How have gender binaries played a role in the lineage of storytelling and identity? And how have these binaries shaped the traditional roles of women that have been passed down? To what extent can dolls, as gendered toys and also enactors of play, allow humans to reflect and grow upon their identities? 

“Knot in My Dollhouse” is a multimedia piece that explores these questions that are central to my research. My constructed and re-envisioned dollhouse serves as a two page story and has seven comic panels. The front and back of the dollhouse are pages one and two and have a harsh contrast between hyper femininity and gender ambiguity. In this story, a child who is assigned female at birth (AFAB) rejects their mother’s hyperfemininity and explores what non-binary means to them. The dolls used in my dollhouse are a combination of slip cast ceramics dolls and found porcelain dolls which are nested into the seven panels. The dollhouse is assembled with sewn fabric, which also acts as the closure for my comic panels. The seams of the patchwork are exposed to critique the “homemaker” role that was placed onto women in American history. Growing up AFAB myself, I felt the societal expectation to appear and act “feminine” while simultaneously feeling judged for it. The dolls I grew up with embodied cis-gender stereotypes, while also representing a limited variety of body types and skin colors. I didn’t learn what non-binary meant until I was 18 years old. Being non-binary is an individual experience, but for myself, it means that I do not exclusively identify with being a man or a woman. Sculpting my own dolls has allowed me to indulge in a world of body and gender inclusivity, as well as reconnect with my childhood self.