The obsession with beautiful boys?

What you wear does not define who you are - as such, people have the freedom to dress their dolls how they please regardless of the doll's bodily sex, and still it can be identified as that particular sex.

I don't dress Artemis in a feminine manner, but because of his face and his wig people automatically assume that he is female. That doesn't make him female.

I personally am a female-to-male Transsexual, but this does not effect the fact that I like beautiful, androgynous men.

I'm also an anime fan, but I don't think that my dolls look anime or manga-esque. They have big eyes and stylised faces as is not unusual with certain kinds of ABJDs. I prefer Korean ABJDs to any Japanese ones I have seen.

 

I wholeheartidly agrre with you 100% and could not of said it better myself

Also for me I am just soooo happy to finally see sexy/beautiful male dolls instead of all girl dolls, as an artist I find them to be a work of art that inspires me to do so many things. I myself do not own any girl dolls at all.

 

I always have the same reply to these threads..and it gets a little old. I like my men in make-up and dreses..in fiction, in music, in dolls and in life.

is that so wrong?

 

Here here, Babe!!

 

Then you must know very wealthy, bored people. Most people I know are just trying to get their bills paid, and with the little money they have left they save up for what makes them happy. They can't afford to throw away $2000 on a whim. I am the only one in my city who owns these dolls. (That I know of.) I didn't do it to show these dolls off to "look cool". No one I know knew about these dolls until they saw mine. I bought them for me. And I believe that there are many BJD owners who are the same way. And if there is some wealthy persson out there that wants to buy one to look cool for their friends...let them! I say fine! Have fun!

Ya know... I really don't understand how anyone can say there "should be more originality" with these dolls. No 2 BJD's are alike. Yeah there are MANY femme boys here, but guess what. The people who own them liked that style before they ever even heard of BJD's. Pretty boys have been around since since biblical times, and I can bet that the affinity for their looks has been around just as long. However, I have seen more creativity and originality here with these dolls than I have seen with real people and with characters in movies or books.

 

Having read/skimmed thru this thread, I want to emphasize what others have been emphasizing: the BJDs dolls are ASIAN aesthetics which will vary by company. For example, Volks are Japanese and I've seen Mika Nakashima-looking Volks. O_O Others like Iplehouse are Korean. Lately, Iplehouse have BLACK dolls that look like Beyonce. (so beautiful! ) And Koreans looovveee American hip-hop/r&b so if they have dolls that are like their idols then consumer might buy it. (I know that some korean dolls company have dolls that look like Korean idols ^^). Each doll company creates dolls based on their own POP CULTURE (Japan: ie anime; Korean: singers/actors/ress).

But the point of this thread is beautiful boys right? Well, the BJDs dolls, especially the korean made ones really attracted me because of their resemblance to Jrock/visual kei and Final Fantasy characters. They were like videogame male characters which had soft features, but a masculine build (not too buff, but slender and trim), so BJDs were the way to go.

Altho I have no history of owning BJDs dolls, I have own Barbie dolls and the Ken dolls were not to my liking! XD;; I always wanted a guy doll that didnt look too masculine (Ken has a six pack right? XD; ) and I liked guys with medium to short length hair (ken's hair was plastered on or sometimes it was a crewcut and I didnt like that XD;; ). When Mattel did try to make Ken look "beautiful", he was criticized for being gay. hahaha XD;; So these BJDs were the answers to the male dolls I've always wanted but couldnt have.

Like everyone has said, beautiful boys or the crossing-dress ones depends on individual preferences. But I would like to say that for some people, the dolls is a part of the owner's own self/value/beliefs, so BJDs become meaningful, important, and precious to some owners. So their BJDs are not just "toys" that they merely "play" with. I think that's why emo-dolls, gothic lolita and the cross-dressing dolls exist because of their ability to allow owners express themselves.

 

I, as a lot more people here, think it's due to the "it's my ideal of cool boy" thing. I myself think of it that way, really.

 

That makes sense. I know nothing about fashion dolls, and the customizing is definitely there with the clothing, and the repaints as well. ^^ Thanks~


(ChristinasDream, I don't especially like the tone of the post, that I assume was deleted. Can we debate and not throw rocks? If people aren't offended and angry, you get better responses, and a thread that isn't locked!) ^_^

Sometimes if you look for one thing, that's all you see. There are so many talented people here, who paint and sew, photograph, customize...

The only thing about the hobby that really bothers me is the negativity. :/

 

I can't speak for everyone but I do know that a lot of people are into yaoi; a lot of people are into anime; a lot of people are into glam rock, goth rock or Jpop; a lot of guys I know personally, many of whom are in bands or in art school, dress in a traditionally "feminine" way all or part of the time; and a lot of girls enjoy seeing males looking pretty and to some eyes, effeminate.

