How to use doll-making as a transformative technique to reflect on body, socialisation and stigma

Advocates faced challenged dealing with their own strong cultural, religious, and socialised ideas. As dolls are traditionally associated with femininity, male participants may first be uninterested. As they become fully involved in the process, they discover that the exercise is enjoyable, and some even express a desire to use it with their kids. Participants’ relational connection is strengthened as they converse, drawing on childhood stories whilst working on their doll.

If a participant has trauma/grief that has been unresolved this exercise challenges them to reflect and process it. The doll becomes a reflection of their own body and when they are asked to add stuffing, they reflect on what they had been ‘stuffed’ with and what they choose to stuff the doll with. This turns into a place where they can work through their internal turmoil and find healing.

• Having a partner to talk to during the process, assures that the participants is not alone in the process. They are given space to share as little or as much as they wish to, and this allows them to feel safe.
• The exercise is given to all participants regardless of gender. This become significant in that all participants express and accept that no one has an advantage over the other. That they are in the process together. It is always interesting to note how they help each other, often choosing to put their doll on hold to complete in the evening.
• Participants are asked to name their doll and share a little about the doll. Often participants will reflect on what the doll is wearing, its physical attributes and what does this represent of its maker. This once again becomes an externalization exercise, whereby the maker holds power instead of being disempowered by their grief/trauma.

• The narratives about gender, the body and faith. How the church, family and society reprimands deviation from what is accepted. It was interesting to note how those that held strong beliefs on heteronormativity, laughed as they spoke about instances that they explored femininity (as men), games they played as young boys exploring their bodies and the impacts of being taught to be silent about such stories.
• How the body remembers and carries scars from harsh reprisals of deviation from heterosexuality. One participant shared how at first, they didn’t want to participate as in school needlework was assigned to the girls and woodwork to the boys. As a transman, he would endure lessons assigned to females with no space to ask to be removed from the class. This led to him disliking anything that had to do with sewing, often relying on his mother or dressmakers for even the slightest things.
• Lessons about how a woman’s body is praised when it can procreate and chastised when it can’t. One participant talked on how women are expected to have children after marriage and how being unable to conceive can lead to rejection and being viewed as a failure, a stigma that the husband is typically exempt from.
• One participant shared how their doll wore both male and female clothing to show how in heir home, everyone was expected to contribute to the household regardless of gender. This has influenced how they have navigated life, their advocacy and their relationships. The doll was non-binary and with no name.

It’s important for the facilitator to ensure that there is someone available to provide counselling or pastoral care should any of the participants need support after the session. The facilitator must also ensure that no-one is exempt from the process. They may assist with some of tasks such putting thread through the needles or providing resources, but the participants have to follow the process through. From the drawing of a template, to cutting out, to stitching and to stuffing.

The facilitator may sit in some of the conversations only if the participants allow it. The facilitator must encourage participants to use the full venue space, so participants don’t feel like other participants are eavesdropping on their personal narratives.

You can read more about the ‘doll exercise’ at this link: https://iam.org.za/aiovg_videos/the-doll-exercise/