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Pediophobia

Sep 13, 2005



    1. Most are afraid of dolls because they are created to resemble us, especially some BJD that tend to look extrememly life-like.


      Dolls look empty and cold, and that also adds on, they are hollow on the inside but they stare at you with those glass eyes as if they were real. :lol:

       
    2. I have a mild fear of small children, but not of dolls. I don't know about other people, but my general fear/dislike of small children comes from a fear that I will somehow "break" them; drop them on their heads, teach them to cuss, otherwise fuck them up.
      Of course, this fear extends towards Ichiiro, but not as severly, naturally. I'm afraid of hurting him, but I know he can be fixed; children can't be repainted, or restrung, and they can't be replaced.

      Sometimes dolls give me the creeps - especially the really realistic baby dolls, but that's connected to issue #1, and the fact that they look so lifelike, I expect them to start moving or crying or something. BJD might be realistic, or at least moreso than Barbie, or whatever, but thier small scale (Leeke, for example, is about ten inches high; not realistic for a human baby) keeps them from creeping me out.
       
    3. My Grandmother lives on a little house on the shores of Lake Michigan that has heavily wooded surroundings. Whenever we visit my Grandmother and spend the night, I like to wander around the woods around dusk and enjoy listening to the crickets and frogs, keeping a look out for any wild animals. I've always loved doing this and I've always carried around a huge flashlight in case I wander too long and it starts to get dark. However, one day it changed.

      I was walking like normal along the same exact path I took every time, when I knew for a fact that something was watching me. I also knew it wasn't a coyote or a bobcat (there is rumored to be like one bobcat and one bear in the area surrounding my Grandma's... Only the drunk see them though) Just because I thought something was watching me, my heart jumped into my throat and suddenly I couldn't breath. The next thing I knew I had run all the way back to my Grandma's and was shivering on the front porch and staring out at the water.

      I've had a problem with those woods ever since, but I've wandered around different woods when it was pitch black with no flashlight and known wolves and bear around (I <3 the UP). It's the same way for my friend's basement. To everyone else it's just a normal looking finished basement. There's a couch, a TV, the laundry machine, etc. To me it's a scary place where I flatly refuse to go. I even refuse to go into the bathroom in my friend's house because the only one is by the stairs down. Anywhere else in the house is fine. Any other basement is fine. Heck, at home by bedroom is in the basement. It's just an irrational fear of something that's simply not there.

      It's probably the same way the the dolls. Espically the people who won't elaberate beyond 'creepy' are probably caught by this irrational fear of something they can't understand. Espically if it's a fear of one doll over another, or of one type of doll. Maybe there's no cause for it.
       
    4. I have that too..you never know how a child may react, you might think you're doing the right thing, but you never know when you might hurt them..sometimes I see kids crying over something which I can't imagine why it upset them so much, and then I wonder 'then what can I say? What if I hurt them?' I'm also very scared of moms ^^'' expecially those of young children..mothers with young children are aways very dangerous, be it in the animal world or in the human world

      About dolls being creepy..maybe the fact that they look so lifelike, and to us, they are alive, they have their own personality and seem to tell you things is the thing that scares other people? We all learned that all objects are without a soul, lifeless. Our dolls aren't lifeless at all, even though they are objects, they seem to be alive..I think this confuses people, they see something that they know is just an object, but is so lifelike and seems to have a soul..it's scary. Same as with horror movies: you know it's fake, but it's still scary. Or you know those actors don't like each other, or that the guy on the screen isn't really dead..but it's still romantic, or sad.

      Maybe, people who come from the anime/videogame world are more used to being attached to things that you know are not real. They accept they absolutely love a character, and aren't creeped out anymore by the fact that it's just a drawing. Maybe this is why BJD come from Asia..


      intresting topic^^
       
    5. I was reading about the uncanny valley phenomenon when Kansei was developed. Talk about creepy.

      More info on these corpses and pictures are here. One of the most well preserved bodies known is in this crypt a two year old child who died in 1920, Rosalia Lombardo. The method used to preserve her is not known.

