Issue: Dolls and Their Houses

A man stands sideways in the foreground with a large illuminated dollshouse behind him

Bigger on the inside: Twilight Zone’s “Miniature” and its music

Linda Ganus In 1963, Rod Serling’s popular series The Twilight Zone was renewed for a fourth season with a few formatting conditions: renaming the series (dropping “The” from the title); hiring a new producer, Herbert Hirschman, who also designed the new surrealistic titles; and moving the 30-minute show to a 60-minute time slot the network […]

A close up of several rooms in a dolls house

Beneath the dollhouse: Navigating the exteriority and interiority of girlhood in HBO’s Sharp Objects (2018)

Sarah Fevri From traditional wooden houses to Barbie Dreamhouse, dollhouses are often assumed to be children’s playthings. However, dollhouses are not mere toys, but also used as symbols and signifiers of class, gender roles, and societal norms. In media, dollhouses serve as metaphors of multiple things: the unfamiliar, domestic virtues, control, girlhood, and familial intimacy […]