Men did you play with dolls as a child, how did your parents react?

22 comments

1. They were happy when I undressed them.

2. G.I. Joe, Stretch Armstrong, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, I can’t think of any others.

3. Undressing my sister’s Barbie dolls as a 4yo boy gave me a strange physiological reaction. I didn’t really understand what that was all about, but I knew I liked women!

   Anyways…a bit later in boyhood:

   They aren’t “dolls” they are “action figures”…thank you very much! 😊

4. They were action figures!!!

5. No. I played with action figures. GI Joe, Masters of the Universe, Voltron, Transformers and WWF figures that were made of solid, hard rubber that could be tied to a string and used as a weapon.

   My parents didn’t see it as a problem. It was the 80s, after all.

6. Just pointing out that lego people are basically dolls. I played with a lot of lego. My parents were pretty conservative and ok with that. Never really played with dolls as they are traditionally categorized by society (Barbies, baby dolls etc.)

7. Yes, my brothers and I had G.I. Joe dolls. We’d stage mock battles With them.

8. I had The Justice League action figures which included a Wonder Woman action figure.

9. Lol my dolls were just dinosaurs and ninja turtles, but similar idea

10. I played with stuffed animals and alike with my sisters who played with dolls and such. I don’t remember my parents caring one way or the other.

11. They didn’t I had an older sister.

12. No. I was playing videogames, playing outside, and other toys. Dolls never crossed my mind as interesting. My parents are traditional, they probably wouldn’t have liked it

13. GI Joe and Ken. But I started playing with Barbie as I hit puberty. I’d have naked Ken/ go Joe smash up against barby

14. I never played. Parent never had money except for the most basic necessities. I just collected rocks.

15. I played with my “toxically masculine” toys(formerly known as regular toys) as well as my sisters toys. We all played together since we’re a normal family.

16. I remember strapping a rocket to Goku. That is as close as it came.

    The motor failed to ignite due to bad batteries and when I asked for fresh ones my mother asked what for…

17. I used to ask Pokemon plushies as a child. My parents was initially confused but nevertheless they bought them for me.

    Now I have lots of Pokemon plushies and let my baby boy plays with them. All is well

18. My parents encouraged me to play with girls in the ways that the girls wanted to play growing up, so I played with dolls with them on a few occasions.

    I also had stuffed animals and my parents had hand puppets they would sometimes play with me with when I was very young.

    I think if a man is so insecure that he can’t play pretend and give a stuffed teddy bear a funny voice to play a character with his kid, then he’s not really cut out to be a good dad and needs to sit down and do some serious work on himself.

19. Yes, I had a doll that i played with until I realized legos were more fun to create stories about. Before ever watching anime, I basically had anime fight scenes in my head with legos to act them out.

20. With my sister, we took turns playing together. Sometimes dolls, sometimes LEGO, sometimes stuffed animals… Parents were glad we keep each other occupied.

21. I wanted a doll when I was about 3-4 years old. I got it for christmas, named it, took care of it, put it to bed, gave it a bottle, etc.

    Parents were obviously fine with it because they were the ones who bought it.

22. Action figures. They were action figures.