Misfit Dollz: The Exhibit

December 2025

Inspired by the weirdness of kitschy off-brand dollar store toys, as well as the art and practices of the Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO), I want to visually express how the heteronormative gaze and the gendering of toys can perpetuate or evoke body dysmorphia, and/or gender dysphoria. By creating new figures that subvert various gender stereotypes through the mix-and-match or “frankensteining” together of different toy parts, I want to show that gender is not limited to conventional expression.

I think it’s also important to emphasize how dollar stores have culturally sustained countless individuals’ self-expression, by providing them with accessible and affordable goods, ranging from necessities, toiletries, and other forms of personal care, or perceived luxuries such as cosmetics or accessories, so essentially any and everything.

This project is important to me as someone who experiences gender dysphoria and dysmorphia because it is a visual commentary of the harm and absurdity of gendered toys while also emphasizing the over-the-top commercial or consumer aspects of these name-brand toys and their branding. It is also a project that pokes fun at the issue as a means of coping with psychological or emotional distress or fatigue that comes with it.

This project uses both physical mediums and AI software

DISCLAIMER: This Project addresses sensitive topics such as gender & body dysmorphia, body image, mental health

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