"protect the dolls" - what is this?

[Brefugee]

as the thread title says. I have seen this a few times now, but am none the wiser.

I actually like the term to describe a subset of men, seems fitting if they're people who really like to get plastic surgery and dress up in a Barbie doll type way. But do they not want to protect anyone else? Seems a bit niche.

One of the pubs I follow on Facebook has done the usual fawning post:

"we stand with our trans community—today and every day. In light of the UK Supreme Court ruling, we reaffirm our commitment to being a safe, welcoming space for all queer folks. Your identity is valid. You belong here."

They used a picture of this "Protect The Dolls" slogan and I didn't have a clue what they meant. I asked but didn't get a response.

My guess would have been something along the lines of "might look pretty, but is empty headed and doesn't have the right bits down below" :-)

This.

Ah ! That explains it.

He’s just called JKR a 'heinous loser' and also called for a Harry Potter boycott. Good luck with that!

I would have liked to have been in the meeting where this slogan was adopted. "These people are saying we don't respect women! What word can we use to dispell that notion?"

I saw a much older fella (who should know this is outmoded language to describe women) putting this all over his social media page. It seems an odd thing to write if you constantly say you’re also a woman’s rights supporter, which he claims to be on international women’s day. So - one day a year.

We women love to be referred to as ‘dolls’, don’t we?

TBH I'm fine if they all start calling themselves dolls. I know that word is taken but dolls are inanimate so they probably won't fight back. And we all know a doll is artificial so good there, and we can have 'woman' back.

win-win

I've never heard of this random T-shirt bloke until today. If I was cynical (which I am) I'd say he's jumping on the bandwagon to advance his own profile by exploiting his brother's MH struggles.

Doll is a generic term for 'girl' in lots of parts of the UK and Ireland
And then upon that is layered the heavy signifiers of sexualised femininity that dolls traditionally have (no doll looks like a boring middle aged woman as we know).
It's an ironic reclaiming of the GC critique that TW are performing femininity.
They celebrate that fact, even though it disrupts (at best) their assertion that gender is innate.
And then a 'playful' (postmodernity loves playfulness) linguistic link is layered on top, between for eg bears (bearded, heavyset gay men) - you might have seen the 'bears for dolls' placard - or pulling in 'boys' who are, in heteronormative culture, not supposed to play with toys which exist precisely as instruction manuals for the performance of femininity.

And once again, for this to work, they have to pretend they don't know that feminism first made this analysis.

Also just noting the infantilisation aspect of 'doll'.

The Uncanny Valley of the Dolls.

If anyone had any doubts about how deeply misogynistic and creepy the whole TW movement is then this campaign should dispel them pretty quickly.

Pedro Pascal is a very well known actor. I don't think he's doing this to inflate his own profile. Was in Wonderwoman, Gladiator 2, the Last of Us...guess he's not angling for a Harry Potter reboot role anytime soon.

I instantly thought of the novel "Valley of the dolls"1960s book by jacqueline Susann"! About models having a hard time in the US

More info in this…https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/04/15/the-last-of-us-pedro-pascals-protect-the-dolls-t-shirt-trans-lifeline/

Definitely not Cockney rhyming slang! Doll meaning woman is probably linked to the short form on Dorothy - Dolly - and was popular slang in the 1950s in America as in the musical Guys and Dolls. I didn’t know that it was co-opted by men in the 1980s to describe ultra feminine TIMs.

And then there’s this about the charity… for facts have a read of the background bit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Lifeline

He has just persuaded me to purchase Hogwarts Legacy for my Switch!
(75% off if anyone's interested)

Protect the cute, sweet, gorgeous little things that transwomen are; natch. They love giving themselves sweetie-pie names especially ones that relate to minors, and acting in a way that seems
vulnerable and demure. Before unleashing their misogyny online and filming themselves intimidating women, obviously.

Urgh, what an arse. Shame, I quite like the Last of Us. Although it is a poundshop Walking Dead.

Exactly. I’m always keen to look at facts and that’s why I posted the links but we seem to our research and are much more balanced than the TRAs which is why more and more and more people are publicly speaking up to say women have the right to single sex spaces. The levels of violence directed at us? Well that’s all on social media and won’t be forgotten, I remember those dickheads in Liverpool from the band Frog Dylan - they turned up, made threats then one was outed as having very questionable views about women and other groups.

Add a picture of a Raggy Doll cat or two.
Half of Mumsnet would buy it

Personally, I think Dull is more apt.

If it makes you feel better he isn't in S2 for long (spoiler)