Given all of the above, it just seems like a normal expression of people's tastes.

Also, the doll sellers have tended to appeal to this ideal. The Luts and Dollshe boys, for example, are "pretty", androgynous sculpts. Bishonen House offers manly bodies but heads that are somewhat pretty and feminine as well. Only recently, with dolls like Unidoll Jace, are we starting to see doll sculpts that look male, no question about it. Not that Jace could not also crossdress if he chose, but he seems designed to appeal to buyers seeking a "manlier" male doll.

 

I like pretty boys. I like pretty boys even more when they kiss each other. So do other people. Might not understand it, but it's probably why I don't understand why people can't understand that some people like pretty boys and gay boys.
And you can't do much else with an El anyway... XD

 

Actually this thread is very interesting, and I would hate to see it locked any time soon.

I have been lurking in the BJD fandom for almost a year now, and when I first came into it, I was a little off put by all the cross dressing male dolls. Cause while I live in a large city, know gays, have friends who are both gay and bisexual and seen and talked cross-dressers, I have never in my life seen so many of them in one place.

I was always confusing the gender of the doll. I kept seeing Els and Shiwoos and other very fine featured male dolls and thinking 'that's a pretty girl...' It's always interested me to find out why so many of the dolls on the board cross dress and are gay.

I love anime and manga, dislike Yaoi immensely (just don't get it) and have never been interested in putting a male doll in a dress. I don't even really like girls in dresses.

I find that while there are stereotypes in the hobby (oh the Gay El), there are exceptions and people do respect others creative choices. Threads like this one are interesting because they are trying to reason out the influences of this hobby.

BJDs are here for customisation, that's how they were started. The similarities between people's individual choices must be caused by something. It's like the sudden interest in Zombie and Mutilation customs. They come from outside sources. We do not live in an insular world.

All this said people are getting a little irrational with this. These questions are here for others to understand your decisions. Not to insult you. Fads are just popular culture. They change and bend. They have starts ard ends. It's an interesting discussion.

 

Props for Best Thread Devolution Commentary evah! I am still finding this thread to be interesting - off-topic personalizations aside. And again, bickering will result in the thread being locked.

I don't find the Dollshe boys to be androgynous but I also don't see El that way and am always tickled to see opposing interpretations of any of the molds.

 

I don't have this problem, thank the gods.... (obsession with pretty boy dolls that is)

I live with two human pretty boys, who are very high maintenance indeed, so I think it turns me off the boy dolls completely!!! XD

Raven

 

Maybe because it's being called a fad? People who are into it cite it as a personal preference. We don't like the insinuation that something we honestly like to do is a way of jumping a bandwagon.

I also find that people who say they don't understand it (and this applies to more topics than just effeminate dolls) follow up the statement with a theory on why other people do like it, which completely contradicts what has already been said.

 

God yes. What really gets me is the *need* for other people to always decide they have to "understand" it, but instead start to play the whole degrading game. The tone of such posts has been very troubling to me--and this includes the first post. Why does there have to be some overtly complex reason for why anyone does one thing or another with their doll?? I do what I like, you do what you like and we all respect each other. I'm sorry, I don't do things because they're fads, I do it because it's what appeals to me. If you don't like to cross-dress your boy, I doubt you're going to start if it really *is* the "in" thing to do, right? You paid for your doll, you're going to do what you want with him.

But what irritates me the most is this: if someone is doing something with their doll that makes them happy--whether it's putting their El in a dress, modding their doll into a zombie, dressing their girl in a man's suit, or just throwing their "manly" doll into a tee and some ripped jeans--why is there a need to address it like it's some social crime. It makes them *happy* No one else has to point a finger and go *ewww* you're what's wrong with the hobby, you're creating a fad, you're breaking the gender rules or drilling a third-eye hole into your doll's head. This is what makes them/us happy. Happiness is pretty hard to come by in this world, why mess with that? Why push buttons that make it unenjoyable for someone else that has invested time and effort and money into something they enjoy? Is their doll hurting you? Do your corneas sizzle and burn out of your face because you saw a boy doll in a dress? There is a back button.

It's like Zagzagael already said, for alot of newer people to the board, first impressions are not always correct. Do a little seeking rather than lumping the masses together as some rabid doll cross-dressing fan girl mob tearing down all the things that make doll collecting a clean-cut correctly gender-defined hobby. If you don't like it you don't have to look.

Live and let live.

