Coming to your daughters this August from Hasbro, Equestria Girl. First the Tooth Fairy, now this. Can our kids choices possibly get any more homogenized?
“Equestria Girls,” dolls that are pony-girl hybrids (think “goth” Barbies with blue or green skin and a colorful ponytail) along with a special DVD to be released in August. Per a press release, the humanized figures are supposed to represent My Little Pony characters as teenage girls in high school.
The image on the left is an original My Little Pony from 1983, on the right, is 2013’s Equestria Girl.
The release goes on to describe these characters with words like “glamour,” “stylish,” “ultra-chic,” and it is noted that each doll features her own signature “cutie splash,” an individual design that is similar to the “cutie mark” on her pony alter ego.
The new property will get the red-carpet treatment when it premieres as a full-length animated feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June. The movie, created by Hasbro Studios, the company’s production division, will then be released in more than 200 theaters nationwide; its trailer will start appearing in theaters on Wednesday.
There will also be a television debut on the Hub network. Do you see how narratives on movies and TV sell products? Are, in fact, created to sell products? Do you see how important it is for girls and boys to see narratives featuring strong, female protagonists?
What really sucks about Equestria Girl is that the “My Little Pony” TV show, while relegated to the Pink Ghetto, features 6 female protags who often get adventurous and exciting storylines. The ultra-skinny, micro-mini clad Equestria Girl above is based on Rainbow Dash. She looks like this.
On the current show, Rainbow Dash is a jock/ athlete and the fastest flyer in Equestria. My Little Pony fan Kya writes on Reel Girl’s Facebook page, “I feel like if the show’s characters were real they’d be just as horrified to see what they’ve been made into as we are!”
Peggy Orenstein’s reaction, emailed to the HuffPo:
It’s up to parents and those who give a hang about girls actual development and well-being to say absolutely neigh. You want a sexualized, self-objectifying girl? Give her sexualized, objectified dolls. You don’t? Have some conversations with the other parents in your community about the potential impact of self-sexualization and self-objectification on girls’ development — including negative body image, eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, poor sexual choices, etc. — and choose from the many other toy options that are rising up in response to this inappropriate trend.
Seriously, come on parents! Stop buying into this shit. Speak out against the sexualization of kids. It’s dangerous.
Reel Girl rates Equestria Girl toys ***SSS*** for major gender stereotyping.
Is BMO the first animated character to openly defy binary gender assignment?
The guy in the video wants to know if BMO is expressive of feminism. I like how watching BMO lets us experience how we fall for various gender stereotypes and makes us challenge not only those assumptions but our need to define the “maleness” or “femaleness” of a character whether she’s a robot, car, plane, or fish. It’s important that a character like BMO is finally represented. Gender stereotyping is all over animation and it’s great how BMO rejects those cliche classifications.
But here’s what’s not so great. I haven’t seen “Adventure Time” but from this video, it’s apparent that it’s yet another show where the two main characters, Finn and Jake, are male. That gender assignment gets an automatic eye roll from me. With females already so underrepresented in animation, I can’t get super excited about a character, stuck in a supporting role no less, who’s only female some of the time.
Last night, while we were sleeping, six scantily clad censors snuck a copyright claim under YouTube’s pillow and removed our edited version of The Real Tooth Fairies investors pitch. BUT – you can still see what the Real Tooth Fairies has planned for kids in this version. Please watch and share before the censor fairies get this one too!
Here’s another version. Please watch, share, and sign the petition below.
Sign this petition to keep these super-skinny, Barbie-princess clone “Real Tooth Fairies” far away from your child’s developing brain.
Every time I see a poster around town advertising the upcoming animated movie “Planes,” my heart sinks. A couple months ago, I posted the sexist preview for the movie on Reel Girl where the fastest plane refers to the slower planes as “ladies.” Here’s part of the dialogue:
Plane One: What’s taking this guy so long? Is he really as good as he says he is?
Plane Two: No, better.
Plane One: Whoa! Who was that?
Plane Three: (Descending fast on top of the other two) Well, hello ladies. Ready to lose?
Plane Three goes on to leave the “ladies” in the dust. There are no female characters in this preview at all.
Here it is if you’d like to watch for yourself. You may want to ask your children to leave the room.
The message to kids who watch this mini-movie is that females are losers, not leaders. They can’t compete. Why does my 4 year old have to see a movie made for children where characters are mocked as female to indicate their inferiority?
Is the justification for this sexism that it’s just “true:” the fastest men in the world are faster than the fastest women, and my daughter should know that? The joke “makes sense,” it’s “realistic.” Is it also realistic that planes talk to each other? Why, when it comes to sexism, do people suddenly become so concerned about realism?
