Why is there no term for our subculture?

I think a term would be neat to have as long as it was catchy and unoffensive. Who knows it could be fun to have. As far as WHAT to call us, well that's a hard one. But it should be something short, sweet, and to the point.

Something like...a term bjd people are used to..

Bjdist? Doll People? Doll Freaks?

They are good ideas but still seem to be long. A lot of times people who are familiar with dolls will ask if it is a dollfie or a volks.. maybe we could use one of those terms? xD Look it's the dollfies.... or hey I'm gonna go hang with my Volks! >>;

 

We could try the jointed or the jointers.... maybe?
Though i could see it taking a different meaning to some people <.<
Good question though.

 

We're a subculture? Gee.

Personally I don't feel that my owning a certain type of doll defines my culture, sub or otherwise. But that will just be me, I guess? If I'm asked to identify myself, the first word that springs to mind would not be "ABJD owner".

 

I think if someone gave a name to our subculture would be fun, But I agree with Knibitz. Our hobby is similar with what dog breeders do. When I explain what ball jointed dolls are, I just call everyone "Bjd-owner". Short and easy to remember.

 

I like the term 'Doll-people'. I like the broadness of it, that it includes all sorts of dollcollectors of different ages and with different interests that collect all kinds of dolls.

I don't know, I see this hobby as part of a deep, more generic human fascination for little in-scale people, small representations of themselves/children/gods/charms/whatever else it may be or have been to them.
It's old, I think, this human tendency of making small(-ish) human forms and almost instantly projecting something onto it, whether it's a human character or a scary presence, religiously serious or a child's toy.

The modern form our hobby takes on the one hand sets it apart from other types of dollcollection (our dollcollecting is very interactive, not only physically very hands-on, but people project whole characters onto dolls and often interact with them), but on the other hand I feel more connected to people who collect completely different kinds of dolls then that I feel different from them.
I might not be particularly interested in their dolls per se (but to be honest neither am I in each and every BJD on here), but I am forever fascinated by that concept of 'doll' itself, and the complex way of how their owners relate to them.

 

Yeah, I think my dad was a "jointer" just about everyone was in the 60's.

 

I think its just "doll collectors." Or "doll aficionados" or something. I don't think there needs to be a label for these things. I'm a skier and thats all we're called. Skiing is what we do, same thing with doll collecting, thus "doll collectors."

 

I'm probably missing the point, but I don't think BJDs are a subculture per se—I see it as simply a hobby. That's not to diminish the great qualities about the community and otherwise, but I don't think it defines me, at least not enough to want to call myself by a term. But I also see how, oddly enough, it could be considered a subculture in the way that people identify themselves through a sport or certain genre of music, for example. It's complicated.

 

Modern Japan is an incredibly polite society with an incredibly polite language and doesn't really have offensive put-down words the way the West does. Even calling someone 'oh baka yaro, chinchin' etc is more likely to cause confusion than offense. Words that are offensive or not politically correct are not used so openly and cease to be used if the word becomes offensive; Otaku is still very much a media friendly word in Japan.

Anyways, I am nowhere near as extreme as some bjd peeps and wouldn't want to be grouped with them under an umbrella term. Like how I like the lion king and neko-boys but calling myself a 'furry' could give people very very wrong ideas about me.

 

I think it would be fun to have a name, but I'll have to side with those who say it'll only cause issues and may end up with a negative effect.