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

I do think some things are done too often, but that will happen with every hobby. It's inevitable, but with dolls especially, it's for that person's pleasure and whims, and anyone else being entertained is an added bonus.

 

My vampire and werewolf were never based off "Twilight". They existed a good 20 years before "Twilight" existed. So they were never part of the trend. I mean, my vampire won't show his teeth!

Some of my gay couples just formed on their own. I also have straight couples. I even have a full family, father, mother, and children. The characters did it themselves. SO I don't follow the trends, it just happens.

 

Nicely put

 

Any hobby has trends. Art and writing and manga/comics particularly. Yaoi is a huge trend lately, ( i for my part will never understand how a sexuality becomes a fandom) and so in spite of the doll ownership base being of many lifestyles, an overwhelming majority of dolls are bi or homosexual males, because that's considered cute, or because tons of people like their dolls that way.

I don't think there's much to debate- It's a fact, "Lots of people have homosexual male dolls."

But "Would I like to see something different?" That's a discussion topic.

Heck yes, I like variety. I'd like to see how a female doll looks paired with one of those Iple EID's. I'd like to see more dolls that are male and masculine, since there are already lots that are male but more feminine.

However, I am not the majority, and the majority clearly likes what it likes. *shrug*

 

I don't think t's and jeans is a fad at all. T's and jeans have been here forever.. Especially in a males. what else are they suppose to wear? patterned pants? but then, god forbid its pinstripe! then it'd be emo or plaid then it'd be punk.

Anyway. Yes there's a lot of cross dressing. And I think its a trend. It's instyle.. Look at the guys these days. Straight but wearing makeup and girls jeans, long layered hair, waxing their eyebrows. it's in its peak right now. Soon it'll fall and then it'll rise.

I don't mind it.

 

I don't think these things can be done to death! Perhaps over-talked about, perhaps over-exposed, but my drag act/gay dolly lurve would be different from anyone else's, and my enjoyment wouldn't be diminished by the fact that I was the nth-thousand-million to do so.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

i agree with you.

i might be crazy or something, but for some reason, it seems like every Iplehouse Akando ended up as a homosexual, normally seen in his underwear and often with an equally buff homosexual partner. the Iple guys are buff and they are manly, but there's something about them that screams homo to me. kind of like...George Michael homo

i think homosexuality/yaoi became a trend because it was once seen as a minority maybe? things that are popular always start off as something rare and unusual, so lots of people like it and then it becomes the norm rather than something elusive.

i remember my science teacher saying something about genetics and how blond hair and blue eyes are said to be recessive genes so they're more desired than, for example, brown eyes and brown hair which are more dominant genes. homosexuality isn't something everybody has, so those that do have it are seen to be 'special'...ok, now i'm really beginning to grab at straws, but i think you know what i mean.

 

If I may.
It is not a trend, in my opinion but it might be a testable hypothesis, because it is the anti-normal flow of Western culture.

In "normal Western culture" you have the sexualization of women as being "normal" and "not gay". You can look at the magazine covers with all the women on them, even on women magazine covers to the major anime and games out there. You have a disproportionate number of the harem and male hentai genre to the amount of reverse harem and female hentai genre.
I think this is the time when the scales are tipping and more women are saying "I want to see two guys going at it!". You can even see it in the way that women react to a gay female romance and the way men react to gay male romances. The women are more accepting. So, women are now wanting equal treatment in the realm of sexual objectification. (They want to see men objectified.)
[Note that most of this comes from my observations of my girlfriend and why she has all male dolls and is into boy-love and yaoi.]

As for "too many" dolls in drag and relationships, I think the counter diction to this is "Are there too many women portrayed in relationships and in drag." Usually not drag, however there is indeed "too many" lesbian pairings in the "normal" culture. It's a man's fantasy, as are gay pairings for women (at least in Japan and other cultures that have a catering to the yaoi-boys love genre.)