Here’s the problem with the repeated pattern of sexism in movies for kids. Narratives involve a hero who goes through challenges to reach a goal. Every kid– and every person– is the hero of her own life. At the most basic level, heroes act, make choices, and take risks. Narratives (and art in general) inspires us. Maybe my daughter’s big risk today will be reaching out for that elusive fourth monkey bar, trying a potsticker for the first time, or telling another kid to stop teasing her. Any of those acts will feel huge to her, just as sitting down at my desk and starting the next chapter of my novel feels huge to me. If I were to show my emotion, I might put myself at the foot of Mount Everest. Narratives are metaphors. They aren’t just a life compacted, but a moment, expanded. Sexism has no part in that story, especially as a repeated pattern, marketed to little kids, where males, again and again, are font and center, while females get stuck in supporting roles, on the sidelines.
I swore off blogging to meet a deadline for my novel, but this video is SO GOOD I have to post it.
This “One Man” trailer shows the relentless repetition of the same old sexist narrative where one “unique and original” man saves the world while females go missing.
As I keep posting on Reel Girl, the problem of female erasure is not about each movie, (“one man”) but the repetition of the same old story where females get shoved to the sidelines again and again. The “One Man” video reveals the sexist pattern of Hollywood movies better than anything I’ve ever seen. Now if they would just make one of these featuring animated movies for kids….
Thank you to morecompassion for sending this to me (though you better stop, it’s like crack for me, and at this rate, I’ll never finish my book!)
It is 9:32AM. What messages have my 3 daughters, ages 4, 6, & 9, gotten about gender today?
First thing early morning, I played Connectagons with my youngest child. I bought this toy, by the way, when LEGO Friends came out. I was so annoyed by LEGO’s gender segregation, I sought out new building toys. I may have even blogged about Connectagons as a possible alternative to LEGO. Check out the front of the box.
The back of the box? The 3 boys play Geometry, Treetop, and Under-the Sea.
The 2 girls? They play butterflies
and hearts.
Then onto Chutes and Ladders. Again, boy in front. Same old ratio, 5 boys, 3 girls counting the tiny one in the way back.
And then, even though it was just 8:30 and foggy, we opened the new Slip n’ Slide. The box cover features 4 boys, complete with quotes from Michael and Randy about how much fun they’re having.
My youngest daughter got cold, came back into the house, and handed me a book Stories for Girls. Look at that, 3 girls. All on the cover.
Think girls are born obsessed with princesses, ballerinas, and mermaids? Or do you think, just maybe, that girls, like all children, are self-centered and want to see themselves front and center, the stars of the show?
Okay, it’s not even noon. Are you kidding me? I’m ready for a nap. This Fourth of July vacation blogging relapse was fun but sadly, over. Back to Fairyland for me. See you all soon.
Justin Timberlake, your new video for “Tunnel Vision” isn’t cool or original. It’s tired and cliche. Can’t you think up anything else besides the clothed man/ naked woman trope? Been there, done that.
Are you copying Nick Cave?
GQ?
Perhaps Vanity Fair?
Edouard Manet?
This is, of course, just a tiny collection of images. Thousands more of the dressed man/ naked woman trope can be found in museums.
As Miss Representation posted about GQ:
The implication is that the men here are valuable for something beyond what they look like… but that the woman is valuable only for what she looks like.
The clothed man/ naked woman trope isn’t about “beauty” but about power.
What would art look like and music sound like if women were the ones who’d been celebrated for making it for thousands of years? These images are a history lesson of what the world looks like when men are in power. “Tunnel Vision” is the latest incarnation of the classic male gaze. Aren’t we ready for something different in 2013?
I really wanted to say great things about “Despicable Me 2,” so I’ll start with the positive. This movie made me laugh a lot. As far as personal enjoyment, I had a lot more fun watching “Despicable Me 2” than I did watching “Monster University.”
It was great to see a movie with my three girls about three girls. Except “Despicable Me” isn’t really about three girls. It’s all about Despicable Me AKA Gru, the star of the movie, played beautifully by Steve Carell. Before you protest as I go on to call “Despicable Me” sexist, please read this next sentence carefully: If the male protagonist with females limited to supporting roles was featured in just a few children’s movies, or even half of them, I would have no problem with the gender roles. The problem is that kids hardly ever get to see a female protagonist in movies made for children. The fantasy world, where anything should be possible, is sexist and unfortunately, “Despicable Me 2” is no exception to this rule.
The villain in “Despicable Me,” is also, surprise, surprise, male. I admit, this guy totally cracked me up. First of all, his name is El Macho. When Gru describes him, he says, “El Macho died in the most macho way possible, strapped to a shark, flying into a volcano.” Hilarious and only when I write this, do I remember sharks don’t fly.
