SLUniverse Forums

Wildefire Walcott · 07-19-2008, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siobhan OFlynn

They brought back unpleasant flashbacks for me. I've had to take more than my share of bereavement photo's for parents who've had stillborn babies. I had no problem taking the pictures, since they were for people who suffered a devastating loss. My co-workers and I spent alot of time making the babies look good and like they were sleeping. But those doll pictures really freak me out because they are so much like the posed pictures we took of those poor stillborn infants.

*clicks the Cry button*

Tyche Shepherd · 07-19-2008, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildefire Walcott

That video was just taken down. What the hell was it?

It's still there for me (Maybe because I'm a UK IP address) - But its UK chat show discussing a Documentary about Realistic baby dolls and the reasons why women buy them .

Cristiano · 07-19-2008, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildefire Walcott

That video was just taken down. What the hell was it?

Oh weird, it said it was removed when I tried to play it here but it plays at the site fine.

But OMG I had to stop watching. It really is too eerie for me.

Just the fact they are called Reborns, and that the host referred to them as "replicant babies" is creepy.

Walker Moore · 07-19-2008, 02:48 PM

The freakiest thing about that clip was the grown women fawning over a fake baby, and pushing it around in a pram.

Lucifer Baphomet · 07-19-2008, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristiano

"replicant babies"

Time to die

Ingrid N. · 07-19-2008, 05:44 PM

I have someone in my family who used to do the "dress up dolls and treat them like human children" thing.

She got better. Now she has a dog.

That video is so depressing because it reminds me of her and what must be missing in her life for her to do that.

Siobhan OFlynn · 07-19-2008, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Io Zeno

Don't you diss our child! We are naming her Medusa.

Oh, so that's a snake on her head?! I thought it was one of those stupid headbands parents make their poor babies wear. I feel much better now.

io Kukulcan · 07-19-2008, 07:54 PM

These children are an abomination.
Where's a Reverend Mother when you need one?

Siyu Suen · 07-19-2008, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by io Kukulcan

These children are an abomination.
Where's a Reverend Mother when you need one?

Yeesh, how inundated am I in Geek that when I saw the words "abomination" and "Reverend Mother" together I thought this:

io Kukulcan · 07-19-2008, 08:12 PM

that's exactly what i was referring to, Siyu.

Sarah Nerd · 07-19-2008, 10:03 PM

I bought my mom one of these reborn baby's off of ebay for mothers day last year. I spent two days searching for the most realistic one possible. Not my bag personally, but made my mom happy and it made for a lot of practical jokes handing it to people and acting like we dropped it ect.

Lecktor Hannibal · 07-19-2008, 10:48 PM

I love when Josh gets sanctimonious. It makes me giggle.

Mukatsuku · 07-20-2008, 02:21 AM

Uncanny valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness. It was introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, and has been linked to Ernst Jentsch's concept of "the uncanny" identified in a 1906 essay, "On the Psychology of the Uncanny."

Verkin Raven · 07-20-2008, 09:34 PM

All that talent and they're not making realistic babies of alien/fantasy species? Come ON. Animatronic Greys in strollers at the grocery store would be fun.

Wildefire Walcott · 07-21-2008, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Verkin Raven

All that talent and they're not making realistic babies of alien/fantasy species? Come ON. Animatronic Greys in strollers at the grocery store would be fun.

Oh my god, I'd never leave the house!

Keara Morgan · 07-21-2008, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siobhan OFlynn

They brought back unpleasant flashbacks for me. I've had to take more than my share of bereavement photo's for parents who've had stillborn babies. I had no problem taking the pictures, since they were for people who suffered a devastating loss. My co-workers and I spent alot of time making the babies look good and like they were sleeping. But those doll pictures really freak me out because they are so much like the posed pictures we took of those poor stillborn infants.

