the Human Race(s), standards of beauty, & the BJD hobby

Thank you, Kiyono!

I show similar pictures to my genetics students when we discuss the concept of race-- and why many geneticists have concluded that it is not a useful term. People don't fit into the neat cubbyholes race assigns them.

 

For what it's worth the American Anthropology Association has revised its mission statement to include the fact that anthropology (the study of humans) no longer recognizes the existence of race. There's a huge debate going on right now, with people trying to prove race exists genetically. The fact is that humans don't have all that great a degree of variation, regardless of skin color. In fact, in one my classes this semester we held a mock debate, with one side trying to demonstrate the validity of race and the other side trying to demonstrate it as invalid. Race is only valid in as a social construct, which means it only matters to the specific society. An American view of race will be different than an Indian (as in India) view of race, etc. I'd be happy to post links to some scholarly articles on the subject if anyone's interested, at risk of getting further off-topic.

 

Thank you! This has been pointed out several times in this thread. Researchers have shown repeatedly that the genetic variation within a "race" is often more than between two different "races." In other words people can have more in common genetically with people who are NOT of the same race, which means race is an arbitrary designation.

 

Totally. Athough in terms of the discussion, the fact that both race and beauty are social constructs gives more weight to questioning the meaning behind images rather than less (in general anyway - I still think this particular case is over-complicated by the cross-cultural factors).

 

I kind of agree. Yesterday I found the first tan doll that I found myself intensely interested in. The doll was photographed with white hair and blue eyes though.
I don't think it's incorrect to photograph the dolls with these uncommon phenotypes. I think it's a little nice to show variety though. It's a sensitive subject but I think if there was no variety there would be the opposite feeling "Not everyone has those specific phenotypical features, show some variety will you?" It might escalate to the point where there would be complaints as to why there are atypical features depicted on non-tan dolls and tan dolls are restricted to their typical features.
It may be strange but I like things as they are :]

 

I am also kind of surprised there isn't a larger variety of dark, or tanned skin dolls with natural features. But also, it has taken doll companies quite some time making, and perfecting darker and colored resin that won't fade or change too quickly. Anyone remember the Luts tanned dolls that liked to turn green? Heh. So I think that this has been a big factor. It's hard to cast tan dolls, because you can't easily sand out seams or imperfections without pretty much damaging it. I've seen many companies come with warnings not to sand tanned resin. So I'm sure most of it is difficulty with that. I actually am a bit leery about buying tanned resin, because I'm worried that it will fade or change in an unpredictable way.

As far as western culture goes, yeah there is idealized standards of beauty that are quite apparent. But as far as other races being neglected in our media and culture go, the barriers are going down, and this is actually rapidly changing. Especially with the first black president coming into office! But I'm sure we westerners have some sort of ripple in what companies are making. Sheesh look at DoA... it has how many active members now? I'm sure we make up a decent percentage of their customers. But also, I bet they find it challenging to appeal to us, because if your not from a place, your not going to know what's popular in that area. They probably don't know that's what people are starting to look for. I mean, if you want a company to make more tanned dolls, with brown eyes, or what have you, then buy the closest you can get, and hope there was enough demand for them to catch the company's attention that the doll is a good seller, causing them to want to make more of them. Supply and demand right?

Kind of on an off topic note... check out this Korean girl who people are claiming looks like a walking living doll. I wonder if the photos are real myself. She's pretty though. Actually looks like a doll to me. xD

 

Actually, she's a Chinese girl. And her pics are indeed photoshopped. And the video at the bottom compares her to a blow-up doll. Her pics kinda go into the uncanny valley for me. 8'D

 

She is very pretty (though I am not sure how much of this is real), but "doll-like" is not the first thing I think when I see her. I rather think 3D-Animation or video game. But she is a typical example of one beauty-standard that is probably more than a cultural thing. Her facial features are childlike, and that is considered pretty in most cultures I think (and many BJDs have the rather childlike features too). At the same time, she has an oval face, long legs and round breasts of a young and fertile adult female, which is considered attractive in most cultures too (and just look at the female BJDs that represent adults). So here we go. Beauty standards.

 

What do you think of the label "normal" when you choose your dolls skin color.
There is white, pink, yellow, tan, grey, blue... and so on. But normal..?

Sure there ARE limitations to what words you can use to describe the "darker than white, lighter than tan" skin color.

And yes, I have considered the fact that most BJDs are made in asia where a company's normal-skin color option might be deemed most common/dominant and "normal" or just goes along with the creators own appearance

Do you ever take offence from seeing "normal skin"?

I honestly never thought about that since I am quite pale myself. So I guess I become a bit close minded or narcissistic and only see myself and go "yes, that is normal skin". Since the doll is for me.

But again, actually thinking about it has made me raise an eyebrow.
Like, what..?
A "normal" skin color..? Blue or so might not even remotely fit into the category of normal, but are not "tan" or "white" just as normal as "pink" or "yellow"?

(please, limit the debate on what the definition of the word normal is - it is a tricky word. I do hope you know what I mean.)

