Do you feel that ABJD's compensate for something you don't have IRL?

Yes, dolls compensae for what I don't have, but it's not friends or love or something.
It's simple: A model who will pose and sit still for me while I draw and paint for hours.
How blessedly patient dolls are. I'm eternally grateful ;_;

 

My doll let's me create characters from my immagination. But only to a point.

 

I love my daughter's doll. She wears anything I ask her to (even if I made it), and she doesn't mind me taking a million pictures of her. I don't think she represents anything I wish I had, though, because she is a young girl, and I am not. I was once, and I did that, but I'm someone else now, and that's good.

But I do believe that we are all hurting in one place or another, and that, through the imagination, we can find relief. We can find it also through simple acts of kindness, like the kindness of people on this List, who respond to one another's fantasies with accepting interest. So, no, for me, the doll in my life doesn't represent something I need to compensate for. She does represent a conduit that I have discovered for connection with other people (something that doesn't come easily to me). So, for that, I must thank her.

 

I just think the dolls are cool and it keeps me busy. I wish I looked like some of my dolls and could wear the clothes and wigs they had.
Stella

 

Dolls strike me as amazing creative vehicles and is one of the reasons I am so drawn to them. They are muses for my art, writing and are even starting to have me attempt (doll) clothing making. *eeps*

Since I only own a boy and am currently saving up for and have a wishlist filled with boy dolls... I'm not sure I would say that they compensate for something missing in RL. I don't have any gender issues or any scarring issues with the opposite sex. Sure, they have no choice but to actually "listen" to me if I'm b*tching and are not likely to ever sorely disappoint me... But if I surrounded myself with agreeable yes-people, I'd claw my eyes out from sheer annoyance and boredom. ^^

So I would have to say no, dolls don't compensate or act as a replacement for anything in RL for me. As someone already mentioned, they're more of a conduit, a focus for my creative energies and mental restlessness - as well as something that I just generally admire aesthetically.

 

For me, it adds a fresh dimension to my creativity. Being a busy working mom can really take it's toll - dolls provide a welcome escape.

 

For me partly i guess they replace the feelings of loss for my once young children, sadly now grown adults, but they also draw out my creative side, i create homes, i design, paint and even make some of the furniture and fixtures for their home, a talent i did\'nt know i had till i started collecting smaller dolls! And more recently have started to sew, not brilliantly well, but i am trying, so the answer to your question is yes!.

 

The help inspire imagination, but other then that I simply like them. They are beautiful and make me happy.

 

*Sigh* I guess, in all honesty I too use them as a crutch to something. Not a body that I don't have, well, unless that's fat, since my boy is fat. ^0^ But for male interaction. I like men very much, but I have had nothing in my life that has proved them to be worth a fragment of my time. My mother has just recently filed for divorce with a man I have hated for the past twelve years of my twenty year old life and my ex-fiancé was to say the least socially inept.

Rape, lying, abuse, screaming, hate, and spite. It just makes me hate them more and more. I see all sorts of men all around and see nothing but flaws or a time that I'm starting to believe never existed. When I see couples that are in 'love' and are married to the same person for all their life they don't seem to really love with one another at all. All they seem to be is just too afraid/desperate to leave one another and have tolerated one another for all their life. That's not love.

I guess, being able to Rp and play with my dolls in bittersweet and painful love-hate brings me some closure that there really is something out there still called love. That it isn't that 'Smile honey, junior's watching' thing. I don't want to put on a fake face for the sake of having someone in my life, it should only come natural. So, in a way, they are something to me, they’re my rose colored glasses while I'm trying to look on the bright side and finding nothing. I can't say I'm not happy though, I have family, friends, a girlfriend, a great boss, baby siblings I would give the world to, just once in a while you think of it.

 

My dolls compensate for my lack of a decent wardrobe. They get to wear clothes that either I could never look good in or that I would never have anywhere to WEAR. The dolls also way more patient than my dogs, cats or daughter. Everyone else runs away when I get my camera out.

