He, She or It?

actually... now that I think about it...

...I do use the terms he and she. Huh. Never thought about that before. XD

 

What do you call your dolls? My dolls get referred to as he/she depending on the gender of the doll itself. If they have boy parts then they're a he, if they have girl parts then they're a she. I have a few anthro dolls that are asexual as a sculpt - several CCC hippos that are all girls (I have seen one as a boy and he is super cute), Pipos Cheshire that gets referred to as a "he" although his outfit is very flowery/frilly.

Are you refering to them as living persons by saying "he/she", or refering to them as unliving items through "it"? They do not get confused with living items. I'm not sure why I do it, but by default I tend to call most things using the term "he" (ie: my car, plants, all pets for my dolls)

And what is your opinion about the subject? In general I don't like referring to things as it, again my car gets referred to as a he, I'm not sure why really.

 

my first dolls are also on their way and i have always called them she. i personally find calling them "it" is way to impersonal.

 

What do you call your dolls?
Usually he or she, but I have said "it", especially if it's just a head.

Are you refering to them as living persons by saying "he/she", or refering to them as unliving items through "it"?
I'm referring to them as unliving despite saying "he/she" - I doubt many people think the dolls are alive, but most hobbyists call them by their gender pronoun.

And what is your opinion about the subject?
I'm not overly sentimental about my dolls (they don't even have names), but even I use "he/she" a lot, so it's not crazy doll person speak to do so. However, since it's often hard to know the gender of a BJD just by looking (especially for non-doll people), I can see how people other than the owner would say "it", so it's not offensive to say "it". As a side note, I find it bizarre to call an animal "it" unless you don't know the gender, unless you're not a native English speaker. Can you imagine how unpopular a veterinarian would be if they called all the animals "it" in front of their owners?

 

It depends on who I'm talking to and what the context is. If I'm talking to someone about a specific doll, it's usually referred to by gender, if I'm talking about dolls in general or with someone who doesn't really know about dolls I use it. I don't think it implies anything about viewing them as living/inanimate, I mean lots of people refer to their cars etc. with gender terms with no implication of consciousness on the objects behalf.

 

Hm, I didn't really think about this, but I usually use "he" or "she" rather than it, because I refer to them as characters, more than just as dolls, I think. Recently I refer to my dolls as a group so I tend to use "they"/"them" more often...that kind of nicely eliminates the he, she/it problem.

 

I call them either their gender or it. The character is always their gender, but the doll is usually an it... I don't give it as much thought as it might sound.

 

My dolls have characters and those characters have genders, so the dolls always get referred to by their proper pronouns (not everybody is a binary gender so pronouns aren't always he or she)

I certainly recognize that dolls are nonliving but so is my laptop and my car (both have names and genders) and for that matter so are most fictional characters which I also refer to by name and gender.

 

Ehh, pretty much everything in my house is named and gendered - all of my electronics is he or she, most things have names (my printer's name is a swear word) and most everything else is the sort of thing that you wouldn't bother giving a name (a book for example, or knives and forks etc. etc.) There are a lot of computers in my house and a lot of gadgets, so it's a lot easier to say (for example) "Selene is playing up, can you fix her for me?" instead of "The upstairs computer in the TV room is playing up, can you fix it for me?"

In fact, the only thing that occasionally gets mis-gendered is one of my dogs! He's the first male dog I've ever had, and my other dog is female, so sometimes he gets "good girl!" or "Come here, girl!" by mistake. He's very good about it, though. Very secure in his masculinity.

 

I say she, because my doll has a name and I give her a personality. If it was a regular doll I might say it or the doll but I will say she/he for my BJD because so much effort goes into them. They are expensive and they can break easily so I think they deserve he or she or "it" if it is neither gender.

 

It depends. When I have been saying "the doll", then I will refer to as "it", but when I am talking about specific dolls, I will always refer to them by their gender, "he" or "she", as if they were actual persons. It's not that I treat those dolls in any way like living beings; it's that the characters they represent have a gender, and it would just be odd to refer to Gawain, Morgana or any of the others as "it".

Personally I don't think it's "crazy doll person talk" to say "he" and "she" - but maybe that is because I do it myself and I think my relationship with my dolls is normal? There ARE things that I think of as crossing a line and being a bit naff, but this isn't one of them. I refer to my cat as "she" as well and think nothing of it.

 

When I was younger I almost got suspended for arguing really hard with a teacher for referring to pets as, "It." Didn't make sense to me why you'd call something with a clear gender an "it". It seemed rude and disrespectful.

I'm kind of taken that to great lengths as I get older. If a doll has a gender and a story, I'm going to call it by that. If I don't know their gender, I'll probably refer to them as he/she/they depending on sex characteristics. I don't think it's crazy or even remotely weird.

 

I sooo like my native language (russian). There's no matter what you're talking about - living or unliving object. Using he/she/it depends only on the gender of words. As "table" on russian is masculine, we say "he" about table. "Pen" is feminine, and we says "she" about pen. "Sun" is neuter, so we say "it" about sun. We use he/she for animals, dolls, cars... Hat is "she", computer is "he", book is "she", etc. Certainly, I don't call book as "she" in English, 'cause I know english rules about using he/she/it. But if you call book as "it" on Russian, you would be "insane" for me)
So, I use "she" for my girl-dolls and "he" for my boy-dolls. And sorry for my bad English, if my speech is not understandable T_T

 

I answered this previously, but I've noticed something about myself, that when I have the doll on display, or am playing with it, I do refer to it by the appropriate gendered pronouns. However, once I take the doll apart for maintenance, faceups, blushing or mods, the doll becomes "it" to me, until it's back together.

 

What do you call your dolls?
Depends. Either ender-specific or if the context is impersonally about a doll, then, it. I don't think it's a big deal either way. Whatever anyone wants to do is fine. The dolls don't care!

Are you refering to them as living persons by saying "he/she", or refering to them as unliving items through "it"?
I don't think "he/she" has to mean it's a living person. As the OP mentioned, it can be used for fictional characters or dead people. It's a gender designation--and can be used for that no matter what you are referring to: cars, computers, ships, the sea, whatever! At least with dolls, most of them do have genders, so why not use those terms?

And what is your opinion about the subject?
I think "crazy" is NOT using he/she to refer to dolls, but to worry about it so much!!! It's just ridiculous to think it's weird for a person to refer to a girl doll as "she" if they want to!!!!!!!!!! I don't think we all need to conform to one person's idea of how we want to refer to dolls or whatever.

 

I refer to my doll as "she", and it feels natural. I would never be able to say "it", because I don't see her as an object. I don't really see her as living either, but she's something in between.

 

I always refer my dolls as he, she, depending on the gender. I never call it because of the belief I was given that dolls are living, but they are inanimate (For most of the time.)

 

Talking with people I'm not close with I use she/he, but with people who know about my BJD's I some times use daughter/son to see how they react

 

It feels most natural to call them either he or she, depending upon their gender. I think people can call their dolls whatever they want but for me, it's just easiest to call them he/she. I don't see them as living people, seeing as they are dolls, but that doesn't mean they can't have a gender. It's like people with cars or boats that they refer to as "she", except at least BJDs have characteristics that tell you they are either a girl or a boy.

 

I always refer to my own girls as she, but if I'm talking about the 'product' in a discussion I usually use 'it' or 'them'. It just feels sort of...unnatural to give such a humanlike item un-human like descriptors to me.