Doll Owner Stereotypes?

Funny you should mention this...my teenage son thinks that I should keep my dolls home so I won't be mistaken for a certain 'type' in public. Hmmm... He said that type was Goths. Whatever. I'm not sure I've seen many 'Goths' carying around BJDs, really...and if so, I really don't care. I have always been an artsy-type with a style all my own and my own identity well in place, so if there is a stereotype, it won't matter much to me anyway.
I love what I love and express my feelings in many ways: painting, drawing, writing, sewing (although not for BJDs at the moment), and how I dress from day to day. What I choose to collect and appreciate are very personal ~ but love coming to a forum where I can find a great assortment of people from all walks of life who happen to love one aspect of my interests.
If there IS a stereotype, I'm curious to what it is, too.

 

This is so true! For me at least it is. I may be perceived as the typical otaku on the internet to no surprise. I have an anime character as my picture here for crying out loud!
But to the people around me in everyday life I am seen as simply the artsy and spiritual type of guy who studies the Mayan Calendar and takes long walks in the woods.
Many people who meet me and sees my dolls ask if I have made them myself. They do not assume that I am a japanophile who call all and everything kawaii. And I don't either.
So I get put into different stereotype categories depending on where I am or whom I talk to.

A few have already mentioned it or touched upon the subject but I want to share my view on it.
I do not believe it is human nature to put people into stereotypes. It is something we are taught and brainwashed into doing from the moment we are born. We do not do this automatically but we are taught to do it.

As it is now most people are viewing the world dominated by their left side of the brain. Nitpicking and breaking things apart trying to make sense out of them incapable of seeing the whole. If we learn to use our right side equally, balance will be restored. Balance between left and right, male and female, Yin and Yang. If we do that there will be no need to try to squeeze people into square boxes.

What I find humorous is how many people who collects dolls look down upon people who watches anime thinking they are childish.
We are all playing with dolls here guys... we are all childish to some extent. Some anime are indeed made for children but a vast amount is aimed toward 18+ viewers (and all of it is not porn ^^').

And even if we are childish, so what? To me childish equals sane. The most boring and unhappy people I have met are the ones still pretending to play adults instead of just enjoying themselves.

 

Interesting read. I guess there are stereotypes even within this part of the doll collecting hobby. For example someone new to the hobby introduces themselves and tells about their first doll: a Dollzone. Then you have people think "Oh, it's one of those people." Then you have the stereotypes of Volks elitists, cheap Chinese doll collectors, hoarders (30+ dolls in their collections), recyclers (keeps selling just arrived dolls to buy the latest, hottest new doll), etc. Most of those stereotypes aren't exactly positive.

Where do the stereotypes come from? My guess is from a "desire" to quickly group people. Stick a label to them and then you don't have to spend time on figuring them out. It's kind of lazy and a way to create an "us" and "them" feeling.
Once you get to know people better and take time to get to know them better, you'll see that one label is never enough to define a person. The Volks elitist may have non-Volks dolls, the cheap Chinese doll collector has a $200 custom made outfit for her doll, and the recycler has had several dolls for years and does not plan to sell them.

I don't really fit the general doll collecting old lady stereotype (I'm not even 30), but with a few manga volumes in my house I guess you could slap the "anime crazy" stereotype on me if you have to.

 

That's an interesting question in its own right - Which within-the-doll-world stereotype do you fit into? I know I prefer the Korean style of sculpting (Being a bit of a Koreaphile), and thus I've got two Korean dolls, but the two Chinese dolls I've bought (BBB Sprite and AoD Gu) are ones which originally caught my eye at a meet, before I knew where they were from or how much they cost.

I suppose that makes my pigeonholes "Cheap Chinese doll collector", "Sentimental" and "Said she'd only ever want one, but ended up with a bit of a crowd."

 

Tee hee, this has been an education for me as I'm practically a hermit, know no other doll collectors in real life and think the whole anime-japanomania thing has largely passed North Wales by, much of the UK even. I didn't know what the stereo-types were! I think I already fit too many stereotypes, artsy eccentric single old bag lady with too many cats and now we find out she collects Asian doll too!!???!!

 

Well I do play video games and enjoy anime and manga but those didn't influence me to get into BJDs. I am part of a toy collecting blog called Tomopop and the editor in chief Colette would post photo galleries of various BJDs and I always thought they were so beautiful. So I joined DairylandBJD and here to learn more of them and then I finally have two of my own and really enjoy them. I do collect other things like PVC figures and just dolls in general oh and swords.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.