 

My dolls compensate for what I deem as a lack of attractiveness. Even though mine are the little dolls (25cm), they do look better than me in more ways than one. I got my two from a series (not limited edition), and even when I want deny it, I pick the one I want based on the outfit & hair color, since the right outfit to me would be something I'd never be able to either fit in, or wear at all. Whatever's most revealing. I guess it's kind of like living through your dolls.

 

Yes to some extend. I love pure white and silvery-grey hair on youth (um before the wrincles). But you generally don't see that in real life except for cosplay. With dolls, i can custimize them with this feature in whatever way i want.

 

I can't ignore the fact I got 'into' dolls very shortly after my dad died - very suddenly from a heart attack. I have no idea how they might start to fill the void his passing left, but there you are ::shrugs:: Although...my Pipos Baha is kinda built like Dad was - barrel-chested, with a tummy and very short legs. I first learned to sew on a machine helping Mom hem his jeans ;D You could prolly slipcover Massachusetts with the total yardage of denim we hacked off all those pairs of boot-cut Lee's...

I think he'd be pleased with my pursuit, though, and I think of him often when I am working on my customizations and sewing, especially when I use tools that he gave me. I sometimes find myself pondering a technical question and thinking 'oh, I should ask Dad about that when we talk next' - but I can't. Not ever.

Don't take people for granted, because in a blink of an eye - they can be gone forever.

 

i totally agree with this. for me, a huge part of having dolls is making clothes for them, and i do tend to dress them in styles that i would wear myself if it wouldn't look crazy or unflattering on me

also i tend to neglect the dolly sewing more when i'm on a kick of making clothes for myself, and vice versa.

 

Yes to a degree. I was never allowed to play with dolls as a child, because I am male and studied in a military/catholic school. So playing with dolls was taboo to me. In that regard, yes, playing and owning dolls make up for something that was taken away from me in childhood. On the other hand, they don't compensate for anything, they add to my life in an incredible way. I enjoy being around them and I treasure each one of them.

 

Alot of doll owners have specific personalities for there dolls. Does anyone feel that it's the personalities and stories of their dolls that they use for compensation rather than the appearance?

As for me, I'm not sure. I use my doll has a hobby, a way to design outfits and hair and make-up. But their are times when I'm thinking of my doll more as a person. It's fun either way. I'm a film student so coming up with characters and personalities and stories is natural for me. It's a little bit magical to think of them as living, and its liberating to allow yourself to fantasize a bit.

 

For me is yes and no.

I love beautiful things. I like to surround myself with pretty things. That's one part. But in reality I think it's a way to add some unreal, fantastic things which you don't find in the real world THAT often It's also a way to make my original character come to life... I can sew clothes for her, adventure with her... it's something that will make me feel really satisfied. But who knows how things will turn, Leira is still far from being home

 

I think they make up for me not having a perfectly gorgeous body and able to wear such fantastic outfits with my own personal tailor (oh and wake up every morning with immaculate hair and makeup heheh)

 

I think in many ways dolls can be like books why do we read books some people enjoy the stories, others enjoy being taken away to another world or becoming another person for a time .That said there are also many ways in which the original question can be interpreted.
Personally I never intended for my dolls to have any deeper meaning then looking pretty and being fun to make clothes for and take pics of but after having them for awhile now I have noticed that they have developed characters of their own .I am not insane or anything but they have almost become a physical embodiment of characters,traits or people I want in my own life .Why is it considered normal to idolize and like a movie character or a character out of a book yet it's strange if you create your own character for a doll some one had to create the character for the actor to portray I do the same things for my dolls

 

I got into BJD shortly after my father died of a sudden illness too. They don't really fill any sort of void, but I'd been interested in the hobby for a while, and finally getting one was a way to make myself happy when being happy seemed really difficult.

I often think about what my dad would say about my hobby too. But I can imagine. I'm sure he would be impressed to see me tinkering away with tools and painting face-ups and arty things like that.