Pediophobia

I believe it's that they are so life like yet show no signs of life. Either making it feel supernatural or just dead, as many are afraid of the dead and the supernatural. Some may even have a feeling that they are just watching and many people feel uncomfortable about the thought of being on surveillance without their knowledge, and sometimes even with it.

 

I think I may have mentioned this at some point of this thread, but I'm usually not afraid of dolls.

That's not to say that I'm *totally* worry free around them. That story about Robert the doll gives me the creeps. I also get very scared of my dolls whenever I watch pretty compelling horror movie about dolls.

I also don't like them looking directly at me at any place I might have to go; I used to have my dolls sitting in front of my bed, but looking towards the door. That was OK until I realized that it creeped me out to have them all looking at me as soon as I entered the room - like they could hear me, and all turned to look. Now they're either looking towards the ceiling, or towards a blank wall.

 

Personally, I'm not creeped out by dolls at all. Children on the other hand... :p
It's likely the culture involved, as you stated. In many horror movies porcelain dolls and the like are portrayed as evil or creepy, along with children. Especially young girls.
I've found that some people believe that dolls can harbor spirits, both good and bad. It doesn't help that some dolls, such as BJDs, look very human and alive.
If any dolls were to bother me, though, it would be reborn dolls. They're so life-like and some people put in machines to imitate a heart beat or breathing, and heating pads so they feel warm and alive. That's all a bit too much to me, but to each their own.

 

Creepypasta is definitely a cause of most of my fear! I think some antique dolls are scary, and blythe dolls are ugly/creepy in my opinion.
I'm not sure why I think they're creepy, but it's linked it the large circle-shaped eyes. That's the creepiest part

 

I don't think I should have read this thread.
I am insanely necrophobic and I love my doll.
I don't see death or anything in here. Maybe because she is so filled with energy (in my eyes at least.)

I absolutely blame horror movies.
Just like I blame horror movies for people's fear of clowns. My grandmother is a licensed clown. Shes a wonderful person. :')

 

I like your take on this and your experiment is quite interesting. I think that obviously fantastic dolls are less threatening to people because they look at them like that, a fantasy that will never happen and therefore there's nothing to fear. But some doll are so realistic, that you think they'll start to talk and walk at any given moment. And even though dolls are designed after humans, we are not prepared to deal with them unless they look inanimate. Specially since they so much larger than any other regular size doll, they're shocking for some people. They maybe feel like they're possessed or something.
BJD's are for sure an acquired taste and most people never get it mostly because is such an obscure market since is a fairly new trend and when we think jointed we picture only barbies or string puppets. Most people cannot handle the humanity of some of these dolls.
What do you guys think?

 

Some of my friends say that they don't like dolls because of the eyes. They know it will not happen(like being possessed... coming to life and kill you in your sleep) but the feeling of a doll watching them is unsettling for them and they might be afraid of that feeling.

When I was a kid I used to be afraid of my older sister's big american dolls, I couldn't be in the same room alone with them or I would start crying^^ and I realized until now that it was the eyes too. I always turned them around so they were not looking at me or just threw them in the closet and I'd never open it.

They looked alive and that scared me. Maybe, people who believe in spirits, possessions, magic etc might be afraid of these dolls because they look like a person.

Now that I'm older and I know that ghosts don't exist and dolls have no life whatsoever. I've become a huge doll collector, not only BJDs but any kind of doll that can caught my eye. =0)

 

I've got no problems with dolls. I love how realistic they look. It fascinates me and that's why I love taking photos of them.

 

I think the size is a big deal. Normal dolls often are smaller then real children, but BJD's are actually human proportions made smaller A 1/3 human etc. Large dolls have always been creepy in movies etc. But also (as mentioned in the robots comment) when something has more characteristics of a human (the size) but then is wrong, such as being really skinnier than a child of that size could be. It throws off people who are not used to the aesthetic, Where as people who have read a lot of manga, are not thrown by this at all. It's an exposure thing perhaps? I myself LIKE creepy things, although I don't find either of my dolls as creepy as the one's I own that are not BJD.

 

I think it does link well to the uncanny valley thread. ^^

Personally I am more creeped out by vinyls and dolls made to look like human babies/children than my BJDs because of the whole uncanny valley thing going on.