There are so many aspects to the hobby that this is difficult to answer..but in my case, because I own a dollfie dream..a stereotype might be that doll owners are also anime and manga lovers. Perhaps I think that because dollfie dream usually look very much like anime characters and volks releases anime style characters alot, how ever I don't think this can be the only doll owner stereotype. I just can't think of other stereotypes because I don't own other types of dolls.


2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?

I fit the stereotype that I talked about above. I really love anime, and all japanese culture really. Its so intruiging.


3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?

Stereotypes probably came from majority buyers. People who buy dollfie dream: automatically are "otaku" or at least anime-obsessed. People with realistic BJD may be put in a stereotype like, perhaps, not liking to live in the real world and escape through their dolls. (please, no one take offence to that.. I just made it up off the top of my head as an example. >.<)

 

It seems like a lot of the people who own BJDs are drawn in by, or even obsessed with, Japanese/Asian culture. Not all of them, but a good chunk. I had kind of always known that in the back of my mind, but it came painfully apparent in a recent scuffle that took place in a swap I had been in. Apparently, out of the small number of people in the actual swap, a good number of them interpreted "steampunk" in an Asian fashion. This came as sort of a shock to me, who's never really understood the pull of Asian culture. I had always seen steampunk as a distinct, un-Asian style. But upon further reflection, I guess I shouldn't really have been all that surprised.
There are a lot of doll owners that are really into Asia, and specifically Japan.

I deliberately try (and try very hard!) to avoid that "anime" stereotype (is it called otaku?), to the point of being almost belligerent and violent about it. My only interactions with anime and manga have been strictly through art (I studied manga-styled art to help me learn to draw humans, but I'm in the process of purging it from my system), and I've had friends that were obsessed with anime and manga. As a "middle woman," I've seen how most other people react toward them. It's usually in a very condensing way.

Perhaps this is an area that I personally need to grow up in, but I don't want to be associated with that stereotype at all, which is why I take care to style my dolls in a distinctly un-Asian way, and don't dress them in kimonos or anything remotely asian (though I really do like the look of those simple Chinese dresses, and may end up getting one for one of my girls in the future).

When people in real life ask me about my dolls, I tell them that I'm a "doll collector," and that "I collect these customizable dolls from Asian countries such as Korea and China." I find that by telling someone that I'm a doll collector, they don't associate me with the anime-obsessed. It's also easier for them to wrap their minds around the price of the dolls when they look at them as collectibles rather than big action figures.

 

I can associate well with this...
I watch anime and collect manga... but i also watch cartoons and collect comics. I appreciate Lolita fashion for it's aestetics. I also like goth and the distinctly not from japan Steampunk.

It's part of my art. I've been studying animation and character design since I was eight years old. I watch varied forms of animation and comics because I love character design, it's my perticular artistic speciality. A lot of anime and manga has interesting and occasionally challanging character formats. I appreciate that. It's a clear indication of the difference in cultural thinking, and it facinates me.

But that's where it ends. I like the conceptuality, i like it with equal portions to its Western counterparts.

I don't fangirl anything. Squeeing fanatics who doodle chibies of the Naruto cast over everything and gush on and on about their OMGfavourite totally hot character set my teeth on edge. I boycotted cons outside of business (I run a BJD dealership) because otaku annoy me to the point of wanting to hit them. Japan is an interesting place and all, and I'd like to go there one day, but hell, i also want to go to Ireland.

I get irritable being stamped with the Japanophile or Otaku stamp for my dolls (or my manga and anime collections. They don't seem to see that it's rivalled by equal amounts comics and cartoons...) and as said by Lurawolf, I introduce my dolls as a highly expensive hobby collection, another outlet for character design- to deliberately avoid the dreaded "are they anime dolls?" thing.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
Yes, stereotyping is what people always do. Blond people are dumb, people with glasses are nerdy, fat people are lazy and so on, thus its understandable that bjd collectors are stereotyped too. Many have pointed out that bjd collectors are nerdy, fat, lonely, collect manga, watch anime and love everything Japanese or are Volks elitis, collect cheap Chinese dolls, are involved in herding - whether the collectors really are like that is another question.

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
Nope, not at all. And why? Because I'm too old, not interested in manga/anime, not fat nor nerdy... I'm a slim professional and my friends say that I'm a fashionista (with an extensive wardrobe and lots of frivolous shoes), I do a lot of sports, collect model horses and read a lot (my favourite reading are the Marcus Didius Falco novels).

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
Yes, I do believe there are a few “sterotype” that bjd-hobbyists are in general put into.
I actually came across a blog of some sort while looking for figure/anime forums a while back
(I collect anime/game figures). It doesn’t say that everyone and their sisters in the hobby are
like that, but it does mentioned that the “majority” of bjd-people are a certain way.