Though I was kind of uncomfortable with the Latin lover stereotype– Macho’s open necked shirt reveals a hairy chest and he wears a huge gold chain– I delighted in the gender play.
There is more gender play in “Despicable Me 2” that could’ve been great– and that’s why I wanted to say good things about this movie– but again and again, instead misses the mark. Gru is a single dad of three girls, so there’s a lot to work with there. But just like “Monster University” had sororities with cool characters, but then gives them minimal lines and screen time, “Despicable Me” doesn’t pull off gender equality. It doesn’t try to.
The movie opens with a princess party (ugh) for Agnes, the youngest daughter, and Gru is dressed as a fairy princess. Again, I laughed when I saw him, but frankly, seeing a female dress up in pink frills ought to be be just as ridiculous. But it’s not, of course. A female looking like this is normal and expected in kidworld.
The minions also dress up as females to comic effect, as a maid and also in a grass skirt topped with a pair of coconut shells, to give just two examples.
I laughed during these scenes too, but the whole “boys dressed up as girls, how hilarious” joke solidifies all kinds of gender stereotypes. I wish we could leave it out of kids’ movies. There are so many ways to get kids to laugh without teaching them this one.
Gru’s spy partner, Lucy, is a pretty good Minority Feisty. She’s smart, brave, and enjoys adventure. But Lucy is clearly Gru’s sidekick. After the initial capture, she follows his lead and becomes his love interest.
There is a truly awful scene where Gru goes on a date with the superficial Shanon, and Lucy shoots a dart in Shanon’s ass. All kinds of unfortunate things happen to Shanon after that, and this part of the movie I didn’t find funny at all.
As far as Lucy’s lipstick taser which you’ve seen if you seen a preview, I for one, am sick of lipstick as a symbol of female empowerment. When Pat Benatar sang about a notch in her lipstick case 25 years ago, it was an original and ironic image. Now it’s a cliche, as overused and tired as an empowered woman ripping off her corset. Though I admit, I did laugh again when, in a desperate moment, Gru uses Lucy’s taser and she calls out “You copied me.” The final insult: the movie shows Lucy as the classic Damsel in Distress, strapped to a rocket and shooting into a volcano, and Gru, of course, saves them.
I liked the three girls, loved that there were three of them, and the oldest is named Margo.
I would LOVE to see a movie where these three are the stars with Margo as the protag and Gru in the supporting role. Universal, are you listening?
Before you comment on this post, let me say three things:
(2) I am not advising you not to take your kids to see these movies. I thought that was obvious because I blog about taking my own kids to see these movies. I try to teach my kids to watch with a critical eye. If the movie is sexist, I usually will not see it again, rent it, buy it, mention it much and try to avoid buying my kids games or clothing with the characters. If the movie has a female protag, I will buy a lot of that stuff. Some movies, I do avoid, for example, I didn’t go see “Oz” or take my kids. I couldn’t take what they did to Dorothy and Ozma, but that was a personal decision as yours, of course, should be.
(3) I wrote this already, but the problem is the repetitive pattern of marginalized females. The pattern, okay? Kids learn from what they see, through repetition.
In children’s media, females, who are half of the population, are presented as a minority. That is why I came up with the term Minority Feisty. Often, today, there is not jut one token female (as with the Smurfette Principle) but several and she is “feisty” ( a demeaning way to describe strong, usually reserved for females, and often used by film critics describing females in kids movies.) But the Minority Feisty is not enough. If we keep moving along at this slow rate, the Geena Davis Institute reports, we won’t have gender parity for 700 years. Your kids won’t experience it, nor will their kids, nor will their kids, on and on.
“Despicable Me” is a classic example of this sexist pattern. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of male minions. Why are there are no females? These scenes are so funny, my favorite parts of the movie, but females are excluded from them.
Two great posts came out this week about sexism in film and the Minority Feisty issue:
Please don’t be distracted by the Minority Feisty in children’s movies. She is there to distract you, to make you forget the lack of female protagonists. To the point the New Statesman made, and I have made numerous times on Reel Girl: We are all heroes in our lives. We all have our dragons to slay. But too often, women are trained to find a man in power, someone we can rely on to do the scary deed for us, instead of taking the risk ourselves. No risk, no reward, right? Except that women often don’t get the same cultural rewards men do for being heroes.
In fantasy, a world we can control, why can’t we show children a place where females and males are treated equally instead of perpetuating sexism? If we can’t imagine equality, we can’t achieve it.
Reel Girl rates “Despicable Me 2” ***S*** for gender stereotyping
Update: Just learned there will be a 2014 spin off of “Despicable Me.” YAY, I thought, a movie starring the three cool girls: Agnes, Edith, and Margo, just like I hoped for. But no. It will be a movie about the all male minions. Read about it here.
