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

this is an interesting question, really. i'll try to summarize my answer, as i really shouldn't even be on here right now! :]

versatality. i like the way i look, but having drastically different looks from time to time is nice.

 

Yes. They are something I can never be. I can talk to them, they are my true friends. I don't think they compensate as much as others here but its better to thalk to them than to a wall.

 

To take it to another level, it may not be so much about the dolls themselves, but about the act of collecting them. The "Collector's Mentality" as I call it, is the accumulation of items as compensation for something the collector feels is lacking within themselves. It could be for anything, for any reason. So it may not be about the dolls themselves, but about owning them. If that makes any sense.

 

Not compensating, no. Every hobby I have has to do with creating. Dolls are another way for me to express my creativity. If you want to get into why I feel the incessant urge to create create create, that would be different, but even then it's nothing so much sordid as it is just plain vain ^_~

However, despite what others might say, I think we all put a little something of ourselves in these dolls/this hobby. For whatever reason you do, you've invested at least a little part of yourself in it. It doesn't mean that they are compensations for something in yourself, but they DO reflect you in some way, even if it's as simple as the way you dress them or the wig color you choose. That in itself alone is a good enough reason to have them and love them, but for others it means more, and thats great too.

Anyway it is, they ARE just dolls, whether we use them to compensate for something or not. It's the way they make you feel that matters

 

I'm compensating for the fact I can't change between genders by changing my clothes xD; (Darn Ilza looks so feminine, he could easily be taken for a girl... doesn't help that I've had him in a dress xD)

And it's also a way to express myself creatively, like Sebastian said. I find that creating a doll that is exactly as I want is almost like a little game, with many MANY players...

Urgh, that sounds a bit sick, doesn't it? xD;

But it's fun to work at something you care about, and to create a friend while working towards this goal.

 

Actually, I do think that they do compensate for something we don't have. A friend and I actually were talking about this subject in real life when we went to the store to buy my doll some eyelashes. XD

I do think they represent something we desire of ourselves but can never have to an extent, or they are a part of our personality that's partially hidden or just pushed to an extreme. Sometimes they are a correction of a bodily flaw, and become a fantasy you. Other times they are a creative outlet where you can make your characters real.

I say this because I've observed some owners and potential owners and noticed their characters/dolls in relation to their own personality. It's pretty cool to see. ^ ^

 

You wouldn't happen to be left-handed? Because that's how I feel. But I've always blamed it on my right-side brain thinking.....

I just HAVE to be doing something (anything) creative... even if it's coloring in a child's coloring book. Some days it's so PAINFUL if I haven't done anything creative.

So for me, collecting dolls is just a way to feed that creativity hunger (it's just one of many ways...) I can sew for them, crochet for them, set up little rooms and houses for them.... and on and on and on....

 

My first doll compensated for my lack of a boyfriend (totally serious too)....Now that I have a REAL boyfriend its a little complicated...XD

My whole family, once completed, will compensate for a life I wish I had...^^;

 

I know my boys are going to be pirates..

and a pirate is teh thing i wish i was. xD

thats compensating right?

i guess cuz i love boy clothes.. if i cant have them.. i can at least get them for my dollies xD

and have kickass amazing hair.. compensating for the fact my hair sucks.

 

No. I mean, do I wish I in shape? Yes. Do I wish I could fit into cute clothes? Yes. Do I wish I had a boyfriend? Definitely. But it's not like my dolls having/doing/being any of those things makes up for MY lack of said things.

That being said, they are a creative outlet for me, definitely.

 

Well, I think for me it is the versatility plus the chance to own something really beautiful. Oh, yes! they also can wear anything I want them to use and I would never have the guts to do so.... I don't think they compensate anything, but they do have the chance to do things I fell too old to be doing (like using pigtails for example... or lolita clothes, being a faerie, a vampire, etc...) Not that i am sufering because of that ( Why would us have halloween and, in my country, carnival and June parties after all? . I just think life is too fun and that is another element of fun in the wild, vast world that is my mind!
See ya!

 

No, I don't think my future dolls are trying to compensate anything.
However, they are projecting a piece of myself though.
I wear cybergothic clothes very often; my first doll will wear cybergothic style.
I also like to wear lolita every now and then; my third doll will wear lolita.

I just project pieces of me into the dolls. They'll wear what I want to wear (and what I do wear).

And about the second doll: it'll be a male to make a cybergothic couple. That might be the only compensation, because he will be the perfect boy for my doll, as I'd like to have a perfect boy for me. But I live in reality and they live my dream.

 

Dolls are perfect-- Something that most people will never be. Having my beautiful dolls to look at and knowing he's with me, no matter what makes me happy. Being able to mold who a doll is, and be an influence on their life matters to me. If it is compensatinng for something, that's okay. I know I'm not perfect, but my doll is.

 

Apart from the fact that they can wear clothes I like but I couldn`t wear myself, no.

 

Yes! Sexy, bishounen-pretty men who wear gothy makeup and have to do and wear anything I tell them to do and wear!

 

I do think my doll compensate for something in my life in a sense.
I like fashion a lot so I tend to wear sophisticated clothes and mostly black and grey. My doll allows me to buy all the pastel/ribbon/cute/very girly stuff I don't buy for myself.
Not that I'd like to be dressed that way, I'm very happy with my own style but there is still a part of me that likes pink and fluffy dresses.
I guess she sort of embodies the princess I wanted to be when I was a little girl (wow that sounds so lame, but hey, little girls...)

Now I think it's a pity to hear people saying "she (the doll) has a better body, she can wear clothes I can't wear" or that sort of things. Nobody should refrain him/herself to do what he/she wants to do for that sort of reason.
Life is too short to live through a doll (even if only speaking of clothes/hair etc..)
'Hope I don't offend anyone, I meant it kindly ^^

 

At one recent point in my life, I was crying myself to sleep
every night for a week, and pretty much had no contact with friends
or family for that period of time. I was sad, depressed, angry, and
even worse, mentaly traumatised.

And all I can think to myself at that moment, was "I wish my boy was
here, so I can hold him" Sure enough, he's on his way, and I feel so much
better already. I guess he's almost like the friend that is there with you
no matter what, ya know?​

 

I was just contemplating something along the same lines...
"why do we want dolls?"
my own answer whold be because they represent a part of me, just like drawers or writters characters reflect them.

So in answer to the original question, yes, i think my dolls compensate for the fact i cant be that creative with myself.

Why else would people spend $50+ on a pair of dollie shoes when they could buy some for themselfs?
we are interesting people

(also i think it has something to do with the fact we can 'design' our own children - sort if a perternal instict)

 

I don't own any BJDs yet, but there is something that I know I plan to do with them that could be considered as compensating for something.

When I get a female BJD I really, really want to dress her in lots of lolita clothes. I absolutely adore the style, but wearing it on a daily basis wouldn't really feel like me. I'm not so sure if I'd call it compensating, but to an extent, that is what it is. Ah, well.

 

I don't think I'm compensating for anything, per se, but I do think that it lets me live vicariously through them in their perfect-ness. But I don't think I'd want to be my dolls...I'm quite happy with the person I am now. In fact, my dolls wouldn't exist if it weren't for me in the first place....

hmmm... *ponder*