WWII’s ‘nasty and aggressive campaign by male pilots’ carried on by Disney’s ‘Planes’ in 2013

Posted on November 7, 2013 by margotmagowan

Yesterday, I posted about the upcoming documentary on the forgotten female pilots from WW2: “We Served Too: The Story of Women Air Force Pilots of World War II.” From the film:

These women flew over 60 million miles within a 2 year period…However, after a nasty and aggressive campaign by male pilots who wanted the WASPs’ jobs, they were the only wartime unit that was denied military status by congress…For many years the WASPs kept their achievements quiet. Their service in World War II would only be known by a few. They are not mentioned in our history books, nor is their story taught in schools.Their accomplishments of being the first women to fly in the military would even be forgotten.

I haven’t seen the documentary yet, so I don’t know the details of the “nasty and aggressive campaign by male pilots” which successfully erased the stories of these female heroes from our history books. But I am somewhat of an expert on current kid culture, and I can tell you that stories about female heroes continue to go missing right now.

In a recent post about Disney’s transformation of the story of “The Snow Queen” to “Frozen” I wrote:

Thousands of years ago, conquering armies smashed the idols of their victims and stole their stories, an extremely effective tactic to destroy a community and steal its power. Christians did this to pagans, but of course, this act is all over history. Just like the goddess morphed into the Virgin, girls are going missing under the guise of celebration. Right now, in 2013, Disney is stealing and sanitizing stories. It’s an annihilation. How long before we all forget the original story? Will our children ever hear it?

I am reeling from this WW2 story, not because of the sexism of the past, but because of the sexism today. Want to see some sexist male pilots? Check out this preview from Disney’s recent hit, “Planes.”

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.

When I saw that preview with my three young daughters, I thought the plane who mocks the slow flyers by calling them “ladies,” was having a moment of arrogance. The movie would redeem him when he went through his transition. But when I actually saw the movie, I learned that I couldn’t have been more wrong. The sexist joke is his fantasy, the fantasy of a humble crop duster with a fear of heights who wishes he were a racer. It’s the dream sequence of a “likeable” character. Can you imagine a hero making a racist joke and being likeable? In a movie for little kids? Yet, that’s how much sexism we have to wade through before a female flyer is allowed to win a race in animation.

Yesterday, I posted about a three year old girl in my daughter’s preschool who told a teacher she can’t be a pilot, but she can be a pilot’s wife. You can tell your kids, until you’re blue in the face, that they can be anything they want to be, but if you don’t show them, through images and stories, they won’t believe you. They won’t believe in themselves. Little girls are obsessed with princesses and ballerinas, and later, supermodels, because those are the few times females are allowed to be the star in the show. Everyone wants to be the star in their own movie, their own life, but girls, again and again, are literally, pushed to the sidelines.

If you look at the erasure of these female pilots from World War II, the government obviously participated in the sexism. Allowed it to happen and sanctioned it. This is not an isolated event of the past. How can we, literally, sit back and watch it happen again and again?

On my recent post about WW2 pilots, I got this comment from Abnoba

Lots of women in war have been missing and rarely mentioned in history books, and especially in movies.
There were women fighting in the USA Civil War
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Women-Who-Fought-in-the-Civil-War.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285841/The-women-fought-men-Rare-Civil-War-pictures-female-soldiers-dressed-males-fight.html
There were samurai women
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-bugeisha
The most powerful pirate of all the times was a woman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih
and there were female pirates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_piracy
Even if they have to dress as a man, take the arms of a fallen soldier in a battle or work as a spy, there were women fighting in every war, because they have to defend themselves, their families and their homes, of course that they are not going to stay at home, just waiting and being killed, but you rarely see that in historical movies.

This from Mecano:

WASPs were great but the women pilots of WWII who were truly baptised in battle were those of the Soviet Air Forces.True warriors .I have many books about them.
Check
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Litvyak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Death-Soviet-Airwomen-World/dp/1585441775/ref=la_B001KJ2H9M_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383833768&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Sky-Black-Death-Eastern/dp/0893573558/ref=pd_sim_b_3
http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Women-War-Airwomen-Studies/dp/0700615547/ref=pd_sim_b_2

British women also flew.Check for “Spitfire women”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tw1m1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spitfire-Women-World-War-II/dp/0007235364

And here’s a comment from my post on “Planes.”

