Too many? (Dolls in drag, / relationships, etc)

Exactly. There may be some things I've seen over and over that aren't to my personal taste, but I don't feel the need to post about it. If I click on a gallery thread that features something that I don't particularly care for, I can just click the "Back" button.

There will always be trends, and some things will inevitably be more popular than others. I tend to be more irritated with the feeling that someone is doing something solely because it's trendy, rather than the actual trend itself. I don't see a lot of that in this hobby, to be honest. I think a lot of people just have the same likes and dislikes. Plus, there's a certain amount of idea-sharing in the hobby. Someone will see something in a gallery thread and think, "hey, that's a cool idea. What if I put my own spin on it?" That's just how art and creativity works... someone comes up with a new idea and other people will adopt that technique and expand upon it with their own style.

If someone just happens to like the same thing lots of other people do, more power to them! I happen to love pointy elf ears, which is a pretty popular trait among BJDs. I don't like them because they're popular, I just do.

Boy dolls in dresses may not be something I'm interested in pursuing for my dolls (or at least my current group), but a well-done photoshoot of a boy in a frilly skirt, or a well-thought-out 500-year-old vampire character can interest me. I can find just about anything interesting if it's done well, regardless of how many times it's been done before.

 

could messy mohair wigs be called, 'done to death'? IMHO I think the dolls and their dressings/accessories reflect the beliefs/morals/style of the owner.
Kind of like when you dress your kids in Baby Gap clothes or Walmart brands :P

Personally, I just LOVE ppl who design their own clothes for their dolls. BJD collecting is one of the most amazing creative outlets there is!

 

JennyNemesis, you are the best! X//D I totally get what your saying and agree with it completely...sad you couldn't get through to some of em, but thats okay. If I would have tried to explain it, it would have come out...horribly. Very much so. Maybe because I am tempermental. You are so witty! ^_^ I don't mean this sarcastically either, just wanted to say that I admire your choice of words.

 

I have to say that JennyNemesis, Suuchan and Wolfmammy are ALL making valuable points in my opinion, but all need to step back and think about eachothers choices...

On one side I'm a very strong believer in what JennyNemesis has to say and it can be very helpful in real life circumstances, but if someone decides to put their boy in a skirt, dress or other feminine clothes (regardless of other male qualities because I personally don't find them particularly prominent amongst dolls) I think they should be expecting some confusion and I find it odd when they react badly to it...There's no reason to respond in such a negative way, so what? Your boy is a bit on the feminine side, nothing wrong with that!...After all, the majority of these sculpts are hardly 'manly' and an outsider of the BJD world isn't to know any better....And even if they're within the hobby maybe people should take that as a hint as I find most 'BJD people' to be quite accurate with their genders on dolls..If they don't like their boys being confused as girls by other people in the hobby, why dress them like that? I personally don't see why they're offended and too be perfectly honest it can actually be quite offensive that they're offended by it XD (just to make things even more confusing)

I don't actually mind when people get my guys and even girls confused...I have girl dolls that dress up as men and people ALWAYS refer to them as guys, but that's why I did it! ^ ^ My family usually calls all my boys girls..I just laugh it off when I see their expression when I tell them otherwise...XD

 

I can't tell if the boy dolls are girls or boys if they're wearing dresses. There was a boy doll used for a dress tutorial that I thought was a girl, looks just like one.

It's not like it's He-man in a dress that you can definately tell is a male.

My whole point is still:

People are going to make assumptions based on the feedack that they are given.

edit: Grrr, I was cut off last night. If someone is given misleading feedback(a girly looking boy in a dress), then they will normally see what it is they are lead to see. I still think it's silly that anyone thinks the 'duck theory' has anything to do with prejudice. Obviously some people read between the lines, even when there's no need to.

 

I could seriously see any style as "done to death". By a certain point, almost any outfit on a BJD can be classified into a category that has been seen or done over and over again. Unless you come up with something totally weird and original, I can say that I've seen it before.
Besides, all because a doll is dressed in punk, lolita, vampire, elegant or Victorian, elf, emo, J-pop, J-rock, decora, steampunk, classic, modern, traditional Japanese, Korean, Chinese, rock, hippee ect, ect, doesn't take away from the doll's beauty. It's not the clothes they wear, I think it's the face and hair that makes a doll special. Sure clothing has an affect on a doll, but I think it's meant more to describe the doll's personality and such.

 

I'd say follow what you feel is important to you, regardless of wheather it's popular or not.

Sure, some things have been done a million times, but maybe there is still something fresh to say about the topic, something to explore, or maybe the sheer fact that it's been done so many times may be interesting as a source of inspiration, an object of parody or whatever.

If you feel overloaded with something, ignore it or try new things out, but if you love repeating certain style or practice within your comfort zone (because of fashion, your actual interest or for whatever other reason), that's just fine too.

 

I would never call heterosexual pairings "done to death" because I hardly ever see hetero doll pairings ... o__o Which as far as psychology is concerned, probably says something interesting that is a whole 'nother dolly debate thread.

