"Your (male) dolls look like girls" - androgyny of dolls

I've seen a lot of ads on some doll clothing websites for dresses worn by male looking doll and it's made me super happy, I really like male dolls wearing long european maid dresses or very shiny party dresses! I would definitely like to see more of that.

 

gender for my dolls is just chaotic hahaha, that totally depends on what body (male or female) they are on, and I actually don't mind people mixing up my dolls' gender, boys can be beautiful in a feminine way and girls can be handsome in a masculine way, if someone got it mixed up, it just means I dressed up my dolls successfully~

 

My male dolls do look incredibly feminine and I couldn't blame anyone for making that mistake! It's fine with me and I usually don't correct them. I'd correct another doll owner but none of them have ever made that mistake. Most of us are pretty good at being able to tell!

 

That does happen but most of the time I can't blame people for not getting the gender right (especially if they aren't collectors themselves). Sometimes it is a bit hard to tell. But, as long as the person is respectful, I don't really care.

 

I don't mind that much when it happens, I can see how my boys can be mistaken for girls because of how sweet and gentle they look. But I find it funny that no matter how I dress them, my parents will always comment how pretty the girls are lol. They all have short hair and neutral or boyish clothes, nothing overtly feminine, yet the default is always female for them. If they aren't muscular and huge, they're not boys I suppose.

 

Honestly, I don’t get it at all. For one, especially with 1/3 male sculpts that I’ve seen, they seem super masculine to me, so I think it’s just that they’re often in more Asian styled clothing that confuses some people, which is just dumb honestly. Besides, I think that part of the appeal of bjds are that they’re very delicate and fragile looking, inspired by porcelain dolls of the past. So that just translates into a more “feminine” look to most people. But honestly, if someone can’t handle a doll not looking like a ~manly man~ than they probably can’t handle it when it comes to humans either

 

I love androgyny so I fully embrace it. I have Resinsoul Yu and they have both dresses and more boyish clothes. Just whatever mood they’re in. I also watch a lot of anime so I’m very comfortable with it.

 

I have some very "feminine" looking guys and some very "manly" looking guys and some just average looking guys, and my girls are all pretty feminine except one is more "tomboyish". If someone calls them the opposite gender, I usually just casually drop their pronouns in however I respond to what they said (luckily it's usually some kind of compliment lol). Now, if anyone called my bearded guy a girl, I'd have to wonder about their eyesight since he's pretty masculine in face and body lol.
And, honestly, it kind of use to bother me? Especially when I've mentioned the doll's pronouns beforehand. But, most people aren't being malicious and just make a genuine mistake, so it doesn't really bother me anymore.
I think a lot of it is doll = girl, though (even though there are mainstream male dolls). And some people are just not used to androgyny, in dolls or real life.

 

I own mostly male sculpts, and I collect everything from super macho to super effeminate...and anything in between. Each has their own personality, and I love them all. I'm baffled. Why the heck does anyone care what anyone else thinks? Pfft. Their your dolls, do whatever you want with them. You're buying them for yourself, I hope, and not to please a crowd. I don't care if people 'don't get' my dolls any more than I care if they like my new boots.

 

I don't really mind it if I didn't state any gender for my dolls and someone mistakes them, because I do like pretty boy dolls. Recently my Dollzone Carter boy reminded someone of their Granddaughter. I just told them that I thought it was sweet, because it was.

I do get a little upset when I state the characters gender while showing the picture. I clearly used he/him, to describe the doll or something about the doll, and then someone posts a she/her, comment. I usually reply with a 'thank you, he ... blah blah blah', stating the characters gender again, but if they come back with she/her again, I figure they are being a moron and just ignore them.

 

I relate to that so much. Oftentimes it's just someone reading fast and not registering the pronoun the first time, but after that, it gets frustrating. I have a few dolls whose styles are androgynous or who use they/them who get the wrong pronouns every now and again, but I've been lucky that a lot of it's been in good faith (other queer doll friends of mine remembering that I do have a few characters who aren't girls, and going "oops").

 

I have 3 female molds and I made them male, I am very happy with the result and really if people told me that they look like one sex or the other I wouldn't mind, I used to care what they said about my dolls but over the years I learned that as long as I love them and they make me happy the opinion of others should be left out.

