Horns, antlers (aka male symbols) on woman dolls

Are horned or antlered woman dolls acceptable for you? Do you think that their woman-being is in conflict with these male attributes? Do you need some "explanation" why a woman has horns/antlers?

Horned/antlered female dolls are perfectly acceptable to me. Just like a female doll in a male shirt/slacks, or with a sword and armor are both totally acceptable to me. A few have already mentioned that the horn/antler thing isn't necessarily a strictly-male thing, BUT, even if it were, I still wouldn't have an qualms with it. Why is it so wrong that women show masculinity? Heck, real women are just as capable as men of growing facial hair. I think one of the great things about dolls is the freedom to explore the fluidity of gender with them--even if "outsiders" don't understand.

 

In my chess world is a rule that ALL Knights need to have Hooves and Horns (since the Knight piece is represented by a horse).
The white Knight is a male Unicorn (a Heliot) and my black knight is close to an Impala...and female too.
She needs to act and look like a man, and yes, she will also have this kickass huge horns.
I know that female Impala don't have horns, but honestly?
It's MY imagination and there are tons of animals out there that are female and have horns.

 

I personally don't relate horns with masculinity. For me, it's more of a symbol of strength, if not also defiance or a symbol of challenge.
Why society has made antlers/horns etc synonymous with masculinity is a mystery to me.
And why, today, women need to be seen as fragile, overly feminine things is beyond me. Why can't women, men, everyone just form their own identity? Regardless of what others are seeing or implying.

But no, I understand. It's something that's typical of today. People feel this need to categorize everything. Man, woman, black, white, gay, straight. Funny: aren't these all things people have fought and are fighting to make equal?

With this in mind, I feel female dolls can sport antlers/horns/etc just as much as a male doll can.
Personally, it would call to mind a wood nymph of some kind.

I'll end this with the fact that masculinity and femininity are things that one perceives and each of our opinions and such help shape what we come to identify as masculine or feminine. These things aren't cut and dry. There can be no right or wrong.

 

I LOVE HOLDSTOCK'S BOOKS.

Anywho, I think there is something VERY "old mythological" about a female mythago with antlers.
Afterall, the Mythago Wood series wasn't exactly what you could call a conventional
representation of fantasy, so I think it would be perfectly acceptable to present a mythago-type character who is both feminine and antlered. It would fit with the borderline disturbing, unusual themes
that can be found in Holdstock's writing.

 

This does not bother me at all because, as many people have mentioned, there are many female animals that have antlers. Reindeer being one of them, female reindeer actually have antlers for a longer time span than males as well. So, female dolls with antlers still make perfect sense and I have no quarrel against them.

 

I don't know why it bothers me so much but it does, when a female doll has antlers THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Horns are a little different because yes, sometimes the female of a species will also have horns, but normally when I see horns on a female doll it's supposed to be a demon, so that does make sense to me. (Even if they typically have the more popular bighorn sheep curly-looking horns where only the males have the horns) But you don't see pronged ANTLERS on demons, you see them on forest creatures and gods usually, doll and characters representing at least a part of nature, so it feels to me like they should be more natural, and have sense-making antlers, or lackthereof.

 

this thread is hilarious! gotta love Freud!

I honestly don't know what much about animals (nor mythology) so it would very much have been my kind to put male horns/antlers on girl, then when someone points it out I'd just be like "pfffft it's a fantasy doll anyway! no humans can have that kind of horns so it doesn't matter whether they were meant for males of females!"
which is both a lame excuse and a valid argument xD

 

Who says demons don't have antlers? What do a "realistic" demon's horns look like? When was the last time you saw a demon IRL, and when you did see one, what made you so sure that she was the only kind in existence?

I actually don't know what kind of horns my own personal demons wear, but I suspect that at least one of them looks just like Gwen Stefani.

 

I don't see why a female doll (or even the concept of a female mythical entity) cannot have horns or antlers. I do not view them as "male symbols," they are simply.....formations natural to their body.

