Flat femininity: Boudoir dolls, staged performances and the reimagining of the gendered body in the early twentieth century

Abstract

This article argues that the boudoir doll – a decorative adult figure – serves as a pivotal artefact in reimagining gendered bodies in early twentieth-century fashion and in shaping modern femininity within contemporary visual culture. Rejecting the voluptuous, cinched-waist silhouettes of earlier styles, these dolls feature elongated torsos, flattened busts and stylized faces, replacing reproductive symbolism with theatrical and aesthetic representations of the feminine body. To conceptualize this transformation, I introduce the notion of flat femininity : a stylistic strategy that redefines the gendered body through androgyny, restraint and artificiality. Drawing on fashion history, queer theory and artistic practice, I position boudoir dolls as queer fashion artefacts whose visuality anticipates expanded categories of gender and challenges its binary logic. Methodologically, this study integrates insights from drag culture, visual media analysis and reflexive practice, and it treats cloth doll-making as a form of queer aesthetic labour . By engaging with gender performance that rejects the ideal female form, I demonstrate that ‘flat’ embodiments in fashion articulate the absence of sex markers, thereby revealing fashion’s capacity to imagine new modes of embodiment and self-stylization.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Fashion Style & Popular Culture, 2026 · DOI ↗