I own five boys, my MNF cross-dresses on occassion because I think it's cute. My El definitely has the potential to cross-dress, and I see nothing wrong with that. My Bernard dresses in leather, because that's his personality. He won't wear a dress because it doesn't go with his character, but he's fine with his new kilt because he's part Scottish. I'm getting a Unidoll Jace, he's going to have long hair--will people frown because it makes a "manly" doll girly? I don't care. He's my doll. I have two girls on the way, who are going to be very girly--pretty and delicate and gorgeous, because that's the way I want them to be. And my vampire is as far from a vampire as you can get. He just has the fangs. When I get my next two boys they're going to be Jrockers, because I love Gackt. I think he's the most GORGEOUS man I've ever seen, and when I first saw him I actually did think he was a girl. When I realized he was a man, I nearly died of excitement--why? Because severely androgynous men are my *passion* and seeing severly androgynous boy dolls in this hobby is what drove me straight into the arms of ABJD.

I also think alot of people are taking some of these dolls completely at face value based on what they see in the gallery. Read some of the databases, you may find that what seems like similar dolls are actually very different when you begin to learn about their individual characters.

 

For a start I dislike gendering as a concept (gender, as distinct from biology, is about behaviors and stereotypes that we associate with one sex or the other - such as wearing dresses - sex, on the other hand, is about your actual physiology), and if one follows this school of thought, then a person can be just as much a man wearing a dress, as a woman with no desire to keep house; clothing and cooking are about social gendering, not biological sex.

Thus...for me...what my dolls wear is entirely based on their personal tastes, rather than their sex. I don't really hold with terms like 'cross-dressing' for the same reason.

However if you want a practical explanation for why I do sometimes make very feminine clothes for boy dolls (as opposed to for specific characters), rather than girls, it's aesthetic. I find a lot of companies make very unrealistic - sometimes even 'Barbie-doll-ish' - bodies for girls, and I don't like the way clothing looks on them. I own a girl doll and I sold her Elfdoll body and am getting her a DollsTown one for exactly that reason.

Similarly (though I don't really decide on my characters' sexual preferences consciously, again, it's purely to do with personalities) for me, same-sex relationships also appeal because there is less of a focus on gendered rolls. Or at least...there aren't any inherently gendered rolls. There are relationships between members of the same sex that ascribe typically 'masculine' rolls to one party and 'feminine' rolls to the other; it's probably most obvious in Yaoi manga, where you get the uke who's basically a girl in disguise and a seme who's the 'Ultimate Man' ^^;

 

Could not have said it better myself.

 

Yeah, what Lachlana said. XD (I wasn't trying to bicker--I just get a little stung when someone says something I like and makes me happy means I jumped on a bandwagon. It's a tiresome feeling in every fandom, ever, with anything.)

I'm still really interested in what everyone has to say, though. It's fun. :3

 

I think the "it's a fad" is a misrepresenation of what's striking people.

Because this whole pravalency of women seeking the reversal of gender roles is fairly new (within the last 20 years) and is becoming a group large enough, and instistant enough it seems like it might even be the majority. (however in my expierence women who subscribe to gender roles keep to a silent majority about it).

It's looking beyond "Because it makes me happy o.o;" to WHY is makes groups of people happy. I's a really really interesting study of sociology.

and I would also say it seems "fadish" in the way spreads, a lot of people see other people doing it and do it as well because they realize it's safe. ...Well, they put their doll in a dress and no one smited them, so I can do it and no one will get upset. This place is a website very nurturing to the idea of deconstructing gender roles. Good or bad, take it or leave it, it's one half of yin and yang. There's a lot of places out there that will get very upset if you bend gender convention. Good or bad, take it or leave it.

Really though, the way everyone is getting so upset about attacks coming from the other "side" is because it's cultural backlash. "If there's more of the old convention, we'll be suppressed and thrown back in the closet" and "if they take over, what we hold onto will be destroyed" ..... these are exaggerations of course, but this is a cultural shift we're standing in.

Just remember, your dolls are avatars. They're your ideals, your likes, your dislikes, your whims, your dreams.... and there's no way the embodiment of that can be wrong.

And also keep in mind everyone dreams about something different.

 

I sincerely apologize if anything I wrote may have been construed as suggesting that any interpretation of the dolls on this board is a fad. Obviously, with any collective there is a portion that is all about train-jumping and that isn't necessarily a bad thing nor am I suggesting that that is what drives members to cross-dress their boys. If a "look" is about experimentation for someone - fantastic! If a "look" is a true resonance for another - wonderful!

If it wasn't for "fads" culture would not be able to cycle through the various human condition phases that we get to experience first hand each generation.

With that being said, Vincents Angel, I must admit to being confused by your statement above regarding the last 20 years of women seeking the reversal of gender roles - historically women have been experimenting with gender for ten thousand years.

This is something that we don't see discussed enough - the dolls are in many ways for many collectors representations of the anima/animus or avatars or daimons. I would never presume - as I hope everyone else here would as well - to intepret another person's response to his or her own creativity regarding anything, let alone a ball-joint doll.