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Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll
I was never a dancer. I just didn’t take to it as a kid. My lack of coordination generally leaves something to be desired. However, I do love to dance, even if I do so badly. Who cares? I’m also never going to be a professional weight-lifter, but I like lifting weights.
One of the things that is important to me is that all bodies have value and all bodies are beautiful. Ballet, to a high degree, profits from the deprivation of female bodies and the idealization of a form of beauty to which few can attain naturally. So, clearly I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but what the heck? I have mixed feelings about all sorts of topics from drawing pulpy sexy armor to princess dresses.
Mixed feeling just means being aware of the complexities of the universe and that’s something I think is important to cultivate.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll
All right, so I wanted to make sure to include pointe shoes with each of my ballerina paper dolls, because I wanted them to match the dolls individual skintone. There’s this concept in ballet called “breaking the line” and you don’t want the color of the toe shoes to break the smooth expanse of leg. However, toe shoes take up a lot of room, so there’s not a lot of space for other stuff on the page. Opps.
Specific Source Images: Well, I googled en pointe shoes and went from there? I mean, I don’t have a specific image to share here.
Learn/See More
On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls & other Ballerina paper dolls
Around the Internet: There’s a super interesting article from New York Times about the introduction of brown pointe shoes in 2018.
Last Thoughts
True story, I will never forget my sister (who did ballet) being given a lecture by her dance teacher on the proper location for the bun on her head. It was one of those moments, when I recall thinking that the level of weird obsessive detail in ballet is… well, weird.
I do not know if Pearl’s bun would be considered acceptable, but I’m also pretty sure I don’t care.
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