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The final- feminine remains

My work explores the relationship between the toxic ideology of the barbie doll and the effect on society's views on body image . With influences as diverse as Taru noji and Marie clayton, the outcome is both twisted and questionable leaving the viewers mind questioning what they have just seen and how it has effected them.

Through out my artistic journey the message behind Mattels barbie has always intrigued me, barbie is almost an insult to feminism and I wanted to distort and manipulate her image to represent unrealistic body standards in society and how it effects children and adult women.

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society's body standards

With images of ideal beauty bombarding us daily, it is easy to forget that standards of beauty are arbitrary and they vary greatly both from one culture to another and over time.

Such variations in ideals of beauty often reflect the roles women and men are expected to fulfill in a given society. For instance, in contexts where women are valued mainly for their fertility—their ability to bear and nurture children—often full-bodied women with broad hips and ample breasts are considered the most beautiful. In societies such as Fiji, large bodies are a symbol of one’s status and power. It is not surprising, therefore, that individuals who would be classified as obese in the US are considered the most attractive and desirable members of this culture.

But as social conditions and gender roles change, so do ideas about beauty. Consider some recent changes in the US. In the 1960s and 70s, beauty ideals for women shifted from the mature curvaceous body of stars such as Marilyn Monroe to the stick-thin, flat-chested figure epitomized by supermodels such as Twiggy or Kate Moss.The compelling fact here is that just as women started to make dramatic gains in the areas of education, employment and politics, the ideal female body began to look like a malnourished preadolescent girl, weak, emaciated and non-threatening. Women may have been gaining in freedom and power, but they were increasingly encouraged to discipline their bodies through diet and exercise to conform to ideals that were almost impossible to achieve.

Now, however, we see the beauty standard for women becoming curvier in some areas such as the bust and butt, and staying thin, toned, and tucked in other areas such as the waist and the thighs. According to Hoff (2019), in a recent survey of 1,000 Americans, the “perfect” woman was described as 5’5”, 128 pounds, with a 26-inch waist. It would be almost impossible to achieve the proportions of this body ideal without using extremely unhealthy means. (https://www.bradley.edu/sites/bodyproject/standards/)

.When these two pictures are compared side by side, you really see how unrealistic our societies beauty standards are. Victoria’s Secret is well known for their Victoria’s Secret Angels, who represent societies ideal bodies, faces, hair, and skin. The Victoria’s Secret image shows models who are all tall with slim bodies, perfectly toned skin, and professionally styled hair. This ad is also likely Photoshopped to cover any imperfections. The slogan “love your body” is ironic in that the majority of the population does not look like these models, who we as a society so look up to for beauty standards. Therefore, when we see this type of ad, we only see how our bodies differ from what we conceive as beautiful.

The Dove ad takes a different approach in having real women model in their ad. These women represent a much more realistic beauty that we do not often recognize because what we see in the media is often like the Victoria’s Secret ad. These models represent real women with real bodies that are not altered by photoshop or professionally styled. The slogan “Real Beauty Campaign” is appropriate because it is showcasing real beauty, not what society through the media has constructed as what is beautiful. (https://thackerlauren.wordpress.com/)

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Feminism

feminism is a range of social movements, political movements and ideologies that share a common goal to define, establish and achieve the political, economic, personal and social equality of sexes. feminism movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights including the right to vote, to hold public office, to work , to earn fair wages , equal pay and eliminate the gender pay gap, to own property, receive education, equal rights in marriage and to have maternity leave. feminists have also worked to ensure access to legal abortions (which is currently failing) and social integration also to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence. changes in dress and acceptable physical activity have often been part of the feminist movements.

Is barbie an insult to feminism?

The body image of Barbie champions external value over internal value, acting as an insult to feminism.

Femininity and body image are very much linked, as slenderness is associated with elegance and attractiveness, regarded as desirable attributes for young women in western cultures. Barbie reflects this motivation for the desired body image, being equipped with a diet book in 1965 stating “Don’t eat!”. Consequently, according to Doctor Zali Yager, girls as young as five report weight concerns, whilst three to five year olds associate larger proportions with more negative characteristics.

