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

You see so many men in drag and homosexual pairings because a lot of the girls in this hobby also like Anime. And what anime are girls more likely to watch? The stuff with men in drag and homosexual relationships.

It's less of a doll trend and more of a trend in the Anime/Manga fandom that rubs off on dolls.

There's also a big focus right now, or at least there was [I don't pay too much attention] on girly looking emo and goth boys. That's the "ideal" right now. Of course you'll see it in dolls, too.

 

Be careful painting with that big, broad brush... There are plenty of female anime fans out there who don't care at all for yaoi.

I'm one of them, and I know I'm far from alone.

 

Anything done well has value. If you'd rather not see "fads," why even be part of a community, where sharing similar things is inevitable? You have the option of collecting alone, without having to deal with such things.

Many people have similar tastes. Many people buy from the same companies, doll-wise, as well as clothing-wise. With so many collectors, a bit of coinciding taste is positively inevitable. While not to my own taste, punk clothing done well is very intricate, and rather appealing.

 

I adore big boots and goth/punk clothing for my own fashion, so if anything I am jealous of all the wonderfull clothes my doll has access to.

As far as androgyny cross dressing and gay relationships go, these are all uncommon things in life, I actually find it soothing to find a community as open minded as here on DoA, try mentioning your a gay androgynous cross dresser on some car forums for example.

Let the dolls have fun, lifes generic enough.

 

Be careful of making sweeping generalizations...

I'm not a heavy watcher or reader of Anime/Manga even though I like it. I've seen snippets of cross-dressing in some BL comics, but that did not compel me to cross-dress my male dolls.

I like BL but my dolls don't seem to reflect that.

Not all anime or manga-loving girls are into cross-dressing their male dolls or have all their male dolls in homosexual relationships.

For the being "done-to-death" part, if I get tired of seeing dolls in EGL all the time, that just means I need to focus on another part of the hobby (ie: faceups, sewing) it helps make things interesting.

 

Saying something is 'beaten to death' implies that other people are making the wrong choice for their doll based on your standards. The choices I make for my dolls are based on my own interests and not those of the community - which is the way it should be - so I don't think anything in this hobby can be 'beaten to death' because everyone is just doing what they want to do.

There may be a large amount of pics you don't personally like - but then you just avoid those posts - it doesn't mean it is a such a negative thing as being 'beaten to death'... it just means that you have differing interests from others.

 

Eh, I gotta say, I can't say anyone is running gay dolls into the ground. While straight dolls are the minority, homosexual HUMANS are also in the minority - so can I say that straight people are overdone, and that there are too many? No, not really. Nor can I say there are too many white people in America.. there are just more of some things than others, and it's how the world works.

 

Agreed.
ButI guess there always an exception to the rule, isn't there.
Myself. I've only met one person into the cross-dressing homosexual anime.
Every other person I know IRL (Myself included) usually avoid said show...

But, back on topic.
In all honesty, I am kind of sick of seeing it everyone's doll having a gay relationship.
I mean no offence of course, but well.... It's very over done now. Let's seesomething different!

 

I guess I will be speaking from the minority, as I do feel that these depictions are very much overdone.

This section of the doll collecting world allows for such an intricate level of customization that it (to me) becomes an artform; a method of self-expression. And when I see an excess of these dolls getting placed into such niches, all I get a feel for is people following vapid trends and not what is in their hearts.

That is, of course, not to say that I care if people are willing to do so, because I don't; it is your money, afterall. Spend it on your doll collection as you wish!

And to the person who said there would be lack of complaints if convential expressions were in excess, well, you're quite wrong; I would have just as much of a problem with it.

 

I see androgyny as part of the BJD aesthetic and not a really a 'fad.'

Aside from that, things such as these do seem to be more than amply represented. I have never been into yaoi, and none of my characters/dolls are gay. There is nothing wrong with it; it's just not my interest. (I do wonder if I will have the only hetero Sabik on the board... ) Goth, punk and Lolita are not in my interest, either. Do I think that SOME (Certainly not all or necessarily even most.) people who are into these things are following a fad that they'll drop when the new thing comes along? Most likely.

I do like those elves, fantasy creatures, angels, immortals and gods, though... my own characters are part of a traditional fantasy story. Certainly someone not into fantasy could say there is 'too much' fantasy in the BJD world.

In the end, as others have said, people can do whatever they want with their dolls, be it follow a fad, stick with their own interests or strike off into unexplored territory. Despite the prevalence of some kinds of things, DoA still has a pretty wide array of interests represented if one seeks them out.

 

My Souldoll Osu loves boobs and is more than happy to let everyone know! We had a meet-up recently where there wasn't any girls and he was NOT happy.

I'm not a big fan of the homosexual fad, even though I am myself.

 

I'm afraid i can't name the movie reference, but i do believe i've heard that line before ^.~

I completely agree with you here. If you're interested in it, go for it, do whatever you want. Being in the community, of course, you're going to get somewhat influenced by the mass appeal, but that doesnt mean one should or does go "oh, gee, homosexual punk crossdressing fairyboys are the popular thing on DOA right now, my new boys will be like that so i can get gallery views or be in the 'in' crowd!" ...With us all being in a SO not mainstream hobby like this, its somewhat surprising that some people still have this mentality, though ^^;;

While i know we're all influenced by the fads and what the current popular fashions are due to availability, i know i for one have to step back and look at my characters once in a while. My current dolls all hail from a story that i've started [since i got into the dolls, they started it ^.~;; ] and i've been making an attempt to keep it flowing and keep it away from horrible glaring cliches--which i've mostly failed at. (Huh? ANOTHER girly elf prince boy? What? D=! ) However, i was telling myself, no, i'm not gonna have any random homosexual pairings in here. I'm all for it, but thats not something this story needs thrown in here. However, before i knew it, BAM, there they were. Elf prince boy #2 and head royal guard? totally sneaking off to their chambers and hands all over each other. Oops?


