Pediophobia

I suppose you could say I have Pediophobia, I'm not scared of children but they repulse me... I don't like to be near them, especially babies.
I won't go into into because I've been called evil for my repulsion, I just excuse myself before I start to get frustrated. o.o'' (hyper sensitive mothers have the idea I might hurt their children *sigh* )

My doll is a 1/3 and doesn't resemble a child in any way, at least to me it doesn't...
Though she kinda freaked me out with her staring eyes when I first got her, I just decided I wasn't gonna let it bother me XD
My friend is terrified of her, she's afraid my doll 'will come to life and strangle her' D| I just looked at her hands and went 'really?' lol
Apparently the male doll I'm waiting for is much less creepy just because he is male. o.O
My mother likes my doll but 'doesn't like her enough to want her' XD
my Grandma was like OOOOHHH *stare* (she held her and studied her for like 30mins)
my German side of the family loves her but my scotish side doesn't care XD

 

I think it is a matter of not being comfortable of treating an inanimate object like it is sentient. Even if you argue that you treat them like a doll to a certain degree we treat our dolls the way we would treat a person. We spend hundreds of dollars on them, we buy clothes, shoes and accessories for them. We spend countless hours playing with them and making them things. We think up complex personalities and back stories for them. I think this makes people a little uneasy.
Its kinda like when you find an "adult toy" in someones house, you have some background knowledge of what it is and cant help but imagine the uses for it. so just seeing the object is awkward and makes some people feel uneasy to the point of being fearful. Playing with dolls is something most people think only little girls do, and when they see a grown woman with dolls they think there is something psychologically wrong with that person and because they are not used to it they feel uncomfortable, and just seeing the object makes them subconsciously think of what attributes they believe go along with the object.
I imagine with males in this community the feelings are even worse, because doll are stereotypical a female thing. To see a grown man with dolls would make many closed minded people feel very uncomfortable. So seeing the doll would just bring up all these feelings of negativity because to them it just represents all the bad things about said person. People are fearful of things they are not used to and don't understand.
This is my opinion anyway and only one explanation that applies to a certain group of people, I'm sure there's many other reasons as to why people would be fearful of dolls.

 

I think it's in some ways the same with me.

I feel really uncomfortable near childen and ecspecially babies. Short: I just can't stand them.

If there is any of them near me I try to avoid any contact. Thankfully it is rare that there are children near me.

For dolls of every sort: I hate them.
When I was young I was happy enough with my plushanimals (I still have a shelf full of them and they are getting more.) And I loved to play with toycars, marbles ect. I was more on the boyish side of toys. All the little girls with their Babyborn-dolls or barbies ... I thought it is weird to play with something like this.
And Babydolls still creep me out. My mother has one old thing since she was a child. The thing sits in a self near the bath and every time I see it, it gives me the creeps. (And I see it a lot a day. >_<'')
I never could stand barbies, they looked ugly to me.
I got a speaking big dolls as a present one time. And my parents had to give it away because I was so freaked out by it. yeah...
And I thought porcelaindolls are creepy too. Today I think of the artistic value with are in them but they are still creepy. All these dolls seem to be pretty humanlike but at the same time they look so deadly dead. I don't like this feel.

But with BJD's ... it was "love at the first sight". Coming from the anime-lover butch I thought they are wonderfull character shells. They seemed to be so much more artistically than every doll I have ever seen. I was fascinated how lively they are instead of seeming to be dead.
They look more like living humans than like dead humans like porcelaindolls look to me.
I even like childrenlike BJD. there are so many cuties out there which I have to adore.

BJD's are the one big exception to me. They break every rule I had for dolls and even for "children". xD

 

I'm told it's their realistic eyes.

I guess I can see that. Porcelain doll eyes and stuffed animal doll eyes are dull and two-tone or monochromatic. If you put a dull-eyed toy next to a bjd with the right sculpt/faceup, the latter could look intelligent, and I could see people being weirded out by a feeling that they're being watched.

The second thing I've come across is a general worry that these sorts of objects are vulnerable to possession, and that abjds might be a prime target precisely because they appear so sentient. When I got Larten, a friend of mine remarked "I don't know if this is a good idea. You're a ghost magnet--it'd be just like you to bring home a possessed doll!"

