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

I love long hair on guys, always have, and non-humans? My favorite genre is sci-fi/ fantasy and has been since well before the 6th grade. And I think non-human fits with a doll, normal people age, and sure some people buy adult versions . . . and certainly dolls can change over years, but grow old and wrinkly? I haven't seen a senior citizen sculpt yet, (doesn't mean there isn't one and someone with skill can probably mod one). In ten years my body will have aged ten years. Discounting an accident or body change, Zephyr will remain the same, his resin may yellow . . . but he's not going to grow a pot belly, he will remain his same idealized, lean, muscular self. . .

but back to the point. . . these dolls are our fantasies, we make them what we want. Zephyr's character reflects my interests, and if he didn't, why would I bother with him? I'm not looking to try to do something original (and even if I did, I would probably find something similar the next day anyway, as my art professor says, everythings been done, it's how you do it) I'm just trying to enjoy myself . . .

 

I think EVERYTHING.. Almost everything... HAs been done to death. In my personal opinion... I like vampires, werewolves, gay and lesbian romances, anthro dolls and everything else thats popular at the moment. xD But I tell you what, I am not a sheep, just following the trends. It's just who I am, and my dolls tend to come out like that. xD;; And I won't change their personallities as soon as werewolves and vampires fade from the popularity spot light. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that it really depends on the person.

 

Well, in a debate thread, people will expression their opinion. So pointing fingers and claiming someone has a snap judgment when they express such an opinion is moot. Why have a discussion?

Of course I think gay doll characters are a dime a dozen, as are dolls in drag, and characters with angsty pasts. Put thirty doll owners in a room with all of their dolls, and several will fall under this category (some into all three). Does it bother me? Nope. Go for it. Are there a lot? I think so.

Of course asking if there are "too many" implies something negative, and I don't see it as negative, I see it as a common trend. I think it's more along the lines of when you see something over and over again, it doesn't become as unique.

But when I was growing up, the idea that Ken may have had an abusive past, or liked Barbie's clothes too, or was actually involved with Malibu Ken was never even presented as an option. Now that we get to create our own dolls characters, we make the rules and the characters.

The result is similar ideas (angst, cross dressing, magical powers, gay or bisexual dolls) because there are so many of us. And that's fine, too. The most important rule in doll owning is to do what makes you happy, regardless if there are too many of one type of doll.

 

I do think the dressing up of male dolls in dresses has been overdone to the point that people who know very little of BJD nor who have been here always say to me "Aren't those the dolls that people crossdress all the time?"

My dolls (all girls and one boy) all are within standard gender expression (many different kinds like girly and tomboy dolls and my boy is "pretty") so for someone to come up to me and not listen to my character because they are going off of a stereotype is hurtful.

It's gotten to the point where I can't look at it anymore...and avoid the whole thing altogether.

(To clarify: The other doll collectors at my school have mostly gay characters and boys who wear dresses. I'm gay myself so please don't interpret it as gaybashing...and I'm all for people breaking the gender mold...but when it seems like every doll is doing it...it gets annoying)

 

I think I would like to see something more than simply dolls cross-dressing. I see people everyday who looks so different and they each have a special uniqueness about them, so the possibilities for our lovlies should be endless, no?

I actually began thinking this when my boyfriend decided that he should just assume every doll he sees is a "dude" from now on. That makes me a little sad, since there are some really beautiful girl dolls, and some really cool looking male dolls.

But, if that's how your doll/character is, then go for it. There's no reason to change anything just because it's "overly popular." It's not anyone else's doll/character - it's yours, and yours alone.

Personally, I love a "guy's guy", so all of my guy dolls have male clothing. But, again, it's all up to you.

 

After a while too, it starts to seem like it's more of the "trendy thing to do". Sometimes, I find myself being a little caught off guard when I hear doll owners laughing and saying things like, "My doll is such a homo!" (yes, I have heard it, read it, seen it) and it makes me a little uncomfortable. It can get to the point where, while it isn't (reverse?) discrimination, it seems very insensitive and a little rude. And I don't really think people mean it to be intentional, but it still happens.

And clearly it isn't every owner on here, and I'm not saying every owner with a gay doll character is insensitive, as well as I'm not saying that no doll should be gay. What I am saying is I understand when people roll their eyes when a doll character seems to be the same type over and over again.

 

I'm definitely tired of all boy dolls being gay. I'm not anti gay or anything, I guess I just don't get the yaoi thing. -.-

 

I myself will have two dolls who are gay, it's just because of the way their characters developed in their story, but neither of them will be wearing dresses or skirts because they aren't female. I find nothing wrong with cross-dressing, fashion is fashion, it's not as commonplace in the real world, at least not where I live.... yet in the doll world it's kind of overwhelming and overdone.

