Baby Be Creepy

I was sort of half watching the Today Show this morning while I checked my email and paid bills, when I saw a really…strange interview. Matt Lauer was interviewing women on the show who collect dolls. Not just dolls, baby dolls. Real baby dolls – as in, they look like actual living infants. They’re called “reborn babies” and they’re going to give me NIGHTMARES.

I like dolls in general. I plan to buy them for my (potential) daughter. My own baby dolls were dragged around by their hair, dressed in ridiculous outfits and married to one another on a regular basis. Even the fancy porcelain dolls my grandmother tried to convince me to “collect” were subjected to my beauty school of dull scissors and crayon makeup.

But I am creeped out by dolls people treat as real children. The doll owners had real baby carriers and car seats. One of them admited to talking to her doll like it was a baby. The creator (who charges $1000+ EACH) said she knows women use her dolls to fill the void of not having real children. Some women put in heart-beat simulators and little motors that make the chest rise and fall like it’s breathing. The dolls look amazingly lifelike, which I find scary instead of cute, like those stuffed animals made of real animal fur. A plastic baby doesn’t love you. It doesn’t grow or learn or laugh or speak. On the other hand, it doesn’t eat or poop or cry either, so I can see the advantages.

The thing is, the woman who makes them and the two collectors being interviewed didn’t seem to be unhinged. They were funny and well spoken. One of the women has a 2 year old daughter – an actual child – and she hopes one day they can collect together. Even the woman who admitted to talking to her dolls made it seem just a little quirky rather than crazy. But how do you explain your “baby” to someone on the bus? What a lovely child, what’s her name?  Thanks, it’s Emily. She’s so quiet and well behaved! Is she sleeping? No she’s made of plastic. ……..?????? In a few cases, the police have been called to rescue “infants” from parked cars only to discover the babies were dolls. I think that right there is the line, and I am staying firmly on the normal side.

You can read the article here and see a video of the interview here.

9 Responses to “Baby Be Creepy”

  1. FF says:

    Creepy. When I was in high school, students who took “Parent/Child Development” had to take home this robo-baby for a weekend as an experience in what parenting is like. Robo-baby had to be “fed” and “changed” and held and rocked, and it had a computer inside that would know if you abused it or didn’t “feed” it or whatever. Maybe these women need one of those.

  2. FF says:

    Random, but I ran across another cool baby blog “1001 Rules for my Unborn Son.” http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

    Got any for your bebeh?

  3. sara says:

    um yeah. i agree-nightmares. definitely nightmares. and shuddering.

  4. Erin (i dont have a fake name :( ) says:

    its just like those creepy robot babies from that stupid Robin Williams as a minister movie that gave me nightmares!!!

  5. FourInchHeels says:

    @FF – That is one of the most incredible blogs I have ever read. I’ve seen lots of lists in my day, but this one is really touching. In its own weird way, it’s uplifting to read and I’m only halfway through. What a great find, thank you for sharing!

    Also, those baby dolls are creepy with a capital C. It’s disturbing and somewhat unhealthy. Eesh!

  6. AGreenEyeDevil says:

    If there’s not a DSM code for this, damnit there should be! This is NOT mentally healthy.

  7. stacyinbean says:

    These are scary! I will admit my little sister (11 now) has an outrageously expensive baby doll my grandmother bought for her that is quite similar. But really it’s not nearly as creepy as it looks. It feels (weight, skin texture, etc.) and looks real and it freaks me out, but my sister LOVED it when she was younger. I’m guessing my mother has it packaged away now, like all the fancy dollies my grandmother tried to get me to collect as well. People are weird!

  8. TheDomina says:

    Dolls creep me out even when they’re not lifelike, but I would run screaming from these. I do think it is an odd transference of affection to treat an inanimate object like it is a real live baby, especially if you have real live children, but I guess to each his own.

  9. This is so weird…or is it? I just had to write a blog post on the topic because there has to be a reason for why there are customers for these dolls…and furthermore, why the dolls are given so much reverence and adoration.

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