Do you believe that some owners mistreat their dolls?

When I hear the words mistreat and abuse I think of a living creature. Dolls aren't alive so I'd say you can't really mistreat or abuse a doll. I was accused of mistreating my doll on youtube because I didn't treat him like a fragile glass knickknack. The person even commented "I'd be scared if my doll fell backwards onto my bed!!" I'm sure that owner would crap themselves if they saw me taking photos yesterday when my boy fell over. Luckily he was fine but it's not abuse. I take my dolls out to take photos and do things. I try my best to keep them undamaged but I'm not going to keep them at home in a hermetically sealed box.

The only thing I can say is that a person is wasting money if they purposely destroy dolls.
Though, what a person does with their doll is their business.

 

Uhm... does the fact that my doll is still just a head that I keep in a box count as me "abusing" it? Or should slap myself on the wrist for being a bad dolly mommy?

Heaven forbid I don't keep him up on my table so everyone can walk in and see the creepy bald plastic head staring at them.

I don't even think one can mistreat a personal possession. A person, yes. An animal, yes. Mistreatment would mean that undue suffering is occuring, and a doll cannot suffer, nor any other inanimate object. You can treat it in a way most would not treat it..but it's yours to treat how you wish.

 

Some people aren't comfortable selling their stuff. If someone's careless with their doll, modifies it until it's not good-looking to them anymore, and decides the best route would be to just throw it out, that's their choice.

Mistreatment of a possession to one can easily be regular handling to another. I'll admit, I've made mistakes with my dolls. I've had them fall a couple of times, and it was my fault because I didn't position them correctly so they weren't stable. I even kept forgetting where my doll was, and kept making her fall off my couch when I tried to adjust my sitting position. Resin makes a loud 'thunk' sound when it hits a wall...

(you = general sense)
I guarantee you that someone is going to read that and think that I'm not being careful; I'm being careless with my doll because, if I was careful, I wouldn't leave it in a place to fall or anything - even though my doll has never sustained any damage. But how many of us have had doll falling stories? Accidents happen.

If you want to buy yourself a BJD even though you know you have not had the best luck with your past possessions, that's your call. Sometimes, people develop entirely different attitudes towards things they've bought themselves instead of gifts and things of that sort. That person who has a semi-banged up iPhone might have an immaculate doll because they know, first-hand, how difficult and time-consuming it was to save for it all on their own.

 

Mmmmmmmm .... custardy sounds delicious!

 

"Abuse" of dolls makes me feel a little bit angry, is like "hey, I'd love to have it and you broke it?", but I think some people would think the same about the way I use my money, they'd like to buy something that I could buy, but I decided to get a doll and not that thing. Anyway, mistreating bjds is cruel for bjd's lovers, that person may just sell it and make money instead of throing away a bjds that another one really wants.

 

I think that if the doll is their's, they can do what they want, do I think people should be more careful with something that costs that much? Yeah but as it has been said there is nothing I can do about it. If they are the ones who paid for it, then they can do what they want to with it.

However I am really picky about how people handle my dolls and I think sometimes people handle their dolls more carefully then other peoples dolls.

 

I do not believe you can abuse an inanimate object. Sure you can "mistreat" it. Just like you can mistreat a suede jacket by throwing it into a really hot wash cycle... The issue comes when people start to place emotional importance on their dolls. Someone who treasures their doll and coddles them would be horrified if someone took said doll and say, sanded down part of the face... This veers into mistreatment. So actually I'm not really answering this question, hah. I'm going to have to say that it really depends on the situation, but I do take offense to the word abuse...

 

TAT When you said "abuse" battering came to mind. I agree with Mousema with the term "mistreat" and how she views the situation. Although some here already debated the meaning of abuse and its correct or incorrect usage in the question, we should also consider the connotations. This is a somewhat sensitive issue after all. Some of us consider dolls as loved ones.

Yes, I do think some owners mistreat their dolls. Some simply ignore it till it yellows away while some actively bash the poor fellows. There are limits to what a doll can take alike any of our other belongings.

It depends on ones point of view as well. Extreme mods will give other owners a scare and call it abusive. The owners themselves might be unattached or love that doll even more.

If your intention is more on preserving the original quality of the doll then I guess many people do mistreat it knowingly or unknowingly.

 

I think that this hobby is not for people who mistreat with their dolls. So many people maybe want the same model and they are not able to have it. It is sad that people are able to do something like this.

 

I suppose it's all to varrying degrees... I think some people do "mistreat" them, in modding them without research or practice. I've seen a few doll restorations where I have to do a double take, and wonder who in their right mind would take something they spent 500 dollars or so on, and turn it into THAT.

(And I don't mean nice mods... I LOVE nice mods... I mean mods where it looks like a dog attacked their doll.)

I feel like if someone wants to do that, but don't know how, they should commission someone who does. That beind said, YES, it is their property to do what they want with... It just seems foolish to me for them to throw money out a window.


I don't take suuuper good care of my dolls... I mean, at first I put them in their boxes when I wasn't playing with them, but now they sit on my shelf. The blinds are always closed in my room, and they're in a corner, so I don't THINK they get too much sun... I'm not too scared of gradual yellowing, but eeehh. Florian has taken some nasty falls, but, it's like... I generally don't worry about my boys bodies. Just their heads. Anything I can do to protect their heads.

But overall... They're still dolls. I love my boys, I'd have a cow if anything happened to them, heck, I'd break down in tears if anything happened to Jezabel...

