Psychology related to dolls

You can be a guy and want to have kids. Be a dad.
Like me.

 

I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's more along the lines of art. They resemble characters, they're amazing for photography and sketch art. I'm sure everyone has their reasons for why they love them, but most people when mentioning why they bought their dolls have agreed.

 

I think of them as a creative outlet. Writing their characteristics, modding them if necessary, painting faces, body blushing and tattoos, sewing, clothes and wigs, leather work, and crafting items from food to furniture. They are just fun and nothing about mother or fatherhood IMO.

 

I don't know about my maternal instincts, but I have noticed many of the Korean companies refer to the dolls as children or babies. I was at the Pacific Northwest Expo, and we were approached by a young Korean man from Blue Fairy, who asked us if he could see our 'babies', and referred to mine as my mother's (who he was mainly talking to) grandbabies. It was really quite cute.

 

Lol, maybe playing with baby dolls, but I don't think so much with the BJDs. I am not sure that I agree with the control theory either. Think what's great about this hobby is mostly the ethereal "fairy tale" type creation of still-life; it's like an art form, really.

 

Looking at my custom dolls a good part are original characters and another sizable chunk are celebrities or other people's characters that I admire. In a way they might be a form of souvenir of the effect that person had on my life. I'm already entertaining thought about some new doll family members because of that.

And there's times when I'll made a head of someone because I want to make a sculpture of them. I'm a portrait artist in my off hours so that's just me.

 

Motherhood is an important part of my life but I don't see my dolls as part of that. I don't see them as my "babies" in a literal sense. For me they are a physical representation of characters that I created and gave life in my mind. In someways I think the characters are more like babies then any drawings or dolls I use to represent them. They get fussy and take their own path's and yet are loved all the same despite all of it because they are yours. Even so I would not put them on the same level as my child. I didn't start writing or collecting anything because I wanted to be a mother.

I do like calling them my resin children in the same way that I refer to my cat's as my furry kids. It's more an endearment then any actual feeling of maternal instinct.

 

I tried to be funny, but as you can see, I suck at it. hmm, I think it could be it, @SlaveDan , but by the freudian mindset of this explanation, it just applies for maternal instincts, which probably both of us lack.
I think that this psychocologist friend meant is that need to have something to take care and so on, that other animals seem to have too ( like when your dog or animals in the zoo have children who passed away and you give it a doll to nurture)
However, I strongly believe there are other reasons for people to buy/own dolls, specially if you consider males and women who doesn't show any interest in motherhood for now.
I don't see my dolls (or my girlfriend's) as offsprings, and the feeling of caring for them doesn't resemble the feelind I would have for my child.
for me, my dolls are a physical personification of characters I created, or tokens of things that happened to me since I bought them in important moments of my life.

 

Lol, I would laugh too. Although it makes sense. It would apply if somebody wants to be a mom of a child that would only change to the mother linking. Kinda of funny to compare the desire of being a mom to the desire of owing a doll.

 

I think it's partially that- I can't have children, and I often refer to my dolls as my kids. But I think it's also that they're just pretty. ​And people like pretty things.

 

That may make sense. Im almost 20 and definitely do want kids. but not any time soon. I don't think necessarily has to be the reason why doll owners, are doll owners. But I think it certainly make sense.

 

As a shy, single girl in her 20s, I guess wanting to own the most handsome male doll so that I can dress him up and bring him along on trips must mean I want a boyfriend. LOL

 

To be blunt - and I'm speaking as someone who is also in the mental health field - saying that a diverse group of people can only have one possible motivation for a multifaceted set of behaviors is going to fall short as an explanation a lot of the time, particularly without having talked to a wide sampling of that group. Doll enthusiasts have many different reasons for our interest in the hobby that are as unique as each of us. We're not a hive mind.

It's hard to tell tone from the internet, so maybe your friend was joking? If not, I find it a bit irresponsible to try to "diagnose" a group of strangers without any significant research, particularly phrased as fact rather than speculation.

(Unless the friend was intending to mean only you specifically and had other reasons to believe you as an individual had a strong desire to become a parent? Again, hard to tell tone over the internet.)

It's certainly a possible motivation, but it's not the only one!

 

For me, it's wanting to have a physical, tangible version of Kyrian (among my other characters) that draws me to these dolls. Kids, on the other hand? Ah, no. Not in my lifetime.

 

Thanks Blakeney Green for putting it that way. I survived a traumatic brain injury and it's side effects with some mental health help and dolls were a big part of my recovery. I discovered off topic customs and ball joints at a major turning point in my healing. I'm an introvert at heart who is more comfortable with a crowd of dolls than people. I know I've used a doll as a transition object and to give me something to "worry" about instead of my self in some situations. Xavier isn't concerned what people think about him and I can tell him all sorts of secrets.

I feel the want to have a flesh and blood of a character, it's what brought the core of my off topics alive. I'm in the middle of making some fan art dolls but there's an OC wanting to get in on the action too.

 

Well, considering I never want to be faced with the actual responsibility of having kids, maybe dolls are my compromise. After all, I can just leave them in a box or on a shelf for hours and not worry about interacting with them at all.

But in all seriousness, dolls for me are largely a comfort thing, a coping mechanism. I've enjoyed toys and things for as long as I can remember, and having hobbies to keep my mind and hands busy help me deal with my anxiety disorder. When real people start to really stress me out, it's nice to just sit in my room for a while and dress up my dolls, then maybe snap a few pictures of them. I find dolls to be pretty therapeutic.

 

LOL in my case, there's nothing to do with wanting a child or anything similar.
Not even close to having a pet.

My dolls are my OCs.
They will stay like that, my beautiful model~

 

Bollocks. Pure and simple. If I have a wish to mother and take care of children, I'll do it to humans, not dolls, since I had already been a mother of an actual human child for over a decade before I decided dolls seemed like a fun thing to do. As a matter of fact, making clothes for my daughter's American Girl dolls is exactly what got me started playing with dolls as an adult. I like fashion. I like sewing. I like that dolls stand still during fittings and look good in anything you can dream up. I like painting. I like customizing. I like hanging out with my actual human daughter and messing around with dolls together. I don't like when people come up with really easy stereotypical ideas and apply them to a huge group of diverse people like a giant, crappy blanket.

 

When guys give so much time and attention to modding and working on their cars, I wonder if anyone ever assumes that it's a fatherly instinct kicking in. :P

Seriously, why is "artistic outlet" or "hobbiest" never an option to these "insightful" folks?

 

@ Miss Era, this actually relates to me - I am a single girl in my 20s and most of the doll range I've looked at are male lol even my first bad is a guy. I enjoy dressing him up in cool gear!