People's comments to your DD's

When you do photoshoot or bring your daughter to a convention, people would sometime stop and just look at her. What is their expression? What would they say? Something positive or negative?

 

For me, the most re-memorable moment is when I was with Niwa565 at AM² (anime convention in Anaheim, CA), we were walking up to the information booth where they put the schedules of the days. We heard that there was a Dollfie or BJD meet on that day, but no one said what time the meet was at on twitter. So we were looking at the schedules and one of the volunteers/workers for the information booth looked freaked out about my daughter (Sakuya from Touhou). He was kind of get her away from me and moved his seat away from me. The other worker that was right next to him was like...what are you talking about? She's so cute!

He said," Have you ever heard/saw Child's Play?" D:

I was thinking that...sounds familiar? (I forgot if i was thinking something like The Indian in the Cupboard or that I actually remember that it was Chucky.)

So I turned her sideways and was like "check out her accessories~!" (aka knives on her garter)

He looked even more freaked out... ._.; lol It kind of made me wonder what would he say if he saw a BJD because they look more realistic or closer to Chucky. XD

@ the knives bit

 

We haven't taken any of our girls out really. We tried to take Akira out for a meet up with someone here on the forums several months ago, but we didn't find each other. But thanks to this, we ended up trekking across a mall with her in hand. I heard some "kawaii!" from some Japanese tourists (this was in Hawaii) and a lady stopped by to talk to us about dolls for a minute or so. It sounded like she was mainly into resins (SDs and Iplehouse), but she still thought Akira was pretty.

 

If anyone thought Akira was creepy, no one said it verbally in range of hearing them.

I do get a lot of "omg that's a cute doll" whisper or comment during photoshoots or in conventions. I think the best comment I had was during a photoshoot, so Niwa is the photographer and I'm the one doing the poses for the dolls and this guy said,"Omg, they are so cutee! Is that Sailor Moon?" And I was like ....eh? Niwa was like lol no these girls are from different video games. XD

 

I occasionally brought my girls out when I was in the UK for meet up, the brits reaction towards me and my frineds' girls; some just ignored us (I'm so glad that they ignored us, LOL), others stopped, looked at them and took pictures of our girls for themselves to keep which I don't mind as long as they don't touch her (i have to be protective),, some came to us and asked about the doll and my friend directly told them the price of the girls and they were like "What???!!" LOL.

 

there's once a group of teens came to us and looked at my previous Airy, and he freaked out upon seeing the lifeless eyes of Airy LOL but his girl friend said she was cute but really, i like the brits reaction to me and me friends' girls,,, ^^,

~ Little girl about 5, "look mommy, a princess! ... why does she have such a big knife?"

~ Some old guy on a bike, circled around couple times before finally coming up to tell me whatever it is I'm doing is just awesome (rolling on the grass tryin to balance & shoot an armored DD knight. go fig)

 

most people will either gawk & not saying anything, or gawk and try to sneak a pic w/ their phones. Only 1 in 10 will actually come up to say something

 

My number one most memorable moment EVAH was at a RenFaire. Brought Mari along and started taking pictures around the place. Well, by the end of the day one of the performers specifically tracked me down! He has heard of this "friendly lil fairy" and wished to meet her.

But this doesn't end there. After getting the pic of her on his drum, he flagged down his friend the flower-seller & carefully placed Mari among the flowers in the basket for more photos

Well I just got my Saber Alter two weeks ago and definitely going to hide her from my life. Like my figures. I'm a closet otaku, after all. Also, it's different when you're a guy.

Well I just got my Saber Alter two weeks ago and definitely going to hide her from my life. Like my figures. I'm a closet otaku, after all. Also, it's different when you're a guy.

 

SakuraSylph (a guy) carried our Akira around at the grocery store on the way home from the mall after the story I mentioned above. She was perched on his arm and therefore blatantly obvious. No one said anything. But he doesn't really seem to care what people think of his hobbies. He's got anime stuff on his desk at work, and we have anime stuff all around the house.

 

Most people really won't say anything even if you advertise your hobbies. If they do say something and don't like it, ignore 'em. It's your life, not theirs.

@kyojie011 Oh I got a few of those reactions before when I told people the price of my girls. XD

 

@Chise Sounds like an awesome memory at RenFaire. I hope I can get that kind of reaction in the future.

 

@Keats If you are really uncomfortable bringing your doll out because of people's reaction, I think the best idea is to go to a doll meet with your daughter. You will find everyone accepting of you because they are all into the same hobby. You will definitely see other guys in this hobby too so don't worry about being the only male at the doll meets.