I understand a lot of molds for boys have very pretty and kind of feminine faces, but I don't think that means they all belong in a dress.

 

I am pretty bored of girly cross dressing gay boys but hey ho, I like my men manly and others like them girly. Each to their own. Its hard to be over done with dolls because unless its a direct copy of a doll, each one is unique and beautiful to someone.

I've got fiesty red head, quite overdone but I love her dearly. (In fact, I will have 2!)

 

You did mean this as a generality, yes? Because my guys would definitely have to take exception to that statement... So far none of my boys has evidenced more than just the passing moment of fancy toward one of the others. Just more into girls, is all...

There are only so many sculpts -- in spite of there being multitudes more than there were when I first started doing this -- so some things are going to LOOK overdone, regardless of whether the people were intentionally following a trend or not.

I do have mostly boy dolls and the short vs long hair distribution is probably 50-50. That's because I really dislike bowl-cut short hair, and most of the short wigs I've seen tend to look like that to me. And I LOVE long hair on guys. (It was one of the first things that attracted me to my now nearly-hairless hubby). And red hair slays me dead. Love it. So hey, to each his or her own. I'll never have lolita-dressing girls, either - it just doesn't appeal to me. But I can't get over the fantastic work some other owners do with it.

What bothers me more than owners following trends is the doll companies rushing to copy each other. Meh. Are cutesy animal-based tinies overdone, much? Geez. They were special at one time... And vampires were, too, until everyone started slapping a couple of cheap-looking fangs on their sculpts ... It's the blatant "let's see if we can grab a buck off THIS trend!" that bothers me lots more than yaoi fans doing their thing or lolita fans doing their thing.

For whatever it's worth!

 

I figure there's four typical human preferences. We like the same gender, we like the other gender, we like both genders or we just don't care for either. Many of my dolls haven't shown any preference yet. One of my males is too busy with his career, but he was heart broken and jaded and wants nothing to do with either gender. Another guy is the former flame but he also likes girls. It's a soap opera.

But no... I'm not going to limit their preferences to only one option.

 

The only thing that feels "done to death" to me is the yaoi thing, but really however people want to enjoy their dolls is their business.

I just skip those photostories.

 

I see nothing wrong with being part of the masses, personally. I spent a lot of my childhood playing the "cool" game. Where when someone said something about NSYNC or The Backstreet boys everyone would sit and go EW backstreet boys. But then we would listen to their cds at home and hide the posters in our closet.

There are two sides of the spectrum for me. The people who like a popular trend for various reasons. Then people who dislike a popular trend usually just because its popular, but sometimes because they find it offensive. To me its no better to dislike a popular trend for being popular then it is to join a trend just to be popular. Because in reality your doing the same thing as the trend followers just saying you dislike their trend, and that ends up being your trend.

I dont know where along the way people decided that just because lots of other people were doing that it was suddenly a bad thing. If you have a more specific reason for disliking it, like saying "My religion does not support homosexuality" then yeah you have a good reason (I dont mean its right just an actual reason) and not just a "I hate it because everyone does it." Because that turns into everyone hating it because everyone does it and then its a new bandwagon.

I used to do this a lot as a kid, especially being in a small school were there was a lot of judgemental people. I missed out on a lot of fun things because of the "its not cool because its so cool" thing. I didnt watch Harry Potter until almost the 3rd movie came out. Then I found the dvd in our rack because my step dad bought it and my sisters ended up watching it and I loved it and thought "What the heck have I been missing out on all this time!". Now I tend to think, if it has a lot of fans, there is a reason, its probably a lot of fun and I am not going to miss out on something that will make me happy just because it also makes the masses happy.

I like Twilight, its my guilty pleasure. I see a lot of people making fun of it and posting rants about it and I have to wonder how many are just on a bandwagon. I find most of them are as they know nothing but that it has "Sparkly vampires!". Is an over the top very cliche angsty romance? Yep, but no one ever said there was something wrong with that. I like it, I wont stop watching it just because someone posts a rant about sparkly vampires. I find stuff like that to be just as over the top cliche as the movie itself. In reality the sparkly vampires was very well explained (if not bordering on humor) in the book so I see no reason for people to make fun of it...

 

I think that, personally, the only reason I don't like all the boy/boy stuff is because that's not really my thing. And there's a lot less girl/girl, which makes me sad.

But in all honesty... just because I personally don't like it doesn't mean I'm going to say anything against it. If I see something that I feel has been 'done to death', I just avoid it. Like if a photostory gets a little too racy... I stop reading it. That's all.

Part of me does wonder why someone gets a boy doll and then dresses them in, well, dresses... but when I think about it I got a tomboy-ish martial arts girl... and then dressed her in dresses... so yeah... Can't say much on that subject, I suppose.