I think that many molds lend themselves to look androgynous and that is something extremely cool, I really think that the ones that look androgynous are the cutest and most versatile to create a whole profile for them.

I think the ones with very marked features look too much alike and you immediately recognize the mold and it even takes away the mystery or specialness of the bjd.

if you love them and they make you happy that people's opinions don't matter to you.

 

I dress my Lati Yellow Loui like a boy, identify him as a boy, and most people who I show him to know straight away that hes a boy.
However, I gave him a faceup that is cutesy and he even had fake eyelashes at one point, but my poor father was adamant he looked like a girl but specifically because little Loui looked like *me* to him. It then dawned on me that my father was right, I had inadvertently dressed the tiny guy like myself because I'm a tomboy and gravitate towards men's clothing haha

 

Honestly, doesn’t really happen to mine. My boys are not very androgynous though, though many of my friends’ dolls are and I don’t see a prob with it. As long as you’re happy with your dolls, that’s all that matters!

 

People are surprised when I tell them that my dolls are actually boys. Ichiru (LUTS Senior Delf Howl) is pretty androgynous, I admit. I can not repress the urge to crossdress him now and then. But the other two guys... I think they clearly look male with their features and tall muscular, definitely masculine constitution. Ok, they all have long hair, and they do wear pieces of clothes borrowed from female wardrobe (like gothic shirts, jewelry, etc.).

 

I'm all for genderfluidity and non-binary presentation and androgynous aesthetics. \o/

It lowkey irks me if I've made it clear what the doll's gender is (if the character I've shelled in it has a preferred one) and people keep referring to it as the gender they feel it presents as, but since my doll is ultimately not a living thing that cares about being misgendered, I'll let it slide. But it does sort of let me know which people are more trans/NB-friendly and which people aren't. So there's that, at least!

 

@Broken Garden honestly, you'd have to be a saint to not cross dress some of these beautiful boys! I had never cross dressed one of my dolls and then I did it as a joke for a video and he was just too pretty

 

I can kind of say that I joined the hobby to have an androgynous boy, so when I learnt that it's so common here that it's basically a cliché, I was actually happy. I also find it wonderful that there are some who make dresses and lingerie not just for the feminine boys, but for the big guys, though I think that size is not for me, I enjoy looking at their pictures. I'm fairly new, so I haven't had any comments about my doll, but since his character likes to look pretty, I think he would take it as a compliment. Also, when I showed my doll to people who I'm not particularly close to, I didn't mention that it's a boy, and since in Hungarian the pronouns don't have gender, I actually don't know what gender they thought my doll is. I think it's better this way, since no one gets offended or weirded out.

Though in elementary school (I guess it's middle-school in other countries) when I brought pictures of Japanese musicians and drew their portraits, it bothered me when some kids insisted that they are females. It's surprising that those were actually girls, and the boys seemed more cool with it after the initial shock. So I also didn't like it that others said those things about well, not dolls, but actual people. I was into a few music genres that have men in make-up and fancy clothes, and I also liked looking at street fashion snaps from Tokyo, so I find the thought that clothes have gender kind of strange. Too bad a part of society is still far behind. At least people in the doll hobby seem open-minded about it.

And I probably shouldn't end this with a rant, but apparently according to last year's law, I probably shouldn't bring my doll near churches or schools, because it doesn't represent traditional gender. I'm not one to talk about politics, but this is just mind-boggling and horrible at the same time. Not because of the doll, no one would bat an eye that it's a boy in a skirt, and they wouldn't notice anyway, but the thought of how this law affects people saddens me. I hope the world will catch up to the doll world in these matters.

 

Androgynous dolls are my absolute favorite! I especially like when a sculpt can go either male or female or completely in between, simply through how you customize them. It offers a lot of possibilities and you can get really creative, and if you ever get tired of model X / Y as a girl / boy you can always try something else.
I can see why people would be upset by others "misgendering" their androgynous dolls, but I myself don't really care. One of the most fun things for me is to purposefully provoke confusion in people with my characters, so I very much welcome it as part of the fun

 

*laughs in genderqueer*

Considering how much trouble people have gendering me (not that I mind - in fact, I'm intentionally ambiguous), it doesn't surprise me that they have difficulty with dolls. I don't have either of my boys yet, so I can't speak from personal experience here. Though one of them has expressly told me he loves frilly lolita dresses, so...it's in my future!