 

My daughter had Ed sitting beside her on the floor at Barnes & Noble, where he was spotted by woman who screamed like a banshee when she saw him. Abbey explained that Ed was just a doll and the woman heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God! I thought he was a skinny midget."

Most of the time we've had very positive reactions to them, but that may be because there's a little girl around. I've never wandered around with them on my own, but I bet I'd get a much more negative response if I did.

 

Dolls (of any sort) don't scare me generally. I don't get why people always seem to freak out about them...
Children don't scare me either, but I don't like small children. They annoy me and I can never tell how much they understand. They just stare blankly at me when I smile or say something, ugh. Children that are old enough to follow and participate in conversations I like alright, but I'm still shy around them.

 

I think horror movies are partially to blame. I think another could just be a dislike of dolls. By seeing some of the barbies and bratz they make now-a-days I would be afraid of someone coming up and asking if I wanted to see their dollie. I think it could also be because some dolls skin is white and in a way could look dead or deathly. 'Specially with their eyes out.

 

I feel afraid of some dolls (generally antique dolls and ventriloquist dummies) because I've watched too many creepy shows on the History channel about demonic possession!

That's 100% my reason, seriously. I don't think they look like dead people at all, and I don't think it's compensating for my childlessness. I don't even believe in demonic possession, but every time I see a very old doll I think about those freaky shows I've seen and it feels like the eyes are watching me, and I have this irrational fear that the doll will make me kill people or eat me if I won't do its bidding!

 

I'm a little a afraid of some kinds of dolls, but not the ones we talk about here. I don't like these super realistic babies, they are really creepy Even more the recent japanese ones I've seen... actually I don't like super reallistic things referrying humans. Like these robots and recent rubberdolls (or whathever that things are).

 

That just made my day!
Wonder if she reacts like that every time she spots someone who differs from the norm.
*rofl*

 

I can understand a fear of dolls. My grandmother keeps porcelain dolls, and when I was child she had them set up all around her room. Most of them had very sombre faces, and it always bothered me! They scared me so much because I felt that they were unfeeling...But with dolls that had expressions, such a happy or grouchy I felt that they were more "human" in a sense and could feel comfortable with them.

There have been studies done on how humans react to things that appear human. Start with silly cartoons all the way up to dolls. It said that up until a point, where things seem pretty realistic we're ok...But once we get into more realism it becomes very,very uncomfortable and normally people start to dislike the thing that is human..but not quite. The example they used was that famous Japanese Robot.

Even though I love dolls now, I still can feel nervous around them. I think that's why I seem to only enjoy fantasy dolls or dolls with more joyful expressions.

 

I'm afraid of dolls. Barbies are okay (to an extent) because I grew up with them, but everything else is too much for me. BJDs I can be fine with, but some of them scare me. I think it's the whole 'too real but also fake' uncanny valley feel. That and some of them look kind of alive. Glass eyes are the worst.

 

What an amazing topic!
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I can understand why some people have a reasonable disdain for dolls in general because of how they have been portrayed in movies. In a lot of previous civilizations it was believed that dolls were created to be a temporary home to souls that had departed from one body and needed to wait before they could enter a newborn and live their subsequent lives. These cultures were taught to revere and honor dolls because it they did not, the spirit residing within the doll would cause them bodily harm.

Even today in certain pockets of the world and right here in the good ole US of A, there are quite a number of sects which believe in an otherworldly power that dolls have. Some Asian cultures believe that transient souls will visit dolls from time to time and that these dolls are never to be thrown out or treated disrespectfully.

I am sure that there would be a myriad of explanations as to why certain folks would have a fear of dolls and some of them maybe for good reason. I think it depends on ones acculturation and the norms that have been instilled regarding art, toys, doll, collectables and hobbies.

 

My roommate was "pretty OK" with my dolls, until I bought a couple of antique ones. They had to stay in my room, and they kind of creeped me just a little. The answer to why is mostly somewhere below conscious thinking. All the horror plots using dolls have certainly played their part in this. Maybe it is the slight "what if" feeling. How can I be sure they are not sentient beings?