Long post short: If you're all into the fads and stuff, like you like your dolls in punk because you like the style, or your boy dolls like other boy dolls because you like that or your girl is a hopeless lolita cause you like it, then thats perfectly cool. But the second you start wondering whether your homosexual punk crossdressing fairyboy is really what you wanted him to be or he just ended up that way because thats everything you see here, then yeah, maybe you should take a step back from teh community and reassess who you and your characters actually are ^.~


--maybe that was too long. Sorry if i rambled, its quite early ^^;;

 

But why should people do something different if they like having gay dolly couples? They should be pleasing themselves not pleasing you. To you it's overdone because you don't like it, but that has little bearing on the choices of other hobbyists. Do you see where I'm coming from?

I don't like seeing people whine about things being overdone, because it implies that they should be doing what is less common whether they want to or not. If there's a lot of gay dolls, or cross dressers or (fill in the blank), then there's a reason for that--namely, the dolls' owners enjoy it and enjoyment is what this hobby is about. If you don't like these things, then you always have the freedom to do something different with your own dolls and seek out like minded hobbyists.

But how do you know people aren't following what's in their heart? Why can't people have similar interests? Even within a trend such as a gay couple or particular clothing style, isn't their room for self-expression? For example most of my dolls are gay, however I'm pretty sure their characters aren't cookie cutter images of other peoples' dolls' characters. The punk outfit I put on my girl may not be exactly like all the other punk outfits out there. You can take a trend at face value and only see the sameness, or you can look within a trend and see how each individual has interpreted it. Creativity and originality are great, but there's always going to be overlap because certain things will always appeal to a larger group of people.

 

You're so right!

I see to few men dolls in drag. *pout*
I like to see real drag men but there are very few of them. (Jeffree Star )
So I'm happy there are at least dolls dressed like that.

And yes my dolls are gay.
I'm gay myself. XD
It's a bit weird to say "Let's see something different!" when you're talking about sexual preferences. O_ô
I like seeing boys with boys and girls with girls. And I don't like anime much.

Maybe my crossdressing gay fairy boy is very common, I made him with my heart. He means very much to me.
I don't care if it's done 10.000.000 times before.

 

To me saying that dolls in drag have been done to death is kinda funny. I have yet to see a single female doll with short hair and a manly suit, actually even IF someone put a girl in drag most people wouldn't think twice about it.
In real life you could easily say that dressing according to what is appropriate for one's sex and leading a heterosexual lifestyle has been done to death. I think that perhaps some knowingly/unknowingly turn the tables in the doll world so to speak. What's uncommon is common, and not following what's the main road in real life is suddenly met with acceptance.
There's a reason we seldom say something like a sexual orientation is done to death in real life: when it comes to humans we all realize that an individual is composed of more than his or her sexual orientation / clothing style / appearance. Now if we give our dolls characters I would suppose that there's more to the dolls character than the aforementioned aspects. Therefore depending on the owners history/personality/culture two homosexual, goth, lolita, cross-dressing dolls will probably be completely different if you'd get to know their fictional characters.

 

I think if you become fixated on something then it seems to pop up everywhere, because youre looking for it. I think doll sexuality and gender is very varied. The only thing I think is 'done to death' are topics of sexuality and gender photographed or narrated badly. For instance, a very crude photoshoot of two dolls having sex, against a crude background, in not very natural poses and with badly taken photographs, because then the only thing you notice is the topic and it will appear 'tasteless'. I have seen plenty of wonderful photoshoots of dolls in same and opposite sex unions as well.
As a personal opinion... I am surrounded by drag queens and kings in my social life, plus my circle of friends have varied sexualities including myself. However my dolls are just dolls, if a photoshoot sees them with a same sex doll or a girl doll in drag then its just what I would personally like to take a photograph of.

On a side note... this reminds me of playing with dolls as a child and putting naked dolls together etc...playing with my own ideas of gender and sexuality at an early age, as I have heard other people did when younger. Do you think playing with gender and sexuality with bjds can be seen as a later version of doing the same but with barbies etc?

 

I don't know if I would say that gays dolls are overdone. I think that there are different reasons that people have gay dolls. One that person might be gay and they make their dolls gay because it's something that they can relate to. Or that person might be gay and can't come out because of religious or cultural practices so they live their lifestyle through their dolls.

Now I do feel that there are some people who made their dolls gay because they think it's trendy and in fashion and that it makes them edgy...which is really annoying. It's very similar to those females that make out in public, despite neither one of them are gay. But they do it because they think it's cool.

I haven't seen that many dolls in drag though, I think I've seen two.

 

Yessss, well worded, this is exactly what I was trying to say before. We aren't a TV network trying to put out shows to please the masses. We are enjoying our hobby the way we want to, we just happen to post little glimpses into our worlds here on the boards. It's not our job to put out what other people want to see.

 

Let's try to move AWAY from the original assertion that it's homosexual dolls that are "overdone" and move into the general debate about fads and phases. Or this will be merged with a thread regarding crossdressing, etc.. Thanks!