Here's the exact quote: "Not that all dolfie owners are terrifying. But the majority of people
I’ve seen with them are fat yaoi fan girls who carry their dolls around with them and talk to their dolls.
You see them a lot at Conventions, and if you haven’t trust me they are scary…" – ????


2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
First I was born to a vegan couple; I am vegan myself (but still love toys of all sorts),
at the same time I am an artist and Catholic! So I don't fit most stereotypes whether
there are any linked to the stuff I'm into, or not. So, I don’t think I fit into that particular
stereotype, I am not fat, actually been told by many people that I am painfully-thin.
I am not into nor do I get Yaoi and I certainly wouldn't carry a doll around in public even
if I was paid to do so. I always try not to be rude, but I guess my appearance could be
seen as "scary," so maybe that part I do fit in to. XD

3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?
I don't know, I guess people who go a lot to conventions tend to look/behave a certain way,
so most people assume all people within a certain hobby must be that way as well (which seems
pretty narrow-minded, but that's life for you!).


- Enzyme

 

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help but laugh at your comparison, because I have a friend who just spent four months making a 20-foot canoe from scratch by hand (he wants to be a dentist), which seems ridiculous to me but most people consider more normal than me knitting outfits for my BJD. If I make a (human-sized) sweater, people tell me that it's a stupid and frivolous hobby, but when I explain that I poured $150 and six months into making the thing and it would probably be worth a couple hundred dollars if it were in a boutique, they quiet up and then either comment that I am wasteful (they don't take in consideration how much money they spend on DVDs/month for the same amount of entertainment or less) or silly. Personally I think that being a little ridiculous just adds to the charm of things, and the same would apply to my friend's hand-made 20-foot canoe and some of the gorgeous face-ups floating around DOA. This any other art really is how much time and care goes into it, rather than the amount of money invested in the supplies overall. I think that people probably are more shocked if you say "and I like painting dollies" because they don't realize how much time and skill actually goes into painting them. If every time someone showed off their doll they mentioned that it took them three weeks to get the eyebrows looking such and such way, then people might have less of a knee-jerk reaction once they see the price-tags on these things. I have a few friends into BJDs, which is how I got into the hobby, but at first I was put off because most of their time talking about them was spent worrying over the price tag, rather than saying what they wanted to do with them or why they liked them, and until I saw some in real life it was hard for me to understand that.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
Well any hobby will have their stereotypes, so it's no different from any other hobby. It can be associated with anime or just some creepy hobby. It's...whatever...

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
Meh, not really. I do like anime and video games, though now I'm getting more in touch with the business side of it rather than the fan side. I didn't really associate them together when I first got my boy, I just happen to find bjds very pretty. That's pretty much it.

3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?
Again, like any other hobby, there's gonna be a huge chunk of people that represent it in a way that may lead people to misinterpret the hobby or get interested in it.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.

I think there are stereotypes that people outside the hobby group BJD collectors in - most notably the obnoxious anime fan, or quiet lecherous person with no friends - as well as stereotypes within the hobby that hobbyists apply to each other - the elitist, those with persecution complexes, dollnoobs that take sharpie to their dolls' faces. I believe people are holed away in stereotypes in all social circles.

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?

I don't believe that I do but that's because I know myself to be multi-faceted; other people may think I fit into one or more. I believe this because people are prone to categorise each other from first impressions. From a stranger's point of view I'd probably fit into some kind of gothic-creepy-girl-with-dolls stereotype, at least in person. Online I think I'd be stereotyped differently, but I'm not sure how.

3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?

I believe it's human nature for people to judge and categorise people into stereotypes. I don't think it's always necessarily involved with unfair prejudice (however prejudice may in fact come in to play) but more to do with how the human creature assesses their environment and fellow humans for threats. I feel that society has warped the basic instinct of assessing each other to involve prejudice - instead of simply assessing someone on terms of threat or friendliness, we now put them into other man-made categories which can hold social stigma.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
Yes, definitely.....because years ago I put them there too. It's hard not to do that when the BJD hobby is presented to you in a freaky enviroment such as anime conventions (sorry for those that do enjoy anime conventions...I don't anymore). So it's easy to make the association.
If you are not put in the stereotype of an anime/manga/lonely fanboy/fangirl...you are at least put in the category of very rich and strange people that like to spend a lot of money in dolls (rather than spending on jewels, cars, purses, etc....ironically).

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
I can see that I don' fit the stereotype of a BJD owner. I don't take much pictures, I hardly talk about it (not because I don't want, it's just because I can't remember XD ), and don't 'play' with them that much and BJD is not my primary hobby, so....not much importance given.
But I do fit the Hobbyist stereotype. I buy stuffs just for the sake of having it next to me XD even though is totally useless.

