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

I'm not sure this arguement is really a politically correct one... It's kind of like saying:

"There are too many straight dolls here on DOA!"

It's just not something that you can "set a limit to..." Sure there might be a larger occurance of dolls with these qualities on DOA (for whatever reason), but they aren't qualities that are really creative ones that can be analyzed this way...

 

Congrats then, but that's not what I said. Living up to someone else's expectations is not the same as being influenced by your peers or your family or your community.

Well...which one of those examples are flavour of the month? Most, if not all, have been around and popular for a lot more than a month.

The fad that seems to be the main topic here is dolls in drag or gay relationships. It would be entirely inaccurate to call that flavour of the month since that's like flavour of the past two years and more.

Because we need to be a unique soul to lie outside the trend in a doll hobby. Sure.

I've met people who are interesting and have tonnes of original, creative ideas. But when it comes to doll fashion? Doll trends? There are far more people who think they're 'unique souls' with dolls that are beyond all trends...when hey, really? I would say there're a handful of truly unique dolls outside the trend (snake-Hound, comes to mind) but still, far less than most think.

You know, I'm not even saying that I'm so jaded that everything is generic and the same to me. It's not. But it's execution. A great steampunk outfit is a great steampunk outfit and I'm always gleeful to see something done well. Doesn't mean that the fashion style is exclusive to that one doll-owner. Shouldn't even matter if it's only the one doll or the one hundred dolls who dress in steampunk. If you like it and you can carry it off, it's all good.

 

Maybe we need to recognise when something is a trend and when it's just something?

Punk may be 'in' now, if you dress your doll in punk styles/if you're a punk because you think it's cool, and all your friends are punk, but 2 years ago you were emo and before that you were??? I'd be inclined to say it's a trend. But if you/your doll dresses like this all the time, has done for ages and you aren't planning to change anytime soon... it sounds more like just part of your/your doll's style.

I can't help thinking that if a doll owner knows why their doll acts/looks like that, knows how it fits the character and that the character would be significantly different without it then it's characterisation. If the doll owner shrugs and says 'well it's cool,' or 'I don't know,' then they're probably on a bandwagon.

And yes, it can get a little repetitive but it will pass, like all trends. Then another minority can bristle as the trappings of their scene/movement/lifestyle gets trendy and complete strangers think that they're only in it to be cool.

It happens in the non-doll world, I think it would be a little unrealistic to think it wouldn't happen in the doll-world. Whether that's a good thing or not would depend, I suppose, on how fantastical/idealised you think the doll community should be. And that's a whole new subject for debate.

 

It's hard to say homosexual couples are 'done to death', I get what you're saying but I don't agree, there are loads of straight couples and no one would ever say heterosexuality is done to death. Some dolls just so happen to be gay and have same sex partners, just like real life.

 

Hmm. I will immediately read any photostory I see that depicts girl/girl relationships because they're so rarely discussed or shown. I don't do the same with boy/boy relationships because I don't find them particularly interesting. From that point of view the photostory section seems to be drowning in male homosexual situations, but lacking in the female homosexual ones. I don't think it's a case of there being too many gay dolls, I think it's perhaps that there are a lot of gay dolls and the fact they are gay is the only interesting thing the author has to say about them. I find sexuality more of an interesting thing when it is lightly touched on. There is more to a human than who they choose to love, and so should it be with dolls.

If your boy is gay, out of looks, or posing, or just the way you planned his character, your boy is gay and can't help it any more than a gay human can help it...but making him gay won't make him special or unique in anyone else's eyes except your own. Sexuality is boring. It's the personality that makes the doll (or person too!)

Sexuality being 'OMG soooo important!11!!1' has really taken off in recent years, so it is unsurprising that it is a part of this hobby as well. It's permeated so much of our society and consciousness that it would be strange that it wasn't present here. I think it is a fad that will never really go away now that the floodgates have opened. There will always be dolls with a large romantic history, professing to be this, that or the other, with photostories to match. I find this as tedious as I do seeing Sienna Miller or Mischa Barton on the evening news when they haven't done anything particularly newsworthy.

I don't think clothing styles are particularly faddy, however. I know things like punk and steampunk are popular styles, but a style becomes a fad when it ceases to be creative and new, not when it is popular. I don't think I've ever seen the same steampunk or lolita outfit twice, and as much as I hate clothing with crosses and logos, I don't think those are faddy either. They're just fashionable. Somebody is buying them, so the companies keep producing them.

 

But the implication was that many people following these "trends" were not being true to themselves--just jumping on board. My question was how do you know if they are or not--it was more a statement to be wary of judging someone you don't know. I didn't know whether you noticed things like different interpretations of popular styles or not--you never made it clear. The only thing that was really clear in your original post was that you had a rather low opinion of people following trends.

Always outshines? Hmmm...that's still pretty subjective...I don't know that I personally would want to count on that being the case.

 

If I see something I like, I buy or make it.

Sometimes the 'faddy-ness' bothers me, but I'd still like it if it wasn't a fad.

I'm thinking of making a shirt for my DD that says 'Why So Serious?'. It seems to be a fad right now to have things with glasgow smiles or things that mimic Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker.

But I say, if you genuinely like something, who cares how many other people like it or not?

 

I don't get annoyed when people do it with dolls, although it does seem really popluar, but so are normal dolls, we just don't notice them, sense they're not "different" than us. Just like when people point at people dressed as say... goths, or something. They notice them more because the meare fact that they are different. Same with dolls.

