Pediophobia

There are actually a few BJD moulds that trigger off a weird reaction in side of me that makes me think "....this is all wrong."

I grew up SURROUNDED with these creepy crossdressed porcelain dolls that I Used to have to sleep in the same room as and, while it freaked me out at the time, I didnt think it had long term effects on me. Till I came across this hobby. Some cross dressing dolls DO make me recoil in fear but it's a particular look to the mould that warrants it more. It dont come across it often which is good times! =D

 

While i know that Pediophobia is very real for many people, i've also encountered those who 'say' they are scared of dolls, when in fact, it's just a ruse to get attention. I've seen a girl who would climb over ANYONE to get out of a room that had a porcelain doll (or BJD) in it. Tears streaming down her face, and a wild look in her eyes. And then i've seen people who say "OMG, i'm so terrified of dolls", only to mess with their hands or hair when no one is really paying attention. So i think we should acknowledge first and formost, that there are varying degrees of "pediophobia".

 

My first doll collection was forced on me by my birth father. he'd buy me a porcelain doll every year for my birthday and every year i'd smile and say thanks dude...but then...my 10th bday..he got my...a porcelain clown...that SUNG. id be asleep and the ..thing...would just start singing all on its own. you dont want a clown doll singing to you alone in the dark whether you 10 or 23! so at that point i told him just to give me money from now on lol. cause he gave me a porcelain doll every year, EVERY family member bought me a porcelain doll for every occasion. i had so many.

I do love barbies, bjds, and living dead dolls though. my sister hates my living dead dolls but isnt bothered by bjds. she thinks its wrong they are so tall :P but other then that. she just feels my living dead doll is going to kill her and i swear..it had nothing to do with me sneaking into her room and standing it over her while she slept...i swear....:P

 

This is a very interesting topic. I also like to know why people react to certain things. I believe that main reasons are as follows:

1. scary movies
2. bad tramas as children
3.doll eyes

Believe it or not many people, I think, are afraid of dolls because of their eyes. I mean they are so real but they never close and are always staring. Me, myself, I am not afraid of most dolls. Some creep me out but I have an overactive imagination. I love bjds though. I also know that the reason I got my bjd, was because I am very lonely at times. I am nyctophobic though. (afraid of the dark) That was partly because of a scary movie watched when I was eight and partly because my family sees spirits. I saw one once and I haven't slept with the lights off since. Thats a story for another time though.

 

I'm scared of dolls - just not all the time.

Like, if I saw a scary movie about dolls, I'd be scared of some of my dolls. This is kind of the reason why the very large dolls (80cm +) are not something I ever see myself getting. I'd be too afraid of seeing them peering at me while I slept, or something spooky.

But the smaller ones, like my MSD aren't scary - probably because they're smaller dolls. I think people get creeped out by dolls because dolls are modeled after people. I feel it would be harder to get scared of a harmless teddy bear, than a harmless doll (though I'm sure there's a phobia for that, too). Yet, I still really like scary doll movies, and books probably because that tends to be what scares me. So if I look for a scary movie, I'd more likely pick something with dolls, or something else that scares me.

 

I love BJD. I am totally creeped by china old dolls. I don't blame movies cause i can't look at horror movies, but they are old, they have seen things, who knows where they have been, who were their owners.....just way too creepy!
And since i also collect Blythe, i recently got my first kenner, a vintage blythe. She is 38 years old and she is different from the others. She does not look old and her condition is very good, but i feel lke she has had some life to her , and stories to tell. She does not scare me, but she could, i tell you, because all the others do it big time LOL

 

I'm also one that is not scared of BJD's, but kind of 'creeped out' by porcelain dolls. Wouldn't call it fear (because I've lived with a phobia for 16 years, and it's not fun) but they definately make me uneasy.
I think it's the fact that they are childlike proportions in grownup style, or something. it's just unnatural and creepy. And I find that their wack painted faces stare more into your soul than the carefully faceupped dolls around here.
Baby dolls are also scary, because they are just too lifelike and actual size.
On the topic of pediophobia, I think most people are just creeped out, not actually phobiacs. Phobia is a severe fear that interferes with your everyday life, so unless like someone mentioned above, you jump over people in panic to get away from them, you don't have a phobia in my eyes. Being scared of something doesn't equal a phobia.
I've lived with a phobia for dogs for 16 years, and things like being scared of spiders *ooooh a spider, I don't want to be around that* for me, is nothing compared to that. I won't go into details, but it's not pretty.
Which is also why I'm not a fan of people that force their scared friends to hold their dolls and such. I've seen comments about that in places and it honestly sickens me. They think it's funny to see someone be terrified, but honestly, being so scared of something you can't even breathe is one of the worst feelings I've ever felt and I wouldn't wish that to happen to anyone.

 

I can understand why people would be afraid of dolls. There is a store here in Denver that sells and restores antique dolls, many of them are BJDs. The store feels a bit like a museum but all of those glass eyes and old tattered clothes made me feel that I was in a den of vampires.

