Dolls

Children's toys, in general, are loaded with gender concepts. I remember when I first became aware of gender differences in packaging design. Even the products themselves are most often created for either a boy or a girl. Numerous psychologists and a lot of money goes into marketing and creating children's products. I remember when I took psychology class we discussed this and this was also touched upon in a movie we watched in visual culture class.

It seems that traditional dolls are becoming less and less popular and that today dolls are becoming vintage memories or marketing tools for entertainment media. Dolls are often used to communicate messages about gender in fine arts. Barbara Kruger created a photomontage that showed a doll in pieces and it said, "Use only as directed." Cindy Sherman used dolls in her self-portrait photographs. Greer Lankton was an artist who was born male and became female, expressing her gender issues through fine art and dolls (see left). Meanwhile an entire world of doll making exists as an artistic craft. I love artistic dolls. There is something so beautiful, cool and creepy about them.

There are so many interesting dolls on the internet. On www.etsy.com (a website where people can sell hand made products) there are over 50,000 dolls [and miniatures]. Some people who have fully developed their craft and line of dolls have their own websites. For my sculpture class I've decided to make paper mache dolls. I looked for hours on the Internet and found some great stuff. I love what people call "art dolls". There is even a magazine called "Art Doll" (http://stampington.com/html/adq_summer10.html). Below are a few examples: