Rude Reactions to Your Dolls?

@vietblueheart - "Punch that Squishmallow one more time, and I'm siccing [insert doll here] on you.... Sweet dreams!"

 

HAHAHA I should!! But knowing him, he'll probably shoot back, "Do it! I'll beat them up too!" Is it any surprise he's a shonen anime fan....

 

I vary rarely take my dolls out of my house, so I haven't gotten many comments. I've had a few of the classic "creepy" or "scary" unsolicited comments people typically make and, because I genuinely am curious, I always ask them back, "why? They're just dolls." I've gotten a few interesting responses, from "haven't you seen 'insert scary doll movie here'?" to cultural beliefs (if I remember correctly that person was Cambodian) to a few shrugs and an "Idk they're just scary". I always want to hear why someone finds a doll frightening, and where that fear originates, it's so interesting.

I did have someone rub their fingers on one of my doll's faces at a convention, which was weird and gross. Man, I'm not touching your things, why do you think it's okay to touch my stuff? Thankfully no one has tried to grab my doll, which happened to a friend and was incredibly rude. This full adult just tried grabbing it out of their hands, without even asking if they could hold it. Gross.

 

@Mariemisu
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Usually things like this don't happen to me.
Mostly just understandable curiosity.

 

Strangers on the internet I think can be the worse. The worse comments I have gotten...

• "I'm dying of a terrible disease, and I am a small child, you should give me your doll, it will make me feel better. It's so beautiful, and I really want it. Also, I have no money, so you should just give it to me, PM me for my address, so you can give me this doll and I wont be sick anymore."

This was a PM, it was followed by an animated gif of a puppy crying. Pretty obvious adult scammer, but it was upsetting.

• "You have too many dolls, it's shameful, sell them and donate it to charity."

I started to tell them that my family donates to several charities quite frequently, but on this one, it was on Facebook, a bunch of people including the administrator jumped in telling this person off, in that it was no concern of theirs how anyone spent their money, that this was a doll blog, we were all here to enjoy each others dolls, not dictate how people spend their money.

• "They are going to come alive at night, how can you sleep with them in your room, dolls are so creepy, etc"

I find theses funny, and not upsetting, I usually reply with: "I hope they come alive at night, then me an my small army of dolls can take over the world!"

 

Well I'm screwed then. All my girls are assassins. Let me go update my will...
Lol. There's a whole game about that, yo!
People on the internet forget there's another person on the other side of the screen, man.
But that first person makes me the angriest, cuz I know from hard-learned personal experience that the person is either 1) a recaster looking to steal and resell the mold, or 2) a scalper looking to resell for a fat profit. They're ALWAYS liars.

 

Don't they understand that when the doll is sold (assuming you do what random strangers tell you to) then the next person will have too many too expensive dolls that they need to sell and donate and then the next and so on?

 

I've gotten these comments, too. My response is always that, if they come alive, I will be their loving and benevolent overlord that provides them with nice things to wear and fun props to use, etc., and if they're going to be hostile toward anyone, it sure isn't going to be me!

I don't have many rude comment experiences outside of the general "oooh creepy" thing, but my mom did tell me once back when I first joined the hobby that she didn't understand why I wanted to waste so much money on a hobby like this. At the time, it felt very rude and I didn't have any snappy comebacks, but as an adult, I can understand that it was probably rooted in sticker shock and concern that I would spend a bunch of time and money saving up just to find out I didn't enjoy the hobby as much as I thought I would. That was almost half my lifetime ago at this point, so she's long since accepted that this is just part of who I am.

 

my go-to response for this sort of thing is that I think having the newest Apple gadget is a waste of money. I think 99% of designer clothes on the market today are a waste of money. I think brand-new fancy cars are a waste of money unless they’re electric, and I think most houses built after like 1930 are a waste of money because they use cheap crappy materials. BUT those are just my opinions and a lot of people disagree with me. It’s not my business what makes someone else happy, so if I don’t walk around criticizing people for those things, what right has anyone else to criticize what I choose to do with my money?

an iPhone 5 Zillion makes you happy. A doll makes me happy. Both of these things are equally inexplicable to each of us, so let’s just respect each other.

 

I would agree with this on principle, but for the sake of arguing with my mother, it wouldn't work. We were not and are not impoverished in the sense that we always had our bills paid, but things like designer clothes and top-of-the-line cell phones were luxuries we couldn't afford. It's far more that she tried to live vicariously through me for many, many years and was continuously frustrated by the fact that I wasn't interested in the experiences that she considers valuable/important, especially if those experiences cost money that I could otherwise funnel into my doll hobby. To her, I was "depriving" myself of "valuable" opportunities to save up for expensive toys, more or less.

Things between us have improved drastically since I met and married my now-husband. I have my pet hypotheses as to why that is, but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of this post. These days, she keeps any negative commentary to herself and is even marginally supportive on occasion, so all's well that ends well as far as I'm concerned.

 

They have no idea how much I wish for this

 

If my dolls came to life at night, I'd probably wake up the next morning with bruises and a post-it note on my chest saying "DUST US ONCE IN A WHILE, WOULD YOU?!"

 

Most reactions I've got were "that's creepy", "what's that?" or the unusual "that's so cool!". I go for a creepy/unsettling vibe for my dolls so I just go "thank you!! ^^" (They don't enjoy me being happy by their sh***y comments)