality is pretty random. I just look at my drawings and they will scream at me what it is (not litrally) but sometimes it can take a while.

I don't consider it part of my secret desire or based on me. However if I had chosen to buy a doll of my main character it would be my total dream of what I'd be. So I think it really depends on what doll you get and what you want to do.

I proberly sound like a nut case but oh well! hope I helped

 

I believe that some people make the dolls however the dolls seem to be on their own. They are their own persons and then the doll lets them know what and if they like the same sex or opposite.

Then their are others who live through their dolls and those people might be the ones that explore their sexuality through their dolls.

 

:: giggles when poked, like the Pillsbury doughboy ::
If I'm sharing anything with my dolls it's probably not my sex interests. Sexual people are awesome, but I'm sure I'd bungle it up somehow. For one thing, dolls can't actually have *sex*- they just... can't. Because they're, er, made of resin. They can have some of the most sensual looking photostories ever and they still won't ring creepy to me.

 

Actually... I think it's kind of the other way around for me? Like, I'm pretty asexual (meaning I have no real interest in either of the sexes; I'm not 'attracted' to anything in that way) and/or gender blind (there's no difference to males & females for me, except for the X & XY chromosomes of course), so I don't really think about that aspect of my doll's life until I really start to think about it. Which is literally uh. Never.

Then again, my doll is only 16 (... which means he's three years old irl time) and really doesn't care either. But that's probably a part of me that incorporated itself into my doll's personality, even if some of my other dolls that I will hopefully get in the near future already, in my mind, have a different outlook to sexuality and whatnot.

 

Hey, this is interesting.

I never thought f it that way before, but that makes sense, using these characters to explore different sexuality and the like.

Nice point to ponder.
Anyway...
My doll, by character, is a member of a royal family and pretty much get o go wherever he wants whenever he wants. He's also an artist (I am an artist too!) and is very successful, so maybe that's a part of me wishing that I could do all these nice things and be an accomplished artist while I'm at it.

He has alot of freedom in his life, where I do not right now.

(I'm a busy college student who does nothing but sleep and school. Siiigh)

 

I don't know about sexuality (I'm pretty comfortable with mine) but emotionaly my doll is much more stable and confidant than me (I'm kind weak and flaky)
McKenzie is extrimely self asured and dominant and I'm well... not, so I suppose I'm living out that personality I'll never have through him.

 

this is interesting!
actually, my boy is bi, although his lover(s) are all men. im a girl and im straight, i guess i wonder more as to how does a man love another man (not as "how can he??" but as the mechanism, the changes, the point of views). i love boys too much to be bi myself, haha. i suppose that in that sense, yes, it is an experience through my doll.

 

Well, I'm most definitely straight; I simply cannot look at women as sexually appealing. That isn't to say I don't find them pretty, attractive, good-looking, etc. I just can't see myself becoming romantically involved. I guess I just like guys too much. :P

That being said, I have no idea what my boy's sexuality will be when he arrives. If he turns out to be bi or homosexual, I don't think it will be a result of my wanting to explore that type of sexuality. Instead, I think it will more likely reflect my own preferences - I'm a female who likes men, he's my doll, and thus a reflection of myself, so he likes men, too. Essentially, he would be attracted to men because I am. So, looking at it in this manner, if he turns out to be heterosexual, it can be looked at in two ways - either I'm exploring the idea of being interested in women using my doll's viewpoint, or I'm demonstrating my personal preference for being in a heterosexual relationship. Of course, if I were to later come into possession of a female doll, the former would be voided, since I would regain the female view-point of the relationship (or I could be looking at how a relationship functions from both perspectives). I also know for a fact that it's unlikely that I would have two female dolls in a homosexual relationship because it holds very little personal appeal.

I'm not really sure whether Simon will take on my own personality traits and experiences or different ones. I guess I'll have to wait until he arrives, but I have a feeling that he'll wind up being the mini male version of me. ^^;

 

Well, I'm bi, but my MSD dolls are adults and totally straight.... I didn't really plan it out that way, but it just seemed right for the dolls. My petdolls are also adults. One is straight and has been married she may be very slightly bi-curious, but hasn't given it a whole lot of thought. One is a guy and honestly hasn't given it much thought, but assumes he is straight because, "well, that's the normal way things work, right?" My Tiny sized girll is still a child, and so is asexual.

I have plans for a couple of 1/3 dolls, one will be sort of a diety or something, and will be asexual. One will be a girl that I haven't really decided yet, either straight or bi. One boy will be rather effeminate gay character, one will be.. who knows yet and manly....

I guess what it comes down to is my characters are all over the place on the gay-straight spectrum. Pretty much the way people are IRL. I didn't do it intentionally in any way, it's just how things worked out. The dolls really aren't in any way a reflection of my sexuality, because it is something I am sure of anyways, so exploring it through my dolls would be kinda silly in my personal situation.


As far as the additional universe title... I thought that meant originally like if you had alternate universes that your dolls lived in. In fact I do.... Mel, Xi, and Eliza live in "our world" and the rest of the characters (both the ones I have and the ones planed) live in an alternate fantasy universe. It's kind of similar to Narnia in the sense that Eliza and Ödi go back and forth between the two. In our world Ödi is thought of as strange, and in the alternate world Eliza is strange because she's not an elf (humans don't exist in Ödi's world, but elves are essentially the same thing)

The only other things I've incorperated into my dolls is that Mel had pretty much the ideal body for wearing all the different cloths I want to put her in, and that I would wear if only I was a bit more daring.