“The actual race in Planes is totally dominated by male competitors.” How shocking! You mean in real life the actual race is not dominated by male competitors?… This stuff is silly nonsense.
This feminist whine that animated movies for kids should reflect “progressive feminist” values is the kind of thing that gives feminism a bad name. Why? Because it’s silly overreach as usual.
The idea that animators see machines that race (airplanes, cars, dunebuggies, drag racers, etc.) as a male world isn’t an irrational sexist bias – it’s simply reality. Males – and especially boys – are by nature gung ho about machines to a degree that girls are not is obvious to anyone not wearing feminist blinders. That it’s necessary to point this out these days is a comment on the nuttiness of the feminist whiners who are constantly arguing that these natural differences are not natural but socially imposed. It’s B.S. Boys and girls are different from head to toe and always have been and always will be.

Please show this picture to your kids. It’s likely they won’t see it anywhere else.

Women pilots of WW2 gone missing: ‘They took our records and sealed them.’

Posted on November 6, 2013 by margotmagowan

So right after I post that a 3 yr old girl at my daughter’s preschool told a teacher she couldn’t be a pilot but a pilot’s wife, I see on Facebook info about the upcoming documentary “We Served Too: The Story of Women Air Force Pilots of World War II.” So, of course I watched the trailer. My mouth dropped open.

These women flew over 60 million miles within a 2 year period…However, after a nasty and aggressive campaign by male pilots who wanted the WASPs jobs, they were the only wartime unit that was denied military status by congress…For many years the WASPs kept their achievements quiet. Their service in World War II would only be known by a few. They are not mentioned in our history books, nor is their story taught in schools.Their accomplishments of being the first women to fly in the military would even be forgotten.

One pilot says, “Such a shame that when we disbanded, they took all of our records and they sealed them, and they were stamped either classified or secret and filed away in the government archives.”

Sealed records. WTF? Male accomplishments are celebrated and honored and women’s are hidden. ARGH. Sexist decisions of the past are affecting our kids TODAY. More stories about women’s real lives, repressed. Thank God for Jill Bond who made this film. Do you see how reality creates fiction creates reality? Do you see why we need women writers, artists, filmmakers, and on and on? Do you see who goes missing and how distorted reality and our perception of reality becomes when, for thousands of years, women have been existing in stories written by men?

Please, show this picture to your kids.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I hope it’s good for children. Wouldn’t it be great to make a children’s version? A book to go along with it? A computer game? An app? A LEGO set? What do you think the chances are we’ll see any of that? They are low, because still, in 2013, we live in a world where women’s stories go missing.

Geena Davis wants to know why we see so much Dick

Posted on November 1, 2013 by margotmagowan

This video by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media is amazing!

Our goal at the institute is to dramatically increase the percentage of female characters and reduce gender stereotyping in film ans television that is made for kids, little kids, 11 and under, and what we found is very disturbing. For every one female character, there are 3 male characters. Not only that, male characters get to do stuff. They get to have fun and have adventures. Females, not so much. We also wanted to know what the percentage of male and female characters was in crowd scenes in movies. We found only 17% of characters in crowd scenes are females. Women make up 50% of population in the world…

Meet Jane. She’s an animated character. She’s adorable, quirky, and has spunk. Her special skill is that she can do absolutely anything that an animator can think of for her to do. Except stand around in a bikini. Not because she can’t, but because she doesn’t want to. So why does Jane look sad? It’s because she has never been cast in an animated film or television show. Why is that? It seems like it would be so easy to cast Jane in some interesting and challenging role for her. I want to see Jane. I mean, we see Dick. We see Dick all the time.

Please donate to the Geena Davis Institute at www.seejane.org

The Rule of the Minority Feisty From Politics to Animation

Posted on October 29, 2013 by margotmagowan

Slate recently posted “More Than A Woman: The unwritten and silly rule that allows one woman to run for office at a time,” about how Juliette Kayyem, candidate for Governor of Massacusettes, was supposedly expected to drop out of the race when another female, Martha Coakley, announced her candidacy. This post goes on to describe how the idea of “one woman at a time” is an expectation that happens all the time in politics.

Often in politics there is an automatic, unspoken, assumption that only one woman can run at a time. For example, stories about Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren that speculate about whether she will or won’t run for president, generally take it as a given that Warren can’t possibly enter the Democratic primary if Hillary Clinton decides to run. But why is this the automatic assumption? Warren is an utterly different kind of politician with a distinct biography and a passionate following. She and Clinton have even had substantive disagreements in the past about bank regulation, one of Warren’s central issues. Nobody ever told Howard Dean to get out of the race because John Kerry was running. What law dictates that there can be only one woman per major race at a time?

