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What Do You Do With a Doll That Just Won't Settle?

Apr 17, 2015

    1. Most of my dolls I've not had any major problems with. Other than not really liking the two MSD practice heads I bought I've been pretty happy with my choices and most of my dolls have settled on a body of one gender or another and they look pretty good to me. There is this one SD head (Luts Winter 2010 Event) though that is just driving me nuts because I can never get this doll head to look right on any body I try. I have tried at least 3 different guy bodies, a RS girl body and now a smaller boy body. Size-wise, so far, he looks best on the latest, a more immature F Doll body but that one is actually a WS that's gone pretty yellow and it will need some serious work to match him color-wise, work I don't want to do until I know he's going to stay on it.

      I love this sculpt but so far it's been a royal pain in the you know what in some ways. Color-wise it's been a difficult match to anything and it's like this doll has multiple personality or is intersex or something. It doesn't feel quite right to call it "he" or "she" and neither gender of body ever looks quite right though he did make a rather pretty girl, I think. I didn't intentionally set out to make a doll that was neither or both. I had no plans for an intersex doll or one that might have a personality disorder, but it seems I have one. I don't think I've ever looked at a doll and seen it as an "it" before but this doll, that's what it's felt like, like it's a doll somewhere between somehow. I honestly cannot decide if he's a slightly girly boy, a slightly boyish girl, or neither. At one point I've seriously considered getting another and making twins, one of each gender, or even giving the doll both sets of genitals. But that doesn't feel right either.

      I kind of feel like a parent who has a kid that is intersex seriously. I don't know quite what to do with this doll. I can't really afford to give it two bodies, but sometimes I almost want to so it can be he or she whenever the mood strikes. I definitely feel like there are two distinct personalities in this one doll Sean and Siobhan Moore and I've never been able to pick one and just live with it. I sometimes wonder if more personalities will pop up a la The Three Faces of Eve or Sybil. I like this head, a lot, but it's truly confusing me what to do with it...

      Anybody else ever run into something like this, had a doll that just won't settle into being one personality or gender? Most of my dolls all I do is look and I know if it's a boy, a girl, sometimes I even know what name and all that. It just pops right into my head when I look at the doll. I've been trying to accept this doll for what it is. But it's never qite settled. Sooner or later it still needs to settle onto a body and into being someone. Short of making it a hermaphrodite or genderless though I'm just not sure it will ever look quite right to me and I'm not really sure that's the answer either. I don't like the idea of mutilating a body, taking the genitals off. It just doesn't work for me. BJD dolls actually having them I like that a lot. This is the first doll I've ever had though where I've actually considered it. He/She/It, it's been a real quandary with this head...
       
      #1 magkelly, Apr 17, 2015
    2. Usually if I have a doll that isn't working out I ship them off to the MP for adoption. But it sounds like in this case that the gender is what's causing you issues. I'm reminded of John Cusack in Grosse Point Blank where he calls his cat "it" and his assistant says "You don't know your cats gender?" and he replies, "I respect it's privacy." I recently had a situation where I wanted to hybrid a male doll head onto a girl's body but the neck width was going to be a problem so I bought the male body and am going to change her gender. In this case I actually like the idea of a male body but with female genitalia so that her sexuality isn't so completely cast in one way. Let me theorize a matrix for you for one body and say you have four body choices:

      1. Immature male body
      2. Immature female body
      3. Mature male body
      4. Mature female body

      With these bodies let's posit three cases:

      In case number one, the first two bodies would be ambiguous enough that you could choose one and dress them in gender or cross dress them. In all scenarios they would probably look "in gender" according to the mode of dress and depending on the faceup. So gender would be known to you and the character but not so obvious to the world.

      In case number two, with the second two bodies you could dress them to make them "in gender" or cross dress them to make alternate gender choices. This would be known to you and the character and more obvious to the world.

      In case number three, with the second two bodies you could modify genitalia to either opposite gender or genderless depending. This would make the entire situation more ambiguous to the world as only you and the character would know. However the effect is not the same as in case number one since there would still be likely gender cues from the body itself in cross dressing scenarios. However the situation would be confused by the gender changes.

      I was thinking that perhaps this might help you map out the possibilities and think about where you want to go. In the case of a mature body you definitely have to contend with gender cues from the body itself. The immature body definitely has the highest level of ambiguity. If you don't like modding and want free ambiguity then the first two choices seem best and since gender is constructed enough by dress and behavior that you could go anyway you or the character wanted after choosing one.

      In the novel "The Diceman" by Luke Rhinehart a psychologist develops a treatment method of dice therapy where you set your options and roll dice to assist with decision making. I say free yourself from the torture of conscious decision making and let the die roll for you!
       
      #2 dollhausen, Apr 20, 2015
    3. I feel like you could turn this difficulty to assign a gender to your doll into some type of really interesting fantasy characterization, possibly involving angels or nephilim, which are sometimes considered to be genderless (although there is no definite answer on that one). You could make it work, possibly by modifying a body or just leaving it be. If you have any room in your story (that is, if you attribute a story to your dolls) for that sort of thing, it could be a really interesting addition to that... heck, maybe even create a new story altogether. You could even invent a race for your doll, that'd be kinda cool. I don't know, though. Just brainstorming here. Whatever you do, I hope you find a way to make it work out. I'd definitely be interested to see how it all comes together! :)
       
      #3 LoudOwl, Apr 21, 2015
    4. This is going to sound weird but I had a long dream earlier tonight about this doll.

