Dolls are plastic facsimiles of "real" girls that are used as a child's plaything. Definitely grosses me out when people use it as a phrase specifically for trans women. It's a term that needlessly others us. Just call us women, if the situation calls for specifying that we're trans call us trans women.

I don't really mind if it's being used as a term of endearment between women, but I'm not a fan of it coming from men or being used as a trans-specific term.

It sounds like a category alongside Marthas, Wives, and Handmaids.

It's also pretty infantilizing. Dolls are a child's plaything, the implication is that we're just dressing up and playing make believe.