I must have been reasonably lucky, nothing more than curious onlookers as far as 'negative' goes. For positives... When I was taking photos of Haruka at the Legislature, I had a lady come by and tell me how it reminded her how she recently was trying to get her granddaughter to do something similar when they were on vacation with a little stuffed animal xD Or when I was with Otakusan, an older woman wanted to take a photo of our girls. In Hong Kong, a little girl came up to me with her parents and asked if she could have her photo taken with Feena.

 

Actually, I will say for getting used to the feeling, go on a vacation with one of your girls. You won't not take her out for photos, otherwise bringing her would feel like a total waste. Its what I did when I went to Hong Kong and Japan in May, the first time I really ever brought any of my girls out in public except for the odd doll meet, the latter (meets) of which I don't feel helped me with showing my girls out in public. I brought Feena out in the middle of a crowded temple in Kyoto one time even for photos xD

After doing it a few times you learn to give snarky people the proverbial 'finger' in your mind, and remind yourself that you're probably enjoying life a lot more than they are!

 

Yea ok, I know I sounded like a bit of an asshole there with that last statement, but its not quite that bad xD You just make yourself do it a few times and then it becomes natural, doesn't really matter if you're a guy or a girl. At least in my mind, I'm getting awesome photos out of it too

The few times I've brought my girl with me, I haven't really gotten that many comments. XD

I usually just get people who walk by, and as soon as they notice the dolls, they start walking really slow and their eyes are usually stuck at looking at the dolls. XD

 

Though I loved some of the reactions that Migon, my sister and I got when we where taking pictures of our dolls near the water.

The place we decided to take pictures at is located near a canal.

In short, it's a popular place to drive by with your boat.

We had so many people who started slowing down as soon as they noticed us, and some even went closer to us just to see what we where up to.

One of the passer-bys that I remember the most was a teenager boy who as soon as he noticed us, constantly started to stare at us.

He even turned around to continue facing us when the boat starting going away from us. XD

When taking this picture with my friends, one old perv was staring us about 30 minutes, and finally found courage for asking a photo of them with his mobile phone (poor girls, I can't imagine what is he doing while seeing it)

 

But no major incidents, some people actually asked the doll's price in a cafe and one friend from a friend wanted to buy her own DD after seeing the touch of the DD bust I lent her for sewing purposes xD well, this and I hope she did internet research and fell in love with some photos.

This weekend I will take Rise to a Manganime event in Barcelona so I hope to find more reactions to add in this thread ^^

I'll admit, I'm still a bit nervous taking Kihona out during a convention or shoot, it takes me a day (or a few shots...) to settle the nerves. Most comments are positive while the rest are neutral and a couple being negative

 

About the negative it was some guy making a comment how gay I was for having a doll. He came back later to see his girl and asked "Damn, babe, who owns the sweet 350z on our property?" I looked at him, pointed at myself, smirking and said "This ***..." He still wants to drives my car... HA! Some others have said that I only bought her because I use it as a sex toy, and that was from other BJD owners.

 

My sister got into the dollfie scene too and knowing how protective she is, she's helped get over my nervousness when taking Kiho out for photo shoots.

 

I really love the positive comments, I just imagine telling Kihona "Aw, see?! They like you, you nervous nelly!"

 

I still plan on bringing her to Tokyo when I go for archery training and exams, but with the huge curfew going on for military personnel, I might just go to Malaysia instead to see some friends.

 

One last thing, 99% of my coworkers don't know I have a dollfie, I like to keep it that way D8 lol

Edited October 29, 2012 by Guest

The psychological reasoning behind the whole "adults can't have dolls" -thing is that they are probably being seen as a replacement for close-contact human relationships. As in, that person has a doll, and is thus 'damaged' and unable to be a normal human being. Admitting that fact in public by bringing out your doll can be the reason for shame and ridicule. Most people will subconsciously realize this, and assholes will make fun of you. On the other hand, adults and/or older people will probably understand (your pain). In this hyper-sexualized, 'be-the-best-you-can-be', difficult world, where people have high expectations, there is an increasingly large group of people that doesn't 'make the cut', and will therefore find their solace in things as anime, figures, and dolls. As this group becomes larger and the audience for these things grows, dolls will become more and more personalized. They will receive movement, finer clothes and shoes, character, AI, etc etc.

It is difficult to trust other people, I think that we have all had our trust broken many times. In the end, nothing can be trusted but the very thing that we have created ourselves, that will be unable to break our trust because it will be programmed to never do so.

 

I know of myself that all of the above is sadly true

 

Of course, some people just like dolls. That's fine too. Those people are probably the ones that can go out and take photos of their girls in public.

 

But I, for one, will welcome our dollfie overlords.

 

When I was taking this someone asked me if I was working for a magazine

strife: well are ya?

