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Benjamin Bellas | Chicago, Illinois | artist website “The all American girl” is a loaded expression, intended to conjure up a fixed meaning that is rooted in two binary oppositions: the all American girl as opposed to all other girls and the all American girl contrasted with the all American boy. The binary suggestions of an “all American Girl” stimulate stereotypical ideas representing the idealized feminine goodness and perfection traditionally valued in American society. This ideal is captured in the marketing of the American Girl Company’s merchandise, dolls that represent American girls from different periods of American history (limited to the United Sates). All of these “American girls” share the idealized characteristics that were at one time perceived to represent what all American girls should be. Whether she is an American girl from the colonial era, the depression era, or living on a Native American reservation, she is idealized through her long hair, modest dress, and soft feminine features. Added to these physical attributes are her feminine manners and girlish charm, as represented in the characters’ narratives, which complete her glorified little girly-ism. This presentation of the all American Girl correlates to characteristics many young females struggle to identify with. As girls recognize that this is the ideal to which they are expected to conform, they also recognize that their alternative to compliance with this problematic gender expectation is to be labeled as deviant. This documentation of Bellas’s performance piece presents American Girl merchandize placed on the floor by the artist after having spent the day at American Girl Place, lying in regard to the whereabouts of his nonexistent daughter. His time spent in the American Girl Place was highlighted by the effect that his presence had on other customers. Questions regarding his intentions and reason for being there seemed to float through the air. After all, he was a lone man crossing the boundary into female territory. In the shopping bag full of merchandise is a magazine with a androgynous figure on the cover. The juxtaposition of this smiling face next to binary gender representations of “American Girl” products challenges our ideas of gender classification and expectations. Bellas depicts the crossing of gender boundaries in this work with his ambiguous cover photo, while also defying the standard rules of gender obedience. By venturing alone into the store he defied cultural expectations; Bellas’s presence in the store was seen as suspicious and out rightly inappropriate. Bellas questions gender limitations that are represented by the ideology of companies like American Girl. He asks whether is it ok for any American girl to dislike dolls and dresses, and is it ok for her brother to be interested in subjects that are traditionally assigned to her rather than him? Would it have been acceptable for a person of Bellas’ age to wander the American Girl Place without a girl in tow, had that person been female? Through his performance and documentation, Bellas problematizes the whole question of binary gender classification. - by Amanda Moss
 Benjamin Bellas “I thought you were the all American girl, you thought you could do better, so when you said that you’d keep in touch, and asked me to see things from your perspective I knew it was hopeless, but I thought I should at least try.”, 2004 Photograph documentation of performance |