Abstract

Beauty, disability, and gender crossing: The first two, though provocative, are not an altogether unexpected pair. Disability can be an object of beauty, as Anita Silvers has shown, just as it can be fetishized. Yet one more often thinks of beauty and disability as opposites. But what is gender crossing doing in this mix? Sometimes, apparently, when beauty is conjugated with disability in an atmosphere of glamour and celebrity, games with gender result. this is certainly the case with the representation of the Mexican female artist Frida Kahlo, especially as seen in a book of paper dolls for children.