      Some of the old victorian dolls with pointy teeth unnerve me a bit, but otherwise it doesn't bother me. My friend is creeped out by closed eye heads.
       
    6. I'm not afraid of any dolls, although there are certainly some I do not find at all appealing. I do like the antique porcelain dolls though, even if they have pointy teeth! After you look at enough of them, they have a certain charm that is all their own, and a lot of it is due the the fact that they were all hand painted, sometimes not as nicely as others, but each does have its own personality. I believe that's some of the charm of the BJDs.

      Small children, however.....eeeew. I'm not afraid of them but I do not like them. They are noisy and greedy and cruel. And there's nothing worse than hearing some mother trying to reason with a two year old who is in the middle of a tantrum! Like that does any good!

      There is no way that my dolls are compensation for my lack of children. I have cats for that! :lol:
       
    7. ~Wow, this is amazing, there seems to be an equal amount of people who love dolls and people who fear them.

      JaDE_rUst ; The woods thing would have totally freaked me out too, just reading about it made me uncomfortable.

      christalblu; the overcompensating thing is new to me, I've never heard that before, it's really interesting, maybe noboidy has mentioned it to me because I have a child of my own, I wish they had, I haven't really thougth as to why I collect dolls until now. :| Maybe I just do as default, my grandmother did it, and my mother and now me! I inherited the passion for doll collecting from the women in my family.
      ~Quote; "I think dolls also force people to look at something in themselves because they're charicatures of people" I think you hit on something very true and scary here!

      ~What surprised me the most was the fearfull reaction against the BJD because the dolls are so beautiful and "modern" looking that I thought people would be captivated by this contemporary beauty.
      I was the only one with ABJDs. One of the students in the group said that my dolls were freaky and I didn't really beileve her, but I thougt if anything it would be my vamp girl to freak people out because of the of the fear of Dracula.

      Oh... and the wig thing is totally true, :lol: , Lefanu's wig feel off at one point and this older lady actually gave out a little squeak, and it wasn't of delight! Seeing him bald was just too much for her!
       
    8. I have never liked dolls.

      As a young girl I had some, given to me, and I tried to play with them because they were gifts, but.. I didn't like them. I never wanted to give them voices, or play or dress or do anything with them.

      For me, I was a stuffed animal kid-- and I still love them now. I will never, ever, ever get rid of them, and my parents know they are forbidden from selling or otherwise getting rid of the ones I've had since childhood. They are my babies and I love them.

      But dolls.. I wasn't scared of them so much as I just don't like them. I don't think they're very appealing, and the ones I think are okay are usually more like statues (they don't move). Certainly not children's dolls.

      I never liked children either-- especially as a child. I disliked children younger than myself, and much preferred to interact with and be treated as an adult. THey were not pleasing to me, and I certainly never wanted to be a mother of any sort.

      I've done all sorts of psychoanalysis to figure out why I preferred animals to children, but I won't bore you with what I've found. Suffice it to say...

      ... my ABJDs are very, very dear to me and so different from most 'dolls' that I hardly consider them such. I'm still very picky about my headmolds, faceups, eyes, etc... it doesn't take much to turn me off of wanting a doll. I can appreciate other people's dolls, even if I don't like them myself, but I don't feel that kind of affection for them.

      Perhaps it's because of their stylistic nature-- I hate 'realistic' dolls, they are unappealing to me-- even turning me away from them. But the more stylistic sculpt and familiar anime-style features are much more comforting to me-- even if they creep other people out XD; It actually took a long time to get used to some of the huge-eyed dolls like Chii or the MSD fairy kits...

      I don't say I feel about my dolls like I'd feel about my stuffed animals or other loves-- they aren't toys, but they also aren't my children. They're more like pieces of art I can keep adjusting and changing to my heart's content-- an outlet for my creativity and imagination. And yes, they are comforting to hold, somehow XD;
       
    9. omg I can't finish reading this thread b/c now *I* am creeped out, LOL!!!

      beautiful dead child? AACKKK aackk acccck

      Of course if I thought they looked like that, I would not like them in my house. EEP. I find some of those older antique dolls kinda creepy looking... but I think bjds are just beautiful, I don't think they look dead at all, they look very alive to me.