Yet the brand have recognised its damaging impression, creating anew line of ‘realistic’ looking dolls being sold alongside the original Barbie doll. In other words, it is an attempt to reflect the reality in which we live in

Furthermore, headlines such as “Barbie finally becomes a real woman” or “realistic self-image” are inappropriate in this context as “realistic” suggests “having or showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected”. The thought of Barbie’s aesthetics being “expected” or “practical” amongst women is, in my opinion, an insult to feminism this is unattainable and segregating, placing a pressure on women, reflecting that of a patriarchal society.

Yet, although this statement in itself insults feminism, it is necessary to understand that during the 1950s, when Barbie was first created, feminism was a concept that was practically non-existent. Following the aftermath of the Second World War, women were expected to resume their roles as mothers and wives, as the government aimed to re-establish domesticity as women’s primary occupation. Therefore, when Barbie was invented in 1959 by wife and mother, Ruth Handler, surely this had some influence in the way Barbie’s persona was created and has controversially lasted throughout her lifetime?

Therefore, it is understandable why women, such as actress, comedian and writer, Wanda Sykes, do not want their daughters engaging with Barbie, as her invention insults feminism. Sykes asks “What does Barbie do? Really, what does Barbie do?”.

The fact that she repeats the questions twice, adding “Really” at the beginning of the latter, makes it seem as if she is not convinced by Barbie’s interpretive intention. She challenges the patriarchal element behind the brand, comparing Barbie to toys that stimulate problem solving, claiming that “Barbie is nothing but a starter kit for the real housewives, that’s all”. (medium.com)

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History behind Barbie

Barbie, in full Barbara Millicent Roberts, an 11-inch- (29-cm-) tall plastic doll with the figure of an adult woman that was introduced on March 9, 1959, by Mattel, Inc., a southern California toy company. Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel with her husband, Elliot, spearheaded the introduction of the doll. Barbie’s physical appearance was modeled on the German Bild Lilli doll, a risqué gag gift for men based upon a cartoon character featured in the West German newspaper Bild Zeitung. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Barbie)

Barbie’s official birthday is March 9, 1959—the day she was officially introduced to the world. Handler always saw Barbie as a reflection of the times, with the first doll mimicking the glamour of 1950s stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe. (history.com)

Barbie’s beauty ideal is unhealthy and damaging.

Let’s begin with the reason everyone’s heard about. The best-known reason to avoid Barbie is crucial: The doll has an unrealistic body type and a rigid beauty ideal that studies show can be harmful to girls. As body image expert Marci Warhaft-Nadler, author of The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents, explains: “Barbie sends our girls one message, and it’s this: ‘You can do anything and you can be anything—as long as you look like this: very tall, very thin, very Caucasian, and very beautiful.'” (rebeccahains.com)

documents Barbie’s negative consequences on girls’ psyches. For example, a Developmental Psychology study reported that “girls aged five to six were more dissatisfied with their shape and wanted more extreme thinness after seeing Barbie doll images than after seeing other pictures”—and that among girls ages 6 and 7, “the negative effects were even stronger.” Another well-designed experimental study found that girls who played with Barbies were more likely to restrict their eating afterwards than girls who played with the fuller-figured (now discontinued) Emme dolls.

realistic barbie has been created , not by mattel. to show how extreme barbies body is and the way it effects body image standards.

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unit 6 final major in order

To view my final major process in chronological order click on each link separately down the list

Artist 1

Artist 2

Artist 3

Artist 4

Feminism

history of barbie

society's body standards

Vision boards

Doll photography

Response to sara podwysocka

Sketches

Installation of idea’s

After the installation

Ideas using photoshop

Development and experiment

Change of plan

Selected dolls

Final piece

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The sketches

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The final dolls

on certain photos i used foil, mirrors and pink fabric as i wanted to tribute my installation prior to my final outcome.

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change of plan

i decided to change my outcome from something physical to a digital photo book of my dolls photos taken in high quality and photo shopped to enhance the key parts of the doll and smooth out joints which i am physically unable to do as i have previously tried

week 9- change of plan

-photograph all dolls in studio

-think of statement

-refine last dolls

week 10

- select at least 10 images for digital photo book

-photo shop all dolls smoothing any joints and making colours more vibrant

-make sure blog is up to date with new idea

week 11

-make sure photo book is ready for june 15th soft deadline

-update blog

-sketches of the dolls

-hand in june 18th

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photo shop doll creations

i took to photo shop to create some digital versions of my creations to generate ideas and to show what my vision would be.

