Getting your first boy or girl when the rest are a different gender...

When I first got into the hobby, I *knew* I needed just ONE girl because PRETTY CLOTHES! OK, maybe a big girl, and a little girl, and maybe someday my grail girl. I def didn't need any boys. And then, hey, what if I got just one boy to be the OC in a middle grades book cooking in my head. And then, well, what about his sister? Oy. Yeah, that's how that happened for me, LOL!

Not sure how to vote, because I really don't know, myself.

*still avoiding SDs cuz their size kinda freaks me out*
*still loving the sculpts of those SDs*
*help me*

 

Well, I voted in your poll: gender isn't important, I just collect dolls that appeal for various other reasons. But at this point I like to feel like I have balance and variety, some of that is gender oriented but I like the variety to have many other components as well, various heights, styles of facial features, various skin colors, different body shapes, characters with different sexualities and personalities and so on. I am going to speak about my dolls in a gender binary here because although I have some characters who are not so cut and dried my dolls do all have distinctly male or female bodies.
I started out wanting both boys and girls but didn't find a girl doll I really liked until I was already handful of boys in. So at that point I began to feel as though maybe I was a boys only person, and I was sad, because I really wanted to connect with a girl doll -- I thought it would be important for me as well. I think that various factors in my personal life affected the ease with which I could develop relationships with certain dolls based on these characteristics like gender, and as my psychological state changed and I had new experiences certain dolls appealed to me who wouldn't have before.
I even think that my love of male dolls was a flame that was almost extinguished for a year or two, and I played almost exclusively with my girls, but now I feel myself shifting back again and finding a new enjoyment in my guys while still having fun with my ladies as well. Right now my feelings about my dolls and my doll family is very well balanced but I understand that for me it's probably going to be normal to cycle through them a bit.

 

I think male dolls appeal to me much more because I'm female in real life and so all the makeup, hairstyles, and female clothes I can just have on myself. With dolls I can try out male things.

 

I own and like both girls or boys, but I do have a slight preference for girls that are more fun to me. I like their clothes better, they're more fun to paint and I like making them wigs better.

 

I chose the last option.

The majority of my dolls are females. My guys are a yo-size, a few minis, and one lone sd17. I would love to add more grown up guys to my collection, especially Iplehouse guys like Rex and Felix, but it just hasn't happened. Both guys have the expressive eyes I like in a doll, but I'm just drawn to dolls that have a sweet, gentle, or even mischevious openness to them. I always had female and young dolls when I was a little girl so that might be a big part.

 

I go for both in equal amount but lately I noticed my crew is starting to become more male dominated.

 

If I'm being honest I tend to notice the same general shape in female sculpts and facial design. I lean toward males because of the variety in body and structure (nose, chin, ears etc.), I just haven't found a girl that I really liked I guess.

 

I've had an all-male crew for 8 years or so before I got my first permanent girl. For some reason, it's just really difficult for me to find female sculpts with the kind of aesthetics I prefer. I've purchased several female dolls before out of desperation (because I really wanted someone to dress up all pretty in), but they have never lasted more than 6 months before being sold to another collector.

I picked the last option on the poll though. Mainly because I will always look at the sculpt when deciding on a doll purchase than anything else.

 

Thank you so much for including a nonbinary option.

I picked "gender isn't important." I pretty much love all types of dolls, though I tend to fall for either the really big 70cm guys or the adorable little YoSD/Littlefee girl sculpts.

 

"gender isn't important, I just collect dolls that appeal for various other reasons"

I love dressing my dolls in clothes that I don't normally get to wear such as steam, goth, fantasy and super old fashioned stuff. So I choose dolls that I think will look fantastic in those sorts of clothes... girl or boy. That said, my girls out number the boys by quite a bit. Mostly because it's easier to find girl clothes in the style I like.

 

I'm one of those people who just collects sculpts that I like... Gender isn't a big deal in and of itself.

That said, I've ended up with a lot more guys than gals over here, just because I seem to be a lot pickier when it comes to the ladies. There are far fewer of them that appeal to me for one reason or another. ("Little girl" faces attached to mature boob-a-palooza bodies, for instance, or overly-pouty "duckface" mouths are both total deal-breakers for me, and surprisingly common in female BJDs.)

 

So far I have 3 whole and 2 floating heads in my resin family, all of them ladies. But recently, after loving this one male sculpt for about 2 years now, I'm really hoping to bring him home in the next month or so if everything pans out. So yeah I think it will be a little odd at first maybe, but I'm really excited about it, and it might open the floodgates for all of my male OCs to someday be shelled, who knows!

