Pediophobia

I agree that this is one of the most interesting topics I've read. I've loved dolls (all kinds) all my life and sadly it never even occurred to me that people were actually morbidly afraid of them. I'd never heard of that phobia. I know lots of people don't like them, my own daughter dosen't, but I never throught about people being afraid of them.

After reading this thread though I understand why. I've seen lots of dolls that I thought were ugly but I was never afraid of them. I admit that when I saw the 'sleeping head' BJD's I thought they looked like more like dead people instead of sleeping people, but it didn't bother me. I just wouldn't want one myself.

Maybe it's because death dosen't really bother me, it's the natural conclusion to life. Mummies don't bother me either. I've seen the corpse of the little girl in the catacombs on the Discovery channel and I was fansinated because she still looked so alive. I don't think I'd want to be in the same room with her when the lights go out though!

On the other hand, I wouldn't surround myself with dolls that I thought looked dead either. I want them to look pretty and life like and for them to make me happy.

I agree that movies may play a major role. It's always pissed me off when movies turn something that should bring comfort and happiness to children (and others) into something to be afraid of and run from in terror. Whether it's a doll, a clown or a teddy bear. I think of it as a betrayal. It's like something you love and trust and are comforted by suddenly turning evil and wanting to hurt you. It's a betrayal of trust. A damned dirty trick I think. It's one thing to be afraid of an obivious 'monster' but quite another to have something you think is safe and harmless turn on you.

Did I mention that I'm afraid of bugs? Now that's a totally justified, bonifed fear! LOL. Those horrid little pests really are out to get you!!

 

This is a really interesting thread! I just finished reading through it. ops:

Many people here have commented that the realistic eyes in dolls, and their staring, is what makes them uneasy. People have theorized that it is disturbing to them because unblinking eyes are corpse-like.

My theory is that it is simply a primordial instinct to be uncomfortable around anything that is looking directly at us - eyes locked on ours. Usually the person or creature locking eyes with us is a predator, or a figure of authority, that direct eye contact is a sign of agression. Also - we read a person's intention through their eyes.

We are taught for instance not to make direct eye contact with an aggressive dog. We are taught that staring is rude. Have you ever noticed also that even in conversation, we do not maintain eye contact with the person we are talking to? Frequent glances yes, but we do not lock eyes unless you are asserting dominanceor ascertaining a motive (can I trust this person?) .

I used to have my BJD in my bedroom on a table eye level with my bed. I would sleep with my back turned to the doll but felt uneasy. It is, I feel, a primordial instinct to fear being watched when you are your most vulnerable - alone, laying down, lacking defence, and with no visibility.

I moved her to my livingroom and at one point she was facing my computer desk. I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder at her. When I was looking directly at the doll, in the light, I didn't feel anything. It was when my back was turned or when the lights were dimmed that I found myself experiencing discomfort. I knew something was staring at me - even though it wasn't real.

Now I have her facing out in to the room, but never directly at me.

It's odd also - how people paint the eyes on their dolls facing to the side, or position the doll's eyes that way. Is it purely for aesthetic reasons or is it a bit of our old animal instinct at work?


(wow this post got longer than I intended.)

 

Count me in as well, it's mind boggling!

 

~elfmoon; I think it's just too interesting how different we all are. I really mean this, and I'll tell you why, this is very little OT but MODS please bare with me.

~My daughter, who is wonderfully six years old, loves bugs, and I mean LUVS bugs. To the point that she rescues them, or better yet, makes me rescue them, and makes me bring them into the house, safely away from the rain, the cold, cats, birds, stinky cars, people's shoes, dogs, other, bigger, badder predators! Yes, she uses the word predator, I am her mother after all and the child has been permanently scarred. (I think this is the reason the gods are getting even with me through this whole bug thing!)
But Isabella, that's her name, is still a little afraid of my dolls. At first she wouldn't even come into my studio.

I, on the other hand, hate bugs, especially spiders, I'm not afraid of them; what I am is repulsed by them to the point of feeling nauseaous when I see one!
Do any of you have an idea of how many spiders I've had to "save"? *Lucy if you are reading this, I hope you enjoy your ale, because if you don't, you are up that creek without a paddle...* you won't be alone though kids make you do the strangest things...

~I received a package containing Rio (this was a while ago) and Isabella was really excited about it (so was I.)
We opened it together. Rio had eyes and a face-up and he was wrapped in bubble wrap, so he wasn't really nekkid. He was wig-less but to me he did not look creepy. I thought he was so beautiful. To me Rio looks like a darling little boy!

