A Boy Doll Diary - The photo story about a man living with his boy doll

Dear Diary, Today's video is from the ABC series "What Would You Do?". From the YouTube programme description: What Would You Do? (WWYD) is a hidden camera show, hosted by ABC News correspondent John Quinones, in which unknowing bystanders are placed in uncomfortable, and often compromising real world scenarios in public. WWYD’s hidden cameras focus on the average person’s responses and reactions to these issues of social responsibility. The individuals on this hidden camera show are forced to make tough calls when directly faced with situations of racism, violence, hate crimes, and other hot button cultural issues. The programme tries to be balanced by presenting both a boy and a girl but cards are stacked in the girl's favour and against the boy. Society finds it acceptable for a girl to act like a boy and to show interest in traditionally boy things. Such a girl is called a 'tomboy' and slides by, pretty much unscathed. However, a boy who shows ...

Dear Diary, Something's up. I'm suspicious. Very suspicious. Oi! Where are all my clothes? Where's all the furniture? I feel so little in this empty room. What's with all these boxes? I need to climb up to get a better view. Good grief! I certainly hope you don't think I’m  going to travel in this ! Something's not right here. I wonder what's going on here. Vati,where are you? Vati? Vaaati! Hans

Dear Diary, This film is titled "Living Dolls (Dolls Obsession Documentary), a part of the Real Stories series on YouTube. It chronicles the life stories of 4 doll collectors. It is fascinating because each person is totally different from the other and yet there are common threads connecting each of them. From the YouTube description: An intimate look at the weird and wonderful subculture of doll collecting – featuring a young mother who spends more money than the family earns to feed her habit; a Barbie-loving man who never left home; an animator who transforms dolls for an epic robot-porn film; and a married man who believes love dolls give him the best of both sex and art. Living Dolls is a surprising, humorous and engaging documentary that opens the door to a fascinating array of collectors and their collections. It taps into why these colourful characters’ lives are ultimately shaped by their obsession. Some are loveable, others you may love to hate… Debbie - marrie...

Dear Diary, It's Halloween and time to dress up and go trick-or-treating! Well, I won't be going this year because we don't really celebrate this particular holiday here in New Zealand. But, for all you spooks, ghosts and goblins in other parts of the world, - boo! Here's a guy who collects dolls and who is getting into the Halloween spirit.  This doll collector's name is Joey and he's obviously a doll enthusiast. Here is a video of his doll room which is interesting. You go, Joey! Hans

Dear Diary, It's so exciting to live in this time when our consciousness is expanding beyond what those in charge tell us is what is good, right and normal. For too long in the doll world, the norm has been girls playing with perfect dolls, whether baby dolls, girl dolls or fashion dolls. Even the boy dolls, like Ken and GI Joe, came with the same societal expectations, demonstrated in the perfect skin colour, body type, age and style. Could any child live up to what was demanded? And, of course, the demands put into everyone's head had once goal: to subconsciously encourage massive consumerism (fashion, diets, gyms, etc).  Thankfully, now we are moving beyond this brainwashing and one of the signs of the progressive times are the dolls which have prosthetics. Mattel has issued Barbies with wheelchairs and also artificial legs. Reality, folks! Why shouldn't people with physical challenges play with dolls which mirror their own reality? The YouTuber, Jason Howle...

Dear Diary, My newest outfit is here. It's called "Autumn Walk". There are plaid, woollen trousers, a woollen coat and scarf and a lovely long-sleeve "silk" shirt. It is a great outfit, but as with the first new outfit, the trousers are much too tight and I can't walk or sit! But, I don't mind too much. It's a small price to pay to be fashionable! We are eagerly awaiting the release of the new boy doll clothes from the Kathe Kruse company. Hans

Dear Diary, I believe that this entry is really geared to a specific audience: boys and men who struggle with being outside the norm. I don't know who my readers are but I hope that some guys have found my diary by searching online for the topic of men and dolls. Even in 'retirement', we still get pages views daily from a variety of countries. Maybe, I should call my diary an outreach. Maybe I'm lazy or lacking creative juices but I don't see any reason why I should labor so hard to try to make my point when others have done if far better than I ever could. Take the video below. It says everything I would want to say to a boy or even a man, who may be feeling the sting of being slapped-down by a judgemental society because he likes dolls (or anything thing else for that matter). As for me, I don't care what others have to say. I'll just carry on in my bliss. I love to knit... ...another taboo for the male species. (In case ...

