"Its a doll, its not a real person."

i've always treated most inanimate objects like they had some sort of feelings, actually. my mom always tells me stories on how i'd pick up rocks or snails and put them in a little box and/or put them somewhere safe when i was younger, just because i thought they looked lonely or needed a friend. so i think saying a doll has a personality/feelings is nothing compared to that, especially since i'm really bad (or good, rather) at empathizing in general.

yes, i've had friends who "just don't get it" or think it's okay to grab them and pull down their pants to see if they are anatomically correct, which really doesn't fly with me and they now know it. only one of my good friends thinks it's amazing how much personality i can give to just about anything, so she respects how i feel and thinks it's creative and something only some people will "get". we all have hobbies that make people raise an eyebrow and question our sanity, but why let them spoil all of our fun~?

bottom line is that i treat my doll like how i would want to be treated. i love knowing that they have a personality and are just as real to me as a living, breathing thing is.

 

We have always personified animals and inanimate objects since time immemorial - all throughout our history. I seriously cannot see it ending now that we're in the 21st Century, just as I cannot see the ending of any of our good or bad habits as a species.

I even have the suspicion that sentient species on other planets do exactly the same thing as I believe it is a by-product of sentience to personify animals and inanimate objects.

Either that, or the whole human species is just plain bats**t insane, and that doesn't even bear thinking about. What if we're the only nutters in the universe that make war upon each other, pollute our planet, let others of our own kind starve and die, and personify animals and inanimate objects, while all other sentient species in the universe do not?

So yeah, I will personify my dolls while still being perfectly aware that they are, at the end of the day, inanimate objects made of resin and string.

Phil.

 

As noted in an earlier post, we personify all kinds of things (encourage the car to get over the hill, etc. "Come on baby, you can make it!"), but as soon as you do that to something that looks like a person, it seems to be a problem. Maybe saying "Doesn't this doll almost look sad today?" is better than "She is sad today?" Your friend may take a closer look at your doll to see if they agree. Meaning, you would be talking about the doll, not talking to it.

 

...hey that makes sense... and yes SOOOO many people name or talk to their cars! I know we don't all have the same feelings about our dolls or what friends are but... Quick story... The first time I met a BJD in person was at our local Genghic con gaming convention. This lady who was running one of these games had one... and I had wanted one for a year already so I was enchanted. He was really very pretty and he had his eyes closed... which I asked about. She seemed uncomfortable talking to me about him at first but later admitted he had Optophobia(Fear of opening your eyes) bcause "Bad things happen to him when he opens his eyes" (He has body blushed on scars across his arms and chest as proof) ...I am sure others would have thought that was VERY strange but it was such an enchanting thing. This girl really KNEW her doll... I must have told that story to many friends since then... both with and without doll interest... and they all just see the fascination, imagination and depth there... I just loved that this doll had this whole real story.

 

I talk to rocks, storm clouds, my car, my pets, and some books I read. I know perfectly well that my car will run no better when I coo at it to start in the morning, but I do it anyway, and it's enjoyable.

My dolls are easy when it comes down to anthropomorphizing something, they look and move in a fairly human manner, have their own little habits as far as how the strings make their limbs settle, and I think everything has a spirit anyway! It hurts nothing to treat my dolls like little people (or fairies) and I have fun in the process.

 

Some people get it and some of them don't. The friends and family that don't get it, support it anyway. They all know it's a part of my personality and that my doll's personalities branch off from my own. They would never stop hanging out with me because of it. To be quite honest, I really don't care what people think about how I interact with my dolls. I refer to my dolls as my kids. I bought them, I take care of them and I love them. Already existing friends that don't understand that, I guess, didn't really know me at all.

 

I know whatthe people around me are like so I know when I can talk about freddie and when I can't. I'm lucky that the people I talk most to have dolls and the people I see the most are interested in them so I talk about them like they're real.

My parents however I don't because they pretty much look at anything I'm interested in with distaste. Though my mum is abut more supportive because as a child I was a real tomboy and this is the first I've ever bothered with a doll. Though she tortures
me because freddie isn't a girl.

Then there's people like my horrible chav cousin who looked turned round to me last week and said ' your da says you've some freaky doll with 2 heads and 3 legs' I showed her freddie to which she respoded ' ew that's weird.' showed her a picture of the happiestprincesses gorgeous littlefee ante because freddie had no faceup and was greeted by ' eah ( Belfast for ew) that's freaky, haha it's bride of chucky' then walked away laughing. But hey she's a twat who overplucks her eyebrows.