This limited perception dominating our cultural imaginary reminded me of the comment from the head animator of “Frozen” that “having a film with two hero female characters was really tough.” Here they are, and I’ve got to say, I can barely tell the difference between them. Now do you think the similarity is because females look so much alike in the real world, or do you think the issue is the artist’s limited perception of how female heroes can look?

I’ve been blogging for a long time about the Minority Feisty, a term describing the current state of the fantasy world and the real one: strong females are allowed to exist, but only in a limited way. Today, if you see a movie for children, most feature a male protagonist, while females, who are, in fact, half of the kid population, are presented as if they were a minority. Within that minority, there will be a strong female or two who reviewers will invariably call “feisty.” I call these characters the “Minority Feisty.” “Frozen” is one of 4 movies for children in 2013 with a female protagonist, while 21 feature a male protagonist. And still, in our feminist movie, we have the animator say how hard it was for him to make two females and they look like this? I know they’re sisters, but come on.

So here’s a few more questions I have: Why are we conditioning a new generation of kids to accept the rule of the Minority Feisty? Why is the fantasy world, where anything is possible, so sexist?

And how many of our kids have seen images like this one?

Check that out: four powerful women pictured together and their facial features are different. From In This Together Media:

was unveiled today at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.. Painted by Nelson Shanks, the portrait depicts the four female Supreme Court Justices, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The painting was commissioned to show young women what is possible.

If our children grew up surrounded by images like this, how do you think it would affect who they are and become, how they perceive themselves and each other?

Cloudy With Little Chance of Girls Starring In Animated Movies

Posted on October 15, 2013 by margotmagowan

Yesterday, I took my three daughters ages 4, 7, and 10, to see “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.” We all enjoyed the movie. The animation was great, though the story was a little weak. I didn’t really understand why the evil guy had to do his evil deeds. But here’s the real problem with the movie. Here are the main characters:

There are 5 males and 2 females. The female ape, Barb, is the sidekick to the evil villain and the female human, Sam Sparks, is the sidekick for the hero. Sam is a classic Minority Feisty. She is a great character, smart, compassionate, and brave. She’s a scientist. But her role in the movie is to support the hero.

The last 6 movies I’ve seen with my daughters– “Despicable Me,” “Monsters Inc,” “Smurfs 2,” “Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters” “Turbo” and “Planes, all reviewed on Reel Girl, have the same pathetic gender ratio.

Females are half of the kid population so why are they conistently presented as a minority in movies made for children?

See Reel Girls’ Gallery of Girls Gone Missing From Children’s Movies in 2013

Disney says its sexism is all in your pretty little head

Posted on October 14, 2013 by margotmagowan

Responding to the furor over the sexist comments made by the head animator of “Frozen,” Disney makes this statement:

Animation is an intricate and complex art form. These comments were recklessly taken out of context. As part of a roundtable discussion, the animator was describing some technical aspects of CG animation and not making a general comment on animating females versus males or other characters.

OK, here’s the comment again:

Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, ’cause they have to go through these range of emotions, but they’re very, very — you have to keep them pretty and they’re very sensitive to — you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they’re echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna (Kristen Bell) being angry.

What context alters the belief that female characters need to be pretty and that it is diffuclt to make two females look different from each other? The “context” that Lino is speaking in is actually a biased and sexist one where the poor guy is stating a common belief in the industry. Lino is a scapegoat only for his honesty. Since Lino’s comments, I’ve put several posts on Reel Girl on the “differences” between drawing female and male characters. There is Christopher Hart who instructs,

With male comic characters, you can mold their bodies into many different shapes, producing a wide range of cool characters. It’s not so easy with women. Women in comics are, by and large, attractive—even the villains.

There is Marc Crilley’s video how-to featuring famous female characters and showing how their bodies get distorted. There are also artists who show the sexism in clothing and in pose of male versus female superheroes.

Want a little more context? In animated movies for children, there is a pattern of male protagonists while female characters get stuck in supporting roles. Not only that but females, who are half of the kid population, are presented in movies for children as if they were a minority.

Animator has been commenting on Reel Girl in defense of Disney and Lino. It is from him that I heard today about Disney’s response. After posting a link to Disney’s quote, Animator writes:

So my suspicions are confirmed. This is all controversy for the sake of controversy.

Could Lino have chosen his words more carefully since he’s being interviewed for a website where most of the readers have never animated before and don’t understand the terminology?

Yeah, probably.

Now I’ve learned, if you work for Disney, WATCH WHAT YOU SAY or you’ll be branded and eeevvvviiilll sexist pig if you say something that can even slightly be taken out of context.