But I do also think there's a definite difference between boy pairing for pairing's sake and boy pairing because you've decided that your dolls are a couple. One is born of that darn yaoi trend and the other is ... an alternative lifestyle. To illustrate what I mean, if your dolls are a COUPLE then if you do picture them in loving embraces together, it will generally just be those two. (If your dolls are breaking up with each other and hooking up with other dolls ... then maybe you're taking your dolls too seriously.) But if you just pose your boy suggestively with other boys willynilly, it seems more like "I like yaoi." At least to me. Which seems more like a bandwagon sort of thing. (I REMEMBER BACK IN THE DAY WHEN NO ONE EVEN KNEW WHAT YAOI WAS *rocking chair* *cane* *old voice*)


Oh, and something else I think has been done to death: Boys in long wigs. I feel like I almost NEVER see boys in short wigs unless they're on Japanese sites. Maybe I'm not "looking hard enough," but I feel like I see TONS of long wigs on boys. Which also gets into that "omg my doll isn't a girl!" thing. "Well, he's in a long wig and a dress, so ..."
I guess this is partly the fault of the doll companies, as they don't make so many short wigs suitable for boys.

I would definitely like to see more--I like them for my boy AND my girl. But I wonder which way it goes--people don't want short wigs so we don't make them or we don't make them so no one uses them. Is it a consumer trend or is it the fault of the companies?

Speaking of wigs, messy mohair wigs are bad, but I'm gonna say "ugly fur wigs that look like troll hair" need to go away too. Yikes. (There are GOOD fur wigs, and maybe they cost more but they are worth it.)

 

I guess some things can't help but be done to death, because they are found in normal life too or are promoted by the many medias around us.

Tough soldier guys with guns? Maybe not seen as often as girly boys, but it certainly has been done to death in the game industry.
Sugary sweet tiny girls? Reminds me of those princess dresses sold at toy stores for young girls.
Hot chicks in leather, Victorian gentlemen, colour themed characters, super heroes, royalty, mobsters, ninjas, etc. You find it inside and outside the BJD hobby, because people draw inspiration from the world around us.

I see heterosexual pairings often enough here. My first doll couple is one. I wonder how certain things can be done "to death" in a bad way. If a friend of mine shows his/her new partner of the opposite sex I don't go "Oh, heterosexual pairings are so done to death. You bore me." even when the majority of the couples I know in real life are man-woman couples. Then why would a majority of man-man couples on this forum be bad? Because it's different in real life? Because someone wasn't original or realistic when deciding that detail for a doll or photo shoot?

I agree that there aren't that many good short haired wigs for sale, but my boy Derrick wears one. He doesn't wear dresses, but he is a done to death girl head on boy body.

Done do death VS originality. When we all draw from similar pools of inspiration, it is hard to be 100% original. I have a girl doll that cross dresses. It's not done to death, but it certainly isn't original, although that never stopped me. Maybe things are done to death, because they are fun or appealing to do. People jump on the bandwagon, because that bandwagon has something that appeals to them. Otherwise it would be a hay wagon stumbling on an old dirt road.

 

Oh my, I know this will get me flamed (I've brought the cocktail weenies) but this is just my humble opinion for myself and how I've felt after being exposed to the community for a while now.

I completely agree that there seems to be an exuberant amount of people who base their doll's character/personality on characteristics that seem to be "popular". It's actually rare to come across someone who has a male doll who is not homosexual, or otherwise alternatively associated. Supernatural characters are a dime a dozen, too, it seems. Tragic pasts, etc etc.

I was actually at a doll meet when someone asked me the orientation of my boy's character, and when I told her that he was a ladies man and just a regular guy, she got excited and claimed that there should be "Straight Dolls Club".

It appears that a lot of collectors like to base their dolls on characters they've made up, and that is unsurprisingly influenced by popular trends a lot of the time. To each their own, you know? It doesn't matter to me what a person's doll's character is, but I find I'm attracted to collectors who really come out with something different. And that's usually someone who has made a realistic resin person. All the others? I don't pay attention to.

 

No, not really.
It just the way people are.
ya, know?
I don't have any problem with it.

 

I guess I'm a rare doll owner then. Of my 12 boy dolls one is bi-sexual, one doesn't care about gender/sex that much, one is just an experimenting teenager and the rest is either heterosexual and like dating women or is engaged/married to a woman or too young get get such a mark put on him.

Of my 4 girls, one is a young child, one is bi-sexual, one is a robot and doesn't do dating and relationships, and one is involved with one of my boy dolls.

My girls are more "alternatively associated" than my boys.

I wonder if some people are able to see past the things they don't like. There are a lot of boy-boy doll couples here on DoA, but heterosexual boy dolls do exist. I've seen some really sweet boy-girl couple photo shoots in the gallery lately.

