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

They do exist--I have 6 sitting in my living room--of course that all depends on if they fit your idea of what a regular gay guy is. Oh yeah, I have one of those cute crossdressers too in his little cute pink sweater (no tragic past for him, he's a very happy little guy). Of course, a couple of my "regular" guys have had some tragic moments (nothing to do with abuse or prostitution--rather good old fashioned death and destruction) so maybe they aren't so regular? Who knows, who cares? I don't--I love my dolls and their characters and I sure as hell wouldn't drop them just because of some kind of perceived fad or because some people are tired of gay boys.

There are a lot of dolls around that you don't like because their owners do, and that is the only thing that's important. While I can't speak for every person on this board, I'm going to make the assumption that most didn't get into this hobby and shell out major money just to entertain the masses.

If people are tired of something, well, that's why the internet comes with a back button. I don't get the need to whine and gripe about it. If there's something else you want to discuss, start a thead. A certain style you'd like to see on a doll that you feel is under-represented? Then go get it for your doll. Think certain backstories are tired and worn? Then come up with something different for your own crew. No one is forcing you to read photostories you don't like or participate in topics you have no interest in. BTW--this isn't just directed at the person I quoted, but is aimed at the general "you" (you know who you are ) Deal with the fact that people like things that you don't and move on and enjoy your own dolls. You'll have a much happier time of it, if you do.

 

People have said repeatedly they are doing just that - they are avoiding it. They avoid certain areas because they are just tired of it. Some have said they avoid the photo-story entirely because of it.

If you don't want to hear about people complaining about something you enjoy being overdone, then you also have a backbutton.

It could also be said this way "Deal with the fact that people aren't going to like things you do and move on and enjoy your dolls. You'll have a much happier time of it, if you do."

 

I don't have an issue with people not liking the things I like--the fact that they may choose to do something else with their dolls just makes DoA more varied and that's to the good. I said it before and I'll say it again--there's actually a lot more diversity around here than people give DoA credit for, and that's because people are into different things. There are just a lot of threads that pop up where people complain to the rafters about how there isn't enough variety or how they're tired of X or Y dolls. I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish with this or why it really matters.

Yes people have said that they just don't look at things they don't like, but some folks have been getting into a bit of a tizzy over it--the fact that this comes up again and again proves it. The OP asked for opinions and you gave yours and I'm giving mine.

 

This is well said. Combine this with St. James' post and that's pretty much where I'm coming from. I don't really know why people do what they do, I don't know if people are telling their whole stories. I know I don't, and the details are what tend to flesh out the characters beyond being archetypes. (Or they could just make it even more stereotypical, but hey, giving the benefit of the doubt here!) And geez, why should the fact that one person has a gay doll mean that no one else can have one? Our characters don't all exist int he same world, so while int he DoA Galleries there may be a lot of crossdressers, they may still be the minority in someone's character set.

I don't begrudge people their character designs or posting dolls/storylines that they're proud of... but I honestly do skip a lot of gallery posts. I feel bad because there are some sculpts I avoid just because I feel like I already know what they're going be before I even click. There are some dolls I won't buy because I've kind of gotten sick of them because I've only ever seen them in a certain stereotype.

I don't think people should feel the need to change their dolls or characters though - people will gravitate toward what they like and make friends based on interests. But people need to respect that others may not like their dolls or interests... and it doesn't make people who aren't interested bad, narrow-minded, or ignorant. Mutual respect is kinda key here - Don't bitch about other people's choices, don't try to shove your own interests down other people's throats.

A lot of female doll characters have the same troubled pasts... but there are fewer "celebrity" female characters in the galleries. Maybe we are also culturally more acclimated to Mary Sues so they don't really stand out as much. Gary Stus fulfill the same purpose*, but are more distanced from the writer/doll owner by being male... and as a result they can be more exploratory. It's not really about portraying "real" gay people at all. In most cases, it's about girls exploring things that they like or fear through the thin veneer of the male body.

That said, I am not interested in seeing people's sexual explorations via their dolls.

*Everyone starts out hating character, but come to love him. Bad things happen but character is comforted and his worth to others is reaffirmed.

 

I think starting threads complaining about things you don't like is counter-productive. It only gets both sides in a lather. If you truly want to see something different, I would think that the best way to approach it is with a more positive approach; start threads that ask for characters and situations that you want to see. I'm sure you will get lots of posters as there is more diversity here than you may realize. There is no way to win an argument about whether there is "too much" this or that as this based on subjective interpretation.

 

Everyone loves a GOOD MARY SUE~ :3

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. You put it better than I possibly could, but that is pretty much what I believe as well. And I rarely stick around in a thread to look at all of the pictures if it's Mary Sue/Gary Stu material. It's not always about yaoi, but that's where it tends to show up the most.