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3 weeks until the end

i started to work more on my painted dolls as they were my most successful type of doll.

because the spray paint i used first time around went sticky on the legs due to the rubber i tested out some paints that i could prime the doll with, i tested emulsion, primer and acrylic paint on the legs

once dried i felt that the emulsion paint was one that wasn't sticky so i chose to use that on my next creation.

i coated the doll in a layer of emulsion paint let it dry then spray painted it with a neon yellow paint.

this was a fail, the spray paint its self was low in pigment and the undercoat of emulsion was patchy which made the yellow patchy on the doll. so i stripped the doll of the awful paint job and decided to use a white spray paint for the primer instead, the white was a lot thicker and better quality so it did not go sticky on the legs.

the new coat on the doll came out so much smoother and pigmented thanks to the white spray paint under coat.

next i did the same process with a barbie that i burnt before i had the spray paint, i coated her in white then used a neon orange paint.

i loved the outcome for this and will be making more burnt sprayed barbies.

for my next burnt barbie i want to burn the legs to give a different outcome rather than a burnt top half of the barbie but i struggled to set alight the legs of the barbie alone so the crotch area ended up burning instead.

paint job pending

i wanted to explore a way that i could create new limbs on the doll but in a way that is kept smooth so it looks like part of the actual doll and mot like foil molded in to the shape like my previous doll i tried this on. so i got some legs to test out on and then i used clay to mold a curly leg on to the end.

my main concerns about this is that the clay will be heavy, easily breakable or will even crack while it is drying.

once dry i sanded it down a bit hoping to smooth out the join between the clay and the actual doll, but it was far too crumbly and i was correct in my assumption that it would crack while drying.

in a moment of boredom i got some plastic and a doll and used a heat gun to melt the plastic around the doll creating a texture that was similar to the burnt barbie but not quite, i thought it was an interesting texture and i am interested to see what it would look like spray painted

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installation of ideas

i started off planning by installation by drawing a sketch and after i was content with my sketch i gathered some pink fabrics and i made a miniature model of what i wanted the area to look like, i represented the dolls with foil balls scrunched up as i had no miniature dolls and cut sheets of tin foil to represent mirrors

after i was content with my model and plan, i gathered as much pink fabric as i could find in the studio even collecting some pink paper and tissue paper to add textures and variety to the pink.

i began by using a staple gun to staple fabrics to my walls in a patch work style.

while covering my walls i noticed the dolls on my desk merged and tangled between the fabrics created some really interesting and intriguing imagery that linked with the theme of my work, so i took photos to document.

after covering the walls in pink patch work fabrics i attached mirrors to the walls to reflect the pink and eventually the hanging barbies.

once i was happy with my preparation of the area, i hung all of my barbies from the ceiling with different lengths of threads, i chose to hang them with a pink thread so it looked like they were floating as the pink thread was hidden by the pink back ground.

i was impressed with my final product as it was a good practice for my final project in the time management.

my critique was to refine more of my dolls experiment more with the spray painted dolls as its more refined and developed than the boring skin colored barbies.

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after the installation

after my installation i made a mock up of a vision i had in my mind like i made a mock up for my installation.

my vision was a spinning floor using the dark area, and creating a large hanging mobile from the ceiling and hang barbies from the mobile, i chose a mobile as it will include the audience more and create movement.

i was thinking of creative ways to hang things to create sounds and texture to the mobile, so i made myself a chain with soft wire in the cupboard. i made some love heart links to make a chain which seems like a scary kind of thing seem sweeter.

i wanted to refine some of my dolls, on this one the legs looked quite mechanical so i painted them with a silver metallic paint to give her a robotic look which fits with the chain giving a metal look

for this doll i took inspiration from my artist taru noji who creates erotic dolls, so i made my own version of an erotic barbie and tied her to a frame making her seem like an art piece more as she was in a frame.

on my list of things to do was to explore more textures in the barbies, so for this barbie i planned to burn her and then spray paint her to see what the burnt bubbling texture will look like under spray paint

paint pending

i want to refine my dolls and do more spray painting dolls as they look more refined and finished rather than just the regular mutilated skin colour dolls

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Response to sara podwysocka

I took inspiration from podwysocka and produced my own version of her creations.

