Modding the gender of a doll/switching male heads to female bodies+vise versa?

I have a transgendered friend, a couple of transvestite friends and many gay friends. Having said that, taking about dolls sexuality - of any kind - is like, ....*ew*

...sorry, but they're dolls

 

I know that, but changing a doll's sex is NOT the same as a human changing their sex. I see many collectors on this forum who talk about it as if it is like changing a wig. I know from personal experience that changing one's sex, or even coming out to people as gay, is not something you just get up one morning and decide to do. It is emotionally and physically very painful. I do not believe it is to be taken lightly.

 

I lived in SF in 80's idrisfynn I'm sure you know what is was like then. Sorry if I seem defensive, but it was a very painful time in my life.

 

I have a Syo head on an SD10 girl body ^_^

I love the idea of gender mods! I've never done this, but I've often thought it would be fun to turn a minifee boy into a girl... I don't care for curvy boobie-girl bodies, so I'm not at all averse to turning a slim boy into a girl. Just sand away that lil' peen and maybe some of the ab muscles, lol, and you have a girl!

I've often modded big-boobed girl bodies to be small-boobed girls, too. I'm not fond of the "fashion" doll figure.
I know it's off topic for this specific thread, but I have a secret desire to mod a Unoa 2 to be a sweet, slim, small-boobed, normal-footed Japanese Lolita girl. Maybe an inexpensive one will plop into my lap someday...

I've considered getting a Unoa boy body and modding it to be a girl body too, but that hole where his peen-part would go kind of scares me!!! :-O XD

Raven

 

Without also going into the OT nature of people vs. dolls, I think that the fact that people explore sexuality and even transgender issues through their dolls is indicative of the fact that our culture (especially younger people in our culture) are not as wary of the issue as people from even my generation (I'm thirtysomething).

While I certainly don't believe all gender-swapping in dolls bears any relation to human tendencies toward the same (My first experience was with Shiro who, from the moment I opened his box, told me he wanted to be a girl... and so he's been ever since.) , I think that all doll heads are to a greater or lesser degree interchangeable. OK, maybe it's harder for a Hound to make a 'pretty girl' or for the very pretty Sooah to make a masculine boy, but with most sculpts there is plenty of neutrality that can be used as a palette to mod in either direction.

Personally I wouldn't change a body just because of the work involved. I'm lazy!! But I swap boy/girl heads around all the time.

And I think it's not so much an intended lack of sensitivity to the GLB transgender community as a growing willingness to look at changing genders and gender roles as 'normal' among youth culture. If younger people 'playing' transgender with their dolls means one less real person faces discrimination then that seems like a great thing to me~

Hope I didn't stray too far off-topic!
H

 

Edit: ryochan, I completely agree with you. It's all in the path to larger acceptance of the GLBT community. ^__^

I love seeing girl --> boy mods. Mostly because I am into the whole androgynous looking thing as well as my love for modification of any and all kinds. I currently have no plans for a modded girl body, but I'd LOVE to have one just for the challenge, as well as seeing the lovely shape.

I also agree with the people in this thread who are saying that these dolls AREN'T realistic, we've angels, demons, vampires, elves, zombies, animals... so why not extremely feminine boys? I myself have never seen a real boy who looked like that, but who cares? I love the concept and the shape and if it disturbs someone else then that is unfortunate, but not the problem of the owner.

I also understand the frustration at one of your boy characters/dolls being mistaken for a girl even if he dresses as one. Many people make it clear in the words of their gallery posts that their character is a BOY (especially if he's got a modded girl body) and then to have people comment on what a pretty girl he is is discouraging because it shows that the person did not read the text part at all, which often is relevant and important. *shrug* Such is life though.

And on another note, I also understand how people might be irked if they see blatant mods with not much background because they themselves know what it is like to live that kind of lifestyle. I too know how hard it is to be gay. Although, I think (not sure) what some people don't realize is that it is in admiration of that lifestyle - whether it be transgender, gay, or what have you - that the people fashion their characters or dolls like that. Even if they don't put much thought into it or don't understand (and I've found many people DO understand), they still support it so it's flattering to me. My gay characters have each had their difficulties with their lifestyle: extreme dissaproval of parents, shunned from society, having problems coming out even to themselves. So people really DO put lots of thought into the background stories for their dolls.

So, just my two cents, well... actually that was more like fifty cents... XD.

 

Two of my boys are are actually girl's heads. ^^ (Freilian and Fenyo)

I can see them either way though, since most people here have them as girls (I don't actually think I've seen any other male ones. o.o

I'm also paying for a Shiro Tachibana head right now, and the person I'm buying him from had him as a girl.... I can't see it, personally, but if it works for her, its fine. ^_^

 

So suppose you have a guy doll...can it be a girl too?

I hope I don't offend anyone when I say, some of the guys look so much like girls! In comparison to the actual girl dolls...not so much. But all by themselves...?

obviously it won't have a chest, Just don't make/buy low cut/tight clothes or you can fake it?

I would like to hear others opinions on this.

Would you do it? Have you done it? Or is it just too weird?