      (My mind mulling the situation over in my sleep obviously...)

      The doll and I were sitting on a dock watching boats coming and going and it was pretty much like he was a real person, not just a doll. I said to the doll "Okay I have to do something. So what should I do?" and the doll replied "We are both. We share this head, this life." and I said "Who does?" and the reply I got was "Siobhan and me." "Okay, so how does this work? What should I do about the body situation?"

      Sean, who was the one talking apparently then said "Siobhan does not mind the body we are on so long as you respect the fact that she is she and I am he." So of course I asked how I was supposed to do that and he said "Our body's gender is inconsequential, but our clothes should reflect both. Siobhan does not particularly like skirts and such but she does like makeup and sparkly gems. I am willing to wear makeup providing it is not too feminine and overstated and I do not mind jewelry of that sort but I do not wish for pink. We are not a Barbie."

      Now, that made me laugh because on the female body I did put "them" into a pink skirt, a rather girly shirt and a blond and pink wig, just to try it out. I thought it looked very cute because it was kind of a femme rocker look but apparently Sean did not like that and Siobhan wasn't too pleased either. He then explained to me that originally they were supposed to be twins but that they somehow ended up in one head. Two people, one head, no extra personalities. One boy, and one girl or so it would seem. So the male body is okay, mainly because it seems that Sean is pretty talkative while Siobhan is pretty quiet but Siobhan definitely wants some acknowledgement that she is in there too.

      Though they did have a cute little argument about "boobs" because Siobhan wants them and Sean doesn't.

      Siobhan: "But you get to have a penis so why can't I have boobs?"

      Sean: "Because boobs and a penis on the same body doesn't work! I don't want to walk around all the time being teased about having man boobs! It's so NOT okay. The other guys they'll totally rip on me and think I'm transgender!"

      Siobhan: "But aren't we transgender, sort of?"

      Sean: "No, we are not. You are you and I am me. You are a girl and I am a boy. You just happen to be sharing a boy's body with me. It is not the same thing at all! I am not confused about what gender I am and nor are you!"

      I was like, "Sean you say that like transgender is a bad thing."

      Sean: "No, I'm just not that's all, and neither is Siobhan. She just can't help being in a male body. She'd prefer a female one but we have to be one or the other and the immature boy body fits better. "

      Me: "Actually you looked pretty good on the girl body too, but you didn't like it did you Sean?"

      Sean: "Not really. I felt like a boy in drag, especially since you put us in pink!"

      Me: "But you expect Siobhan to live in a boy's body."

      Sean: "She's more comfortable than I am with the girl body."

      Me: "Are you so sure about that? Seems to me if she wants boobs than she might still want to live in a girl's body too."

      Sean says nothing but squirms a little.

      Siobhan: "I do, but Sean is unhappy in one and he's my twin and I love him so I will do it for him, live in a boy body."

      Sean: "Aw Sio, you make me feel bad. I love you too. I just don't want to live in a girl body."

      It went back and forth some more but basically it all comes down to Sean not wanting to be in a girl's body and Sio, as he calls her doing all the compromising. Sean does love his sister but he's a bit of a selfish brat when it comes down to it. The most he will do is wear a little makeup for her and some sparkly jewelry. That's it, and I don't think he even wants that, he's just doing that to keep the peace as it were. From what I can tell they really would rather be two people in two bodies. So what I need I guess is another Luts 2010 Winter Event head and another female body for Siobhan to inhabit at some point. Hopefully one that doesn't have it's own personality attached? (I'm also thinking a Luts Summer 2010 head might do nicely. They'd make a lovely pair...)

      I've been thinking on and off about making them into a proper set of twins and it seems that maybe I had it right thinking that. For now they will have to share. But I guess I will work on it and see if I can't make it happen so they can both be happy. This was so not on the agenda though. I just arranged to buy what I thought was the last head for my last SD body. So now I have yet one more SD sized doll that I didn't plan and now have to find a way to pay for, but it's either that or leave Sio in there where I don't think she's very happy...

      ARRGH!!! about covers it, sigh...

      Oh and btw, her name it is pronounced like See-o-ban not like Shavaughn which is I believe not correct at all, but she insists that's how she says it. So that's why she's Sio for a nickname, like SEE-O and not like Sha, but Sean he is just Sean, the normal way...
       
      #4 magkelly, Apr 21, 2015
    5. Your dream sounds really interesting, a little crazy, and very telling. If I were you I'd keep this doll for sure, the dream seems like a message from your deep subconscious and I think it's really special for something like that to happen. I still think the concept of both of them being in one body is really fascinating, and there is actually a way I can think of for this to all work out in one doll: If they were a chimeric human/hermaphrodite. Chimerism occurs in humans rarely, but in such situations the person has two separate sets of DNA, one from each twin. Very early in the fertilization process, usually within the first month of the eggs being fertilized and growing separately, one of the twins (typically the stronger one) literally absorbs the other fetus and they become one person with two different sets of DNA. Since Sean seems to be the more pushy one calling the shots, I'd say he was the stronger twin. I believe in rare cases human chimerism can sometimes lead to hermaphroditism if one fetus is male and the other is female. If you want to keep just the one doll, that could be the scientific explanation for it at least. Of course, I don't think there has ever been an account of a chimeric human sharing a mind with his/her twin, but it'd be an interesting concept for sure. Very cool!

      If you're interested, here is more info on human chimerism: http://boingboing.net/2009/05/01/the-mind-blowing-wor.html
       
      #5 LoudOwl, Apr 21, 2015