Why are so many boy dolls so girly?

Yeah but some of the biggest male fronted bands in Japan at the moment are the effeminate types. Particularly the JE boys and Visual Kei groups.

And yes, Ken Watanabe is an absolutely gorgeous guy (hell, I want a Minimee of him!) but I wouldn't say that he was an overly masculine man. He's no Arnold Schwarzenegger. I wouldn't say that Stephen Chow/Andy Lau/Chow Yun Fat were effeminate men either, but they're not the Western 'butch' either.

 

I think they might argue that

Mmmmmm Stephen... I so want a doll of him. I think the new Elfdoll boys looks a lot like him in Chinese Odessy.

Andy is strikingly beautiful, but you'd never mistake him for a woman.

 

You amuse me lots XD Although, you know, just because i dont like gross muscles doesnt mean i like girls, either. It sort of: dude, having muscles THAT BIG is just freaking UNNATURAL. Like, my personal theory is this: if you work out for the sake of being able to lift heavy objects or having giant muscles of doom, then tahts just weird, but if you're working out to keep a slim figure, thats cool. I prefer my boys a lil slim and smooth rather than bumpy XD this also doesnt mean i prefer girls in that way, either.

Also, not every girl who likes slim/scrawny guys likes them wearing skirts XD i for one prefer my guys in pants, kthx. unless they're cosplaying or something, then its just fun XD

 

Hmm...I'm in the TOO big muscles are gross party but am not gay. 0_o; What makes you think that 0_o I had an ex who was very keen on wanting to muscle build, I didn't find it attractive....I'm not in the guys in skirts camp either, I like slightly toned but not too much...(Hounds, Sabiks, etc come in this catagory imo, they don't look female, just a "beautiful" male....I mean their body structure and scale are definately male.) I think alot of women are like that, honestly how many like really big muscles on a guy (though men seem to think otherwise?) I have yet to meet a girl (fangirl or "normal") wo say they really like heavily built men 0_o....

...and that's probably why BJD males are er...."feminine" (though I disagree, to me *most* of them look male...admitidly there ARE some that look female no matter how you look at them )

And as people have pointed out, most "masculine" male stars in japan are erm....well more hound than ark type.....(I have seen one Korean star he had worked out alot, very pronounced muscles but still, quite slim and still what you would call a hound body type)

 

This is been an interesting thread. In my opinion, I think part of the reason people do assume a doll is a girl is not just do to the "girliness" of the mold but because its sort of stamped in peoples heads that doll = girl, unless its Ken or wearing military uniforms. I don't think El for example looks like girl. When I see an El girl I think it looks too much like a boy. But El looks like a teenager. And teenage boys alot of times have a "girly" look. Or really is the problem that the ideas of what "masculine" actually is are too rigid? I also think that people have it stamped into their heads that pretty = girl. It's like they think that if something is pretty, then it must be girly or feminine somehow.

 

I agree. Even though most boys ARENT overly muscular or pumped full of testosterone like they're on steroids, most people equate men with muscles and girth. Also, if someone calls a boy pretty or beautiful, its usually associated with the guy either looking like a girl or like they're flamboyantly gay or something, which often isnt the case.

On a similar note, with masculine=muscular and whatnot, its also usually a given that "feminine" girls always have large chests, long hair, and wear skirts and tight or revealing shirts. You know, to show off their being girls. Its sort of like people overemphasize attributes; like, if a person is 'goth' they can only wear black, or if a character is gay, they always wear something rainbow. I find this often happens when people create characters (Not just dolls, but for rps and stories as well) they often embody single characteristics like that. ....geeze, i think i went on a tangent o.0 sorry ^^;

 

I think you're onto something here. I mean how many male dolls are there available anyway? GI Joe/Action Man and Ken.. and what do they look like.. square jaw, bulky body, camoflage and/or short/shaved hair. And how many men look like that in real life..? Especially teens? Styles and fashions have changed so much since those dolls were invented. You walk down a street in london, ny, tokyo, you see those kind of guys but you also see these slim-hipped, gothic/emo guys who like to wear makeup and even cloaks sometimes..! BJDs are the first range of dolls to represent that trend and i think that's great.

 

I think it's a bit odd that the bodybuilder stereotype keeps cropping up as the idea of "distinctly masculine" against which people react and say "I like the current sculpts better."

in my mind, Arnold Schwarzenegger represents something only tangentially related to masculinity (bodybuilding...!) which I'm only minimally interested in (so far agreeing with the vast majority of posters in this thread). however, I would be happy to see more masculine sculpts if they incorporated subtler features, both facially and in musculature, because currently I see a dichotomy between very childlike, slender bodies with little muscle definition and intensely ripped bodies with abs you could actually wash clothes on. my real-life man is a contractor in construction, so he's pretty muscular for a guy who spends zero time purposefully improving his physique...but he falls squarely in between the two represented categories (and well away from the unwanted schwarzenegger style). and as you can imagine, it's an under-represented body type I'm very interested in looking at.

 

I think a lot of the femininity in boy dolls comes from the faceup. I've seen some VERY feminine molds become masculine with the right faceup. Bolder eyebrows, maybe a little facial hair. My Nanuri has a goatee and thick eyebrows, and I'd say he's pretty masculine, while I've seen plenty of Nanuri's turned female. xD It's not all just the mold.

 

Assumptions are fun, yes? Aesthetics do not automatically correlate to one's sexual tastes. And then to say something quite insulting to some, and then just flee the scene is a rather childish thing to do. You made your statement, now stand by it to the bitter end.