In the danger of sounding like, totally emotional or something (which is not my intention), I’m one of those people unfortunately, that had a stillborn child. And in the whole blurry period of being in the hospital and delivering the child there was this nurse that a made a serious impression on me. She was the one taking pictures of my baby and making ink prints of her tiny hands and feet on a card for me. It’s hard because I never really got the chance to thank her and I was too absorbed by grief at that time to think much on it, but those pictures and prints really, really made a difference in the years after. Just saying.

On the concept of these babies, I think Siobhan is right and that they’re not so much ‘dolls’ to these people but actual, real children. It’s why I can’t look at them. They don’t scare me because they’re ugly (after all I’ve seen a lot of real dead babies by now, including my own and it makes the usually relevant point of ugly and scary and dead moot to a point you cannot believe unless you experience it) but while I feel very little in common with the women making or buying these dolls it every time only manages to get me close to crying. There’s something so desperate in it I find it hard to look at or read about. It may be because I lost a baby myself, and that forever taints anything that has to with babies or children in general, but it just screams thwarted motherhood to me.

I’ve seen these dolls online before, there are quite a few companies that produce real-life looking dolls, together with birth certificate and everything. The worst thing to me was that in the whole selling process the concept of it being just a ‘doll’ is carefully removed and steered-around. The doll is never mentioned to as being a doll but instead referred to by name or descriptions that for the biggest part could fit a real child as well. For the people buying these dolls aren’t buying dolls, they are buying a baby. A re-born.

It seems bizarre, even to me who can understand the underlying emotions so well, but it apparently happens a lot. And when I think of how we give little girls baby dolls and basically encourage them to do just that, care for and nurture plastic, well, it makes me wonder if it isn’t just a too-deeply ingrained thing in our species to care for something helpless, a baby or a substitute for a baby, whether it being a pet or a doll or something else.
I mean, like sexuality, if there’s no partner you use a substitute, the desire doesn’t disappear with there being no outlet. I think when thwarted motherhood or the unfulfilled desire to have a child gets to big, people grab to substitutes as well.

I think I personally would rather have 300 cats, but that’s just me

.

Siobhan OFlynn · 07-21-2008, 08:58 PM

Keara, I've lost a baby too and I guess that's why I can definitely understand where the collectors of these dolls are coming from.

Looking at some of the best of the lot, I actually thought it might be nice to send some pictures of my daughter (born years after the loss of my first baby) and have her likeness as a newborn recreated! I was totally captivated by the ones that are really well done. I actually bought her one of those Berenguer premie dolls, because it was about the same size as she was and could wear her premie outfits. It's clearly a doll though and cost less than 50 bucks at Target.

I'm glad you had a nurse that took good care of you during such a terrible time.

I tried very hard during my time as a NICU and newborn nursery nurse, to make positive memories and impressions that the bereaved parents could think back on and be comforted. I spent literally hours with some of them, making sure they had all the memorabilia possible, to help them deal with their loss.

One of the reasons I became a nurse, way back when, was because I was so impressed by the way the nurses in the NICU cared for my baby until he died.

Those dolls are alternatively really attractive to me but they also repel me probably for the same reasons you stated.

I think I'll just keep on collecting stuff for the American Girls Bitty Baby Doll my daughter never played with. I rescued her from the toy bin and now she's MINE!

We have the one with blonde hair/grey eyes but I really, really want the one with black hair/almond shaped black eyes for Christmas. And if any of you dorks laugh at me, I'm going to spam your inbox with pictures of the worst of the reborns for months!

Jellin Pico · 07-21-2008, 11:45 PM

Did anyone ever read "Children of Men"? Not the movie, the book.

This doll topic, since it was started, has reminded me strongly of a part of the book.

Theo is sitting on a bench, not doing anything, and a woman with a stroller walks past. No baby in the stroller of course, it's a doll. The woman is acting as if the doll is real - all cooing and talking to it, treating it as if it's a perfect little baby.

Another woman comes along, as several others have before, and looked in the stroller smiling. The "mother' smiles back all proud of her "baby"

Suddenly, the other woman grabs up the doll and smashes it to bits on the ground and looks on with an evil smile as the "mother" completely loses her damn mind that her "baby" was murdered.