I think the pairing you see the least of is the "NON" pairing. Dolls that aren't in any form of relationship with anything. Not gay, straight, bi.... they are asexual.

 

Because a lot of gals like to see two (or more) good looking guys together the same way two girls together appeals to a lot of guys Plus it's fun to play with gender roles and see what's perceived as 'normal' turned on it's head. Yaoi is not really about gay people (anymore than erotic stuff geared towards guys is really about lesbians), but what women want to see in their romantic fiction. There's just such a double standard (you know what I'm talking about...the whole 'but girls aren't into that kind of thing' garbage), that people spend oodles of time puzzling over it. There's a fandom for it, because there is a group of people that enjoy that kind of subject matter and want to share that joy with each other.

 

I think that sums things up very well. There tends to be a lot more variety in the doll community than people like to give it credit for--to the extent that when people complain that there is too much of one thing or not enough of something else I scratch my head and wonder if we're looking at the same forum

 

Just to add my two cents... Yaoi isn't standard homoerotism.
Yaoi pictures homosexual couples in a heterosexual way, and it is more specifically designed to attract a readership of straight girls.
I, for instance, read much boys love, but I'm quite indifferent to real gay romance novels.

So it's not as much a "sexuality which become a fandom", than a subversion of a sexuality which fit in most fandom

To get back on topic, I think there's still room for originality in anything that's overdone :P And I think the pictures of many doll owners just prove that :3
Same for cross-dressing. It all depends on the intent of the photographer and how good he is at getting his intention to reach us.

 

This is a really good point.

I have a lot of friends offline who love reading yaoi, and I have a lot of friends online who also love reading it. The one thing I've noticed is that all of them are straight. And after asking some of them, the general response is that they don't enjoy seeing two real men in a sexual relationship.

But, on topic...I've noticed that a lot of the people who say that dolly homosexuality isn't a trend/isn't being "dont to death" are mostly users who have homosexual dolls. Those arguing the opposite are mostly users who have heterosexual dolls or dolls with no preference. I think this says a lot.

I, for one, know that my dolls are heterosexual. I've also enjoyed my share of yaoi and shounen-ai, have several gay friends, and I have absolutely nothing against homosexuality at all. But I think it's a bit silly to disagree with the obvious-- homosexuality is definitely in the vast majority here on DoA. I do think that it is, in a loose sense, "done to death". To the point where I will be reading the profile of a male doll, see that the sexuality is homosexual, and think "wow, big shocker ._."...not that I'm annoyed at all with it, moreso that I'm just really bored of seeing it and I wish that I would see something different once in a while.

But then, this is just my general perception based on what I alone have seen while browsing the forums, maybe I'm just always browsing at the wrong time

 

Holy crap. Any valid statement you might have said was totally overshadowed by these two sentences to me. And I don't even like the buff Iple guys... at all. I'm amazed no one else has seemed to notice how stupidly offensive that sounded.

Or maybe it's just me.

 

Wow,... I also once asked a friend of mine who was into yaoi. She liked reading yaoi, but when I asked her about what she thought of two real men in a sexual relationship. She practically winced, and pretty much said the same thing that she doesn't like seeing two real men in a sexual relationship. She said it was different. It doesn't make sense. If she praises two men in a yaoi novel, why not accept two real men together? It's contradicting and confusing to me.

Also all gay people I know, who only like men, don't read yaoi...interestingly enough... I have not yet met one gay person that does, maybe you guys have.

I have no preference, I have nothing against others having a homosexual doll. But yes, I have seen many dolly descriptions that state their dolls are homosexual. Or the story is really heavy on the subject. I have been here long enough to see that it's actually grown as the years went by and is predominantly the case today, there are many. But as more people get into the hobby of course were going to see more of it.

Another thing I noticed about this, I hardly see any girl with girl relationships.

