Does your doll "smoke"? Why?

Very well put if I may say so..

 

Deleted as I can;t seem to express as I would like.

 

I don't smoke so none of my will either, but I can understand if people have their characters/dolls smoke. Its doll ownership prefference. And even if smoking risks are known, smoking is seen in American TV as well as Japanese anime. I also worked at a store where we sold cigarettes and it was sad to see the number of just 18 year olds buying cigarette. The risks are known, but people still smoke and unfortunaly it's still a big enough part of culture that if the dolls smoke it won't make much of a difference.

 

I don't smoke, never will, but my doll does, it's her character.
Like it or not, and despite however horrified you may be by it, smoking, especially used in a controlled intentional way (like all film), still has a very specific and powerful connotation for a character.
It was used in film not just because it was popular but because it said something about that character, and it clued you in to their personality, their attitude and their style.
The fact that we're now more aware of just how deadly it is hasn't changed this, in fact it's made it a more powerful tool in some ways as we're well aware of the impact it has, and that characters attitude towards that impact.

I'm sorry, but just because something is bad for you, doesn't make it uncool.

 

I don't smoke, never was tempted either. i have my reasons but my main one is it's disgusting (personally for me) and it's a waste of money, i don't need it to live. those are my opinions though. it depends on the person.

my dolls don't smoke, i doubt they'll even hold a bottle of alcohol either (i'll admit i have drunk some alcohol) but smoking or any drugs it's a no.

Edit: I still don't smoke, but a few of my dolls are written as smokers. Alcohol is also included in some of my characters backgrounds.

 

I don't smoke- I'm barely a teenager- and I never want to. I'm not comfortable putting my life on the line like that. But many, MANY of my characters do- it's kind of an oral fixation thing, like people have said, and for those who it isn't a historical attribute, it's definitely for the 'screen' factor- it looks better on paper than it does in real life, and I like to have a character with a driving craving. Plus, it is kind of sexy, inexplicably. For characters I'm writing for, I try to at least display the trait as less than glamorous- it may look that way, but once you're anything other than young and cute it's less attractive. My characters who smoke heavily are even less so- it's a lot like heavy drinking ought to be portrayed. While it may be fun or sexy it has some negative consequences, some of which can be quite severe.

Dolls smoking in anything other than character pics is... well, they don't breathe. How do they smoke? It's an accessory, nothing more. However, many people in my family have died of complications related to smoking habits- many of them who had served in one or both of the World Wars, where it was incredibly common for soldiers and even nurses- so seeing people start smoking young with wanton abandon makes me rather alarmed.

 

I understand your feelings, though mine aren't as strong. Gallery shots with dolls smoking don't bother me nearly as much as company depictions of their models doing it. I admit that the glamorization of an awful, enslaving habit does disgust me a bit. It's just plain sad to me--people think it's 'cool' and conveys a certain image, they try it out--and then some of them are stuck with an addiction they struggle with for decades, if my coworkers are any indication.

My dolls won't smoke because they're from my fantasy world where such hasn't been invented, but I can't say I have a problem with someone else having a smoking doll, assuming they give the issue some thought.

 

I would never have Jasper smoke....smoke irl is dumb, and it just looks stupid if a doll is...

 

Bella's too young to smoke.
And plus, my father is a compulsive smoker, it stinks, it kills you, and it's gross. Why would I want my doll to portray something stinky and killy?

 

I'm very allergic/sensitive to cigarette smoke, and cigar smoke for that matter, to the point of if someone blows smoke towards me I'll keel over choking on the ground. Because I'm so sensitive I just can't create a character that would smoke, and seeing characters smoking is very off-putting to me. Those couple of dolls that the companies display as smokers? I can't remember what the doll looked like, the fact it had a cigarette dominated.

On the other hand, I'm not one to start pushing my feelings on this onto other people except where it directly touches my life. So don't even consider lighting up in my territory, but if you want your doll to smoke I don't care, I just won't look at the pictures.

 

My Hound and Dim JD smoke occasionally especially when they have a beer in the hand....I used to smoke {and still do very rarely only when stress is too much for me} grew up with both parents smoking like chimneys.....to me its just another prop...

 

I'm with thotep on all points. I'm very allergic to tobacco smoke (I also know someone so allergic the EMTs had to be called when a guy with smoke in his clothes deliberately brushed past her when she asked him to leave the room :evil), and I hate hate hate the stuff, so I won't have my dolls do it, but I really don't care if others do. Talking about the image of smoking/smokers is interesting, though. My crazy grandmother smoked for years until she couldn't afford it any longer (though I think my father forbade her to smoke around me), and so to me smoking doesn't connote sophistication, mystery, glamour or sexiness, but filth, stink, poverty, sickness, and, in the end, an ugly death via congestive heart failure. Call it a lack of imagination if you like.

Now that I've read this thread and thought about my feelings on smoking, I actually feel a little sick, like I've been breathing the crud . I think I should take my break outside today...if I can find a door that smokers haven't been huddling around. One question, though: why is it that smokers seem unable to dispose of their butts properly, instead of tossing them on the ground or out their car windows? Is that part of the cool as well, covering the city with garbage?

 

Well of course!! Imagine a cool guy running around for a litter. That would be sooo uncool, right? Or imagine a cool car, a cool man stops and takes out his car-butts? How can you even think of that? And standing next to bins smoking isn't very cool, too. Especially in cold rain Trying to imagine it, I can't stop laughing...

Me, I don't smoke... My parents do, my parents-in-law do... I like the smell of cigarettes that haven't been smoked yet.