One could argue saying that a woman who is fixated on overly muscular men is trying to hard to hide in the closet be projecting a stereotypical idea of what women should like. But people have different tastes, regardless of their sexual identity. There are plenty of straight women who like their men to be beautiful, or androgynous; just as there's plenty of lesbians that can honestly appreciate a man with a nice set of abs. It just so happens that this hobby caters more to those who favor the former. Which is understandable...I'd assume it's easier to make a BJD that's slender and waify than it is to make some ripped Adonis type (more the pity...).


But even now you see more and more dolls being released that have some definition to them. It'll be some time yet before we see Vin Diesel show up in resin form, but what's out now gives everyone enough of a choice in body types to find some sort of satisfaction.

 

I know, the boy doll I want to get is sha the boy version of shall on dream of doll. If it wasn't for his slightly boyish clothes and faceup, I'd think he was shall. Though I have a feeling I'll get along well with a girly guy!

 

Well, I sorta wish the Delfs came with the Senior Delf bodies but I like the more slender hands, not so manly looking. But they don't, and I'm ok with it. Sure, my guys don't have the facial hair and all, but none, save for one, dresses like a girl. Dimitri is my girly boy and I dunno if I'll even stick with that!

Everyone else is in jeans and t-shirts. I got a skater boy (I think) and you wouldn't mistake him for a girl, even if the head looks a bit girly!

 

by Torren

Moderately on a tangent:
I keep seeing the header of this thread, and keep thinking there should be a "sister" thread: Why are so many GIRL dolls so girly? It seems most girl girls are either frilly or haute couture. It's Loli or evening gowns! Where are the tomboys? Where are the small-breasted girls, or do they think they'd be mistaken for BOYS?

 

I see a few androgynous girls out there. I just saw a skater girl featured in the gallery yesterday in a sweatshirt with her skate board. But I agree with you, there could be a few more tomboys! I suspect that more of the girl-doll-buyers have a fashion-doll mindset and see a girl doll as something to be dressed up and accessorized.

 

I agree with hobbywelmed.

And, at the risk of sounding a bit too confrontational, why are short wigs automatically masculine? For me, long hair happens to be a matter of taste. I am attracted to men with long hair. I like it when my friends have long hair, but my closest friends have short hair, and two of them have been mistaken for boys, or been called a lesbian. WHY? I don't get it.

And 'generic boy clothing' is a T-shirt and jeans? A good chunk of people (in the U.S., anyway) wear jeans almost every day, and they are from both genders. Are jeans suddenly a 'male-only' clothing?

I mean, the idea of a female wearing pants instead of a dress is fairly recent (in comparison to how long the human race has been around), but today's society markets jeans for both men and women.

And since people have brought up the subject of "skirtboys", I'll say this: it's all about the collector's mind. It's rather simple for a boy to cross dress, because all you have to do is slap lacy panties on him, or slip him into a skirt/dress/traditionally 'feminine' clothing from any given culture. For females, however, it's much harder. For a female to cross dress, she would have to buy clothing specifically from a men's section.

Though I imagine those of us with more bust (breasts are, after all, the ultimate stamp of the female) would have quite the difficult time fooling those around us into thinking that we were male without strapping ourselves down.

 

I generally like my boys to look like boys, but that's just me. Prettyboys in terms of facial structure, but boys by way of mannerism and dressing. elledoll said it best, pretty boys but not girly boys.

I'm not a big fan of skirts on boys (except for one boy of mine who's a bit of a fruitloop and will wear anything as long as it's cute), and I don't really like them to look like they have makeup on. A little eyeliner is hot, but not superarched plucked brows and lipstick... unless he's a jrocker type, in which case everything I've said is negated :lol

 

people think my mnf el is a girl too.

 

You know, when you're dealing with people who are completely outside this particular hobby, DOLL = GIRL DOLL. Probably before they actually even register the features or the outfit, or anything else, that mindset has already popped in there.

After all, Ken is usually sitting in a box awaiting Barbie's playtime. GI Joe's are usually part of a battle "arena" and don't get carried around separately. (And from several amusing tales my parenting-sons friends have told me, once a little boy discovers Barbie's boobs, there's an attraction there as well.

So maybe sometimes, it's less that your doll *looks* like a girl, but just that they're EXPECTING a girl and, as we know, many people's mouths move much faster than their minds update their perceptions (if they bother at all)!

 

I've always wished I could be a crossdresser, but I've got too much bosom to look like anything but a woman wearing a suit made for women...

I think bringing up the topic of female BJDs and their girliness is interesting. if you look at some companies, you find that they are offering some sculpts (both face & body) that look a little less girly and a little more womanly (Lishe, for example, doesn't look like a kid to me...!) there may still be a lack of variety (mature =/= boobs, as one member put it) but it's starting to show up...perhaps the same is in the works for male dolls. as much as we feel like this hobby is huge, it's really kind of recent. a decade is not that long when it comes to major trend shifts in a new art form...imagine it thus: first, the dolls have to appear. people become used to whatever their first incarnation is, and for a time that standard (here, androgynous, waif- or child-like boys) is what people think of when they think of the dolls--and something that doesn't fit that look is somehow outside the aesthetic. gradually, a period of experimentation may start...and it looks like we're headed that way, if slowly.

 

Well on this I might have to disagree cause almost every El I've ever looked at has been pretty effeminate

I want a minifee El head as a girl. She'd be stunning.