Making Boy Dolls....Boys! [~Small Edit~]

Yeah, don't rely on square jaws, facial hair or pectorals to tip off the clueless. They'll always see what they want to see, so just brush them off. Even my brawny SD16 Yukinojo has been guessed a "she" by a casual observer, and don't get me started on people who think Iplehouse Akando looks feminine...

 

With the long wig, hair ornament, and sculpt... your (the OP's) doll does look like a girl doll.


As for the rest of the discussion...
I think a lot of dolls available look like girls, on the base of sculpt. They all have the sort of iconic 'girl' features used in art/comics/animation; delicate features, big eyes, small nose, pointed chin, 'rosebud' lips. It takes a bit of effort to get the right combination of custom elements (face-up, wig, clothes, accessories) to make some dolls look undeniably male x_X

I tend to dress my boys in boy clothes and my girls in girl clothes, which reduces the amount of mistaken genders, but it happens. I don't let it get to me; these dolls are pretty and 'pretty' often equals 'female' on a subconcious level, right? I don't let it get to me. It happens mostly with non-doll people, though.

Aramis, my BG Elf Afra (in my current icon) has never been mistaken for female. He's got quite a manly sculpt, even when decked out in his fancy magician/Hatter/gawth outfits. But people usually reffer to him as 'handsome' rather than 'pretty'. X3

But, if I see a gallery post with pictures of a cute doll with a long wig, flowers in the hair and wearing a dress, I WILL generally assume it's a female doll. It DOES offend me, however, when the person who posted the images blows a gasket at whoever makes a mistake in their comments... like saying "She's so pretty!" when the doll is a boy in drag. Chill. Your pretty-boy is wearing a dress; saying 'she' is an honest mistake. Don't take so much offense.

 

As for me, my girlfriend has DollZone Fei with girl body, originally it was a boy
Looks very nice, I love it.

 

After several months I still only get gender right barely half of the time. My roommate and I have often discussed this. I do believe most of the male BJDs I've seen look like girls (including the OPs--I have to look at the body to see if there are breasts to be sure, most of the time). In our discussions we got on the topic of the concept of beauty. (I'm going to use broad terms, so please don't haggle me about specifics.)

In Western culture (Europe, America), there are two distinct types of beauty, male and female, and each of those is expected to have it's own look in one direction or another. In Eastern culture (Asia), they have only one general type of beauty and it's not gender specific. They have very subtle differences between the male and female that denote gender in clothing and makeup and hairstyle, but to the untrained Western eye they are almost non-existent.

These dolls are Asian BJDs, and they follow that different concept of beauty, so naturally anyone who grew up in a Western type society would see most of the molds/androgynous look (and especially those with long hair) as being feminine to them.

 

My Zetto actually is based on a female headsculpt: Obitsu Gretel. However, his faceup is quite masculine, and he has the boy chest mod. However, I call him my "gender bender" because he still has a very feminine waist, abdomen and butt. Which is to be expected from a 2 piece 60cm Obitsu body, of course. It would be nice to have him look a bit more manly, particularly when he's naked. But he looks good in clothes, at least, and a 55cm abdomen should make him more convincing in skivvies.

 

Well, I can't really say I try and make my feminine looking boys look like boys at all so I never really would get annoyed when people call them a she... http://kazezakura.deviantart.com/art/BJD-Noon-hwa-Profile-128362177 http://kazezakura.deviantart.com/art/BJD-Unlikely-Duo-126732878

I mean specially my Korean boy. I actually technically DO crossdress him, (He wears the female Korean traditional dress rather than the male) but it just seemed like the sort of thing he would wear, he's not actually a crossdresser by character as such...

Basically- Yes I am aware 1/2 my dolls look like girls. However, the one thing that did confuse me was alot of people (Even dollers) thought my Miho is a girl, and I never dress him remotely girly, and he has very short hair.... http://kazezakura.deviantart.com/art/BJD-Lazy-Afternoon-144422600 I guess it's how western people see gender as someone already pointed out, as I am Japanese I see it differently?

 

To be honest, I don't like really masculine looking dolls. I guess in my humble opinion (because this is all just opinion and taste) it has to be somewhere in between. I guess I have an eye for the anime aesthetic.

 

My poor boy Azzy gets mistaken for a girl all the time. It really doesn't help that his face up is pink colored. Funny thing though, he's the only straight boy in the house.

 

Do you think my little boy looks like a girl? Does he look male, girly, or just female?
Many male bjds are a bit on the androgynous side (as in, can look a bit femme). Yours doesn't look very girly, but he is cute and boyish and young and has long hair and wears jewelry, so can easily be mistaken for a girl if one didn't know him.

I've seen plenty of real life young boys who had long hair and looked like girls at first glance, even if they were dressed as boys, so I'm not surprised that doll boys can also be mistaken for girls.