Well, as soon as Isabella saw him she started crying and I mean bawling!
When I asked her why, all she could say was that he "was not alive."
She was too young to comprehend the concept of death but she could still tell that Rio was not alive and this terrified her.

I've had to work with her to get her to accept my BJDs, they are so different than her dolls. To me a Madoka is a work of art, to Isabella, a doll that can piss herself is heaven on toast!

~I don't know what my point is exactly because fear is such a subjective subject, but I think our reactions to dolls have to do with our basic fears. We have an inherent fear of death, I saw that in my daughter's behavior.

~I don't walk around talking about death and neither does her father but still Isabella was afraid of something that "wasn't alive."

~Isabella won't "play" with my dolls but now she will sit in my studio with me without a problem, although she won't go in there if she's alone. We've talked about my dolls many times and she's gotten used to seeing them so now she knows that they can't hurt her.

 

As a small chold, I brought fistfuls of earth-worms to my mother, saying "WIGGLY-WIGGLY!" gleefully, & actually have no fear of bugs, apart from the instinctual gasp & jump if something large dashes across the floor.

I have an arachnophobic friend across the street, & she was pretty upset to find out that when I went to take the biggest spiders out of her house in a glass, I often released them into my house, in a bit of as spider-sanctuary I have behind a forest of window-sill pot-plants. Luckily, she is slowly getting over her fear of spiders.

I must say, it is hard when your otherwise rational, witty & intelligent friends won't talk to you about dolls except to ask for their removal from the couch with a shudder, or to suggest destroying one as performance art. The arachnophobe friend who won't even look at them, not because they are scary, but because she didn't like the proportions of ONE DOLL is even worse.

I have friends here who I already knew online & in real life who live no-where near me, but like to discuss BJDs, but apart from my husband (who can only be alerted to so many adorable photo-stories before he needs to be left alone to write) there's no-one here to show them to. My parents think they are beautiful, but my mother gets very upset over the thought of me spending so much money on something for myself, even to the point that yesterday I got a lecture about how I shouldn't ask my family & friends to club together for anything doll-related, not even something small.

I think her fear is that dolls lead to profligate spending, when she wanted me to have one doll to inspire my art, not a houseful of dolls just for fun.

*sigh*

Still, my husband & our landlord-friend still got me my Lishe head last night *beams*

:grin:

On my LJ, I have to put all my doll-pictures behind a cut, apart from tiny icons, as one LJ-friend is so scared of dolls that she un-friended another pal of mine for refusing to do so. Makes my LJ a bit gloomy, where it was once full of pictures.

It's all very frustrating, really, as we can't demand that people like the dolls, & see them as we do, but sometimes I feel I'm walking on eggshells much in the way I have to when transporting a snake, or taking bugs home from the reptile shop to feed my tarantula...

I'm very respectful of people's fears. I don't go out of my way to shock them with dolls or animals, but I wish there were a few more people in the world who were less sensitive about these things, it's getting ridiculous for me!

Lucy

 

I should've mentioned..
I had a breif phobia of dolls after I saw Interview With a Vampire. One of the charactars is a young girl who is a vampire and will never age, so she has a bit of a complex with the female body.

And there's a scene with a dead rotting body eurrg hidden under a pile of dolls. Shudder.

 

~Allorz, I vant to zhee your Lishie head pleezhe~ oui? Pleezhe post le photoghraph, oui?

If I ever come ter visit ye, which might happen yer know, we'll meet on the street, ok?
And no "WIGGLY-WIGGLY!" stuff either or I'll run screaming into the night! Just kidding... worms are fine, as long as they're not in my soup!

You have a tarantula? that clonk you heard was me fat arse hitting the floor as I passed out.

I respect everybody's fears but to stop speaking to a friend because they have pix of dolls on their LJ, does seem a little extreme to me but... I don't know the whole story so I can't comment.

It's ironic because some people are afraid of dolls because they don't move, the lack of mobility seems to be a real issue with these people, hence the fact that dolls look dead to them.

But what bothers me about bugs is that they DO move. I don't mind bugs if they are still or dead, I don't kill bugs, if they're dead it's got nothing to do with me! but as soon as they start to skittle around I freak and if I see a moving spider, well, then... we are in for a riot!
But although I really dislike spiders I would never hurt them or ask someone else to do so. Just carefully put them out of the house and I'm happy!, so I really don't understand the whole "destroying a doll as performance art." If I don't like something I simply stay away from it.