Pink

For the pink barbie creation I cut the heads off of two barbies and attached one barbies neck to the rear end of the other barbie using hot glue. When looking at my sculpture I felt like the head of the front barbie needed balancing so I stuck a leg to her neck to balance out and add extra weirdness.

I then chose to spray paint the creation in a pretty pink colour as pink is barbies signature colour.

One thing I would change is that i would maybe prime the surface off the doll before painting because the paint went tacky on the rubbery legs because of the rubbery material.

Red

For this creation I took a small doll and took its arms off and head, I then took legs from a larger doll and attached them to the arms of the doll, I then took one of the arms I took off previously and attached it to the neck of the doll, I had one left over arm and wanted to use it so I attached it to the bum of the doll to add extra twisted essence.

I then spray painted the doll in red as red is an alarming colour and makes the doll stand out, the same thing happened with the rubbery texture as the other doll, the paint didn't quite dry and went tacky, so I would definitely prime the surface.

Purple

For this doll I added more that wasn't already part of a doll, I removed the legs and head of the doll I then used tin foil to mold new limbs, I made the legs extra long and used another dolls arms for feet, attaching them to the end of the foil legs with hot glue. I then used foil to make a long curled neck giving it an alien like appearance, I then put the head on to the foil neck with hot glue.

I decide to spray paint this one purple but I knew the paint wouldn't stick to the tin foil so I covered the foil in tape and used a heat gun to smooth the tape. I then spray painted the creation in purple, no meaning behind this colour choice. I made sure to keep the hair blonde keeping part of barbies identity pure still.

After painting it the legs looked lumpy and textured when I wanted it to look smooth like the plastic on the original doll, to improve this I would maybe use clay on the foil to give it a smooth surface .

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I took my dolls to the studio and took some photos of them.

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Digital boards

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Nicolette Benard

IN ”PROJECT B” NICOLETTE BÉNARD INVESTIGATES BARBIE’S POSITION AS AN ICON OF BEAUTY AND ASKS: IS IT IDEAL BEAUTY OR FALSE IDEALISM? JULIE JOHANNE SVENDSEN | ARTICULATE #20 | JULY 2019 ​ The Dutch artist Nicolette Bénard (1967) is mainly known for her jewelry designs. Over the past year, she has turned her creative impulses towards a quite different field. Instead of pearls, coral or even lava, Bénard has entered into a creative collaboration with no less than Barbie, who this year celebrates her 60th birthday.

In ”PROJECT B” Nicolette Bénard investigates Barbie’s position as an icon of beauty – the sum of the perfect, indulgent woman – and asks: is it ideal beauty or false idealism? "PROJECT B" consists of a series of almost unrecognizable Barbies, which are framed in plexiglass when exhibited. Bénard takes advantage of Barbie's diligence, and instead of applying her a fine little outfit with matching shoes, she deconstructs her and creates these mini installations. "PROJECT B" is in a borderland between being adorable and absurd, being quite foreign and quite recognizable at the same time; because behind the balls of fabric, under the all-absorbing flowers and behind what looks like cement with nails in, we can still see Barbie's fastidious hands and the elegant legs stick out.

Bénard draws inspiration from the events that shape the realities of everyday life, as well as from the cities she exhibits in (Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Madrid). From an idea she searches for materials that can manifest this best. The materials vary from fabric and paint to clay, plaster and flamingo, and are always shaped with Barbie as a starting point. From here, Barbie is transformed from a beauty ideal - a cultural symbol of beauty and etiquette - into an abstract object whose meaning is left to the individual to create.

In her work as a jewelry designer, Bénard's favorite material is the freshwater pearl. For Bénard, this is an embodiment of perfect beauty, and preferably when it is raw and gravel rather than round and symmetrical. The threshold between perfection and non-perfection is a central theme in Bénard's artistic work, whether it is in connection with jewelry production or work with "PROJECT B". Bénard has not left the pearl completely in her work with Barbie: In nearly all the works you can find a little gem that acts as Bénard's signature.