Nah

Last Year, I had not been in Tokyo for 5 hrs and ended up walking out with Aoi V1 and a bunch of other goodies, including a bigger chest for Sae

 

The image below was taken the next day in the imperial gardens, and while i was doing my very first outside shoot, an american guy stopped and looked and asked if her could take some pictures of them.

 

"By all means" i replied and offered to pose them for him, but he was happy as they were.

 

 

This bad girl photo was taken about two weeks ago, and while setting the girls up in the front garden, a family passed by, looked, said nothing and then moved on.

 

 

I bet they talked about me further up the road, especially since Sayaka was in her short skirt and showing more than the family's little girl Barbie or Sindy would.

My husband and I were at an anime con this past June and we both had a girl with us. Most people came up and were positive. Being in the area we are in, 99% of them had never heard of a DD so they asked personal questions about the price and where did we get them. If we answered their questions, most got crappy about that (OMG! that much for a DOLL! ). A lot just liked them and wanted to take pics.

 

But one dude was like the person the OP described. He was FREAKED out by them and even mentioned Chucky. He said he was scared of dolls and said he would now have nightmares. He went to the other side of the hall if he saw us coming. He said they "looked" at him. He kinda freaked me out. He was weird.

 

He actually mad my husband quite mad. It was probably a good thing he avoided us.

So far I've been pretty lucky with people asking me questions and such when I've been out in public with them. I've taken my girls out to several parks and outdoor public places and only had one or two people say anything to me.

 

At one park, I had 5 girls with me, all in kimonos, and a little girl of about 6 or 7 came running up to me and said "Your Barbies are pretty!" Then she ran back to her parents who smiled, waved and then hurried off.

 

I also took a few to an anime convention in North Carolina and had LOTS of people say positive things about them. But I also had girls who were popular in anime with me like Rei, Mai and Ryomou.

 

Overall tho, my girls seem to get lots of praise and positive vibes from people.

 

As for being a male in this hobby, I've seen no negative affects from it. People in the hobby like the idea of a guy that's into it. But most people NOT in the hobby see it as an extention of my love of Japanese culture and don't give me much lip over it.

 

But I think the lack of abuse or grief I catch from people I don't know about me and my hobby is due to how I look. I'm not the typical Otaku type everyones stereotypes. I'm not 400 pounds and living in my parents basement. Even tho I'm pretty harmless, I look more imposing than I am. So I think that helps with people telling me I'm silly or giving me crap about it. I also think it helps to have a LOT of camera stuff with me when I go out because people get the idea that I'm doing something "important" or actually working. I've had more than a few people approach me asking if I worked for a toy or doll magazine before. I should have said yes but i always tell them no, it's my hobby.

 

 

 

Billy

Being a guy in this hobby isn't too bad. Most comments I've had towards my girls were to say they're cute, or their outfits are nice, or to ask about the price tags. The latter of those usually causes the people a bit of shock, especially because some of my girls were 2nd hand, post-lottery and from ebay... I've had a few people ask if they could take pictures of them with me, such as some Hooters girls and a foreign couple at the Georgia State Fair in Perry whom I bought some rings from as bracelets for Mio and Millefeuille.

 

I'm not an intimidating looking person, although my odd '1000-yard-stare', or 'totally lost gaze' sometimes causes people to stay away to a small extent.

 

More often than not, people ask if I'm photographing them for a magazine or website or something, because of my 2 (soon to be 3) semi-pro to professional level camera setups. The a77 with vertical grip, CZ 85mm lens, and HVL-43AM flashgun combo tends to scare people away though... lol! I guess it looks kinda intimidating? I'll likely get the same reactions when my a99 and HVL-60AM flashgun arrive... The grip for it already has. Nobody gets scared of the Fuji X-Pro1 though.

 

I really do get mistaken for a "professional photographer" quite often, I guess it's a good thing I'm planning to start photography school after the new year starts. lol

Reading about all the experiences from other people just makes me feel more crazy

 

That's ok.

I remember the first time I brought my girls out, it was at a doll meet in a public place so I was extra sensitive to everyone's comments.

 

Some positive feedback:

"They're really pretty! Did you make them?"

"How long have you been collecting?"

"So you all have dolls? That's really cool!"

"What's her name? She's really pretty."

Little kids will always look deliciously curious.

 

Some negative feedback:

Some girls that walked by, snickering and making fun of the girls' poses by doing it themselves.

People will stare but it's easily to get used to.

I always feel like security guards will want to kick us out, hang in there until they actually care- they usually don't.

One of my favorite comments was "Can I get those at the flea market?"

One of my favorite comments was "Can I get those at the flea market?"

 

If you actually were to tell them these dolls cost hundreds of dollars, sometimes even well over a thousand for the higher priced ones, then they'd probably really give you a priceless look.

One of my favorite comments was "Can I get those at the flea market?"

 

we have a winner...

I think i recall reading about it before... the old couple?