Beautiful, or Disturbing?

@Louc74 (620)
March 15, 2010 4:30pm CST
I first came upon Reborns - vinyl dolls which are upgraded by a painstaking and lengthy process, to look as much as possible like real babies and infants - a few years ago while browsing with a friend. Both of us felt pretty creeped out at the time, and agreed that a few of the dolls looked like dead babies. But I have to admit, having come across some amazingly life like reborns, I've started to think that some of them are beautiful works of art. They are breathtaking in their realism, and you would swear, upon looking at the photos (and I'm assured, upon seeing them in real life), that they are real babies. I have heard of adult women taking them out in buggies and prams, strapping them into their car seats when they're out, and basically treating them like real babies (albeit without any of the mess of feeding, baby sick, and nappy changing), and that IS something that's worrying. Obviously someone has something missing in their life if they're putting all of their emotions into an inanimate object, however lifelike it is. There are benefits, though. They have started to use these dolls in nursing homes, and they have been incredibly effective at calming the clients stress levels, and dementia and alzheimers patients have become markedly happier having been given one of these "babies" to look after. I've started to look at them and admire their beauty, after initially feeling creeped out all those years ago. But I'm interested to know what others think, do you think they are beautiful works of art, or as some people have said, an extremely bad taste offence to humanity?
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2 responses
@BarBaraPrz (47646)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
16 Mar 10
I hadn't heard of these before this, but did a little searching on the web and came up with this link to a gallery of photos of them. http://www.reborn-baby.com/reborn-doll-gallery-three.html They are works of art, but I don't know what to think of the women who take them around as if they were real.
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@Louc74 (620)
16 Mar 10
Hi Barbara! Thanks for responding, and for the link - I had uploaded a photo of one of the most realistic ones, but it didn't upload for some reason, and I couldn't go back and reload it! Yeah, I've completely gotten over my initial creeped out-ness, but no way would I take them out for a walk!
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@BarBaraPrz (47646)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
16 Mar 10
You need to get up to 500 before you can post photos to discussions. That's why I took the liberty to post the link for you.
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• Philippines
16 Mar 10
I love them because they are a fine expression of art but to treat them like real life babies I doubt it unless of course if I had gone mad.Which I hope will not happen in this lifetime!. I can understand the positive effects it has in nursing homes. These old folks feel useless waiting for God to take them home, some of the even asking for their time to go. These reborn babies gives them a a chance to be useful again. What do you do when you see a child? Of course you would want to take care of it and that's what they do. It takes boredom off of their shoulders and give meaning to their otherwise lonely solitary confinement. Let's be real most old timers in nursing homes seldom gets any visit from family members and it does make them lonely and useless. According to Erick Erickson this the stage of generativity vs. stagnation. Old Folks who reaches this stage tries to survive in this fast changing world by trying to do things they still can do other than just being taken care of.
@Louc74 (620)
16 Mar 10
Yeah, after reading about how beneficial this was, I hope awareness is raised of it so that it can be introduced into more homes and nursing wards. Apparently holding one of these dolls is really comforting for anyone, and I can imagine it would have a soothing effect, cradling something that has the feel and weight of a real baby. I have a friend who's trying her hand making her first one, and I'm getting more and more interested and curious. Might find myself taking up another hobby! God knows where the time would come from though lol.
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