 

I don't know if I said this, but I'm not afraid of most porcelain dolls. I owned two as a kid, and I knew they were easily breakable, so I was careful... But whenever they show old, dirty porcelain dolls from 100 years ago, or something, those are creepy.

And there was that creepy doll island somewhere...

 

I think with some people, and some dolls... there's an "uncanny valley" sort of response.
falling right in the gap of FEELING too realistic to be fake, but too fake to Feel real (or feeling they're real and knowing they are fake) which is probably what an encounter with an alien would sorta feel like too.

and if someone is truely phobic, exposing them (or forcing them to be around) something that REALLY sets off a fear response (and yes they KNOW it's not a reasonable fear) is just cruel.

(one of the reasons that when I made a photostory involving rats, even though they are PLUSHIES, I cautioned people that there were rats...so they could choose whether or not to see the photos.)

 

once in an animecon we were participating in an art contest and my friend's doll were sitting beside me and the contest's animator was almost scared to death when she saw that doll. I think this phobia is caused by the horror movies most of the time, because I can't believe that when she was a child she didn't play with dolls at all. also if she really fears them she should be scared of plushies too because they are "dolls" too.

Most of the time these peopel are healthy and didn't have any serious bodily disease so that they make up an own "disease" that they can tell they have it and these are the phobies. This is just my opinion.

 

On one hand, my mother loves dolls (Specially porcelain ones) since she was a child. The time she saw my BJD she absolutely loved them and thought they were really realistic. Nowadays she even has her own BJD. On the other hand, for similar reasons, but just on the opposite side, my future sister-in-law is scared of dolls, specially if they are porcelain ones. When I was set to show some of my BJD to her - I hope she may make some clothes for them someday as she is tailor - I was afraid of her reaction. To my surprise she liked my big guys - She said they were very good looking -, but she found my MNF Soo, cute in a dress and with long blonde hair, really creepy, the same way she feels about porcelain dolls, and she got honestly scared. She loves horror movies so maybe that is the why of her fear to some of my BJD.

 

I find it interesting that the word for fear of dolls and fear of small children are linked together. I can understand the connection somewhat, at least in the age in which the word was put to use (Dolls of adult proportion being significantly less common), but find myself in a strange place.
As a child I was afraid of dolls, Notably barbies and Porcelain dolls. Barbies were inhuman and dead feeling, while the porcelain dolls were also inhuman feeling, but DISTINCTLY Alive. It bothered the hell out of me. I would destroy barbies, but porcelain dolls were just too creepy to get that close to.
I assumed it was all dolls, until I met my first BJD and encountered a very different feeling; they feel just as alive as porcelain dolls, but very much more human. I loved them.
The reason I find myself in a strange place, is because I'm still morbidly afraid of babies and toddlers (I abhor small children, but it's not fear). I can only attribute this to babies giving off the same feeling as porcelain dolls, or an even creepier feeling; they either feel alive and very inhuman, or human, but very very dead.

 

I've lived in America all my life...and Western dolls scare the heck out of me. I can't stand them. I performed many a Barbie head transplant back in the day.
And then I found BJDs and I suddenly wanted a doll.
Also, dolls that look like children (but not BBs or Tinies) freak me out. But then again I don't like real children, either.

Also, my parents decided it would be great to get me a living dead doll when I was about seven. Not happy. That and a giant scorpion model.

 

I have a friend who has a BJD that lives under his desk (hiding away from the sunlight).

When he first got him, he was mailed to my address and when I spent the week at his house I brought the doll for him.

His cousin was also spending the week and his cousin is terrified of most dolls. He absolutely hated my YoSD and thought she was 'creepy' with her 'big empty eyes' (her eyes are glass and have no pupils).

However he thought that my friend's BJD (A 1/3 BBB Apollo) was 'cool'.

His mother was the other way around, though - she thought the YoSD was adorable, but the SD was creepy.

Other then that, most of the people I know just think they're 'creepy'. They put up with me having them around or showing off pictures, but they aren't fond of them.

 

I did not really like dolls when I was little. I had a choice few that I even remotely played with, other than that, most of my Barbies have one foot chewed off, thanks to my little brother. I tried to make my Barbies more appealing to me, as I was more into the My Little Ponies. I tried to get into Porcelain dolls, but finding sculpts I actually liked was hard, I have one doll I treasure, and she's an angel that was given to me by my grandmother. The other dolls are completely lifeless, and, kind of creepy to me now. I have another doll, a Kachina doll, that sits on my stereo, but he's White Wolf, and a guardian. He was gifted to me by a close friend of my late grandfather's. She was rehoming her hand made dolls, and gave him to me. He's all natural and authentic, and took her about 80 hours to make.