Actually what annoys me more is when actual people pretend to be the listed things.(Homosexual, goth, whatever) and they AREN'T those things! For example, when they just do it to get attention. (Don't get me wrong, be who you are, don't change for whoever, I'm just talking about when people do it for the sole purpose of attention! I'm NOT dissing on goths or whomever!)
At least with dolls, it's honest, that's who they are! That is there character.

~Chaos

 

This again? How much unintentional homphobia has to get spilled around here before people wake up and hear how horrifying they actually sound when they say things like that?

I've just read the past 4 pages, and it's not. It tried to wear another hat at first, but it's just another another yaoi-bashing-and-bitching-about-goths thread. *yawn* Things have come full circle, so now the I'm Sick of Gay Dolls crowd is a fad in itself. Now I want to jump on the bandwagon, and start my own thread about how tired I am of people bitching about effeminate males & black clothing.... It's all so selfish. Gawd, kids, if you're tired of seeing something, then go out and make what you want to look at. Don't expect the world to spoon-feed you.

 

"It's all so selfish. Gawd, kids, if you're tired of seeing something, then go out and make what you want to look at. Don't expect the world to spoon-feed you." AMEN!!!

 

Finally! I saw some debate when this thread first started, but now the topic is why people don't like gay dolls or dolls in punk clothes. It just took someone, JennyNemesis, to say it.

 

But TwinkieKitten_Xx, you even admitted you were about to put your boy into drag when this thought came to you.

hardlynormal There are plenty of straight dolls too! If you want something different, be the change you wish to see... in the dollie world. =)

This thread seems more about how there isn't a huge range of diversity in the dollie world, but I see it as being SO diverse its almost hard to keep up with!
Vampires, elves, sards, gays, straights, androgynous, girls, boys, bi, tiny, large, 80cm dolls, MSD, SD, antros, lolita, punks, goth, prep, hounds!
There is not a theme going on, there are so many different possibilities to make your dolls, everyone is different!

 

I was looking through the Otakon photo thread of dolls at the meet-up, and honestly, while there were indeed quite a few kimono and lolita dolls and goth & punk types, there were LOADS of dolls dressed a lot like normal people. Some with punk touches were hardly punk other that a punk-ish tee or boots.

It is true that the BJD clothing makers tend to make certain styles that are popular both in Asia and here, but it appears many people buy elements and mix and match and make their own stuff to supplement their wardrobes.

 

I'm sorry, but I agree with being sick of seeing all of the "OMG, look my doll is gay!!!11!1" posts. As an (actual! GASP!) non-straight person, it bothers me on the exact same level as those girls that are "bisexual" only when there are enough people to watch them pose, drunk, with a friend. It is when the doll isn't quietly gay as part of his or her personality, but that is gay for the same of people being able to say "Look I totally got a gay doll!" that bothers me severely.

That said, there ARE fads that sweep through. All of the anime dolls are proof of that. I think that the proof of whether something is a fad or not is if the people continue to like it after most people become bored with it, and when the next big thing sweeps in.

 

Oh, I wanted to add that the original poster also mentioned androgynous dolls being done to death. Now really, most male doll sculpts do not look manly. Even if your doll is dressed as a boy, there will always be someone (whose only experience with male dolls was maybe Ken) who will mistake a boy for a girl. There are companies like B & G that make their heads for both sexes. I think it would be hard to avoid some androgyny if you own a BJD. Even if you think you doll isn't androgynous, an uninformed person could easily be confused. You may make a fine distinction between what is "acceptable" and "done to death" but it is a pretty slippery slope in this hobby.

 

I find this all quite ironic for someone that is apparently concerned with "judging someone you don't know".

 

That's over-stating things a bit, Jenny...
There's a hell of a big difference between saying you're tired of the Yaoi-thing in a hobby and saying you're against homosexuality in general. Has "political correctness" really gone so far that we're no longer allowed to say that we find something boring without some more enlightened soul being "horrified" by our apparent lack of sensitivity?

 

I do see these trends - though they're more ongoing and longer-lasting. One example of a new "fad" taking off would be steampunk fashion. Two years ago, there was no steampunk fashion on the boards. Now, it seems to be everywhere, and steampunk fashion is selling like hotcakes.
The same seems to be with doll molds as well. If someone does something unique with a doll head mold, lots more of that mold seem to appear soon after.

 

When it comes to things going in and out of popularity there's another way to look at this. Dolls often reflect the interests of their owners at least to some extent. Many of the things people are calling fads in the doll world have been around quite a long time in the human realm. Yaoi has only been readily available in the US for a relatively short period of time, but slash fiction has been around before that as well as female authors who have homoerotic content in their books (Ann Rice, anyone?). Androgyny being seen as attractive has been around too and crops up periodically in music and movies (1980's music videos are the perfect example of this). Punk's been around since the 1970's--none of this stuff is new.

Now the doll hobby itself is hasn't been around long, but we see some of the human things being reflected in the dolls. The interest in male/male dolly relationships was going strong when I joined DoA three years ago, and there was plenty of punk and goth clothing available then and plenty of androgynous sculpts--actually the more realistic look some companies are going with is actually a far newer trend (I say trend rather than fad, since to me they suggest slightly different things). This hobby also tends to be very open minded allowing people with interests deemed unusual or looked down on in the real world to express them freely through their dolls.

With so many people on DoA there's going to be an overlap in interests--it's inevitable. Yet despite the overlap, as another poster previously pointed out, there's still an awful lot of diversity. This diversity seems to get missed as people fixate on (and there for take more notice of) the things that they don't like. It's easy to think there's way too much of something when it doesn't interest you, but that doesn't mean there isn't lots of other things too. The other thing that happens is that originality gets stressed so much that it practically gets turned into a competition, and people forget that it's normal for folks to have similar interests and to want to share them with others.