Be A Doll: Cécile Plaisance’s “Lens Series” Taking Barbie Outside of Her Box
By Iris Vaughn
Lens Series 2015
Lens Series 2013
Barbie is a pop culture icon-one that has long stood for femininity, independence, and empowerment. But she’s also been boxed in—both literally and figuratively—as a white, ultra-thin, idealized version of womanhood. Cécile Plaisance’s Lens Series uses these contradictions to powerful effect, turning Barbie Dolls into a medium to both critique and celebrate the many ways femininity is represented and perceived.
Cécile Plaisance is a contemporary photographer born in 1968 in Paris, France. She studied economics before traveling the world, eventually landing in the United States. Along the way, she photographed people, places, and cultural artifacts-collecting images and mementos that told stories of identity and belonging. Her travels shaped not just her perspective but her art. Inspired by global culture, contemporary art, and the Barbie dolls she grew up with, Plaisance began exploring the tension between empowerment and objectification.
Lens Series 2016
That exploration led to the Lens Series- a body of work that confronts how women are seen, styled, and staged in modern life.
Through playful, provocative imagery, Plaisance explores themes like religious values, gender equality, and the right for women to shape their own images. Her work questions the rigid roles society assigns to women and challenges long-held ideals about what femininity “should” look like.
Lens Series 2013
Lens Series 2016
One of the series’ strongest elements is its commentary on the multifaceted roles women can play and critiques the impossible standards and narrow boxes women are forced into. Plaisance captures the pressures that many women face to look and act a certain way, and her art resonates across generations and identities. As a Hispanic, sapphic woman, I return to this series often, especially as conversations around representation and how expectations evolve within female beauty standards and LGBTQ+ spaces.
Recently, the resurgence of conversation around “the dolls” (a term that holds deep significance in trans communities) prompted me to reflect on Plaisance’s work in a new light. While I don’t claim ownership over that term or the experiences behind it, I find Plaisance’s examination of the "doll" archetype relevant to broader questions of visibility, performance, and pressure within marginalized identities.
Being “a doll” often means being expected to embody a perfect form of femininity: something glossy, polished, and hyper-visible. In both mainstream and queer contexts, those expectations can be both aspirational and suffocating. Even within LGBTQ+ spaces, there can be an unspoken pressure to represent your identity in a way that fits a socially accepted mold. But queerness is not one-size-fits-all. Nor is femininity. And representation that only celebrates the most palatable or idealized versions of identity often leaves many people out. You shouldn’t have to be exceptional to be heard, and yet it feels that it is the only way.
Lens Series 2013
Plaisance’s art doesn’t offer neat answers. Instead, it reminds us that people- especially women- do not fit cleanly into boxes, labels, or aesthetic ideals. Her Barbie dolls, stripped of their packaging and layered with symbolic imagery, are both commentary and contradiction. They invite us to think critically about what we expect of others and ourselves. Plaisance’s Lens series is a reminder we do not fit neatly into these boxes- we are nuanced, and through her work, we can celebrate and criticize representation through an idealized picture.