 

This. When I first posted a question about if there were any lesbian dollies on the boards, I got a much bigger response than I expected.

 

This thing is really about seeing something so common, it beings to turn some people off.

I don't look at most of the gay relationship-type dolls because, to me, once you've seen one, you've seen them all. It's not about being anti-yaoi, homophobic, or anything we can use as a basis to call someone anti-gay. Some people like yaoi, and that's great; but just because some people don't (me included) doesn't mean they want to remove anything in that text from the internet.

I feel like I should get this out, because I'm starting to feel like this is where this thread's going to lead...

If we had something else as our "common factor", like we always saw red dresses on dolls, we'd think that was too cliche'd too. Trends tend to turn cliche with enough time. It's all about seeing something so much.

When armeleia said:
"I don't begrudge people their character designs or posting dolls/storylines that they're proud of... but I honestly do skip a lot of gallery posts. I feel bad because there are some sculpts I avoid just because I feel like I already know what they're going be before I even click. There are some dolls I won't buy because I've kind of gotten sick of them because I've only ever seen them in a certain stereotype.

I don't think people should feel the need to change their dolls or characters though - people will gravitate toward what they like and make friends based on interests. But people need to respect that others may not like their dolls or interests... and it doesn't make people who aren't interested bad, narrow-minded, or ignorant. Mutual respect is kinda key here - Don't bitch about other people's choices, don't try to shove your own interests down other people's throats." She hit the nail on the head!

 

Hmmm...yes and no. I think that is very true with some things, but that there are others that get taken for granted so they don't stand out enough for people to really complain. I have a difficult time imagining people getting upset that there are too many het couples or too many dolls dressed in average everyday clothes. I don't say this because I think the board is full of homophobes or the like (generally speaking, DoA seems to be a pretty open minded place), but because subconsciously at least the things we don't see everyday in the human world get held to a different standard.

When people are so used to seeing het couples everyday everywhere, it would probably seem very strange to complain that there were too many straight dolls--infact, it would almost be like flying below the radar in away, and I think the same could be said for a lot of clothing types. With bjds suddenly the sorts of things that are in the minority in the human world equal all the average everyday stuff and that can make a person sit up and really take notice.

If I came in any previous posts sounding like I'm upset that other people aren't into the same things I'm into, that isn't the case. It's just that some people complain about some subject matter/styles a lot more than others and it's usually the people who aren't into gay relationships/nonmainstream clothing styles that are the most vocal about it. I don't see many threads (actually I don't think I've seen any) that center around people complaining about het relationships or dolls who wear blue jeans and t-shirts which does make me wonder how much mutual respect there is sometimes (and there are straight dolls and average looking dolls on DoA too). In a thread about likes and dislikes you'll sometimes get someone say "I'm not into het stuff" or "I'm not into *fill in the blank*" clothing style, but nothing like this thread or some others that have popped up in the past dealing with the same thing. Which is what leaves me scratching my head and wondering where all the vitriol is coming from. I certainly understand not liking something or being tired of it, but not the very strong feelings that seem to be going along with it.

I don't think most people who like the things this thread has mentioned cram their likes down other people's throats--most people do what they like and gravitate towards others into the same things. What I see in this thread is more of a request for some of the respect that Armeleia mentioned rather than being told they are just jumping on a bandwagon, being uncreative, not following their hearts, just trying to get attention etc. etc.

 

Yes, I agree, all the homosexual pairings, drag, femme guys and like have all been done to death. If feels like the people who are into this kind of thing make up 90% of the bjd community and my dislike for that, asian pop culture and the goth scene alienate me from the majority of the bjd world. I don't know what it is that makes so many people with similar interests congregate into one hobby, do they just feed off each other's ideas or is it something I'm not getting.

 

In my own experience and what I've observed, bjds combine well with other hobbies--they make a good story telling medium, they tie into art and crafty stuff, you can dress them however you want and they look good in about anything. For example:

Most people who are stuck at 9-5:00 jobs don't get to wear funky clothing or dye their hair funky colors, but they get to do it with their dolls. Or maybe they do dress funky, and like the oppurtunity to dress their dolls in a way they can relate too--there's lots of great punk and goth clothing available for bjds. For people who want to do BL type stories, there are great bishonen type sculpts out there that are just perfect. These dolls are Asian so it seems natural that they would attract people into Asian pop culture.

Lots of people have multiple interests and in a community this large, you're going to get overlap. However, to say that it makes up 90% of the bjd community seems like a bit of an exaggeration. There is other stuff out there too. There are fashion doll people, people who love fantasy type characters, people with straight dolls, people who like child dolls, people who like very realistic dolls, you name it and it's out there somewhere.

