"doll parts"
Recently, I have been interested in exploring femininity and social constructs pushed on women and femme people in my pieces. For this one, I decided to film myself brushing my hair with a Barbie doll brush. This was to represent the expectation of women to be like dolls, all prim and proper and flawless, with perfectly done hair and makeup, and adhering to society’s view of femininity. I further explored this concept by putting myself in “doll-esque” makeup and a slip-dress. My goal was to show that sentiment in a way that can seem humorous at first glance (Why is this woman brushing her hair with a tiny doll brush? How silly!), but carry a deeper meaning. Also, the act of brushing one’s hair only takes a few seconds, but this took me over seven minutes, forcing the viewer to come to terms with the meaning behind the seemingly simple action over an extended amount of time. The use of two mirrors, although one is obstructed much of the time, was to literally put this action into another perspective, and act as another tool of confrontation to this construct.