 

I'm working on shelling the characters in the book series I'm writing, which is fantasy/gay romance, so most of my dolls are guys. There are a few female characters in the stories who are important enough to be included in the doll collection. Out of the 20 characters I plan to shell, 6 are female, which I don't think is too bad of a ratio considering.

 

Most of my characters are men so when trying to find dolls to shell them into, I go for male sculpts. Last year, I got my first girl mostly because I felt the need for one. I don't think I could explain it well, but I just fell that my collection needed a girl. Plus, the girls clothes are absolutely adorable. I have one new boy in the mail now and the next will probably be male. There are two more girls I would really like to shell, but at least 2 more boys, not counting to two I just mentioned. I think overall, my collection will end up being about 60:30 (males:females).

 

I like the idea of an all girl squad but I have a feeling that i'm gonna want a boy here pretty soon because i'm falling in love with some male sculpts

 

Right now, all my humanoid dolls are female. But, that's really because I'm super picky about guy dolls apparently--especially the noses. So many weak noses. >.< I'm a schnoz snob!

However, I'm kind of toying with the idea of getting my first guy--and turning him into Toska from the webcomic Prague Race. Yes, that's right, my first guy, rather than being a shota or a smexy dude, may well be a simpleton basketcase troll.

But considering my girls include a mad scientist, a slightly sociopathic android, a completely enigmatic child, and two rather dysfunctional magical girls, Toska's insanity is kind of par for the course.

 

Starting out, I ONLY wanted boys. I had so many girl dolls from various off topic lines, and they were so easy to find, but a variety of boys was harder. Because of this, I only wanted BJD boys to make up for the lack of boys from other types. However, after my first two boys, I got a girl. I never bonded with her, and at the time, I thought it was because she was a girl, but looking back it was because she was an elf, not human, her wig didn't fit, I didn't do her faceup myself, and she was a Bobobie Pixie, and while there's nothing wrong with Bobobie as a company, they just aren't my type of doll. My next girl was a ResinSoul Lu and after having her ears modded to be human and doing her faceup myself, I adored her for years before I finally let her go, preferring SD sizes over MSD.

Now I have more boys than girls just because my storyline calls for more male characters, but the only two dolls on my immediate wishlist are both girls.

Soooo....for me, gender doesn't matter, it's just about being sure it's a doll I love and getting the right one for my existing characters.

 

I definitely prefer boy dolls. I'm not sure if it's the novelty of a male doll (because all the dolls I had as a kid were female), or some sexism I've internalized (which I worry about because I have a hard time liking female characters in fiction). Another factor may be that when I first got into the hobby, there seemed to be only two options for girl clothes: cutesy lolita dresses and sexy outfits. Neither of which appealed to me. Occasionally I saw some old fashioned looking dresses that I liked, so I bought my first girl in order to have a use for those dresses. She was really cute but I never loved her as much as my boy dolls... she was definitely the least favorite doll I've had.

Last year I traded with someone for another girl doll. I prefer the vampire version of this sculpt, but I took her anyway, figuring I could just sell her if it didn't work out. Looking back, I can't believe how doubtful I was, because now she is one of my favorite dolls that I own! And there is more variety in girl clothes nowadays, so she is a pleasure to shop for. I never thought I could love a girl doll so much! She inspired me to try again with a previous girl I had given up on, and I am soon going to be buying another girl, too. I'm happy to give my collection a little more variety, so I'd say she was a very successful experiment.

As for the poll, I chose "males" since that is what the majority of my collection is. But the gender of a mold doesn't really have any impact on whether or not I like or buy it. In fact, when I see a girl mold that I like, one of the first things that crosses my mind is how it would look as a boy.

 

Even though I voted "gender is not important", it's actually the opposite way around for me. Gender is important. Every gender is important for me.

When I got into the hobby I said "never buy girl dolls", but I think a lot of it reflected my past self, more than my current self.
But I did end up with female dolls. And slowly I started liking them more and more. But at the same time, I also got to learn more about feminism, which got me to challenged myself to think "what is it I don't like about female characters?".
For me, personally, I don't think it was a matter of hating women, as much as trying to get to terms with how I felt myself + glorifying men.
In the end, I think I have some much better feelings regarding gender today.
And my dolls are currently: 8 girls, 4 guys and a non-binary cutie