Disney is an easy target for some good ‘ol fashioned “outrage” and fabricated controversy after all.

First of all, I could not be less interested in controversy for the sake of controversy. I get accused of this all the time, I’m trying to get eyeballs to my blog, making a big deal out of nothing. Sexism in children’s media is a really big deal. Sexism in children’s media is a repeated pattern kids are exposed to that shapes who they are and who they become. There is no good reason for the fantasy world to be sexist. It is a made up world, anything can happen, yet the sexism of the real world, where males star and females support, is echoed here. I wish children’s media were not sexist. I love movies and books and TV. I love stories. Whenever I find examples where females are heroes, protagonists, and celebrated, I blog about it.

As for Animator’s next comment, I am actually glad that Lino did not choose his words more carefully. He spoke honestly, and I’m grateful for that.

Animator is not the only one upset with me. I got this Tweet from Allie Molina:

Your post on how Disney allegedly “Undermines Women” is absolutely idiotic and misleading. Read this:http://akaito.co.vu/post/64020438666/on-frozen-and-misconceptions-floating-around-tumblr

I went to Molina’s Tumblr. Here’s what she says:

Frozen got a name change because it is NOT the Snow Queen. It’s loosely based off of it just like Ponyo was loosely based off of the Little Mermaid. Was there secondary thoughts of changing the title to something ‘unisex’ because of little boys? Most likely, yes, but unlike Tangled which had no reason to drop “Rapunzel” as the title at least this name change made sense.

Agree! The movie is NOT The Snow Queen, it’s no longer the story of a heroic girl who saves a boy from the evil Snow Queen, and the changed title reflects that. That’s what my whole post is about. Also, glad you brought up “Ponyo” by Miyazaki, one of the few movies with a female protagonist and female in the title.

So why else am I an idiot?

Anna does NOT go to “save her sister”. Elsa runs off on her own because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone and they discovered her secret. She creates her own castle and lives up in the mountain, happy she is finally free to be herself. Anna decides on her own to go tell Elsa that her magic isn’t a problem and that she wants her to come home and help Anna melt the ice coating her kingdom. In the end there is some shit that goes down, but both sisters save each other. Also, Kai was NOT Gerda’s brother. And here we are again with the idea that Disney has never done a film with “role reversal” of a woman saving a man. Sleeping Beauty (Fairies save Phillip from Maleficent), Little Mermaid (Ariel saves Eric TWICE), Mulan (even when facing some serious misogyny she pulls through and saves not only Shang and her fellow soldiers but also all of China), Pocahontas (saves John Smith and stops a war), Hercules (Meg saves Herc from being killed) etc etc

Kai is not Gerda’s brother, as I wrote in my post, but her male friend. That is the only thing that makes sense to me. I didn’t write females never save males, but it is rare, and “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Mermaid,” and “Hercules” are the best examples you can come up with? “Pocahontas,” I agree, is cool.

Reason #3 I am an idiot:

Kristoff just takes on the role of the Robber Girl from the original story, complete with Reindeer.

So according to Molina, Kristoff is not completely made up, but replaces the robber girl from the original. Do you see that’s the same thing– strong girl replaced by love interest/costar? Flynn Ryder from Rapunzel/ Tangled is based on the prince. His role was expanded to give him screen time and he is marketed in the PR as a star in the movie as well. That’s the problem here: a female in children’s media is rarely allowed to carry her own movie.

Reason #4:

What the fuck is going on here. That poster is not being used what so ever, in fact I have never seen it before. Aside from the posters featuring Olaf, every poster for Frozen has the girls on it. In fact, here they are on the fancy versions, like the older Disney posters

When I did my annual post analyzing PR for kids’ movies, the poster of the Snow Queen with a shadow of a female is all I could find. I believe that image was the first one released, but not knowing that for certain, I wrote “early” instead of “first” in my post. I was really bummed out that this pathetic image was being used. I collect cool movie posters that highlight female protagonists. I buy them and frame them and put them up in my children’s room. I hoped “Frozen” would give me that opportunity but it didn’t, and isn’t it interesting that I can no longer find that original image either, yet there it is, on my blog.

Still part of reason #4, Molina goes on:

as for the Olaf/Sven trailer. It’s a fucking teaser aimed at children with the “funny sidekicks”. This would be more telling if the teaser had been Kristoff and Hans, except it featured no humans at all.