      People have commented that they think it's creepy that you can change their eyes - some people have an "eye thing", you know, if they have an eyelash in their eye they freak out. I've been blind as a bat since I was a kid, so I'm using to having my eyes poked at, contacts, etc., that I definitely don't have an "eye thing." But people who do, find bjd eyes on the creepy side.

      I will leave a doll sitting around nekkid with no wig - but I will NOT leave a doll sitting around with no eyes in. It's not so much it creeps me out (when would I ever find JB creepy??) but it seems mean or something, eyes are the windows to the soul and all that, and I don't like leaving them sit around like... a shell.
       
    10. I have found that I love certain dolls for their style qualities and some for being so lifelike. Although, If I can have it, I prefer both. I think I appriciate the doll the more "real" it appears. I am a stickler for appearance. I has to be beautifull to me if I am going to want it. But, like Shradrad, I love others doll even if they are not to me personal liking. It is sort of like seeing it as the loved "child" of another rather than just a doll. Much like appreciating a friends dog that is not a breed you find attractive. Your friend loves it, so you like it too.

      I think the only dolls I have ever been afraid of were my great great grandmothers marionettes and Chucky. Chucky, because when I was really young (we're talking to my mom's knee's here) I saw the poster for the movie and thought he was charming. Then, I noticed several different things about him that anerved me. After that, I knew they were there and he didn't scare me. It was just the slow realization that put me off. My gg's marrionettes are the same way. One is a which and the other a young woman. At first they are alright. Then after I started to play with them (also this is when I was very young) I noticed that the girl was bleeding from the mouth. And her eyes. I ran to my mom to tell her she had to help her, crying my eyes out. I know now that the dolls were just splattered with red paint at some point in their long lives, but it scared me.

      Also, I meant to post to this string but I messed up, I have another comment posted right above this topic.
       
    11. I don't know WHY I went to that site, but I did and believe me that picture of that little girl is going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life...
       
    12. Yeah I'm not going to that site. I am the world's biggest chicken. OMG.
       
    13. Caeli (sd13 nono) has managed to creep me out in certain light. I have never in my life had a fear of dolls, so it was a bit unnerving to walk into my bedroom one night and have this uncanny sense that Caeli was watching and smirking at me and @.@ looked about to move. Salim (MSD sakura) standing right next to her elicited no such responce, even though I have given her the more aggressive personality. It was strange, and I have since cut down on the dynamic, lifelike poses she gets when in her doll stand.

      Needless to say, I will concede that Caeli can be creepy. I'm likely to chew out a stranger for coming up to me and telling me Salim is creepy (They can feel that way all they wish, but I won't tolerate being approached, told my doll is creepy and having them wallk away, not cool) but I think I'd have to agree if anyone said Cae was. Which is odd, because I get nicer reactions for Caeli than I do Salim.

      I guess whatever it is, SOMETHING triggers a negative reaction, just a feeling that something isn't quite right. It was very strange and she had to come sit at the computer with me because I would not turn my back on her.

      I wonder if, with all the joints, its a fear of movement and an inablilty to control those movements that can set people off. Many people I encounter, even the sweet ones, are a bit put off, until they see me move the doll. I wonder if this reassurance that the human controls the doll helps people past the OMG CREEEPY initial shock.

      Just an experance from within the BJD world for ya.
       
    14. ~I have always been shocked at the pedophile connection you mentioned Kit, and it is very upsetting to me that you have to put up with that, but it is true, older people, especially older men, who collect dolls are viewed as strange and sometimes perverted people. Pedophiles in fact. Although this point of view is mostly Western since other cultures have different views on dolls and doll collecting.
      Even people who take pics of children are sometimes seen as strange. No doubt there are people who collect dolls who are also pedophiles but this is not the norm. It isn't the doll that makes someone into a pedophile, the person already is and they happen to collect dolls.

