Paper Doll

            This piece is by Emma Miller, Alison Lowe, Rowan Goble, and Emmlyn Dversdall. They are ninth grade students at the Dayton Regional STEM School. This is created for a project comparing a historical event and a more contemporary event, both involving women. This project was inspired by Kara Walker’s work. Based on the information the group has found, they feel that both men and women need to continue to stand up for other women and stop rape culture.

During the 1800s the Cult of True Womanhood told women how they should act and what they should prioritize in their lives. The expectations for women used to be that they needed to make sure that their husband had everything he needed to remain happy and stay with them. The four cardinal virtues were purity, piety, submissiveness, and domesticity. If women were assaulted, the blame was placed on them. Their sole purpose was to keep men happy and content with their lives. Awareness of sexual violence mainly emerged during the 1950-60, due to feminist movement and anti-rape groups. More recently the men are being held accountable more often. Like in a Vanderbilt University case, two of the men were forced to take responsibility for their actions and were found guilty. Even though one of the men did not actually assault the woman he did not help and he videotaped it, and he is also facing jail time. At the same time, however, the victims are also being blamed. They are being told that they shouldn’t have had so much to drink, shouldn’t have been out so late, shouldn’t have been wearing those clothes, and more.

            To make this silhouette, the group found a basic outline for the paper dolls. After they had a basis for the silhouette, they found pictures of women that represented the time periods that they wanted to focus on and subtly changed the images of the dolls based on the clothing and time period. When the doll outline was complete, it was drawn onto black paper and very carefully cut out using X-acto knives. This piece uses shape to hint at the different time periods being shown. The shape of the women’s clothing and hair subtly changes from doll to doll, while the men stay exactly the same, just moving slightly. There were no colors being used for this project, instead the values of black and white made up the piece to establish a contrast in the silhouettes. The repeated the pattern of the men and women is used to show what has stayed the same throughout history and what has changed. Movement was illustrated through the arms and legs of the dolls. This group tried to use the women as the focus point by only adding details to the women and leaving the men very basic. Since there was no color used, the group had to use different textures to add detail in some of the dresses, like the flapper girl. Emma, Ali, Rowan, and Emmlyn wanted to use the paper dolls to symbolize what society is teaching young girls.

            The purpose of this project was to address the mentality behind sexual assault and how it has changed over 200 years. The group is comparing the 1800s to modern event. In many ways, it is still the same. Some men want to assert their dominance over women, and they expect the women to act the same as they did before. The way that a lot of women think has changed, though. They are becoming less and less afraid to speak up and admit to what has happened to them. The group wants viewers to walk away with the knowledge that sexual assault is not okay, and even though it is changing slowly there is a lot that needs to change still.