Living Dolls + Furries: Gonna Dress You Up In Their Love

Here’s what I know — there’s a big difference between sex toys and sexy toys.

About ten years ago, I wrote a feature for Bizarre Magazine in the UK called Living Dolls about people who like their sexual partners to dress up as dolls, big red spots on the cheeks and all. The participants, gay or straight, are known as “dollers,” and a common play-theme among them is the idea of a mad scientist bringing a doll to life. Others like to go another way, playing the evil professor who turns somebody into a doll against their will.

“There’s no single reason people are attracted to dolls,” Mikhail from Holland told me at the time. “Some (a tiny minority) get excited by dolls, period. In most cases, it’s a sublimated control or B&D thing, with subs and doms. For some, it’s the dressing up; others get turned on by the immobility.”

It all sounds like good old-fashioned fun and games to me, but I’ve been wrong before so I spoke to a psychologist who said, “If somebody is attracted to an inanimate object, such as a doll, that points to the fact they are unable to form a ‘normal’ attachment, a reciprocal relationship, with someone. They need a fantasy relationship. If somebody is in a relationship, and they want their partner to act like a doll, that suggests they had an insecure attachment to their mother. They need nurturing — it’s called the attachment theory. Sex with someone who appears to be comatose definitely isn’t normal sexual behavior.”

Oh, if it’s normal sexual behavior you want, anonymous doc, you’ve come to the wrong place. That said, I see your point now as I did then. Playing the old “let’s pretend you’re not really a living thing” game has very niche appeal and, as Mikhail said, the appeal for many was in the dressing up.

That’s certainly, at least partially, the case with the furry community. I didn’t get far into the furry world before they had me tagged as a curious journo with no real desire to join the pack. But, before that, I had made a real effort to fit in online.

Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking I went in wanting to make fun of them. I honestly didn’t. While the whole concept didn’t give me the old fizzy willy, it didn’t repulse me either. And why would it? These are peeps just having a bit of dressy-upsy fun. Nobody gets hurt, and it certainly bears no relation to bestiality, as has been suggested by nitwits.

That said, there’s fun to be had on the message boards, though again not at anyone’s expense. The setup was usually simple for the online stories. Here’s an example:

I am a wolf and I am prowling the woods.

I am a bear and I see you, wolf. My, what big ears you have.

Bear, you sure are large and hairy. Allow me to nuzzle you with my wolfy nose.

Go ahead, wolf. Meanwhile, I shall stroke your big old wolf feet.

Cue smart-ass entering with:

I am a skunk. I see wolf and bear and want to get in on this mash-up. Mind my stank?

So here’s the thing. This writer isn’t a furry, a doller, or indeed a bronie, or a plushie. And maybe the anonymous psychologist has a point about the doller “comatose” thing being unhealthy, but really — who’s getting hurt? It all comes down to consenting adults doing whatever they want and not getting judged for it. If that means dressing up as a blue raccoon and nuzzling the butt of a grey and white cat-dude, knock yourselves out.