      ~On the death death thing I wanted to add that I think there's also a connection between dolls and post mortem portraits. Before photographs, when someone died, their family would commission an artist to paint a portrait of the person as remembrance. The adult or child was dressed in his or her finner clothes and "propped" up against pillows and well... posed for the painter. Sometimes the eyes were open.
      You can always tell the person is dead, these portraits are very disturbing especially the ones with children in it. I find the black and white ones less scary than the sepia ones.
      Has any of you ever seen one of this portraits? They are just awful. Sometimes you find them in garage sale, antique stores and I found a couple at the Goodwill.

      ~So when people said Lefanu looked like a dead child I immediately thought of these paintings. I think everybody has either seen them or heard about them somehow. Maybe this is what they unconsciously remember when they see dolls, regardless of how modern a doll may be.
       
    15. yaaaahhh okay honest I can't read this thread anymore! nightmares for sher, lol... I'm telling you I'm the biggest chicken EVER. I really really really hope I don't ever see one of those. OMG. OMG. :shudder
       
    16. Wow! I think that's so amazing... Am I the only one? I guess I'm morbid or something, I think post mortem portraits are really interesting, too... *ashamed*
       
    17. They are quite eerie, I find them rather sad rather than frightening. It sounds odd to us now, with our instant picture gratification, but many times that would be the only picture they ever had of the deceased person. And of course the Victorian take on death was quite different from ours! We can barely even name it any more. Someone "passes" rather than dies.
       
    18. Hey, if you're morbid, I'm morbid too. ^_^ They ARE facinating. Nothing to be ashamed about.
       
    19. I didnt realize other people view male doll collectors frequently as liking children as sexual objects (I avoid the use of the word pedophile for a reason explained in a bit) I wonder if this is an American view, or if it is shared by other cultures. Do the Japanese consider the dollfie collectors that way. Anyone care to sound off about that or the european view? Further are odd reactions and rude comments made mostly in the USA or do they happen all over the world?

      Here is the lingusitic lesson for today. Although the term pedophile is used to denote someone that likes children as sexual objects, the usage is incorrect. A pedophile more acuratly would be a person that loved children. A pederast is someone that wants to have sex with them. Not that I expect this information to revolutionize the way we currently use the term.

      semirans
       
    20. I, personally, don't really get the fear of ABJDs. To me, they are beautifull. Other dolls however... *shudder*

      I spend ages not liking modern dolls and being creeped out by antique ones. yes, I had a few, but I never connected with them. I'd do three things or so and then go back to my stuffed toys. I can't point a finger at the horror movies, mum was very good at keeping them away form me. By the time I saw my first doll-horror I was over my fear (but not dislike) of dolls...

      What irks me is that most dolls are made to resemble children, thick faces and puffy hands... and I'll be honest here and admit that I absolutely despise small children. They make messes, can't communicate, rarely think with even the smallest trace of logic, are loud... My mother instincts are probably defect or something, because I prefere to have at least 3 meters between me and the nearest small kid. (for the same reason i will never, every hold a baby. I just know I'd drop it if I can't put it down quick enough).

      To me, western-style dolls resemble small children. Not nessecerilly alive or dead, just kids. Kids with which I only have bad associations.
      To me, most ABJDs are stripped of that aspect. Yes, they still resemble people, but so do most paintings. I prefere the stylized ones over the realistic ones, but neither of them pulls up the smae kind of repulsion I feel for other dolls...

      Of course, there are always exceptions... a couple of years ago I bought a porcelain doll at a fleamarket. She's a little lady. She looks like a small young woman dressed up for her sunday walk, and though she's a little bit round in the face, it is nowhere NEAR the babyfat-look.

      All that said and done; I can understand the fear of dolls in general, but not of ABJDs... I guess it must be the mirror-side of my own fear. :sorry


      (edit)
      As for the mummies... I love them. I do have the natural fear of death, but the dead themselves facinate me... And mummies are, least to say, VERY interesting to look at. To me they look more caring than skeletons, you cna still see that they were humans that lived a life...