Somewhere in the U.S., one artist has taken upon himself to beautify, ugly, unrealistic action figures and dolls, turning them into desirable collectibles. Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe, one Ukrainian artist is doing the opposite. Olga Kamenetskaya believes that dolls are unrealistic in representing the body proportion and beauty of a real person and thus, she set out to water down the dolls’ beauty. Not sure if she is doing anything to the body shape though, but I guess, as far as body shape goes, it has been taken care by Lammily. In fact, Lammily does a brilliant job in presenting a doll with a look that won’t mislead our young ones with unrealistic beauty.
Olga is an artist who specializes in doll modification and repainting (more like unpainting, really), taking away the ‘perfect’ look. The result? It was one Agent Scully doll that I won’t be buying for my X-Files altar. Just kidding. Actually, some of the works that exposes the underlying beauty are actually pretty alluring, though some of them have looks that you are better off buying the knock off version if you can find one. I understand where Olga is coming from, but the truth be told, no one wants ugly collectibles which explains Noel Cruz’s popularity.
The actual Barbie dolls, on the other hand, are a different story. They are the epitome of unrealistic portrayal of beauty that has effect on female’s self-image, especially adolescences who are just only learning about life. While what Olga did was admirable, dolls are not the only unrealistic expectations of a woman. Fashion models too, and it does not help at all with today’s beauty mode and filters in smartphone cameras. Hell, now even smartphone camera can modify its subject’s body shape too. Unrealistic portrayal of female’s beauty, you say? Well, it is at an all-time high. It is of an epidemic proportion. As a man, I do not fancy make believe beauty either.
You can check out Olga Kamenetskaya’s works on Instagram and Facebook. She also has a store on Etsy where sometime you can find some dolls and accessories for sale.
Images: Facebook (Olga Kamenetskaya).
Source: Bored Panda.
