Performance Art - "What Were We Made For?"

We wanted something that would shock our audience, and really start to make them think about how the hate the Barbie movie received has affected women, and by extension how society treats women. Eventually, we landed on our final idea. We made a video that included clips from the Barbie movie, new reports, award shows, and other various forms of Barbie/women-related media. We also all bought Barbie dolls or toys, and brought scissors and sharpies and duct tape. We titled our performance "What Were We Made For?". 

We started by putting duct tape over our mouths, to show how we are silenced. Then, we started playing the video. While the video played (linked below), we walked silently around the room and destroyed our dolls. We cut their hair, tore their limbs, drew on them, etc. This was meant to represent how society has made us as women feel on the inside, while we outwardly present as put together dolls. As we destroyed the dolls, we placed pieces of the dolls in front of people, representing how as women we offered pieces of ourselves up to society and their judgment, ruining ourselves in the process. When the video ended, we walked back up to the front of the room and stood silently, with the duct tape still over our mouths, holding whatever was left of our dolls in front of us. We stood there for a few seconds, then removed our duct tape, signaling the end of our performance piece.