If he had short hair and was wearing no jewelry and just a t-shirt and shorts, he'd look more like a boy doll.

On the other hand, I've seen real life little girls who looked like boys! (Short hair and wearing t-shirts and shorts.) Really, any doll or human who looks YOUNG is more androgynous than a mature doll with more adult characteristics (unless they happen to retain their child-like looks, which some adults do!).

Is your boy often mistaken for a girl? Does it bother you?
Some of my boys definitely get mistaken for girls, and I don't dress them very femme. Some of them have pretty soft-looking features that aren't terribly masculine. They are more masculine than feminine-looking, but not by a LOT.

So I can understand why people may glance at them and think they might be girls. And no, it doesn't bother me.

I'd worry if I had a boy with short hair or facial hair and maybe an EID Superhero body and people still didn't get a clue... but I wouldn't be bothered so much as just surprised!

 

I think most of my dolls are slightly feminine (I have all boys). When people call them 'she's I just politely correct them and explain it's a he XD I'm a huge fan of androgyny and if I choose to express that through my dolls, then I just expect people to assume they are female. I actually think it's funny when I can say they have the parts to prove they are in fact male, haha.

 

Actually i think your boy looks like a boy xD.

I have to agree with what many on here have already said. In western culture, our society has a gender binary, boy or girl. It has conditioned us to see certain things as female or male. pink = female blue= male, long hair = female etc. When things do not conform to that binary its automatically seen as odd or confusing, so we try and stick with those ques to catagorize it male or female. Other cultures may or may not have this gender binary so they will view things differently. It is not done intentionally or with malice, its just something people have learned. If it does happen to you, you can just inform them they are incorrect and explain that he/she is male or female.


to OP: your boy does look a little girly, but if i saw him in person i'd probably be able to make a better judgement. But he is very cute x3 I can already tell that my boy is going to be confused as a girl when he gets home xD perhaps i can just let him run around shirtless >_>;; though i do not mind if he is confused for a girl. i bet he'd just take it as an oppourtiny to flirt ><;

 

I know how you mean - whenever somebody says "he" on the first try, I always congratulate them like they just answered the Daily Double question on Jeopardy!. This makes them feel all kinds of smart & culturally-diverse & everything.

What always cracks me up is how some people keep insisting on 'she' even after you've explained that it's male. "No, really-- it does look quite effeminate, but it's still a boy. I'm sorry if this is confusing to you." Luckily, here in San Francisco not many people seem to have trouble grasping the concept. Anybody who has a half-ounce of appreciation for the glam, they grok it right away.

This respectable-looking fatherly-type passerby in Golden Gate Park, one day, he took a look at Miroslav's studded black leather getup and said, "Hey, this dude looks like somebody at the Glass Kat on Wednesdays" (which, as locals know, is when & where the famous Bondage-a-Go-Go club is hosted every week). He just took it for granted that an outlandish doll would be male. This tickled me to no end. XD

 

As lots of people have already said most people think Doll = Girl but it is still kinda annoying when it happens to you I understand how Carter my AoD MSD could be confused but Wen is an Elfdoll Mir a fairly masculine sculpt IMHO and recently my brothers girlfriend said "she was interesting".......so some people just don't know

 

I have a hard time telling if some dolls are boys or girls. The faces look so feminine, yet they have guy bodies...sometimes I just don't get it...

 

Umm, has anyone ever had the opposite problem? Trying to have girly boys that people would find androgynous and failed?

My CP Yder is the manliest doll I own and he was supposed to be a slim, fragile, effeminate creature. Not that I mind now, now I'm actually pleased, but my Ilari sure was picky about his look.

On another note:
And my AA Ling in long brown hair with bangs (see Avatar) got recognized as a boy by a cab driver! It was awesome. I was so pleased with myself and with my doll.

 

I must be strange, but I don't think I've ever made that mistake when looking at or asking about a persons doll. I mean unless they are cross dressing.

 

There is definitely an assumption that ALL dolls are female. I was once doing a photoshoot in the park with Yaret, who, being a Sabik, is huge and as masculine as they get. He had all his medieval gear on, sword and all. So this one couple is, like, "Ooh, look, what a gorgeous warrior-princess!"

 

I think my boy looks totally like a boy; short hair, minimal faceup, and fitted boyish clothes that show off his male shape; and yet the last comment he got was "why have you given her such short hair".
I guess some people have never seen a male doll before so they just assume that ALL dolls are female.
Apart from having them nekkid what else can you do...

 

MY friends in highschool were able to distinguish my boys gender, but my college friends don't. I don't understand why?

 

This is a win for "best you-are-not-listening edit" ever.

Iam sorry I have nothing more constructive to say. I have held off getting a boy doll, however, pretty much because I don't want a doll that could EVER be mistaken for a girl. Androgyny is not my thing.