3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?
There are many fangirls and fanboys (aka people that don't listen-like to shriek-and want to convince you that what they like is the best) that really don't know how to introduce people to the hobby and for other people's eyes.....it is kinda scary.
Or it's just the opposite, you see very quiet people that don't have good social skills so most people don't see the hobby as 'healthy'.

 

1) From what I've read and seen on different doll forums over the years there is a good reason for the stereotype of BJD collectors who seem to be into anime, manga, Jpop/Jrock/Visual Kie(I don't understand the appeal, you might as well be listening to Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber), pocky-eating, japanese-speaking, yaoi fan. Sure, it doesn't apply to everyone, but it's there for a reason like the 'depressed Goth' stereotype. There's a grain of truth to it.

2) I don't fit any doll owner stereotypes. And don't worry about being mistaken for a Goth just for being seen with a doll. Only a non-Goth will make that association.

3) Stereotypes start with a kernel of truth. It may not be the truth for everyone, but it will be for some.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
This is a bit of a difficult question for me to answer as I don't typically hang out with a lot of doll people and the non-doll people I know only know of the dolls through me. They were well aware of my personal ecentricities before I got into dolls so they're not really fazed by them now.

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
I seem to fit a lot of the doll owner stereotypes listed in this thread. I'm into anime/manga, I love yaoi and I'm actually a published author of m/m fiction, I have a fairly large number of fans in a wide variety of fandoms because of my yaoi fiction. I tend towards being solitary and I stay home 98% of the time. There are certain things that I really love about Japan (the fabrics, traditional water colour painting, certain foods). But....

At the same time there's things that I don't fit the stereotyping of at all. I don't really like Jpop aside from a couple of songs. I dislike the whole lollita thing and wouldn't be caught dead in that type of outfit. I don't speak random words of Japanese and don't have a burning desire to learn to write/speak Japanese. I'm a mom with a grown son and work a 9 to 5 job doing architecture and structural engineering during the day and I write novel in the evening/weekends. I watch all manner of shows (more than just anime or Jdramas).

3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?
Every time there is a hobby, assumptions about the type of people who are into that hobby grow from the impression that a few of the more extreme people into the hobby give others.

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.

I guess the typical Japanophile kinda like described on urban dictionary.

2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?

Well, I wouldn't call myself a hardcore/extreme Japanophile. It is more like I take parts of the culture I like and that suit me as I am and my interests. Instead of me becoming the culture, the culture becomes me. For example yes, I like anime and manga, however I will not watch just anything. I love stories with beautiful, rich detailed art and an awesome plot that actually has some substance to it. I don't wear Baby the Stars Shine Bright lolita full-blown gear, however my style is inspired by the colors and some fabics since it suits my skin-tone and look. Yes I love the Japanese langue, because it sounds so beautiful... the same way how I think French from France is beautiful, or a certain types of British accents. It is simply what I'm attracted to since I'm a very artistic individual akin to creativity. It is like the same way how people may be attracted to sports cultures if they akin to athletics.


3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?

In any general cluster, the extremes will always stand out, even in a large group of less dramatic members. Somehow it because close as best described as the Japanophile. Which makes sense since Japanophiles love anything with Asian culture and the dolls can look like anime characters.

​

 

1) Do you think BJD owners are put into a stereotype? If so, describe it.
Yes. They are often viewed by outsiders as an immature type, lonely unsocial geeks who fill their life emptiness with dolls.
2) Be honest - do you think you fit the stereotype at all? Not at all? Why?
Actually, I'm the exact opposite to that stereotype)) Rewarding work, loving BF, enough friends, good looking appearance &#8211; that's me)) Not mentioning my creative abilities... But it's true that I was looking much closer to that stereotype in my past (I knew nothing about BJDs at that times though).
I love same sex relationships, and traditional too, I also love to do a kink sexualized photoshoots. So anybody may call me a perv)) But I'm not into the anime deeply because I prefer more realistic presentation and plots. I'm not into Japan too, 'cause I'm very Europe-oriented.
3) How do you think there came to be stereotypes in the BJD hobby?
Outsiders know a little about our hobby. This is the reason. But if I asked by a stranger on the street why I bought those dolls for so much and I say "for craft and creative outlet" everybody understands me immediately &#8211; the look of my dolls speaks out loud enough.
Yes, I agree with those who pointed out that the most geek hobbyists make a bad fame to all of us. Though, this doesn't bother me the slightest, I walk my own path)