A Tiktok video received more than 16 million visits, forming part of the viralization in social networks, which generated a controversy point in Brazil. The recordings, which circulate widely, show women who take hyperrealist baby dolls to the park in strollers, celebrating their birthdays with cakes and songs, and even simulating childbirth to imply their appearance.
“The ones I like the most are newborns,” he said Juliana Drusz Magri, 36 years old, who lives in Curitiba and works in human resources to The New York Times. “The world of fantasy is an escape valve for me,” he said and clarified: “And no, I don’t treat it like a real baby.” The Brazilian dolls have flooded regional pop culture with the term of Baby Reborn.
The absurdity of the trend was manifested before the complaint from the Provincial Parliament of the State of Amazonas, in the northwest of Brazil. “You cannot force a hospital doctor,” he explained and exemplified: “To treat a Reborn doll as if she were a child, she is a living being. You cannot force a teacher to accept a child in a nursery because the person wants the doll Reborn to study.”
On the other hand, the City Council of Rio de Janeiro approved a proposal so that on September 4 was the Brain Day Reborn. But, also, at least 30 bills have been submitted in legislative chambers throughout the country to prohibit dolls from receiving services in public health centers, according to public records.
According to The New York Times, the dolls exist since the 1990s, when people began to take away the paint and hair from vinyl dolls bought in stores and retake them carefully to be more real. Most cost between 200 and 250 dollars and are made of vinyl, while some limited editing dolls made of softer silicone have been sold for more than 4000 dollars.
Dave Stack De Cleveland, Reborn doll manufacturer, answered the big question: Why the boom? “A small percentage of the dolls are bought by mothers who are going through the loss of a child. Others have been bought by memory care centers, lawyers who use them in judicial representations and people who make films and television programs,” said the entrepreneur.
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