But I don't see the need to treat your dolls like glass, as long as you're not actively destroying them.

 

Honestly I think I've seen a lot of bad face-up's and mods and stains that could be considered mistreating that 200 or something hunk of resin but what really gets my goat?

When people buy a limited edition doll from like Volks or something brand spankin' new sometimes and modify it until it's not even recognizable...I won't say names but I've seen people on Youtube brag how they bought a Rozen Maiden Volks in the lottery and made it: "So much better by turning it into my OC!" And made me cringe so much I had to resist the urge to ask them: "Why didn't you buy a different doll then if you were just gonna mod it and do a bad job of it at that?"

But that'd be rude.....So I kept my mouth shut.


And yes I've dropped my dolls, one of which has a painted anime face up and I freaked out and almost cried when he did a face plant off my shelf. But he was undamaged so I wasn't too worried....But I'm still careful.

People who are careless with their own things will also occasionally be careless to things other people own. (IE: People I know....My hellion cousins, threw their cat at each other.....Yeah I'm not making that up either.....Friends....Ex-friends...Even an aunt)

But is it abuse? Not unless it's your property and that person has no respect for you then it's abusing your relationship with that person. A doll can always be repaired in some way or another.

 

Well, I guess you can only abuse what is alive, but it is such a waste to treat your expensive possessions badly, I know one who have dirt all over her dolls and one have even broken fingers and still she actually think that they are alive! Since she DOES think that, how can she just accept the fact that they are broken and ugly...I don't see my dolls as a living thing but I still freak out if the slightest thing happen just cause it was expensive, the same with my car, my computer, my lolita clothings etc

 

well i yes people can mistreat dolls. on youtube their was a girl talking about her new doll and said she wanted to super glue her wig on and she might not have known why you shouldnt do that but she should have researched about bjd's before getting one. i think this falls under the category of mistreating a doll bc it could damage it. the word dolly abuse should be used if someone is throwing their doll around. otherwise mistreating a doll can happen all the time if an owner isnt fully educated on how to take care of a doll

 

I have seen people slam their dolls down on a table in an effort to get them to "sit properly", when I sat my doll next to theirs they talked about throwing my doll across the room (which I promptly took my doll back into my possession). I don't care for people who don't know how to love their dolls properly. (I understand the term "abuse" was meant for mistreatment as these aren't living beings so I will be referring to the mistreatment of this expensive hobby) I'm more inclined to decline a request if said owners were to ask to hold my boys. I wouldn't want them slamming my $900 dollar doll on the table because they were to lazy to have him sit on their hands first. (especially since he's no longer in production now due to the tan resin)
People like that bother me but only to an extent where there will be trust issues. I won't be letting them touch my dolls.

 

I'm the type of person who keeps my dolls in darkness and handles them with white gloves; so I slightly cringe when I see someone touch their dolls' faces with their bare hands or things of the sort. I guess everyone has their own perception of what they consider "abuse/mistreatment" to be.

But it really upsets me when I hear of people damaging their dolls out of carelessness. Since the dolls are made in human-image they look like little people to me, so the thought of somebody abusing them makes me uneasy.

 

This has got to be one of the most interesting questions I have ever read on this forum. With that said; just the word "abuse", to me, is strictly in relation to human beings and animals only. I understand the term "mistreatment" or "carelessness" for objects to some degree.

However, to me, ABJD's are art. I have the utmost respect to the artist who created the sculpt, the company that made that special doll, and/or the customizer who did the face up. I cannot even conceive of mistreating anything that has a special meaning and value to me. I would not do it to my paintings, or Japanese vases or kimonos or anything that I collect. I have a black thumb for plants so I only have two of those and they are succulents.

I mean as a liberalist I don't believe in getting in other people's business about anything they do to their dolls. I am not going to judge them about it; that is their own choice.

I guess this treatment of dolls applies to some; but, it is their doll so they should be able to feel free to do what they want with it. I just don't understand why.

 

I'm sure there are some people that may be wealthy enough to buy a doll and not really care about it or how much money they spent on it so they may neglect it and treat it as just another toy. Personally, I don't understand how someone could do that, but people do crazy things.

 

While I believe that not taking at least some kind of precaution(s) to protect something as expensive, and in some cases, irreplaceable, as a BJD is foolish, I must argue that, as the name says, they are dolls. Dolls are not sentient, and therefor are incapable of emotions, feelings, nor pain, and therefor cannot be "abused" in the conventional sense of the word.

As for mistreatment, I would definitely say that some people mistreat their dolls, though, more often, these incidents arise due to carelessness or because of a lack of knowledge/experience. The same thing goes as above, though: the doll is a possession, which can and will be handled in whatever way the owner allows.

 

Reading most of these doesn't really show how i feel since this is a debate though ill just put my 2 cents in this.

i DO think you can abuse a doll on how you mean to mistreat it i mean to torment something or using it in a way that i really would feel awkward mentioning on here. I think treating anything with a hateful manner is abuse, if its carelessness i really dont think its abuse. I understand its there possession but i still dont think they should treated that way. But just stating i do think there is a form of abuse to dolls or any object or towards a living thing.

 

At the end of the day, they have spent their own money on it. They have all the right in he world to whatever they wish with their own doll. Sure, some stuff will make us cringe and hug our own dolls in sympathy for the poor thing, but so long as it belongs to them- let them get on with and pray they don't treat other peoples in the same way.
Also what some people may consider abuse- others would not, so for some circumstances it's a matter of perspective.