 

I agree with Laoky, I am absolutely horrified of vinyl "baby" dolls; not brand new ones, but usually the used and discarded ones, missing clothes or limbs. Specially the kind that open and close their eyes. They absolutely freak me out.

 

I'll say pretty much what I said in the Uncanny Valley-tread. Dolls in general creep me out. Shop window dummies are unbelievably scary, I can't look at them, I certainly can't be near them and if one sneaks up on me (okay, if I'm in a store and turn around and see one) I have been known to scream.
But I have no idea why. Mummies don't freak me out that much, and it's not the eyes, because this happen even with dummies that don't have eyes or even faces. Baby dolls aren't too bad, either, and although I find Barbie and many others creepy, they'r not this bad. BJDs were, until I got used to them. When my friend bought her first I hated it, couldn't have it in my apartmeny, couldn't have it looking at me when I was in hers...
But I don't have an explanation as to why. It's not horror movies, I know for sure, because I don't watch horror movies Might be a horror story I was told when I was a kid but have forgotten about, I suppose...

 

Haha. My dad gets creeped out by my doll when I put her on her shelf, because her little cushions are positioned so that when I sit her there, she ends up staring at his computer desk and he feels like she's looking at him. To combat this, when I put her on her shelf now, I pose her so she's lying down and push her wig forward to cover her eyes like she's sleeping, or I pose her like she's reading the tiny book I have for her.

My dad says he prefers this because when she's occupied, she's not staring at him all the time. XD

 

I admit that i only like certain kinds of BJDs. I like the dolls to look like what they are, dolls, not detailed to closly resemble an actual human being. My favorite BJDs are Latis and Pukis because personally i dont think they look super human like. However, if i were to spend the night in a room full of life like BJDs i might feel really uncomfortable and a bit clastrofobic. I'm not sure why... i never watched horror movies or creepy dolls movies, i guess its just how like look so human like and "stare" at me. I guess if i turned them around it wouldnt be so bad lol

 

Before I got my first BJD I found myself to be scared by both dolls and children from time to time. Now, one year into the BJD hobby, I have trouble finding anything scary about dolls at all. I also find myself liking and even smiling against children, even though that might have something to do with me getting older, I think the dolls have helped a lot.

I often bring my dolls with me when I'm gonna brush my teeth, get ready for going out and such because that's when I have time to think about and develop their characters and stories. Most days I have no problem with standing there alone in the bathroom late at night with a few of them, but sometimes when I look into the eyes I feel absolutely freaked out by their dark eyes. It's like they're watching my soul... The feeling of panic is over in a few seconds but still I can't help but looking an extra time at my darlings before turning my back against them. Just to be sure their eyes are back to normal.

I've been thinking about the eye-thing while reading a few pages of this thread. I've understood that the dead eyes of a doll is what frighten people most. Someone mentioned big round eyes being the most frightful and I have to agree with them. I suddenly remembered how I as a kid used to freak myself out by putting on a scared face with intense eyes and just staring into my own eyes in the mirror and how terrified you can get by doing that. The feeling I got doing that as a kid is the exact same fright I feel when being afraid of dolls (my own BJDs or just dolls in general). That creepy feeling that something is terribly wrong. I came to the conclusion that maybe the dolls I'm afraid of have a face or eye positioning reminding my brain of a scared human being and that might trigger some instinct making us scared to? Like a survival thing.

I also sometimes think of one of my BJDs just getting human sized but keeping their proportions. That would be horrible! Imagine one of your giant darlings standing in a corner of your house when getting home late, so human like and alive with those intense eyes, but still so horribly wrong.

 

Personally I think that the reason of the pediophobia can differ from one person to another.
I think that most of people are afraid of dolls because they look like humans but they’re not living, so people often assimilate the dolls with corps, like a dead body or something (it’s cold, it doesn’t breath, doesn’t speak, it stares… In a way I can understand why people are afraid of them and I respect it).
I myself feel a bit uncomfortable toward reborns. They clearly make me think of dead babies. But I also had the experience, only few days ago, with one of my BJDs. When I received my Leeke Mihael, my sister in law insisted to see him. At the first sight she exclaims that he was like “a dead thing”. The fact that Mihael has no faceup yet and that he’s in white skin may explain the reaction but the “dead thing” comment stroke me.
So I think that, in some cases, the more the doll looks realistic, the more people can be afraid of it. It seems to be a bit different with less realistic dolls like “fantasy” dolls or “manga-like” dolls… Maybe because people can’t assimilate them with real people so easily…
The case of people assimilating BJDs with horror movies can also be true. My nephew calls my dolls “Chucky” and I know that a lot of people think that dolls have a spirit….