Really, my point of view is... if your character behind the dolly would do it, then by all means do what you will... but that doesn't mean I'm going to look at it. I do, however, have a tendency of being more lenient about things when they have a good in character reason.

I guess it goes further than the whole guy/guy or 'crossdresser' things... since there are also tons of Lolita, tons of vampire dollies, tons of 'brand name' dollies, tons of... well... you name it, there are probably tons of it. (Well, besides girl/girl pairings, as it would seem at least. >.> ) But there are also tons of dolly owners... so yeah...

I'm fine with is just as long as people aren't doing it because it's a trend. But, then again... if we want to get all thoughtful and introspective about it...

No one is really as uninfluenced by 'trends' as they may think. Just 'trends' in general. Even people who are 'avoiding trends' tend to be in the 'trendy' style of not caring about trends... because a style has been made of it. I don't think that it's as bad a thing as anyone really says anymore. I used to. Then again, I came to the realization that in hating 'trends'... I ended up getting caught in a trend. You know, trying to be different... just like everyone else. If you see something you like, no matter who has it, it's logical to go get one for yourself. Envious? Sure. Human? Sure.

So although it may be annoying if someone says 'Oh look a gay dolly, I want gay dollies, too!' it's not really any different from someone going:
"That lolita dress is pretty, maybe I'll make one for my doll!'
or
"Oh, a Dollheart Fer! I want one!"
or
"Oh a Soom Monthly! Oh a Fairyland doll! Oh a -insert any other type of doll in existence- it's so pretty, I want one, too!"

And I have accepted it and think it's fine now... so long as the person really wants it. Because pieces of what they like will eventually make their style, whether it's 'trendy' or not, it would still be their style if they truly liked it. Your style doesn't stop being your style when it becomes trendy.

It's when you try to fit in and do things for other people's comments that it stops being your style, trendy or not. People who buy dolls for the comments and then sell them when the doll doesn't get enough attention... THAT is wrong. THAT is being trendy to be trendy, rather than being trendy because they really like the trend.

But I think I'm being confusing now, so I'll just try to summarize.

Trend = Neither good nor bad.

Being 'trendy' because you honestly like it = Fine.
Being 'trendy' because OTHER people like it = Bad.

Too many? Maybe. But as long as each person truly loves their dolls, who cares? If I don't like it, I don't look at it. Do I wish it was different? Sometimes. Does that mean I like a doll or a doll owner less because their doll is gay or crossdresses or had some other trend? Not at all. I might like the suggestive nature of the picture less, but not the doll or the owner or anything like that.

But because right now I've reached that risky point where I either A) start rambling again or B) start sounding like a confusing after school special... I'm going to end there. ^_^()

 

I think it's a matter of if it's done well... What irks me is when people do all of these 'trends' because they think it's 'cool' or 'what everyone else is doing'. You should do what you want your dolls to look like/do. I find that when people do things that they really believe they want then it usually looks really well done.

(edit) I hope that makes any sense....

 

I think sometimes its cute. I know I will be making a dress for my boy, but only one. He will be straight I have nothing against bisexual or anything, a lot of my friends are opposite of straight, I'm fine with that. But I do like seeing guy and girl once in a while. It's getting a little annoying how everyone is doing guy guy in everything. I'm not saying that the stories aren't good, but when its done so much it really gets on my nerves. I mean would it kill ya to make a guy actually fall in love with a girl for one? or vice versa? -shrugs- That's my opinion, if you wish to argue against that or something PM me because I won't be searching this thread for a response ^-^

 

agreed and same here. It always seems so much more unusal to see a straight photostory or even girlxgirl.

It is of course up to the owner, I don't think any of us want to police what people can do with their own dolls. I'm sure getting a Ciel custom is annoying to people that are tired of anime. It is all a matter of opinion anyway. I just wanted to share my 2 cents.

 

I myself think it is kinda overdone, but I still want dolls that fit those categories. My Dimo, Ty, is my only cross-dresser. I'm going to have four gay couples, two lesbian couples, one of the gay couples is twincest, and one of the lesbian couples is.. hard to explain but I guess you could say they're cousins? I'll also have one gender neutral doll.
I actually didn't plan it, they just came out that way when writing and designing.

 

Agreed with Darkrogue. I feel the same.
I also agree with what Shelly said.

 

This! I loved the whole post, but didn't want to make this super long. We're a race with a pretty extensive history, and we've been inventing, writing, and creating since we knew how to use the appropriate tools! I doubt anything hasn't been done. Just because something's been done before doesn't mean everyone should shy away from it That'd be sad...and severely staunch our creativity.
Also throughout history, humans have thought it terms of "them" and "us". No matter what you do, you somehow always fall into a category, and then you have a "them" who dislikes your "us". There's always someone who doesn't like what you're doing. All you can do is stop worrying about trying to defend/change something you enjoy, and simply enjoy it!