The funny sidekicks are male! This is a movie that is supposed to be about at least two powerful females, and it is introduced with no females. The lack of females in animated movies for kids is part of a repetitive pattern where females go missing.

Moving on, still part of #4:

Secondly, I’ve also seen the quote from Lino DeSalvo about “animating women” and Tumblr doing it’s thing of twisting that for something else. He is NOT responsible for Anna or Elsa’s designs, their models and nor is that the reason most of the female characters were dropped from the film. We were never given a reason for the latter besides a small interview with John Lasseter from D23 on why they expanded Elsa’s role. Should Disney have differentiated more with Anna or Elsa’s faces to avoid Tangled comparisons? Yes and all they needed to do was change the shape of their eyes to match the 2D versions. (mediocre edit below by myself)

Lino is not the bad guy here. Lino is speaking honestly about a sexist industry.

Commenters on Jezebel are also upset with me, mostly for my statement that it’s become extremely rare for a female to be referenced in the title of an animated movie for children. One commenter makes this list:

Shrek was 2001, so let’s start around there (and we’ll include Disney tv and dvd movies since they are the company in question). In addition we’ll include female gender specific title like girl and princess, since that was the original argument about “Snow Queen” getting changed to “Frozen”

The Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries II
Cadet Kelly
Lilo & Stitch
My Fair Madeline
Powerpuff Girls the Movie
Kim Possible the Movie
Mulan II
The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Ella Enchanted
Sharkboy and Lavagirl
Ice Princess
Charlotte’s Web
Nanny McPhee
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
Aquamarine
Miss Potter
Cinderella III
Kitt Kettridge
Hannah Montana
Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning
Nim’s Island
Ponyo
Tinkerbell
Coraline
Princess and the Frog
Alice in Wonderland
Ramona and Beezus
Gnomeo and Juliet
Mars Needs Moms
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

I am referring to MOVIES, not straight to DVD or made for TV which is where girl protagonists are allowed to go. I have been tracking titles on Reel Girl for the past three years. Try making a list of animated movies for kids– and you can include Pixar, Sony etc, that feature a male protag in the title and then make a list of titles with females. And speaking of Disney and Pixar, lots of commenters also write, it’s not just Disney. Agree! It’s not just Disney. It’s a sexist industry where girls go missing.

‘Soul Surfer:’ Great movie for the whole family?

Posted on October 12, 2013 by margotmagowan

For the past couple of years, people have been recommending I see “Soul Surfer,” the real life story of champion girl surfer, Bethany Hamilton, who resurrected her career after her arm was bit off by a shark.

I delayed seeing the movie because I wasn’t sure at what age my kids would be ready to see a shark attack. I remember being traumatized by “Jaws,” and it’s hard enough to get them in the ocean. But I was in a store– I think it was Office Depot– and there was the DVD, and I bought it.

I told my oldest daughter Bethany’s story, she is 10, and planned to watch it with her. My husband, who is into surfing, sat down with us. My two younger daughters, usually not interested in what my 10 year old is watching, couldn’t resist seeing their parents captivated by something and joined the party.

I love the movie. It’s all about competition, winning, excelling, resilience, faith, and love. The montage at the end showing real life Bethany Hamilton will make you cry. It is so amazing. Here she is in real life.

But watching the montage won’t be the first time you cry during this movie. My babysitter texted me when my kids were seeing it for the third time: “I’m in tears!”

So what age do I recommend “Soul Surfer” for? My 4 year old daughter can’t get enough of the movie. Her favorite part is the shark attack– which is very quick. I actually think it’s scarier waiting for the attack then the actual attack. My 7 year old daughter kept glaring at me through the whole movie, furious that I “made” her watch it, but she never left the couch. She has watched it twice since but says she hates it. My 10 year old daughter likes it as well, but not as much as my 4 year old. I don’t really know what to say, except to tell you our experience. “Soul Surfer” is the first movie that my whole family has watched together, fro beginning to end, and all of us were into it. That was so much fun, by the way. I loved everyone sitting together, watching a movie. It is the best feeling.

Reel Girl rates “Soul Surfer” ***HHH***

Reel Girl’s Halloween list of monster movies starring females

Posted on October 12, 2013 by margotmagowan

Last Halloween when no less than 3 movies came out starring males– “Hotel Transylvania,” “ParaNorman,” and “Frankenweenie”– I made a list of monster movies starring females. This list is pathetically small! I have not seen “Hocus Pocus” or “Journey to the Center of the Earth” or “Series of Unfortunate Events” but Reel Girl fans recommended all 3. Let me know if you have any movies to add.

