After the success of “Build a Bitch” and “Inferno” last year, Bella Poarch is continuing her “one single at a time” approach with “Dolls.” A song whose accompanying video serves as a sequel to “Build a Bitch” (also directed by Andrew Donoho), with “Dolls” picking up where last we left Poarch and her coterie of semi-built fembots, of sorts. In the previous scenario, she had rescued them all from their fate of being “perfect” little twits for whichever man “generated” her. This after setting fire to the Match Made factory. The one that looks very similar to where Ariana Grande was “made” during the video for The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears Remix.”
With a bevy of broken dolls surrounding her as night turns into day, Poarch punches out the Tim Burton-esque “bagman” that tries to pull her back toward the factory by the leg. She’s quick to then rise up and take in her surroundings in the daylight. And what she sees does not please her. It seems Match Made already has a shipment of “Dolls” ready to go, bound in the back of a truck and also presented on the street in Barbie meets The Jetsons-like encasements (complete with Chloe Cherry as one of the “built bitches”). Not done exacting her revenge on the establishment, she wrangles the perfect dolls to help her in the cause and smashes her way back inside the factory.
The ensuing mayhem is soundtracked (in plenty of Billie Eilish-reminiscent glory—think: in the sonic style of “NDA”) to Poarch’s ominous warning, “Baby, dolls kill/Don’t provoke us or we will.” And yes, one tends to wonder if the brand Dolls Kill might sue over this, or simply join forces to make an entire doll-themed collection in honor of the single… In any case, and unfortunately for the patriarchy, destroying the storefront isn’t enough this time. Poarch has intentions to take her ire to corporate headquarters with her ever-growing gang in tow. As the dolls storm the pretty pink, but oh so nefarious building, we soon see that whoever is “in charge” is a hooded figure with a white happy-face mask on. Better known as: Dream. And yeah, that’s probably secretly the type of cipher that’s running every corporation in America (especially the tech companies in San Francisco).
But before Poarch can cut off the immortal head at the source of this chauvinistic Hydra, she must contend with what we initially assume is someone who looks very much like Grimes. That is, until we see it actually is Grimes, in all her “Shinigami Eyes” eminence. It’s not totally random, as Poarch’s forthcoming EP, Dolls, will have a Grimes collaboration on it. As the two go mano a mano, the masked figure escapes to some refuge behind a vault. Certainly, one can imagine Grimes protecting Elon in a similar manner when they were together. And as she hurls Poarch to the floor, damaging the mechanical arm (called the “Sucker Punch”) she only just nicked from the shop window, a larger message starts to make itself known. For it is so often two women battling it out with each other in a bid to adhere to conventional definitions of “femininity” (which reinforces competing against one another) that causes too much unnecessary strife. That prevents anything resembling “solidarity.” Not that Courtney Love is interested in that shit.
The “Grimes bot” suddenly seems to have this very revelation as she notices what’s playing on the security camera footage (that Poarch was being watched on by Dream earlier) out of the corner of her eye. And that is her fellow “dolls” being treated like, well, garbage. Easily disposed of. With plenty of rough handling for good measure. All at once, Grimes bot can understand that the institution she’s trying to protect would never do the same for her “kind.”
The irony of the conclusion is that the person protecting Match Made so it can keep abusing women is a female herself (robotic or not). A metaphor that speaks to the too-frequent reality that internalized misogyny in women can lead them to do as many dastardly things as men (see: Ghislaine Maxwell). And as the same sliced-up “Dolls” title card from the intro returns (looking very much like an homage to Kill Bill), it feels as though a tacit alliance has been struck between the two, making the narrative ripe for another follow-up video as the “dolls” continue to take on misogynistic America at large. Because, as Poarch warns, “Think that you can play with me?/You better watch your back/The last thing that you’ll hear will be my laugh.” A sentiment that feels especially resonant during these overturning-of-Roe v. Wade times.