Also another thing...
I only buy them ghostly white skinned dolls though, because they are my preference/to my liking.
Though I have never seen them as un-normal.

Do you feel that your dolls are not "normal" because of their skin?

Let me elaborate that...
I think we can all agree that there are mostly "normal" skinned BJDs around.
Not many white or tan (as tan is often limited or more expensive for one...). That is what I mean about "not normal", not quite the same as "uncommon", if you understand.
Just that they stand out or feels out of place - anything like that.
You did choose an un-normal skin color after all!

But resin itself as well...
(Yes I pretty much do not know anything about resin...)
Could it refer to the natural color of resin (I assume that it has one standard color)..? I mean if the natural color of resin is of the normal skin hue.

I hope this will not turn into some racist rant...
I am just interested in your take on the label "normal" when choosing skin color for your doll.

 

I always thought the skin choice "normal" reflects the skin of most of the dolls of this specific company. Also, tan resin is relatively new and isn't available for some dolls, maybe that's why it's considered special, while the "normal" skin is usual for dolls.

 

That's how I take it too, Mello. It's the 'normal' color available. I know Bluefairy, for instance, have their basic dolls for sale in one skintone and do others like white and tan only for special editions. Most companies offer more than one color on their basic dolls now, but I can see where the origin of the term would come from.

I don't think it's meant to be racist or anything. ^.^;

 

This has always made me cringe. "Normal" and "Beauty White". It's definitely problematic in my mind.

 

I think normal is what's average in a population. While there are many pale Asians, I wouldn't say it's common for them to be as pale as what's generally labeled normal skin. If it's not average, why is it being labeled with a term that makes it seem like it is?

 

They're not referring to people's SKIN being average or Normal; they're just referring to the resin. By Normal they mean Medium. If you go lighter it's white, if you go darker it's black. Tan dolls did used to be called "black"-- which was also wince-worthy. But also kinda funny, once you saw the doll; you could absolutely see they didn't mean African or African-American, they just meant to use a word for 'dark'.

It's creepy to our ears because of the way we've been cultured in the past 20 years or so-- but it's just the English words they chose without a PC filter, and now the label's stuck.

I love this musical subgenre called "oriental metal" [folk-metal from the middle east or asia], which also makes me wince-giggle every time I type a search for songs online. Don't know who came up with the label; likely someone in Europe. It sounds so funny to my American ears, because we just don't use the O-word much in this part of the world anymore.... but the rest of the musical world doesn't even blink.

 

God, I've never even thought about it like that I'm so pre-colonial. For me, if someone said their skin was normal, I'd just assume pinkish-whitish-beige (my own skin tone) without even considering it. And I do think starkly white skin is beautiful (on the right people, of course. Some people don't suit it. But just the other day I saw a girl with very black hair and very white skin and I just stared at her, entranced.) It's not that I don't think dark skin can be beautiful. Quite the opposite - on average, I think it looks better and more healthy than white skin! But my standards of beauty are clearly Eurocentric and I feel rather bad about it.

 

So you are saying that resin is by default that "normal skin" color..?

 

I don't buy the idea of "Normal Skin" being the normal colour for resin because it's the medium colour. The medium colour for what? If lighter is white and darker is black, are you saying the medium colour is grey? Besides, it's not called "Normal Resin". NS stands for "Normal Skin", implying it's, well, the normal colour for skin. I thought it might be called "normal" because it's a standard sort of tone for lots of doll companies, but in that case, what did the very first doll companies call it before it became a "norm"?

Personally I prefer it when doll companies call the skin colour by the actual colour of the skin, for example pink, yellow, tan or white. It helps when matching hybrids: if you have a yellow-toned head, it's more likely the yellow skin will match it.

That's a point... what colour IS resin, before they add the colours to it? Surely that should be "normal".

 

Well, personally I don't think it's exactly human skin either. Normal yellow and pink don't look anything like human skin at all. Neither does white. I know I don't match any of my dolls' skintones at all, and I'm pale! They look nothing like my skintone.

I just think by "normal" they mean "default" which is what they make most of their dolls in. I mean, I don't take any offense to "real" skin being a lot more tan than myself. What's the distinction between normal and real? Is real supposed to be more skintone like and normal supposed to be the normal color for dolls? That's using Iplehouse's system, anyways.

Also, how many companies use "beauty white" out of curiosity? I've heard "cream white" and "white" more often than beauty white- I've only seen that at fairyland. And, even then, I just assumed they were referring to the fact that the white resin tone really has a pearly glow to it. Maybe I just think too simply.

 

Crayola stopped using "Flesh" to refer to their beige-pink crayons years ago. I find these terms offensive and don't buy that they are referring to the shades of resin.

 

I don't have a problem with this. Way I see it, "normal" doesn't denote the resin shade, but just it was the standard resin color they began with. As far as I've looked into it, there was no white-skinned doll for a while so when that option came out, the "white" label emerged. Same with "ebony" and "tan". I don't think there's any intentional racial issue, just that it was the standard manufactured doll color.

As for other labels, like Fairyland's "beauty white" and SoulDoll's previous "mud" (tan), I feel there is a possibility they were translation issues.