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Dolly androgyny -why do we like it?

Jul 25, 2008

    1. No, I like my boys to be boys and I don't think that pretty, youthful boys are androgynyous like many people here tend to think. An androgynyous person is when you don't know what gender that person is.
       
    2. Not all dolls that I like are overly androgynous looking... But most are, at least face-wise. And that is just how I want it to be!

      The main reason for this is the fact that I prefer female beauty to male beauty in real life.

      Since my BJD world is created by me and suiting my tastes, I want to have all sorts of different genders: male, female, androgynous, without gender etc., but I still want MOST of these people to still LOOK like girls (not all, like I said I like a couple of sculpts with a stronger male tendency, like Soom Obsidius or Iplehouse Shane - though even those faces could make magnificent females in real life!).

      And I think that many "male" BJD sculpts are actually closer to the look of real life female faces than most of the "female" BJD sculpts. Many "female" scuplts are rather childlike or strongly simplified. The body, by the way, is less important to me - it can be male, female, mature, childlike, androgynous etc. - as long as it is well sculpted and/or a good poser, I'll take it.
       
    3. haha, this, oh, this!! I agree whole-heartedly <3
      I was occasionally told during my teenage years that I looked like a boy or was mistaken for one (and I had long hair!). I suppose that I thought this was really intersting, as this evidently did not happen to my friends. Androgyny is appealling to me for its over-all delicacy, as EldaB pointed out something similar...
       
    4. Overall, most of my boys are strictly boys and my women are clearly women. My boys (for the most part) have body hair or facial hair. Even my long haired boys are never mistaken for girls (except by non-doll people who think GI Joe and Ken are the only male dolls)

      I do not like childlike faces at all, even on the older kid/preteen characters. I can't wait to make my MSD "grow up". Child-like faces on adult bodies especially bother me. I can think of one in particular than just feels SO icky to me. The head looks about 5 and the body is very mature. It feels like sexualizing children and it just really bothers me.

      Androgyny.....I have one. but he's not just a "very pretty boy", he's a truly androgynous character. He does not claim to be male OR female generally, and just lets people decide how they want to refer to him. He's an AoD Tao Hua Dao and will end up on a DC boy body eventually. Sometimes, he dresses very masculine in suits and such...other times, he'll wear catsuits or very feminine outfits. his character was based on a mix between Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga, so it really just plays into his character. But other than him, I'd prefer it be pretty obvious which gender my dolls are.
       
    5. For me personally, I don't really like the androgynous look. But I think that a lot of people think that androgyny is just physically attractive (see Andrej Pejic), and so gravitate towards more androgynous-type dolls.
       
    6. I'm not into androgynous dolls myself. All of my girls are very feminine. I might buy a guy one day. But if I do, I noticed I tend to like more realistic, masculine looking sculpts. A good example is Iplehouse. Most of their man dolls are very masculine, and I don't think people would ever confuse their gender.

      I do have an androgynous male character I write about in stories, but I wouldn't ever make him a doll. I think he'd look too generic and I'm afraid I wouldn't like him as much as a doll because of that.
       
    7. i like the look but do not have an androgynous one yet. i like that they can be just beautiful, neither strong boy or girl. and because they have slender bodies, they can generally make anything look good. but for now? my girl is very fem and my boys are very male.
       
    8. No offense taken or intended, but... none of my dolls are at all androgynous. My boys clearly are male and my girls clearly female. The only time I've had a boy mistaken for a female was by a few people who just saw the long hair and jumped to the assumption... and these are ppl I've heard do the same with humans. Even my most "flamingly gay" boy is still very much male.

      Honestly, the "child faces on adult body" dolls that I have seen have creeped me out to no end. As in... I literally had to get up and leave the room. It's just... just... no. If that does it for someone else with their doll, more power to them. Me... it squicks me out like woah.
       
    9. I find myself more attracted to more feminine guys (anime overload?) and masculine guys aren't really my type. Maybe it is because I have obvious personal 'beauty definitions' for female but never for males. The 'handsome guys' in real life is a hard concept to grasp for me. I do prefer more feminine and realistic dolls in the hobby, which is rare. Think Iplehouse Barahan, his face is gentle enough for me. But not his body, way too buff. I don't like overly muscular and veined bodies...
      I however, am not interested in yaoi and never was. I never understood how pretty boys=gay... I just like less buff and masculine guys.
      Anyway, it's a interesting topic!
       
    10. Base of my interest and observation, I believe the qualities we seek in dolls maybe reflect the qualities we like in other people. My friends and I seem to have a soft spot for pretty face pop star in real life. Even though she is not interest in this hobby, she think male dolls who have female head or a bit feminine head sculpt, like not as visible jaw structure, are adorable. I blame this taste of ours on kpop.:lol:
       
    11. My dolls - even those planned out for later on - are all planned to look like the males and females they're portraying. Stephen is the only one, so far, that has features soft enough to possibly look like a female, but he's on a male body, dressed in men's clothes.

      I've never been interested in androgyny inside or outside of the BJD hobby. I end up finding myself looking at the very feminine or very masculine sculpts before the more androgynous ones. I have had some Migidoll sculpts on my wishlist, but only the heads, because they seemed better for female characters rather than male ones. Even the one on my wishlist now, I think would make a better girl than guy.