I am not into yaoi, and I have nothing against owners that are. They are free do as they want with their dolls personalities, whatever makes them happy. But I agree with the whole homosexuality is definitely in the vast majority here on DoA. As well as for the dolly crossdressing. I am not sure why it's popular, it's still a mystery to me.

 

As interesting as it is to note that perhaps some yaoi fans don't support real life gay relationships, I just wanted to point out to not forget that there still are fans of yaoi who understand the difference between real life and fantasy and can still fully support and respect gay and lesbian relationships in the world today while enjoying the unrealistic aspects of yaoi/BL. I have met a number of these people myself, including gay men as well. I'm not denying the existance there may be some fans of yaoi who are turned off by homosexual relationships in real life and that honestly perplexes me but it irks me to think all people who indulge in a fantasy might be thought of in this way.

As for there not being enough girlxgirl in the doll world, I also think that's very much a case of 'seeing too much of what you DON'T want to see', which is why the many female pairings on this board might be not as noticed. No, I'm not so naive as to think they can even rival how many boyxboy pairings there are, but I've certainly seen quite a number of owners very proud to show off their lesbian girls or more tomboyish girls (in terms of dress and crossdressing) and many fans of them.

 

Sorry didn't mean to urk you. >_<;
I was only relating to a comment and sharing a similar experience is all. I know not all yaoi fans are like that. But the ones who are, contradict themselves and it's confusing.

Still debatable though, some people have no preference. Even though there are some girlxgirl relationships, there not as popular or as mass as boyxboy relationships for sure.
If you go to the gallery,photostories, and database. Scroll down the pages, page by page, you will start to notice it. But let's do a search instead.

When I type in search Yaoi in Gallery, 286 labeled results popped up.
When I type in search Yuri in Gallery, 134 labeled results popped up, and many of those threads were for the BJD Migidoll Yuri or a sculpt named Yuri. Rare for a girlxgirl infact. This is on gallery alone.

Photostories search result for Yaoi brings in 258 results.
Photostories search result for Yuri brings in a mere 29 results.

But then again, the word vampire brings up 300 results in Gallery. And vampires are really popular.
286 yaoi in gallery/258 yaoi in photostories VS. vampires in Gallery 300/300 Vampire in Photostories.

I mean they are almost as high as vampires and vampires are really, really popular. Yaoi is so popular it can almost compete with the vampires in DOA.

So it may not 'a case of seeing too much of what you DON'T want to see'. It's actually really common!

 

The thing I get tired of the most is the 1-dimensional stereotypes.

Punks cant be punks without bright colors, black nails, or ripped up clothes.

Gay dolls cant be gay unless they wear skimpy girly clothes or have something pink.

Innocent cutsey dolls can't be innocent without frills, bows, lace and holding some kind of stuffed animal.

Child dolls for some reason "all tawk like dis b'cuz its wut kids do!" which isn't true.

And assasin/vampire type dolls cant seem to wear anything besides leather and lots of black and have generally angry or dis-interested faceups.

I could go on and on with a bunch more but those are the things that make me think "too many". There's nothing new or differant about any of them. You've seen one and you've seen them all.

 

I did state that I didn't think 'yuri' type pairings could rival how many 'yaoi' pairings there, but I do certainly think they are more common than that. Alot of times it's important to note how many people actually even post dolls in the galleries as opposed to those who don't, since there could certainly be alot more out there than pictures alone would suggest. I remember a thread in the GD about girlxgirl dolls and quite a number of people spoke up about their girl couples or people with plans for them. Also, some people post their same dolls quite often so it could be a repeat of the same 'yaoi' couple as posted last week.

I'm not saying people should stop with gay relationships with their dolls but I'm also not saying people should have more lesbian dolls JUST for the sake of 'making it more even'. That it when it feels superficial to me, that a relationship really is a fad or in this case an 'anti-trend' without any real thought put into why it is done. Not to say some people don't make gay dolls also for the sake of following the masses but that is equally troublesome.