Marina Bychkova is a Russian-Canadian figurative artist has recently made it on my Facebook news feed for the dolls that she's been creating. Her artist statement explains why she loves creating dolls and doesn't outright state that she is a feminist, but I strongly believe that her works contribute to the conversation and her thought process behind the social aspects of her works makes her a feminist. She loves creating these intricate dolls because "it's such a multidisciplinary art form" and she would get bored if she were to only use one medium. She believes that the dolls have a "huge potential for exploring themes of social injustice" because her dolls illustrate many different realities of many women.
The image on the left is one of her pieces where she outright says that she believes women ought to have the right to choose what she wants to do with her own body. The image on the left depicts the life of a breast cancer survivor. Not only do her pieces illustrate the struggles of women, but all of her dolls vary in skin tone and hair color.
The artist believes that a more accurate bodily representation of women on the dolls is the right thing to do, and likes to examine whether or not it causes an uproar. She says in a
video interview:"nude dolls create a bigger impact than custom dolls because it makes us confront our sexuality and vulnerability that we all have. I like juxtaposing the nudity of the doll with the different taboo subjects in society, such a sexuality for example. A lot of dolls I've grew up with and still see are asexual, they have been cleansed of all sexuality, which i think is extremely wrong because it creates body issues for girls where there should be any body issues or shame, so i think naked girls have a lot of potential to examine our shame and our outrage at seeing naked dolls with full mature sexual organs and question why it disturbs us and why it's wrong or right, so that possibility, that dimension of the naked doll truly intrigues me." The fact that she wants to stir the pot, provoke the audience, and cause a conversation about the body parts she decided to accurately portray on dolls; along with the fact that she has used a doll to express her belief in women's rights makes her a feminist despite not out-rightly saying it.
I would imagine that her dolls would spark a lot of controversy, considering the sexualization of women's body parts in our society. "These sexual organs should be covered up unless it's for the male gaze, it shouldn't be a component in a doll because it's too 'mature' for girls to play with," many would think after seeing these dolls, but I applaud her for normalizing female body parts. They should not be viewed as men's sex toys but rather a component of women's bodies, and that's that. A comment I read under a shortened clip of the video interview that was posted on
Facebook said:
which honestly just made me baffled. I, myself, am wondering whether or not she classifies herself as a feminist and if so, why hasn't she outspokenly stated it. After reading her artist statement, it is apparent that addressing women's rights isn't the utmost priority as she chooses to state that she likes using many different methods to create her works of art as the reason why she creates these dolls, So that may explain why she hasn't declared it loud and proud. As for the reason behind why she hasn't declared herself a feminist leads me to assume that she doesn't want to be negatively associated with the term, but this is exactly why we need more outspoken feminists and why she should stand up to be one: to redefine the social definition of what it means to be a feminist.
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