Dear Diary, I am posting this video for the younger lads who like dolls. I believe that they will be able to relate well to Chad Alan.  I'm probably showing my age but I find his youthful enthusiasm a bit overwhelming.  Chad is a doll enthusiast and has some funny doll-related videos. He must be popular as he has 784,000 subscribers on YouTube! Certainly a good proportion of his followers must be guys who enjoy their dolls. I hope everyone enjoys this. Hans

Dear Diary, We are always searching for original Kathe Kruse outfits for me but we never find any. Once in a while, we might find a  pair of shoes, but that's it. This is so different from many of the other dolls made around the same time and a bit later. Original factory-made clothes for composition and hard plastic dolls made by R&B, F&B, Madame Alexander and etc can still be found. Even original outfits for antique bisque, porcelain and china dolls are available for sale. But, nothing for Kathe Kruse in the German Child size. There are probably a lot of reasons for their scarcity but I wish it were different. We like originals! To make up for this lack - and to keep me a well-dressed boy - we tried to find people to make clothes for me. Unfortunately, that didn't work out at all. So, mein Vati took to knitting for me and even sewing some outfits. This met some of the need but was very limited by his amateur sewing. Now, we have a new problem....

Dear Diary, In a much earlier blog, main Vati quoted the famous doll designer Robert Tonner: "If you don't take dolls out of their box, they never have a life." Certainly, Vati has pursued this philosophy. Even when he was seriously collecting dolls, he always had a special doll or two to play with. Now, he plays only with me and I certainly have a life!  The couple in this video certainly believe in giving their dolls a life - at least in some sense of the term. At the beginning of the video, we wondered what in the world...? But, as the video continued, we suddenly understood what their passion was all about. I have never seen a video which so succinctly shows the actual playing with dolls (not just collecting them) by an adult man and woman. Their home with all the retro kitsch is so much fun, too. You'll have to admit they look like they're having a really fun time. I loved the lines, "If we're going to be the creepy doll people we're...

Dear Diary, Our blog's  raison d'être  is to reach out to lads and blokes who enjoy playing with dolls, encouraging them to be true to themselves, despite what conformity society may demand of us.  It's all a matter of choice and everyone should be able to make choices without guilt.  Here's the problem: and again, I am always on the look-out for stories on the internet about this subject; sadly, they are few and far between. I have written about some in earlier posts so take a look if you're interested. I enjoy watching stories about guys with their dolls. Today, I found this vlog post from a man in Germany. In it, Rusko makes the point that sometimes it's not about a man playing with dolls that's important. Sometimes, it's about giving yourself permission to just have them. This permission can be liberating - freeing ourselves from other's expectations. This highlights the point at which playing with dolls an...

Dear Diary, Here in New Zealand, one of the favourite foods is pumpkin soup.  There are many recipes for it and it's often the soup du jour at restaurants and cafes.  I confess that I have never cared much for it - until recently, that is.  We were given a different recipe and wow! - is it good.  I'd like to share it with everyone.  Warning: when it says pumpkin, it doesn't mean the pumpkins carved for jack-o-lanterns.  The pumpkins often found in New Zealand vegetable gardens are Buttercup squash, Butternuts, Crown or Grey, Baby Bear, Golden Nugget, Musquee de Provence, Whangaparaoa Crown, Kumi Kumi, Queensland Blue, Triamble, Gateaux d'Eysines.  The King's Pumpkin Soup Ingredients 1 kg pumpkin meat 4 1/2 cups chicken stock 1 medium onion, chopped 6 spring onions, chopped 4 tomatoes, peeled & chopped 300 ml cream juice of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon curry powder 1 teaspoon brown sugar salt  freshly groun...