I'm not doing this passage justice. The utter bleakness of this scene, even now, thinking about it a long time after I read it, chills and depresses me. Also an emotion I'm not sure I know the name of, or at least can't think of. Despondency maybe? Hopelessness? Futility? Hopeless futile longing?

Anyway, that's what I think of when I read or see videos of people who have these sorts of dolls. And it's just disturbing.

On a different note, read "Children of Men" .. it's a million times better than the movie except for a kinda lame ending.

07-19-2008, 02:48 PM	#104 (permalink)
Walker Moore The Son of Avatar Hiding Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 8,189 Doom Rider Champion! SL Join Date: 13-May-06 My Mood:	The freakiest thing about that clip was the grown women fawning over a fake baby, and pushing it around in a pram. __________________ twitter \| last.fm \| flickr

07-19-2008, 05:44 PM	#106 (permalink)
Ingrid N. ist hungrig diminuitive doe Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1,443 Blog Entries: 1 My Mood:	I have someone in my family who used to do the "dress up dolls and treat them like human children" thing. She got better. Now she has a dog. That video is so depressing because it reminds me of her and what must be missing in her life for her to do that. __________________ Oh No, Ingrid!

07-19-2008, 10:03 PM	#111 (permalink)
Sarah Nerd I BUY LAND Can I play with your land? Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Shermerville Posts: 7,155 Harpoon Lagoon Champion! SLShopper Ads: 1 My Mood: Awards: 2	I bought my mom one of these reborn baby's off of ebay for mothers day last year. I spent two days searching for the most realistic one possible. Not my bag personally, but made my mom happy and it made for a lot of practical jokes handing it to people and acting like we dropped it ect. __________________ www.SarahNerd.com http://www.your2ndplace.com/sarahnerd

07-19-2008, 07:54 PM	#108 (permalink)
io Kukulcan Senior Member copa cabana Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: SLC, UT Posts: 924 My Mood:	These children are an abomination. Where's a Reverend Mother when you need one?

07-19-2008, 08:12 PM	#110 (permalink)
io Kukulcan Senior Member copa cabana Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: SLC, UT Posts: 924 My Mood:	that's exactly what i was referring to, Siyu.

07-20-2008, 09:34 PM	#114 (permalink)
Verkin Raven vs. Godzilla :D Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Vermont Posts: 836 SL Join Date: 1/4/05 Blog Entries: 1 SLShopper Ads: 3 My Mood:	All that talent and they're not making realistic babies of alien/fantasy species? Come ON. Animatronic Greys in strollers at the grocery store would be fun.

07-21-2008, 11:45 PM	#118 (permalink)
Jellin Pico Booyakasha! I'm better than you Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: I hate L.A. Posts: 2,289 SL Join Date: July 2003 My Mood: Awards: 1	Did anyone ever read "Children of Men"? Not the movie, the book. This doll topic, since it was started, has reminded me strongly of a part of the book. Theo is sitting on a bench, not doing anything, and a woman with a stroller walks past. No baby in the stroller of course, it's a doll. The woman is acting as if the doll is real - all cooing and talking to it, treating it as if it's a perfect little baby. Another woman comes along, as several others have before, and looked in the stroller smiling. The "mother' smiles back all proud of her "baby" Suddenly, the other woman grabs up the doll and smashes it to bits on the ground and looks on with an evil smile as the "mother" completely loses her damn mind that her "baby" was murdered. I'm not doing this passage justice. The utter bleakness of this scene, even now, thinking about it a long time after I read it, chills and depresses me. Also an emotion I'm not sure I know the name of, or at least can't think of. Despondency maybe? Hopelessness? Futility? Hopeless futile longing? Anyway, that's what I think of when I read or see videos of people who have these sorts of dolls. And it's just disturbing. On a different note, read "Children of Men" .. it's a million times better than the movie except for a kinda lame ending.