 

Um... Why does it even matter? If everybody's taking inspiration from the world around them and designing their dolls around that, or if everybody's taking everybody else's ideas just because they're 'popular'. If some people are trying hard to get out of the 'norms' of extraordinary character pasts of trauma and abuse, of if some enjoy that very story twist. So what? I'm not exactly offended if people express their love for a hobby in a way that I don't find 'interesting' or 'new'. Big deal. If I'm not mistaken, all of those people with all those 'cookie-cutter' dolls really, really seem to love their dolls and this hobby. Yes, I daresay they even love them just as much as those with the super original 'normal woah!' dolls do. I'm just wondering when enjoying a hobby changed to mean you had to be 100% original, different, and new, because I didn't get that memo. The way I see it is simple: If they're enjoying what they're doing and not harming anybody, regardless of my personal opinion, how could I possibly justify finding a problem with it?

I respect people enough to let them do what they do, all I ask is the same. I'd just like to do what I do, without people pointing fingers, mouths agape, at my 'unoriginality'.

 

No, it's not rare. You just have to see look past your snap-judgments & look into the galleries. You'll even find plenty of hetero couples on this very forum.

 

I think my point has already been made (perhaps worded differently) but yeah. I just think that people can choose to make their dolls in whatever fashion they like. Be it homosexual, drag, punk, loli, etc. It's a pretty creative hobby, who's to deny them their right to do what they want with their own dolls? Now whether these are fads or not.... Doesn't really matter I think. The one doll I have while her back story is a tragedy, doesn't necessarily mean I'm following a trend/fad. I just also happen, like so many other doll owners, to like or want to create that kind of story for my doll. Also, the boys that I plan to get are also all straight. ^^;;

 

Speaking for myself, I have 10 heterosexual guys, most of which are in heterosexual relationships. InvisibleWings has six or seven heterosexual guys (I lose count), most of which are also in heterosexual relationships.

In another place and time, I might suggest you lurk more.

 

I admit, the cross-dressing does bug me a little tiny bit somedays ^^;;

I don't have anything against cross-dressing at all, but it does get a little boring/cliche/repetative after a while...
That, and I love men's clothes! XD
I do find myself becoming dissapointed when I treck through the gallery some days, getting so many lovely male dolls in lovely dresses. >.> I like suits and trousers!

 

*shrug* Call me done to death, then, because two of my boys have the loooooong hair. It's what suits their characters, though, and I don't intend to change it (nor do I really give two craps if people think they're girls on first blush; they're extremely androgynous characters by nature, always have been, and thus inhabit very androgynous molds). Sympathizing on the lack of good short wigs though, finding the right wig for Lian has been a trial and a half.

I'd say it's not at all rare. At least, not in my experience. I guess I fall into that category too, then, because most of my characters, well...don't much care, I don't think. I've never put too much thought into pairing my dolls off. In fact, now that I stop and put some thought into it, I'm not sure there's any openly gay/alternative male dolls in my meetup crew. (If anyone from Oly wants to correct me on this, please do. XD)

As for the supernatural part -- well, a lot of these dolls have a lot to do with 'fantasy' of some sort or another. If you count elves, four of my five are somehow supernatural (though none of them have anything to do with the tragic pasts). The fifth, well, if you consider Dragonball Z-style tennis to be 'supernatural' I guess he qualifies too.

In the end, I don't think it much matters whether or not it's a 'trend' or there are a lot of dolls that fall into any given category floating around. It's your character to do with what you like, so do what makes you happy. Shouldn't matter if it's a 'trend' or not.

 

I was thinking about a reply to this when something occurred to me. I'll stick up my hands and say 'guilty as charged' about boys in long wigs. Although none of mine are into cross dressing. (Or if they are they haven't told me yet. ) I didn't intend to put my guys in long wigs but I tend to dress my dolls in styles I like, and I like long hair, on men, on women - hell, I even prefer long-haired cats and dogs. Google Herman Li or Dragonforce if you'd like examples of non-girly long hair...



... sorry, lapse of concentration there. Now, where was I? Oh yes, 'done to death on dolls'... I realised that part of why I am more likely to pick a long wig over a short with my dolls is because I don't get to see long hair on men that often. Unless I'm trawling the net. I don't get to see many cross dressers IRL either, nor gay couples. I suspect that if you don't live in a pretty cosmopolitan area or you don't hang out in those scenes (not implying that these example issues are just 'scenes' but I can't find an accurately appropriate word in my head at the moment apologies,) then you won't see much of those things either, and if you want to then your dolls may be the only opportunity for you to bring those aesthetics and/or those issues into your life in some small way.

Then add in the folks who have dolls like that because they are actively involved in or embracing those issues and there's a whole load of folks enjoying the long-haired, cross-dressing gay doll thing.

And, given that most of these attributes are the target for a lot of people's prejudice, hatred and discrimination, the fact that so many folks on DoA are accepting and supportive makes me very happy.

 

I honestly am very curious why people are having people trouble finding heterosexual dolls or boy dolls who don't dress in drag or have short wigs : / As many, MANY people are constantly stepping up to say, they certainly do exist out there, hell, out of my own crew currently only one of my boys has a long wig and only one ( a different one mind you ) occasionally crossdresses. Scanning through galleries I don't find myself hard pressed to find boys in suits and other 'masculine' attire, or males that resemble the stereotypical male. Sure, their actual facial features may be a bit on the delicate side, but that has to do with the actual sculpt itself and not a whole lot can be pinned on the owner for being able to control or change that.