What brought this thought to mind were these dolls.

http://www.ecinter.net/frontstore/I...7&mart_id=hoo933&level=&mother_catalog_num=86

http://www.ecinter.net/frontstore/I...2&mart_id=hoo933&level=&mother_catalog_num=86

The one with the black hair is (hopefully) going to be my first doll! Most all of the female dolls I have seen...just don't appeal to me. When I saw the black haired doll I though, "She's perfect!" Then I saw it wasn't a she! I want to see what others think about gender switching. If I get to many 'NO WAY's!' I definitely won't do it.

 

Plenty of people turn boy dolls into girls and girl dolls into guys!

You can always buy a U head and a girls body. Its a bit more exspencive that way, but then you don't have to worry about selling the boy body and then buying a girl body.

Or you can "fake it" as well. U will be your doll and you should try not to care so much what others think. Besides, there are scads of boy body dolls that like to wear girly clothing, but if you really want U to be a true girl, you can always swap the body.

 

iSparrow- Obviously since your thread has been merged with another you can see that we're pretty accepting of that sort of thing . Some people may not like it, but no one is going to come down on you like a ton of bricks for it.

But just so you know, with DoD its pretty easy to do, both the girl body and U's head are available in Options as seperate pieces. It will cost you a teensy bit more but the resin wil probably match better than if you buy a whole boy and replace it with a girl bod later.

Edit-bah, stupid work interrupting me while I type a reply... Tonboko said it before me

 

Don't feel bad, that happens to me all the time!!

Hmm.... this thread makes me want to get Juri a twin brother....

 

Look at Mana--his girl-outfits are always ladylike and feminine, and his lack of a bosom is irrelevant.

Ann in CT

 

I am transgendered personally, so I think the idea of depicting a transgendered doll in an accurate light would be an interesting project to undertake. I would start the doll off, say, female, sand down the breasts, mold a male chest and add surgery scars, and do the same for the lower genitals. I would sand down the cheeks to try and make them more masculine and slowly add facial hair for the full transition effect.

If you think about dolls as not having sexuality or a sexual identity, I don't believe you should be paying hundreds of dollars for them. Treating a doll like a piece of plastic is something people do for a $10 barbie, not a $600 BJD. Once you spend that much money on something that resembles a human or a living thing, it's more than just a pretty object, especially since it serves no direct use (Like, say, a car would). If you give your doll ANY identity, like a name or a personality, you cannot deny them the other parts of humanity like a sexual identity. Being trans is a big part of who I am, but not what specifically defines my entire self.

Just letting people mod a trans doll for the challenge or an interesting idea would be opening up the community, so I say having a trans or cross-gendered doll in any way is a good thing. x3

Edit: Also, on the note of some heads not looking masculine/feminine enough to pass as the other gender, all trans people are different. Some are born looking very much like the other gender, and some are not. I personally have a body that looks very female, but I don't let that keep me from being who I am in any way. Sometimes working all the harder toward looking the part, so to say, makes it more worthwhile.

 

To me, modding a girl or boy doll into the opposite gender is not at all a question of modding their sexuality. Since until I create a character, they are just a chunk of resin, I can do anything, and it harms nothing. I'm just, basically, sculpting my doll. (only in the "I can't actually cast anything" sense of sculpting.) Gender isn't "changed" for the character just because the body was changed pre-character.

As far as body mods, I can't do them. I'm not a modder. But I enjoy seeing the results this brings, as it makes more individualized, varried body shapes. I like that!
I am very fond of switching the heads for opposite bodies though. I find this is not difficult at all, as most of the "boy" heads are a little feminine anyway. real girls can have an edge of masculinity to thier faces, and I have yet to see a boy face that is anything like a "jock" or "meaty guy" or "manly-man." I've seem manly face-ups, but not THAT manly a face. Female heads can also make very soft, feminine guys, which is also fun to see.

Anything that makes a doll individual and special, and that helps to make the character clear, is GOOD. modding, body switching, unusual gender... it's all up to the customizer. that's why this hobby is awsome. Anyone who says it bothers them that someone else with the same mold is doing something different with their doll... well, uh, I hate to say it, but you should either learn to cope with it (as this is inevitable) or learn to sculpt your own dolls. (^_^ Which would be super awsome too!!! so go for it!)

 

I'd say 90% of BJDs have a feminine look to them, and I only say that because I recently saw the creations of bishonenhouse.com, and that DK Aaron (aka God @_@), who even has a bit of a feminine body. It's easier to mod a BJD than it would be to "mod" a human, of course, but then again that's true for anything you want to do to your doll vs. yourself. I think if there were more realistic-looking dolls there would be more of a modding challenge to change the gender, but for now it's pretty easy. x3

 

I don't see why anyone should have any problems with it, given that BJDs are meant to be customised and have the visions of their owners brought to life in them anyway

In my case, one of my soon-to-be-complete boys is a modded Juri '05 (a girl head) on a male flexibody: the character is very delicate, pretty and rather feminine-looking (though he dresses and acts like a boy) so a girl's head - and Juri in particular - was just perfect to portray him. He's off for his faceup at the moment, but even blank I think he looks pretty good just as he is, and none the weirder or misproportioned for being a female head on a male body:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e187/maltecspider/four/DSCN0040.jpg

He's a sweet and gentle-looking boy whom I'd never have been able to get exactly 'right' with a male head + male body combination, and the gender-switch opens up a whole new range of possibilities with his sculpt. And of course, between the modding and the gender-switching there's no other doll on the boards quite like him, which is quite fun too *laughs*