      I'm not interested in the child-faced adult dolls that seem to pop up within every collection. If I'm buying a doll to be an adult character, I want a more mature face.
       
    12. I'm personally not into androgyny, but can appreciate it for what it is. There are some very beautiful gender neutral dolls out there, but that's not for me.

      It's been very frustrating for me to find dolls that fit my specifications. I want my guys to be manly, and I want my women to be feminine. A lot of female sculpts, like many others have mentioned, have a tendency to be child-like. And a lot of male sculpts tend to have "softer" or more subtle features. There's a ton of reasons as to why this is "the thing", but I'd probably just be rehashing a bunch of things people have said already.
       
    13. Well... I like the androgyny, but only in a few characters. I don't like the girly boy with a female face in a big masculine body, this is... is creepy sometimes. I love BL, but I don't think all characters have to be androgynous appearance.
      Anyway... a few shops have dolls with a real masculine appearence, you can use many heads as boy or girl without problems, the only diference is a body. That is my problem... I like the long hair in men and even if they dress as men, there is always someone with say: "Pretty girl!" (He's a boy) "Oh... gay?" (No!)

      I think the androgyny is beautifull, but without excess. Although if you want a "real man", you have to look more, it's very difficult search a head only boy or only girl.
       
    14. THIS!! I do NOT understand this! How feminine or masculine my doll is has nothing to do with his sexuality (same with real people). My BlueBlood Doll Valentine is an 80's rocker type, but he has eyeliner, long wavy bleach blond hair and is usually dressed in leather tops and spandex pants....he's as straight as they come, no interest in men whatsoever. But he's pretty. in a grouchy, hairband sort of way...lol My next boy (Islanddoll Eric) is completely gay...and dresses in jeans and button up shirts or tshirts, sometimes a suit, has a beard and short hair. very masculine. and has no interest in women at all. Pretty =/= gay.
       
    15. I can't be doing with very masculine male dolls. I can't be doing with very masculine men. It's not something I find attractive or intriguing or even pleasant, really. Honestly, all the men I've ever been attracted to have had some degree of androgyny. My most masculine doll doesn't, to my eyes, look very girly, but he doesn't look manly either. No offence to anyone who disagrees, but I have never, ever seen a doll in a beard that I thought looked authentic. Granted I haven't seen any bearded dolls in real life, but something about the smoothness of the plastic skin just doesn't go well with a beard, to me. It's like this photo of Brian Molko with a beard... so wrong! :lol:

      On the other hand, if a doll were to have boobs AND a beard, I'd be more interested in that. Masculine female dolls are fine by me. Likewise, I find feminine female dolls pretty boring. Androgyny all the way :D It goes for people as well as dolls, to me!
       
    16. I think it can be beautiful and interesting if done right. But it is so common now that it has somewhat lost its originality. I very seldom like an adronogyn doll anymore. But I have seen a few that have something extra and it suited them well and was very well executed.
       
    17. This is exactly what I wish say. The problem of androgyne (pretty) face is the bad judgment of people. When you see a pretty boy, they can see a pretty gay. XD Although this is not realy true. :sweat

      LOL I like to see that.
       
    18. Ive always found androgyny attractive. since i was a kid, ive always liked to look at androgynous people. i guess its leaked into my dolls.... not so much the youth part though...
       
    19. I for one prefer more realisitic molds to the doe-eyed ones but have no real problem with either. Personally, I'm more attracted to androgynous guys because, well, I love feminine figures with masculine accents. Likewise, I find androgynous females to be just as beautiful, it's just I'm not sexually attracted to them.
      All that aside, I don't like to think of my choice in dolls to be related to my sexuality because I feel awkward thinking of them as having a sexual affiliation. But I suppose there is a connection with my taste in living males and doll ones...
       
    20. I don't think it's misrepresentative to say that many women like androgynous men-- it doesn't mean that they're a majority, it means many of them exist. With women as half the population, 'Many' women like a lot of things that don't put them in the majority!

      I love androgyny, I think it has the potential to be very visually interesting. I like different types of gender expression, too, which gets confused and chucked in with androgyny-- girly boys and manly women.

      That doesn't mean I don't also love manly men. I adore manly men. In terms of aesthetics, I love womanly women too. But after all, there's no big rule saying I can't love both/all three.

      My current boys are all fairly androgynous, but then, I have an MSD, a MNF, and a LTF-- my mature mini is the most masculine doll I own, and with no face, if you weren't looking at his body, he could just as easily be a girl (actually, with his coming faceup, he's still going to be very androgynous-- not 'girly boy', but truly androgynous). Vince and Billy are both part-time 'girly' boys-- Vince because it suits him to be sometimes, and at other times he is more boyish, and Billy because he's my only tiny and I have a pair of very girly shoes, so being small and cutesy and lacking in secondary sex characteristics, he just has to go with it.

      I like that about them, too-- I get more for my money, after all, if I can buy one doll and then dress him any way I please, be it as a girl or as a boy!

      When I get into SDs, they won't be androgynous the way my minis and tiny are-- they'll be build as very clearly one gender or the other. And I'll love the heck out of them, womanly woman and manly men, but it's very convenient for me to be able to make my boys girly for a day if that's what I need/want, because of the childlike nature of their sculpts.

      (And my mature mini is VERY influenced by that eighties androgyny!)