 

Well as a child, I was deathly afraid of my porclein, baby, even some of my barbie dolls (mostly those life sized ones). I never saw any horror films with dolls but for as long as I can remember, they've scared me. Bjds became an acception because not only did I think they were works of art, I saw them as strikingly beautiful. I was very curious of them.
Now it's ironic I find this topic after I just get done talking to a friend about bjds who, despite the artistic and beauty aspect of bjds, saw them as nothing but terrifying. Now sometimes automatonophobia can be mistaken for pediophobia. Some people quite literally can't stand the idea of something looking human. Anything at all, be it dolls or pigs standing upright like humans and wearing a suit.
Why people are afraid of them is more than likely a situation based reason. I simply hate every other kind of doll because they can stare at you. Which being feared of being stared at is probably a phobia by itself. Phobia's can cause other phobia's so automatonophobia and pediophobia probably are hand in hand.

 

Shows like the twilight zone don't help, and everyone instinctively knows that dolls, puppets and mannequins come to life as soon as your in bed or ths store closes..

But seriously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder some dolls can be a little intense looking. A doll that's dressed all in goth black with red eyes and visible tattoos or a ballerina doll with vampire teeth might not give everyone the warm and fuzzies.

 

I think it comes from Childs Play, Dolly Dearest, Dead Silence, and other such movies where dolls become mass murderers.

 

My wife is a pediophobe, actually. Ironicly, she is also a BJD collector. She is terrified of SD sized dolls and fantasy dolls, like Soom's large centaur, or Faery dolls with long limbs and fingers -- she's also scared of dolls like Ignatz, and such.

She became a BJD collector to help herself get over her fear. She remembered reading in one of her college books that the best way to overcome fear is to slowly immerse yourself with whatever you're scared of.

That said, we have had 2 meet-ups in our apartment complex's garden now, and she has had to leave one of the meetups prematurely to go and cry! One doll was really scary to her.

Almost immediately after the traumatizing indecent, she bought her first BJD -- a Pukifee Shiwoo...shortly after that, she got a Pukifee Luna. Both of those dolls have moved on. Now, she owns 3 Minifee and a Bobobie Mei. I noticed she doesn't play with Mei to much because she has been modded to have extremely long toes!

I have always been interested by my wife's coping mechanism. While I doubt she (Or I, for that matter,) could or would ever own a SD sized doll, I am fascinated by her ability to overcome her fear.

On a slightly different note, almost every one of my wife's family members suffer from pediophobia. A LOT of her uncles have a SEVERE fear of dolls.

They cannot even look at our photos of our BJDs, and they have asked that, should we bring them up with us at Christmas-time, when we visit everyone, that we lock the dolls away while they are also around for Christmas dinner.

My wife told me the reason for this was, that her great-grandmother (The Uncles' grandmother,) collected dolls. After the great-grandmother started to suffer from dementia, her dolls slowly rotted, it was very depressing but also quite scary. The uncles and aunts had to clean up the dolls after great-grandmother passed away, which was traumatic for them not only because the dolls were in disarray, but also because great-grandmother was literally the matriarch of the family.


My wife said that she knew the grandmother, and that she had only seen the dolls once. I do feel as if her trauma came from that situation. The wife also told me she wouldn't had been scared had it not been for that -- apparently, she LOVED Barbies as a kid. BJDs are the first dolls she's had since her Barbie-collecting days, as a child....even then, Grandma took away my wife's Barbies after Great-Grandma passed away.

Psychology is very interesting, isn't it! I think phobias are definitely a learned value. I'm not sure people develop phobias out of the blue. I think you have to be "taught" how to be afraid of dolls. But I myself don't know that for a fact.