~On a self preservation note: Please don't chase me with your tarantula , is it me or that sounds really odd?

 

I remember nto too long ago I was looking at some photo's where a friend's doll had arrived at anohther girl's house and the dolls were helpping the one out of the box. that oen was my favorite pictute becasue I like the idea that they are alive. that one freaked my mother out because of how realistically they were posing XD

on to the bug thing, when I was little I had no problem with bugs. I used to pick worms up and try to show them to my dirt-phobic brother who would scream bloody murder XD

 

Of course!

I'm going to take our bug-discussion to PM, but I'll explain the 'destroying a doll as performance art' thing.

One of my best friends got so crazy about me & certain other online mutual friends going doll-crazy on our LJs that he said he thought he'd video one being blown up just to shock us. When I told him the price-tag, he quickly had a re-think! He was just being jealous, & wanting our attention, hehe!

Trouble is, LJ is such a great medium for pretty doll-photos...

Lucy

 

I am not really afraid of BJDs (unless you stuck one right next to me in the dark without telling me).

What I AM afraid of are antique dolls. You know, the ones with the scratched faces, old clothes, empty stare, maybe they're missing an eye or the hair is messed up. I am very afraid of those. Or just antiques in general. They give me the creeps.

 

My experince from being around Hikaru is that there is more to him than just being 'a doll'. As though he has some sort of resonance of his own, whether it's something he already had or picked up from what we put into him, I don't know. Perhaps some people can subconciously feel that about the bjd's and the feeling that they are something more than just a doll is what is so unsettling about them, when other types of dolls don't bother them.

 

Wow, I just read the whole thread. I've never ever been afraid of dolls in my life, and I've owned all kinds, from Barbies to babies! (only one porcelain though, I'm always worried I'd break them) The only doll that's ever bothered me was a large Victorian bisque baby doll on Ebay. It had all these little teeth, and that creeped me out for some reason. But I could run for the reigning Queen of Phobias! I'm terrified of worms and maggots. No clue why, but I've been afraid of them since I can remember. I've never even touched one! *shudder*
And all the talk of death portraits is really interesting. I'd never heard of them, except for an art history book than mentioned a Roman tradition of painting masks to resemble the dead person, which they mummified (in Egypt anyway). I'd like to read about them, but I'm afraid to click on the links, because I'm also terrified of mummies! I find them interesting to read about, but I can't stand to see them. I refuse to go into a building where there might be one. As a child I had nightmares about them constantly. There was an ad for the frozen ice mummies that caught me off gaurd, and I actually screamed. I think they're the one thing that would send me into hysterics. I can't explain this one either, though I think it was watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when I was 4. I also had an eyeball fear from the Roger Rabbit movie. Yes, all you parents please be careful with your small children watching tv, it can be very traumatizing! ops:
I think phobias can come from all sorts of unexpected childhood events. And they can be passed from parent to child.

 

That's ok, I'm petrified of doctors, needles (especially nurses coming after me with needles. And what's up with that thing where they assure you it's the smallest needle they have? It doesn't matter how small it is, it's still a needle!). But my really weird, unexplanable fear....indoor swimming pools. I love lakes and oceans, and out foor pools are fine, but being stuck in those gigantic high-ceilinged rooms with all that water freaks me out. I used to have nightmares about them.

 

Hmm, well, I've never had a fear of dolls so it's always been -foreign- to me, till recently, anyway.

When I was a kid, I had plenty of barbies (20+), and some other dolls... I got older, I had some porlecian dolls around, and plenty of stuffed animals... then, I'm not sure how it happened, I stopped with dolls. I left them sitting prettily on a shelf and only kept stuffed animals around and in easy view. I guess I felt I was too "old" for them, although I've read a diary where I wrote to the 'myself of the future' to 'Never stop playing with my dolls'. So, even with the dolls of my childhood reduced to a bare few that I chose to keep, I still have them, and like to glance at them once in a while.

Now, all this 'dolling', doesn't mean I've particularly liked dolls since my childhood. Until BJDs, they didn't really interest me that much. I've never been scared of them, but I didn't have the urge to pick up a doll and hug it either. The last known memory of me liking a doll was this 4 foot doll that my mom said I 'couldn't have', because it was too big... which was many years ago. Anyhow, BJDs let me be interested in dolls once again without feeling like a little kid... and yet, remembering the want of the little girl who used to be me that I wouldn't stop playing with dolls. I love them for that, along with other things.