I also would feel no need at all to justify or explain why I have a female doll with horns or antlers, and anyone who looked at me funny for having a female doll with them can just go on their merry way. And someone who told me I shouldn't have a doll with horns or antlers because they are male symbols... well they can just take a hike because I'm not gonna listen to that madness.

 

What a fun thread! To me a doll is a doll is a doll ..... that means it can be whatever I want it to be. Fabulous, isn't it ? And, btw I am female and my horns come out on a fairly regular basis , though I try to keep them hidden most of the time.

 

I don't really associate horns with masculinity... I love em on female dolls!

 

Ugh, thank you! And if you subscribe to the bibles view on them they don't have physical bodies anyway, but spirit ones so what they do and don't look like is completely up to their discretion. Hell they don't even have genders although because Judaism is a patriarchal society they are often represented as male.

 

I have a female doll with horns, and I don't think they get in the way of her femininity at all. Granted her character is one with a lot of strength, but I picked her sculpt because it portrayed that in her facial features rather than the horns- heck, I wasn't even planning on using the horns at first (not because of phallic imagery but because I just wasn't sure about them at first, but now I love them!)

And I just have to say, I LOL'd at the peen comments on the first page! XD

EDIT: I continue to LOL at peen/Freud comments! I might have to subscribe to this thread! XD

 

I understand where you're coming from. In human culture, horns are a symbol of power and masculinity, however, it can be a symbol of power alone.(That makes sense with powerful demons--they seem to have horns most of the time.) Thus, on a woman doll, we get a powerful female! I see nothing "off" with it since horns are to be taken symbolically, even if literally represented.

 

You can also remove the ideas on mythology, fantasy, historical and religious references and symbology and look at recent (pop?) cultural references

- the naughty devil headband complete with PVC/sequinned/furry horns for women is a highly popular outfit/costume option for hen's nights, dressing up and costume parties...
- the depiction of the maenad in True Blood (the tv-show) shows her goring several victims with a horn

and body piercing/modification and tattoos are also very popular in real life and here on DoA for dolls, having implants may not be as popular a modification but people do it, and anyone can get horns implanted.

I see it more as an aesthetic thing like a cap or a crown

I am getting a teenie gem girl with hooves, horns and wings... It's purty, I like it... it's mine

 

I just started customisation on a female melanistic deer doll, and I was debating myself over this very topic. I really wanted to give her antlers, but she's female!! Did some research, there's a small number of female deer who grow horns due to hormone issues, and I was like hey, I can totally see Renwick with too much testosterone. I mean, even her name is a dudes name.

Anyway this was an interesting thread to read through.

 

I also have goats and sheep with horns in the paddock. They occur naturally. The first lot of goats we got had been disbudded when they were young. We decided not to do this to ours when they were born. Who wants to have soldering iron placed on the skull to burn them off the horn buds and potentially cause brain damage?

So to answer the question - no, I have no problem with female dolls having horns. They look wonderful. I have a few dolls with horns and I am adding some to a doll that didn't have them originally along with hooves. Wish I had a tail, hooves and horns - they're cool.

By the way the penis bisecting thing - I wish I hadn't clicked the link (or ever even known it existed)

 

It doesn't matter to me whether something is male or female. If it looks cute on my doll, I'll use it!

 

Speaking as someone whose husband is one of the DandD official artists, I can confidently tell you that everything in the 'verse is pretty much "We made it up as we went along because we thought it was cool." There's no logic to "how things look." Go look at his site in the games section.

http://gryphonking.aelfhame.net/index.php3?folder=games

The description he was given of the senmurv (something which has NO corresponding critter in mythology, btw) also fit the joke art he sent them before he sent them the real thing....a chihuahua with rainbow lorikeet wings.

As for gods, I can add another, Ishtar, the most feminine of female deities, is also portrayed with big honking cattle horns.