MFA Photo student Ilona Swarzc has posted an impressive series of portraits of young American girls with their American Girl brand dolls. The dolls “were conceived to be anti-Barbie toys modeled on the body of a nine-year old.” But while the products may avoid imparting sexualized body ideals to young girls, “the branding behind the doll perpetuates domesticity and traditional gender roles.”
Sex and the Office: Evolving Depictions of Working Women, a slideshow of advertisements and illustrations, explores representations of women in the office, from the 1890s to the 1960s.
For more on representations of women in art and culture:
Mirror images : women, surrealism, and self-representation / edited by Whitney Chadwick – N8354 .M57 1998
The art of reflection : women artists’ self-portraiture in the twentieth century / Marsha Meskimmon- N71 .M45 1996
In her own image : women’s self-representation in twentieth-century art / Danielle Knafo – N8354 .K58 2009
Idols of perversity : fantasies of feminine evil in fin-de-siècle culture / Bram Dijkstra – NX652.W6 D55 1986
Facing beauty : painted women & cosmetic art / Aileen Ribeiro – NX650.F45 R53 2011
