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He, She or It?

Nov 30, 2013

    1. Your boyfriend is just being a jerk, pretty much. =/
       
    2. I'm quite "lucky" here because in my language every noun has a gender, so all the things are either "she" or "he". On other hand, in English I call my dolls by gender, and not just dolls - other toys, pets and other animals. I only use "it" talking about animals if I don't know their gender at the moment of speaking.
      Anyway, your boyfriend just doesn't get it! But maybe he'll get used to it :)
       
    3. Aww, i'm sure your boyfriend will get used to it! I call my Current two "my girls" and refer to them by name, or if someone has no idea, i say "she" or "he" (even though currenly, i have no boys xD) My grandma also finds the hobby odd, and just tends to all them "the dolls" same as my mother.
       
    4. Well... I don't speak english a lot besides on here, and in spanish you call objects by their gender so is not a big deal if I call my dolls 'he' ineed is pretty normal to do so :)
       
    5. well since my doll has a manly part down there I call it "he" c:
      At first I called it "it" but since I call even my plushies (off topic) "she" or "he" I thought it would be weird if I didn't call my doll a "he" since it's like a mini human c:
       
    6. ok, i refer to my dolls as a gender specified noun UNLESS they are floating heads that i havent picked a gender for :D and yea, i have a few of those =p I feel like they are alive as they are a part of me (i.e. i created them, they are characters in stories that are happening as i come up with them. My boyfriend happily calls them "he" or "she" depending on the doll and puts up with it, my parents, dont understand why i like them, but respect it and call them by proper gender thingies. It is all up to the owner, and the friends and family SHOULD respect that.
       
    7. When I read this I immediately got pretty upset... Calling something he/she is NOT saying that it is in fact a living person. Also... Animals are living creatures so why would it be wrong to refer to them as he/she? If it's a boy dog I'm going to call it a he, if it's a girl, a she. The only time ANYTHING is an it, is if it is an inanimate object that cannot be assigned a gender... like a spoon or bowl, etc. When something HAS A gender, even if it is not living, I refer to it by its gender. Calling pets "it" makes me extremely mad because that makes treating them like garbage easier in my opinion. Hence why I got upset reading this and also why I refer to my dolls by their gender. I'm not going to call something that I deeply care about an it, unless it is a book or something that doesnt usually have a gender.

      EDIT:

      calmed down slightly now and reread this... and yeah XD I think your bf is just being silly. And having read the rest of the posts now, I dont necessarily think he's being a jerk like someone said. My boyfriend is creeped out by my dolls too [I have a YoSD sized doll, an SD, and a floating SD head], and he doesnt like to see my SD because he says "it stares at me". So... I get the whole referring to your doll as it from the bf... mine does it too.
       
    8. I almost always refer to the dolls in my house as "The boys" or by their names. To me they're very real personalities and calling them "it" just seems wrong.
       
    9. I am also new to the hobby, and I dont even have a bjd yet but I have known about them for a year, I think it is because I don't have one that I sometimes refer to my future dolls as 'it'.
      I believe that it will be more natural when I get my first doll to refer to her as 'she'.
       
    10. What do you call your dolls?
      I freely call my dolls "she" or "girls" as a collective. The same would be true if I had male dolls.

      Are you refering to them as living persons by saying "he/she", or refering to them as unliving items through "it"?
      Although I know they're dolls and inanimate objects, I do like to imagine that my dolls do "live".. Toy Story style :blush But yeh, I know they're not alive but it's fun to pretend, right? I truly value imagination.

      And what is your opinion about the subject?
      Honestly, I name all kinds of things in my everyday life.. In regards to my dolls specifically, they're characters that are part of my story. I feel it's only natural that I refer to them based on their gender. I don't think I'm crazy, I just think names are fun and why not add a little extra fun to life? I even enjoy it when people around me find it odd and funny because at least I've entertained them for a moment :)
       
    11. I refer to my dolls as their gender. He and she. I would never say it because I care about them too much.
       
    12. I always refer to my dolls as their proper gender (unless I'm willingly concealing it for character reasons) . I think it's strange to not refer to them as such seeing how they have clear gender differences... To this day I haven't really found anyone that thinks it's weird though...
       
    13. Your doll is female, it has breasts, to call her it would be weird. Tell your boyfriend to chill out.
       
    14. I refer to my dolls as she and he. They're male and female characters and I treat them as actual people (as in, naming, birthdays, that kind of stuff.). Also, my native language applies gender to inanimate objects or animals so it's kind of an automatism for me to refer to my dolls with she or he as well. I've never really found anyone who finds it strange that I do that; but I do feel awkward mentioning my dolls to my acquintances with their appropriate gender, since they aren't in the hobby and... yeah, you can guess it's kinda weird to do that. ^^'
       
    15. I refer to my dolls by the gender of their sculpt. It doesn't seem strange to me at all.
       
    16. I'm with the rest of you. On a side note, I'm always bothered when a person refers to their spayed or neutered pet as "IT", saying they're no longer a boy/girl. Those pets are still just as male/female as they were before, they just can't reproduce. *rant over* lol
       
    17. Actually... this too, it's the same in my country; I never even thought about it since it comes so naturally though. It's weird to think that pretty much nothing has genders in English...
       
    18. I don't know, it can be random at times. But if it's a girl she or it vice versa for guys too.
       
    19. I think the relative weirdness of it depends a little on what language you're speaking, but I think it's safe to say that calling a doll by a gendered pronoun is not a proven cause of insanity. ;)

      That said, I think I'm pretty evenly split between he/she and it - it just depends on the context (if it's a character-based question as opposed to one about the physical doll I'm more likely to use a gendered pronoun).
       
    20. What do you call your dolls?
      All of my dolls have a specific sculpted gender, except my Faramita, and I've chosen to make his character male. There for, I refer to all of my dolls as "he" or "she".


      Are you refering to them as living persons by saying "he/she", or refering to them as unliving items through "it"?
      No, it just seems disrespectful (and kind of weird) to refer to a gendered thing/person as "it". They may not be living humans, but neither are role play characters, paintings, book characters, movie characters, etc, but I wouldn't talk about them as "it" either.


      And what is your opinion about the subject?

      To me, calling a clearly male or female item/animal/person "it" is the same as referring to them as "that thing", which just sounds....kind of hateful. I'd NEVER refer to my dog as "it", my dog is a girl, she's my baby. (Language differences could make a huge difference here, I've heard there are some languages that do not differentiate between genders, while others have a gender for everything!)

      Either way, it's not crazy to refer to a doll as "he" or "she". And if somebody wants to argue that the doll is an "it", I'll happy prove to them it has a gender. LOL