Dollhood: From Venus to Barbie - The Female Body, the Gaze and Play

This lecture examines the doll as both a culturally significant and a deeply gendered object, following its long trajectory from prehistoric figurines to contemporary artistic practices. Starting with three central case studies (the Venus of Willendorf, the Anatomical Venus, and Barbie) the session considers how dolls and doll play reflect and shape dominant ideas about femininity, beauty, embodiment, and discipline. Drawing on feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and material culture studies, it explores not only what dolls represent but also what people do with them: how play creates a space where desire, projection, control, and fantasy converge, and where social norms can be rehearsed, resisted, or inverted.

Alongside this historical and conceptual framework, the lecture briefly turns to examples from modern and contemporary art where artists work with dolls or doll-like figures to think about the gendered body, the double, or the abject. These artistic moments help illuminate how the cultural functions of the doll persist, shift, and reappear, and how the figure of the doll continues to offer a way to question how bodies are represented, gendered, and understood.

We are committed to making our sessions as accessible as possible. If you are unable to pay the full amount for this class, please reach out to us via email at [email protected] and we will provide you with a discount code.