-- Video and performance artist Amber Hawk Swanson got a Realdoll made to look just like her, and then “married” it in Las Vegas. She and the doll wore matching gowns. Now she’s putting Amber Doll to work,

in a project exploring the interplay between fantasy and reality in sexual relationships. The finished work, which is still untitled, will contrast stills of intimate “partnership” scenes with video reenactments of rape scenes from movies such as Irreversible and The Accused.

-- As the leader of Destiny’s Child and now on her own, Beyoncé presents herself as a hard-working, self-guided, amorous woman amid men who can be undependable but irresistible. Destiny’s Child sometimes aimed for songs of female solidarity like “Independent Woman” and “Survivor” — part of a Destiny’s Child medley during the set — while Beyoncé on her own usually keeps things one to one, addressing her man with passion or anger. Onstage she had an all-woman band, and the show used men only as dancers: decorative beefcake for her primarily female audience.