 

In my case the sexual aspect for me personally is whatever I like. I'm bi in what I like, but asexual in what I really *want* hehehe....its complicated...>__< My dolls however....the two I have now are more like me. Anathema could care less about finding a boyfriend, but I am getting her a boy that's a friend eventually and he will be straight. Carmine is kinda shy and nervous about relationships and isn't looking for anything in particular. He is gay though in that my friend is getting a DOT Ducan to pair with him. My next two planned dolls are a gay couple (one is gay and one is bi), but its from an old original story of mine and the other girl I want will be straight as far as I know....

I don't know that I so much 'try out' other sexualities through my dolls because long before I got one I thought hard to figure out what it was I liked. It turns out I like cute and pretty things. Gay, straight, or otherwise I don't really care. I like what I like and I like cute things together as well. *shrug*

Other things I do however live through my dolls.....I got a girl as my first so I could put her in Lolita dresses. I personally hate wearing dresses and skirts, but I love looking at them and making them. So I can dress her in such cute things. One of my planned dolls also has lots of tattoos and piercings. I'm afraid of needles and thus can't get tattoos and I'm allergic to ALL metals for piercings so....yeah... In styles I do live through them

 

As a writer despite being a doll owner I find that creating characters is a safe and easy way to explore life through another person's eyes. If I wonder what it's like to have only one leg it would make sense that I would eventually write a person who's life was overcoming the stigma and difficulty attached to a leg amputation.

There is always a curiosity, I find, in what it's like to live someone else's life. It's not necessarily a dissatisfaction of your own life but just a wondering about something you would otherwise not get to experience. I suppose sexual preferences could fall into that category as well especially if they're something you're specifically dealing with.

I think living vicariously through your dolls is something different than exploring ways of living through your dolls. Living vicariously indicates that you are fulfilling dreams and desires of living a perfect or better life, the kind of life you could only find in your dolls. While exploring ways of life is more curiosity based and holds no begrudging toward your current life. You aren't escaping just poking your head in and looking around a bit.

This is a cool topic. I'm sure that once I get enough dolls I will be modeling characters after them for the reasons that I normally model characters--to get inside their head, find out what makes them tick, and experience life in a different way.

 

Personally, having little to say on the sexuality aspect of this post (I am more or less straight, my dolls are more or less straight as well. One hasn't really explored sexuality at all, one is a mother.), I'll focus on the other aspects of the "debate".
I definitely think I use my dolls to "explore" other ways my life could have been. I'm quite happy with how my life has turned out so far, but my dolls provide an answer for "what if"s. Dooly is a studious, quiet individual who manages her own life, estranged from controlling parents. The latter fact is something she shares with Etain. Etain comes from a very well-to-do family where she was expected only to grow up, get married, and have a baby. Both rebel from their parents in different ways, and both have freedoms and limitations very different from my own. So I would agree that they are definitely an outlet that allows me to focus more clearly on different possibilities. If a situation comes up in my dolls life, it's more likely to bring my attention to it, whereas without the doll/s character to bring attention to it, I would not have thought of it and wouldn't get to explore the possibilities. I think they function as facilitators for my imagination to explore distinct other realities.

I fully agree, getting inside people's heads is something I have always found fascinating.

 

Well... none of my characters are really this or that as I don't really look at their sexuality. For me it's all about who they love and fall in love with despite of their characteristics. That is an interesting thing to me, as I myself have never really fallen happily in love. I willingly admit that I work through everything I myself am philosophising over or thinking through in my current aspect of life. Dom/sub and love is a great part of that, and so my dolls all have relationships that in some way reflect this. It was never really intentional, but as a writer one finds that the most natural way to make a good and believable character is to take what you yourself have experienced and actually know. I use the same principle with the characters of my dolls.

I also find that two of the same sex is in a strange way much more appealing than two of different sex, though that can be nice too in it's contrast. What with same sex I think we all find a sort of likeness, binding and no threat. With two handsome men together all you have is the dream, the visual pleasantries and none of the jealousy towards the female part (if you are straight of course). I also really like the lack of knowledge regarding male homosexuals, as I will never myself know what this is like. It is all a dream and a fantasy, which is what dolls in reality are to us. They are our perfect realisation. We use hundreds of dollars to make them look exactly like we want, and their relationships will also be what we find intriguing. I find the concept of dom/sub very intriguing and interesting, and safer to explore this way. Whether it is a man or a woman they love is beneath the point, as this doesn't really matter to me and thus never became something I cared about for my dolls.

So in short: Yes dolls are a reflection of ourselves. If we're curious and want to know things about our own sexuality, we will most likely channel that through whatever contact we have with fantasy; aka where it's safe. While others, most probably older collectors, have already worked through a lot of their questions and insecurities, and will look at the sexual/relationship part of the doll as less important *shrugs*.

But relationships, be it in a friendly or romantic nature, DOES add a lot to the character and how they are in their interaction with the &#8220;world&#8221; around them.

 

Slight tangent- One odd thing I've noticed *is* that jealousy relating to the female partner in a heterosexual romantic relationship. If I see a cute straight couple in a book or in a movie, my first move is usually to make fun of the woman- not out of some deep seated sexism, I hope, but just the fact that however fantastically flawed the man is, however sadistic and dark or broken and angsty, the woman has to be perfect unless it's so he can take care of her. Why *shouldn't* I be envious of that? She's perfect and she has a lovely guy to boot, which basically kicks my snark level up to 11. With slash, there's some of that, true, but there doesn't always have to be a 'good' one in the relationship. With yaoi things are slightly more pre-ordained. I like to shake it up a little- flaws are good and if I can get a realistic and compelling female character to go with my realistic and compelling male I'm just as happy to 'ship het.
End tangent.

My doll might be asexual (now that he's actually an impending reality I'm not so sure) but it doesn't mean he's not sensual or romantic. Sensuality and love are pretty much universal and it's only natural that we channel where we see that most through our dolls.