 

I'm really sorry if I offend you by saying this, but I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

Of course hobbies are going to attract people who have really similar interests. A lot of BJD collectors came into the hobby through anime. I won't say that they're the majority, but anime fans have a reputation for being incredibly vocal, so it certainly seems that way.

Of course people are going to feed off of each other's ideas. We all do, and in an expensive hobby like this where everyone is looking for 'that perfect character', they're going to look to people who have more/older dolls for ideas.

 

I really think something is only done to death if it's intentionally done for the sake of "being different" or "hopping on the bandwagon". Other than that...that's just how it is, there's not really a reason for it other than that's the doll's character, so it can't be done to death. That's what I think anyway ^^;

And I agree with what Mukino said about people with similar interests being attracted to a hobby. It's not just with BJDs; people of like minds will more often than not be in the same hobbies.

 

Agreed. Also is that popular dolls/owners do set off trends. To put it in a milder sense is that people do realize the "potential" of a sculpt if the right person did the right thing to it. I'm sure many of us have seen that some sculpts do suddenly gain popularity after an owner post some wonderful pictures, and/or that a certain style goes on the boom after a popular doll set off the fashion.

 

It seems more people are bothered by this than I thought
I have a homosexual doll. A wonderfully default long haired Twin-b. No angsty past, or really any past at all. I didn't base him off a character, and he's like a book. You don't know everything he did since (in a story) he was a little resin fetus until now, his "life" started when I got him. The two dolls that are in the mail don't have any plans for them other than the girl will be narcoleptic and the guy will love Twin-b. Other than the angst that Ailills an idiot and cant tell the new guy likes him, there really is no story. I WOULD say they were "SOOO ORIGINAL" if I didn't know that was a complete and utter lie. For every skirt wearing giggling bunny lumpkin of love, or gay doll, theres a plain 'ol "regular" (as I see a lot of people on this thread calling it...) dolls. I DO think theres a thread about them but I don't think some people think about it when they say "GAY DOLLS ARE WAY OVERDONE." I think they aren't really noticed because they aren't wearing a stylish fashionable rainbow skirt (Heck, I'll make that skirt for my dolls.). I sorta think this topic is like saying "Too many? (Dolls in jeans/ straight relationships, etc)"
Please don't kill me for my opinion *slowly moves away*

 

I wonder if that's half the attraction for the yaoi fans. You go to any movie or pick up any book or watch any program on TV and 99.99% of the couples you see are hetero. It's been boy meets girl since time began. So, quite frankly, it's gotten old. Perhaps all the photostories are an outlet to see something besides the same old thing, since the stories are created by the fans themselves. It may seem like gay is the cliche trend, but it's really only in the doll fandom - in real live life it's still the minority.

Or something. Just a thought. .^^

 

For me, as an occasional fan of boy-love, I have nothing against a character/doll being gay at all. I only was really trying to comment on trends that I've seen and to me, the trend that I'm not overly fond of has been the overly feminine boys in dresses. I think I agree with Darkrogue's statement earlier in comparing it to listening to a new hit song that you may like, even a lot, but even if you like it you either start to long for something else or you end up hating the song all together. To me, that song isn't gay dolls, it's just that particular fashion style choice and I don't care what sexual preference the owner has assigned to the doll, that's not what I'm talking about.

It's not a black-and-white thing, but I guess what I've been trying to get at is that yes, there are trends in the doll community and I have nothing against people that enjoy them. I know fully that I partake in several of these trends and I don't take offense if someone says they're tired of anime style dolls or punky dolls or anything else.

 

Oooh, you took the words I didn't even know I had right out of my mouth XD I don't want anyone to think I'm saying "het=bland", but I myself am not very good with het couples Because that is the norm in real life, that's what I grew up on, so I see too many common things in all het relationships. To me it's always the girl - however independent she may seem - relies on the man who is her rock in life. The man is always the dominant one who comes to save the day. (No matter what I try to do when I write with hetero couples, this always happens ;___; I know there's a lot you can do with them, but I fail sooo bad!)
But with homosexual couples, I can switch the roles and play around with the relationship waaay more than I can with heterosexual couples ^^; And I think that's because it isn't the societal norm, so I don't have a bunch of influences from movies or books on the way I see homosexual couples.
I know the debate isn't on overdone sexualities n__n; Sorry...it just seems to be one of the more addressed points.

Idrisfynn- That's pretty much how I felt when I discovered this hobby; ridiculously mind-boggled. I still can't get over the fact that - in one hobby - there are so many people with the same interests as me! Before, I only knew a handful of people who loved to write and create characters, and now there are hundreds! I love it!