Some people though, I've noticed... are scared of dolls. Really scared. I remember before I even bought a doll of my own, showing a picture of them to my friend, who screamed at me over AIM (thus luckily, a silent scream) about how I didn't warn her before showing her something so scary! From what I understand, people have fears based on the great amounts of doll-related horror movies and some 'common conceptions'. Some people, I've found, don't actually FEAR the dolls, but they've trained their mind to think they should. It's rather silly, really, but I don't hold it against them.

*looks up* Eeep... too ranty. >.<

 

Oh, I forgot to mention my fear of needles. And I was briefly afraid of clowns, too. I got scared at a circus. ops: When I was in preschool, they had a woman clown come in and show us how she put on her makeup and stuff, and that ended the fear. They should do that at more schools!

 

I'm continuing to read this and I can't stop!

I have another aspect that I don't think has been touched on yet. Please bear with me.

In the 60' there was a TV show called 'Afred Hitchcock Presents'. There was an episode taken from a story called 'where the woodbine twinith'. It was sooo creepy that I've never forgotten it. In a nutshell -

A young girl about 7 years old an only child. She lives with her family in some isolated place with no other children to play with. She's extremely lonely. Somebody (maybe her father) gives her a doll. It's a very big doll, about half her size. She loves it. She plays with the doll behind the house in a garden. Pretty soon she starts telling her mom that the doll comes alive and they play together. Of course the Mom thinks it's all imagination and doesn't pay any attention. Then the little girl starts saying that she and the doll 'trade places'. Still the Mom pays no attention. One day the Mom calls the girl and gets no answer, so she goes to the garden to find her. She sees the girl sitting there. As she approachs she says, "I was calling you. Why didn't you answer!" When the little girl turns to look at her, she realizes that's it's the doll. She screams and the doll runs away, never to be seen again. The mom runs and picks up the doll and then realizes that's it's really her child, now trapped forever in a lifeless body! Creepy!!

Since ancient times people have made idols (dolls) and it was believed that after humans had left the temple they came to life and went about the business of being gods. Or what about wax figures coming to life after the museum closes?

Then there's the ever popular 'Chucky'. The idea that a person can transfer their soul into a doll at the moment of death.

Or the voodoo doll, a receptacle for a human soul.

Maybe it's the fear that a doll can somehow steal our soul away and/or being trapped in a lifeless body? Which would in a lot of ways be worse than death.

Okay, so now I've creeped myself out! Good thing I don't have any dolls looking at me!

 

Ok, I've just looked it up:

" Pediophobia- Fear of dolls.
Pedophobia- Fear of children."

What a difference an 'i' makes.

from http://www.phobialist.com/


Not the same word, although the same roots.

Ann in CT
p.s. not scared of kids or dolls myself ac

 

twilight zone had a couple evil doll episodes.. th eone I remember was the one where the doll kept trying ti kill the parents. XD
somehow, I was never frightened of anything I saw on the tv, and my dad let me watch ALOT of scifi movies. I think the closest I became to being afraid was of the crypt keeper. XD but some how I was able, even at such a little age, to know what was on the tv wasn't real, so that bugs really wouldn't crawl into your ears and eat your brain, and dolls woulnd't really kill you.
my brother on the otherehand... remember the tv show, about the dinosaur faimly? had to be 1990. that gave my brother nightmares, even though he still adored dinosaurs...

 

I've never been afraid of dolls, though I do have definate preferences about which ones I like and don't like.

I don't like antique or porcelain dolls. BJDs seem more... I wouldn't say alive exactly, but more concious or intelligent? As if they posess a soul and a personality of their own. Antique or modern porcelain dolls just seem like shells. Lacking any sort of conciousness or soul. There's something wrong with the eyes, but I can't figure out what it is... They're too small or flat or something. (I've been wanting to try an experimental project with a porcelain doll with a pretty but lifeless face, to see if I can modify it enough to look okay. ^_^)

I also have an extreme dislike for baby or little kid dolls. Little BJDs (like Petite AI) are actually very cute, but most baby-like dolls I've seen in America seem to have huge pouty lips and rolls of fat... I find American baby dolls more grotesque than anything, and not in a good way.

Dolls of any sort don't remind me of dead children. I'm actually not really disturbed by death... I'm more disturbed by our reactions and customs surrounding it!