I'm just really glad that I have really supportive people in my life like immie and army-of-me. Thanks you guys!

 

I dont see my dolls as real people and I dont pretend that they are real people, because their characters are dolls, too, but still I do things that out-of-hobby people wont get. Mostly it's my caring about them which is beyond 'not-to-damage-it'. I cant help but flintch if someone holds my doll carelessly, like it's book, or tea cup, or lamp, or whatever, I dont like changing wigs and clothes of my dolls in front of people, I dont like when people pose my dolls in un-characteristic poses (like, some friend of mine posed my angelic cute msd boy is 'sexy pose' o_o I freaked out, srsly), and I just cant help but go 'ahh, my sweetheart *kiss*' at my dollie time to time, especially if it's my angelic cute msd doy x'D I am in this hobby for more than year and still I dont remember anyone telling me 'they are not real people' even once. There's some friends who look strangely at me, but they dont tell rude things.

But my mum enjoys pretending that my dolls are real people. I dont know what to do with it, sometimes I feel uneasy about it. Like, when I show my mum my dollie in new outfit, she will say 'oh, it's great, [dollie name], do you like it?' and then she will say that I should buy new outfits to my other dollies, or they will be sad. She just keeps talking with them and what they might feel and think, when I clearly ask what she thinks =_=

 

...s..snails aren't inanimate. ;A;

 

SOB I'M SORRY i didn't mean the snails... i should've made a better comparison.

please forgive me, lovely snails, i know not what i have done.

 

Er... "It's a doll, it's not a real person" actually sounds like something I would say.

I'll be honest, I do find it creepy when people make a big show of behaving like an object is alive in front of me and/or expect me to play along. Harmless, yes, but... uh, awkward.

That said, I do weird dolly things too... mostly in terms of paranoid overprotectiveness. My friends don't touch my dolls. My family doesn't doesn't my dolls. No. One. Touches. My. Dolls. [Insert fanatical possessive glare here.] Luckily, I get away with this without offending any of them because they have no experience with or interest in bjds, and therefore it never occurred to them that you can play with and handle the dolls - they assume they're like my anime figures, meant to stay behind glass 24/7.

I also have a thing about doll eyes. I keep them sorted neatly by color and I enjoy taking them out and looking at them and re-sorting them. I don't even put them inside my poor doll's head - picture me hunched and leering at my shiny treeeeeeeasures like Golem from LotR.

If you knew me in real life, you'd have the impression that I'm a mellow and fairly open sort. But when it comes to dolls, I switch into hardcore perfectionist control freak mode.

 

I think the whole discussion may be deep rooted in a want for new friends or something fantastical. I personally have always had empathy for my toy and stuffed animals- I don't know if it's that I believe they have a soul or whatnot, but they seem to all have a personality. I follow pretty much along the standard of the "velveteen rabbit" that if you love something enough it has its own personality and soul.

I don't really talk to other people as if my dolls are real people, but I often 'consult' them on issues when I'm by myself. I also believe that somehow Tsuki (and my bendies) are somehow related to protecting me from the "ghost" in my apartment (so far I'm the only person it hasn't really bothered, lol)

 

I'd say your friends are kind of dicks if they'd ditch you for playing with dolls. At the same time if you're going to be creepy about it then yeah, even the best of friends are gonna distance themselves from you.

I tend to really walk the line on this whole topic. The people that originally got me into dolls took it all WAY too seriously. They got kind of scary about it. One of them actually got sick and was a total mess because she thought her character's soul left his doll body and he was just a resin shell or something. Like I understand dolls are what we make them and how we see them. The characters we "place" inside them are what makes them "alive" to us. But taking that too literally or seriously is just unhealthy. I used to be more open to calling my dolls my muses and such, but since I've pulled away from that kind of serious behaviour, I guess I find myself being a skeptic too.