Dolls have been used in voodoo, and in some cultures it is a bad thing to take a photograph of someone. They have some belief that a part of them will be taken in the photograph. Connected because it all is about the resemblance to us. The connection between dolls and a dead human body must play in the recipe somewhere.

The comparison story between an elf and a human looking doll: maybe for some people, where they did not resemble human too much it was easier to see them as a doll and feel it was cool that this DOLL had human-ness. On the other side, the really human one might seem more like a human with DOLL qualities and that could be more creepy? And, then for the other reaction, just the opposite.

Maybe it is just that tantalizing unknown in our imaginations that gives them independent life. If that were so, they would be something that is NOT under our control. Anyone with anxiety [who doesn't have some anxiety -- we live a heart beat away from death and crisis] -- anxiety could be lurking in the same closet of our imaginations that dolls tend to open...you know the one...where the boogie man lives?

 

I acctually have some mild case of pediofobia I guess, so has my husband. I acctually have to show all the dolls I want order for him first to get his approval, since some really freak him out.

My fear was caused by my imagination. I used to have lot of dolls as a kid. They where lovely during the day, but by night I hid them to my closet, because, well, I have really wild imagination, and I'm HORRID at falling asleep. Little child, on her bed, looking a big room full of toys. I say big because the bigger thing is, that trutfully, my biggest phobia is probaply fear of open spaces.

It's not I can't live with it, but I get nervous in open areas, not much in daytime, but by night when I really just want to be in as small space as possible to lock my imagination in a box of sorts. I usually keep door closed, and I want my bedroom to be smallast one in the house. I hate the fact that we got a 160cm bed as wedding gift, because before getting married, me and my husband slept 120cm matress and we where happy. Specially me, when my hubby went to night shift. I feel like I would drown the bed when I'm alone in it. It's a very comfy bed, I just don't want to sleep alone in it. No, I'm not really that afraid of the dark. Of course not seeing things makes you a bit more nervous, but I acctually even have eased my other fears just being alone in the dark, under my own blanket in smallest place possible.

So tiny girl, wild imagination, big room and toys. Plus, we lived on edge of the forest, so we had some nice sounds there too. Already getting the picture? In my mind, my toys started to move, specially my dolls. Of course they did not really move, I checked it thousands of times, but it didn't take the fear away. Dolls kinda came part of my fear of open spaces. I believe it has a neat name too, I just don't remember it.

In my hubbies (and his broters sake) I guess it's the fact they look like people, but they are not. I have sometimes wondered if that is a very reason why in some religion you cannot draw humans at all. Death thing, or maybe a fear of unnatural behavior? Who knows.

 

the same for me! but bjds don't freak me out, I don't know why... they're so beautiful!!
I think that it's because I really love and care about my bjd, but I didn't treat very well my dolls when I was a kid. I couldn't sleep: I thought they would kill me because I wasn't a good mum....... so I used to let them in my closet.

 

Most of the people (family and friends) like my dolls. They even ask me for them. But I think that some of them find BJD photography weird. At first I also find it a little strange. But now I love it, and I came to understand what is behind.

 

My family are pretty used to my dolls, though my friends are kind of creeped out by my MSD. Except one, though. Whenever she's over she takes pictures of him, or dresses him up.

It's odd, though, how many people are scared of most dolls but not of BJDs. I think it may be because not many BJDs look very realistic? While porcelain dolls tend to look a bit like babies. When I was very young I saw an episode of 'tales from the crypt keeper' about a doll. All I remember is the end scene; the doll is under a grate in the street, it's raining, and the doll says, in a very mechanical voice, 'mama'. I could not sleep with my dolls uncovered for years. Now, I own two BJDs and a porcelain doll, and they don't bother me a bit!

 

I believe it's the cold staring unblinking eyes that freak people out. They're so real, yet they don't look away, nor do they ever move or blink. I think they're entrancing and beautiful, but I can understand that point of view as well.

 

Much of our subconscious is manifested in suppressed or half forgotten memory, which mostly stems from our childhoods. This becomes apparent when things from our childhood - the familiar (dolls) meets the unfamiliar (the transition to adulthood) and creates the feeling of Freud's interpretation of the uncanny.