Check out the DVD for ‘Epic,’ what’s wrong with this picture?

Posted on October 11, 2013 by margotmagowan

Yesterday, my 7 year old daughter and I were shopping at Whole Foods when we saw the DVD for “Epic” in the check out line. What’s wrong with this picture?

Out of 21 movies for children in 2013, “Epic” is one of only 4 to feature a female protagonist. But if you look at the art, who is in front, with the big face and the big sword? Who, from this picture, would you think is the star of the movie?

My three daughters and I loved “Epic.” When I reviewed it on Reel Girl, I gave it two Hs which is almost the highest heroine rating you can get. In that review, you know what I wrote was one thing that bugged me about the movie? The scene pictured above. In fantasy movies for kids, while it’s common to see males steer and fly all kind of beasts, it’s a rarity to see a female riding solo on a creature, not to mention riding a female creature with a male positioned behind her. The female rider is, almost always, in the passenger seat.

I found out there is a term for this position, riding bitch, and you see it all over children’s media and adult media. Look how Tina Fey, the star of her sitcom, was put in her place on the cover of Rolling Stone.

So why, out out of all the images they could chosen for the DVD cover, do they pick the one that shows the female star behind the supporting male? I was talking about this with my husband, and I said, it’s like a social reflex, everyone is so scared to show a female in a power position. It’s like we’re protecting the egos of little boys the way women are supposed to protect the egos of men. But instead, we’re fucking up a new generation of kids. It is not OK to continually and repeatedly marginalize girls and force them into supporting roles, in the imaginary world and in the real one. It limits all kids.

Hollywood, what’s the difference between drawing male and female characters?

Posted on October 10, 2013 by margotmagowan

Since Lino DaSilvo’s sexist comments about how female characters are hard to draw because they’ve got to be pretty, he’s had many defenders comment on how much this artist cares about his movies and characters.

No one is saying DaSilvo doesn’t care about his art. No one is even saying that “Frozen” isn’t a good movie. “Ratatouille” is a great movie, and it also follows the same sexist pattern of most children’s movies where females can’t be heroes. Unfortunately, this sexism is entrenched in our culture, the stories we tell, and the heroes we create. Abnoba makes a great comment about all this on Reel Girl:

And female characters are even more difficult to differentiate because, as he says, they have to be pretty. And pretty, for Disney and other companies, has a very narrow definition. I think that we all know how Disney tried to change Merida. Disney is not only selling a movie. The Disney princess are used to sell clothes, toys, party supplies, make up…and that’s not based in how adventurous or smart they are, their beauty is a big selling point…Maybe Lino DiSalvo is not sexist, maybe he is just too frank for his own good about what that industry require from him, but I think that the comment is pointing to a very big problem in the female representation of women in animation.

You can be frank and sexist at the same time. As I blogged, I don’t think DaSilvo intended to be sexist. He thought he was stating a fact. And he actually is, but the fact is not about real differences between females and males, but about how they are represented in narratives for children in 2013.

Here’s something I wrote a while ago on the differences between drawing females and males:

Whenever I blog about the exaggerated breasts or ass of a female cartoon character, commenters respond that I have nothing to complain about: all cartoons are caricatures.

There’s a difference between exaggerating muscles and exaggerating someone’s butt. Here’s artist Kevin Bolk’s take on “The Avengers.”

Of course, “The Avengers” model, with its pathetic 5: 1 male/ female ratio and then sexualizing that lone female, is not unique to that group of superheroes.

Check out the Justice League cover. Notice any similarity?

Here’s the artist Coelasquid’s “If Superheroes Posed Like Wonder Woman.”

I love Coelasquid’s art because it shows so clearly that it’s not only the clothes put on female characters but the poses they are in.

Though of course, the clothes don’t help much. Here’s Theamat’s “If I Don’t Get Pants, Nobody Gets Pants:”

Wonder Woman with no pants was created by (and for?) grown-ups but it leads to Wonder Woman with no pants showing up as a LEGO minifig.

Females are half of the population, yet because they are presented as a sexualized minority in so many movies for adults, they are also presented as a sexualized minority in movies for kids. Those roles are then replicated in kids’ toys and most tragically, in kids’ imaginary play.

Female characters account for only 16% of all characters in movies for kids.

Here’s an interesting coincidence: across the board in all professions, women at the top don’t make it past 16%.

Do you think limiting females in the imaginary world limits them in real life? Unfortunately, your kids do.

Reel Girl

Imagining gender equality in the fantasy world

Category Archives: Movies