I had to "try out" a lot of doll companies, types, sizes, and molds before I settled with Volks YoSD. If I had stuck with the idea that dolls were real I would have probably traumatized myself with all the buying and re-selling I did. As it is, I still have a friend who takes the whole alive thing a bit more seriously than me, and she flips out on me every time I decide a doll isn't working and decide to sell. And it should be noted, I'm the one who introduced her to BJD!
Actually all my female friends either have or want BJDs, except for one girl who is creeped out by them. And she has so many friends that are into them that she's slowly adjusting to letting them sit on the couch next to her, etc.
My male friends? They all think it's dumb and/or creepy, but they are all totally respectful about it. They all acknowledge they have their own weird stupid stuff they're into, and I don't yap about them at all to them. In fact I don't think any of them have even really seen them. At least not in person.

I guess my point is much like everyone elses's here: know your audience.

 

My feelings on this is that it is one thing to treat an inanimate object as a living creature, and another to beleive that it actually is.

I think a lot of people who are creeped out by doll collectors are put off because they can't tell if we actually think our dolls are alive or not when we say things like 'Mikos (my doll) is unhappy today' or the like.

Now, I personally don't beleive that my dolls are alive, but I do play with them and they are part of a very vivid imaginary world that I enjoy very much. I do treat them as I would real people, but only to a certain degree (I mean, I would never crack open my housemate's head and pull their eyes out, obviously!) but that is more becuase it is fun for me to do so. It does annoy me when people are unkind to my dolls or put them into positions that are out-of-character for them, but it is not something I would lose a friend over- because hopefully a real friend would learn after the first time that it upsets me, and wouldn't do it again (just as I wouldn't mess with their stuff).

 

I don't see it as a bad thing, unless someone says it in a condescending way.

 

Yeahhh..My family members look at me like I'm psychotic when I act like my dolls have feelings. Im pretty sure they think I hear my dolls talk to me at nite. But, in all honesty, I've always thought stuffed animals had feelings ever since I was little..and..to me, my dolls are kind of like a real person. Because if I do something to change the character, in my head, the characters going WHYD YOU DO THAT?" And no, thats not me having multiple personalities. It's the character I've created the doll to be. I don't actually see my doll talking to me IRL. I think some people think that (non-doll people). I think this is one of those things, like others have said, where non-doll ppl don't get it, but other doll owners do.

 

I don't have a doll at the moment. But, the characters and dolls that I create/will create are there because of ME. Not anyone else, not some supernatural entity. It was solely because I chose to take the time to envision a character. Build upon it and create it in a three dimensional form. The doll's story, history, and background are all created by me, not because it chose to be. Doll's can't make decisions. We make them for them.

Everyone has some form of craziness to them. We all talk to ourselves, talk to inanimate objects when were pissed at them or they don't go our way. But the idea that some people think that "They are their dolls" or That their dolls are "Living-Beings" or "Their dolls chose their own personalities, outfits, characters, Lifestyles, ect." Is really insane to me. We all should understand that inanimate objects can't make decisions on their own. Now, if your from a different culture/religion that believes in that then that's fine, but I'm speaking from a different standpoint. I hope not to offend anyone.

 

Being as I am a naturally combative person (ok I've said it, are you all happy now? ha ha) I would have been overjoyed at the chance to say "yeah that's what you think, idjit", and it would have rolled right off me, but as others have said I usually don't waste my time talking to Not Doll people about my dolls, except those who have the extreme fortune to live with us. They are subject to random torture at any time.
And yeah, a "real friend" would never be derisive about your hobbies/loves/whatever. They just smile and nod and pretend they get it. Some one mean enough to say nasty things about a doll, your dog, your pet rock, whatever you like should be shown the door.
I guess it comes down to how you were raised. My parents always showed respect and tolerance, so that's what I expect from people as an adult. I really think it is unfortunate to have parents that would judge you or look down on you because you like BJDs. Or anything else not immoral or illegal.

 

Honestly I wish there was more of an attitude of "it's a doll not a real person" in this hobby. I love my dolls and I think they're beautiful, fun, and can play out interesting characters and scenes in stories or photostories, but I know that any emotion or backstory I give the doll is just me making up scenarios for my own entertainment. The doll doesn't want new clothes, I want to buy new clothes for it. The doll isn't angry at being put in a stupid outfit/photo/pose, it's me imagining "how would the character act in this situation?" There seems to be a huge number of people that actually think said characters are real and that's unnerving to me.

 

I really agree with you on this Nefla. I know that it was one of the concerns my BF and some of my close friends had when I began this hobby.