And my dolls won't smoke because the characters don't fit... well, one could. I don't know if she would...

Laoky (doesn't like smoke of every kind when airing)

 

You have a point, messire or madame, a very palpable point

 

I don't really have a problem with people who sue smoking as a prop with some dolls, fiction does not equal reality and i would assume people once they get old enough have the ability to understand that and can find smoking cool or attractive in fiction but not in reality. I mean if you have dolls that portray gangsters or criminals or rebels that don't care about there health , there not exactly going to be sucking on lollipops now are they O_O;

Personally though in real life and fiction smoking is a huge turn off for me. I don't really care about people smoking in real life I'm not your mom so do whatever you want with your body, I don't care. but I hate seeing characters in fiction that I like smoking just because its so disgusting to me <<;; Seeing a character smoke to me is like seeing a bloody pussy pimple explode or something. I just hate looking at some one smoking. Though I can understand why its a turn on or a fetish or people just find it sexy I don't have a problem with that. thats why probably none of my dolls will smoke. It just squicks me to much to picture them doing that ^^;

 

I am deathly allergic to smoke of pretty much any kind. My throat closes up and everything. I can't stand the smell and it gets me very sick.

However, Gabriel smokes. He doesn't smoke because it is cool or that he thinks Cris will see him as sexy. (The opposite, Cris is very sensitive to it and gets ill when Gaby does smoke so he makes sure and never smokes around Cris.) Gabriel smokes because his father did, because everyone he has ever grown up with did and when he smokes it calms his nerves about everything he does in his life.

He is a character, that means, he does what he wants, not what I want him to do. He has his own wants and needs and desires and they are different then mine because he is his own person. He doesn't care what people think of him if he smokes because that is about what his needs are and he doesn't judge what other people do to fill theirs.

 

OK, I don't have a doll yet, so I have to speak strictly in terms of characters here, that will one day be dolls.

Currently, even with characters in setting where smoking is possible (there are a few that are fantasy based in worlds were the smokeability of tobacco has not yet been discovered) I don't really have any that DO smoke. Though I'm sure that at some point I will. Really, it's more about character than IRL preference.

I do NOT smoke, never wanted to, never will. Smoke sets off my asthma which sucks royally, it's dangerous, and just a filthy habit. My mother has smoked my whole life. My dad did when I was REALLY little. I vaguely remember it. His best friend still smokes. I grew up with both people who DO smoke, and people who adamantly hate it. I do not find it attractive, in fact, it's a total turn off. But that won't stop me from creating a character who smokes if it's in their personality to do so. The reason? It's part of their character, adding more realism to an otherwise fictional character and story. It's like having a character who drinks to excess. I occasionally drink (like, one drink in any given 4 month period) or a character who is a rapist or a murderer. Or even a child molester. It's a fictional character in a fictional story, who needs to have a personality and traits that are believable and enhance the realism of the character. This doesn't mean that I think people should do these things IRL. I rather whole heartedly believe they shouldn't. But a fictional character from a fictional story needs to be more realistic, even in a despicable way, in order to draw others into the story, to make the story come alive. Those characters, for me, that I create, either for a story, a role play, a comic, a novel are what my dolls will become. And so my dolls will have the same habits, the same personalities and vices as the characters have.

Now, that also does NOT mean that I'd do photo shoots portraying everything the character would do. Like I wouldn't do a photo shoot of a doll that hurts children hurting a child doll. I may be willing to write such scenes to a point for a story, a novel, and I'll write a little farther than I'll photograph, but I still would not show the actual act itself. Would I do a photo shoot with a doll smoking or drinking? Yeah. Again, because it's part of the character. With things like character bad habits, you DO need to know where to draw the line in what others see in photos. But with the relatively little things like smoking, drinking, or even doing drugs there's a back button for a reason in any online gallery. I'd rather see images of someone's doll smoking than of that doll committing rape, or a crime against a child doll. I know that those things aren't allowed HERE, but there ARE places that one could post such things, and when I am in those places I use the back button when needed and remember that so long as it's part of a fictional character it's no reason to judge the creator of that character.

Would you judge the writers of shows like Law and Order SVU because their stories require rape and murder of adults and children? Would you judge the writer of a short story because the main character (though a villain) rapes and murders children before meeting his end? (no details given, I might add) or would you realize that it's a fictional story with fictional characters? Why should dolls and doll owners be seen any differently. Especially over the little things like smoking?

 

First off can I just say WOW!!! at the - dare I say it - almost hatred that's rolling off of a couple of the posts here. It truly amazes me that in the real world if it was almost anything else but smoking that this type attitude would be lambasted as discriminatory. That said...

I have several dolls who smoke, for various reasons, as part of their personality. It is who they are. As has been said many, many times, they are resin and don't suffer the consequences of their various bad habits. Or their good ones for that matter.

Just remember there is such a thing as carrying political correctness to an absurd state.

Morgan

 

It's just a character trait. Some play guitar, some wears heels, some smoke. It's not promoting smoking so much as showing an additude. I mean, dolls can't really smoke so what does it matter? It can't damage anyone's health...They're dolls...

 

So maybe we should start putting warning notes in our gallery/photo story threads so that people who find it off-putting to see dolls with cigarettes/smoking would know which threads to avoid.

Example of a title of a photo story with a doll or dolls smoking a cigarette/smoking from a tobacco pipe:

"A summer afternoon in Kyoto (Warning: Doll with tobacco pipe)"

And so people who don't like to see doll characters smoking tobacco or a cigarette would be forewarned.