I get the 'is that a child?' question all the time when I have Amadeaus out. One day, I was at the mall, and we were sitting on a stone bench, it had enough room on the back that he was sitting up there, while I read through a new book and ate some food. Suddenly, I had this lady looking around with this just confused look on her face. When I saw her, she hadn't seen me yet, I slipped my hand up Amadeaus' back and turned his head just slightly to look at her. She nearly fainted. I know, I was horrible, but she was interested in him. I've freaked out the receptionist at my dentist by flipping open his head, and have gotten my family to make strange noises when I've taken a doll apart. I just like to find out all the reactions to them. One of my friends LOATHES my doll, and she doesn't even know about my other two, and the fourth on the way. Now, what dominates my room are my dragons.

--EDC

 

Like many folks, I *loathed* dolls as a child. Well, the pudgy, child-like dolls. My poor Cabbage Patch Kids ended up buried under about 20 pounds of clothes and paper when I was convinced they were possessed, would burst into flame at a moment's notice, or kill me in my sleep.

Barbies were better, because they were adult. I did prefer to play with them and my neighbor's GI Joes together. Something about being "forced" to be womanly freaked me out.

To this day, I'm really not at all a fan of the childlike dolls, with the exception of 18th century automatons and the Victorian fashion dolls, and I end up doing a lot of what might be termed cosplay with those styles (I look like a porcelain doll, so I work with it). But I'm also not a big fan of the young-looking BJDs either, much preferring the more adult-looking larger dolls.

There's something of a corollary with my fear of real children, though, so I find it interesting the words are the same. Even from a young age, I was kind of afraid of other children, or didn't care for them much. That's lasted until very recently, where suddenly I'm actually kind of enjoying the little ragamuffins. A lot of that is due to my having the most amazingly awesome boyfriend ever, but I can't help wondering if my new BJD obsession is somehow linked to my sudden about-face when it comes to children.

Has anyone else overcome a fear of children by overcoming a fear of dolls?

 

Isara, what you described sounds very familiar.

Actually, I used to be not afraid, but at least uncomfortable with children, and also I was fascinated by dolls but a bit hesitant to play with them or collect them. But when I got into the doll hobby (it didn't begin with BJDs, but the way lead me to them in the end), it changed. I don't know if it is a coincindence, though.

A friend of mine says that dolls are creepy because they consist of different parts (fragmented, so to say), while humans are a "whole" thing. And BJDs consist of more parts than a Barbie, for example. She always gets a feeling that the dolls look injured somehow.

While pediophobia is an issue for some (and maybe was for me?), I think that the main reason for people to be afraid of dolls, and expecially BJDs, is not as much the fear of children, but the "uncanny valley" phenomenon, already mentioned by trinlayk here: something artificial that is very close to being (or looking like a) human, but not perfectly so, might provoke an alienated and "creeped out" feeling.

 

I happen to have been a Pediophobe for quite awhile, on both aspects of the word. Like with most phobias, certain things trigger it, but not all things.

For instance, I am terrified of most baby dolls, and even most Bratz dolls. I think it's about head proportion with me, because I am uncomfortable with Pullips, Blythes and RealPukis ( I can be around them, they just make me nervous.) Surprisingly enough, PukiPukis don't bother me at all, but I'm terrified of Bratz *shrug*.

Also, I am terrified of babies in general. I worked in a daycare for years, and I could never work the baby room.. ever. I worked fine with children two and up, but babies just bother me greatly. I think it's because babies seem to alien to me, with their huge eyes and huge heads, along with a strong fear of somehow hurting them by accident. However, my strongest fear is actually of pregnancy and pregnant women. Now, pregnant women can be scary in their own right, but for me, the fear involves the belly. I won't touch the bellies of pregnant women, and I prefer to be away from them. I guess it's just because I see the pregnant belly as a sign of a parasite living within, and it just creeps me out, even though it's just a very young human.

I do eventually want a child of my own, but I know deep down that I could never go through a pregnancy. It may seem a tad heartless to say it, and I really do not mean to upset anyone by saying this, but I would choose abort if I ever found out that I was pregnant. Of course, that isn't likely at all, as I am also terrified of sexual relations because of being terrified of pregnancy. My boyfriend is surprisingly the same way, so atleast having that support helps.

As far as we're concerned, we don't have children, so we have dolls and video games to spend our time on instead. Now, many of our friends have kids, and we'd never harm them. In fact, we've offered to allow one of our friends' kids to come over to our place after school on weekdays since our house is a block from his school, and his mom works late on weekdays in order to keep his mom from worrying about him while she's at work. He enjoys the idea because we're good at mario cart and have sergeant frog for him to watch (I know, he's already a little geekling.) Of course, many of my friends are aware of my aversion regarding babies and pregnancy and are rather respectful of it.

I suppose the reason that Pediophobia covers both children and dolls is because baby dolls ( a staple of dolls made for a large part of human history) tend to be a common fear with those who are fearful of very young children. I've heard of some observers thinking that SDs are anorexic toddlers so perhaps that's where the link is?

I'm sorry, I ramble a bit. I swear I didn't mean for it to be this long... just contributing some information I suppose to fuel the thread.. ^^'

 

When I first read this I thought it said Podophobia, which is fear of feet. I am not afraid of dolls or feet, but I do have zombiephobia.