Discuss: Where Are The Lovely Ladies of Pixar?

I'd rather give Pixar props for being one of the few studios to give their female characters something to do other than fall in love, get kidnapped, get blowed up, go shopping, or be the wet blanket in the otherwise hilarious movie with dick and fart jokes. There's more work to be done, but since they're leading the race right now, I'll let it go.

Besides, 'The Bear and the Bow' looks awesome. Brenda Chapman ftw!

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I would say the Princess in A Bugs life was more than a love interest, being at different times a leader and a hero on her own right. Plus, she was more concerned with the safety of the colony than getting...


...What do ants get anyway? Anyway, you know what I mean, she wasn't always a male to feel secure.

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I'm torn. Between that blog post and the comments on the same page, it always hits me that sometimes people just go looking for arguments - when a commenter notes that many of the male characters are made to look incompetent and the female characters to be the ones with the right answers, the original author just twists it into showing how women always have to look after the men (rather than, you know, friendship? I think it's equally sexist to consider Dory as a motherly figure to Marlin in Finding Nemo, when I don't think a male equivalent - let's say Mater to Marlin's Lightning McQueen - would be considered a fatherly figure). Strong female characters are dismissed merely because they're not the leads; Roz is an admittedly peripheral character, but the only rebuttal to her turning out to be a powerful government agent is that she's not a character kids would play with a toy of, which seems like a roundabout and indirect way to accuse the studio of being sexist towards a character. I can't help but get the feeling that the blogger will be happy with nothing less than a godlike, perfect female character without any flaws as the sole protagonist of the story. Or maybe she'd disparage a Wonder Woman movie if the character happened to get orders or requests to perform missions from a male government official.

The way I see it, Pixar is a passion project studio. The people there clearly come up with stories they're passionate about, and then make them into movies with little compromise. For the most part, I think guys create stories about guys, and girls create stories about girls. If you want to argue that movie studios aren't hiring enough female writers and directors, fine. But shoving female characters into a story not envisioned with female characters for the purposes of affirmative action seems soulless and destructive to the narrative.

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I still wonder if any of you are struck by this gender disparity in the studio's work, and if any sort of affirmative action is going to result in stories compromised just so they can include a Token Stand-Up Female. What say you guys and girls?

i am not struck at all by the gender disparity from pixar, but this could simply be b/c i am a guy.. then again perhaps not, but how could i know if i'd enjoy the first toy story --which is, in it's simplest form, a "buddy movie"-- as much as i did if i were female? however, i will say that i don't think pixar is a company that will include a female character simply for including one, but will only have a female character if it helps the story &/or character development. if any affirmative action takes place in favor of more strong female characters, pixar is one studio i would trust to come up w/ a story worth watching, but i'd be surprised if any such action took effect in the first place. i am interested in pixar's future, & hope that some female filmmakers from the studio get to flaunt their talent someday, but i hope the pixar guys just continue doing what they have proven themselves as masters of doing: providing great stories with strong characters and a big heart. as long as they keep doing that, the stories w/ strong female protagonists will come in time, & i believe pixar feels the same way.

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i don't believe their to be any gender disparity at all w/ pixar's work... granted i am a guy, & toy story, my favorite film of their's, may not have worked on as many levels as it did if i were a gal, but in each of their films, the female characters served a purpose, & i believe this trend will continue. if a story that they come up with needs a female protagonist, pixar will do exactly that & i don't believe it will be b/c of any affirmative action. pixar has always proven, at least to me, that nothing is compromised in favor of story &/or character development. although, if any affirmative action for a female lead came along, which is very possible, i would trust pixar more than any other company to find a justifiable reason for the female character w/o making her a "token stand-up female."

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Where is it written that every picture Pixar does must have a strong female role? Some of their stories are squarely centered on men. Why is this a problem?

I can see if *every* movie they made kept women in the kitchen (so to speak), but that's not been the case at all. As already stated, Jesse, Princess Atta, Dori, Mrs. Incredible, and Eve are all strong female roles (the latter two, very much so!).

This is definitely looking for a fight where none exists, and is a totally unjust assessment of Pixar's track record.

-Pie

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Ugh, I think that the writers of Pixar write their own great stories with their own great characters the way that they want and there's no sexist agenda in mind. The writers just happen to be predominantly men, and men know men and men's perspectives better than they know women and women's perspectives. It's the same in all creative endeavor. This is like wondering why Tyler Perry doesn't write movies about suburban white families.

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Don't worry everybody. Pixar's The Bear and the Bow (in 2011) will feature a female protagonist archer in mythical Scotland named Merida (voiced by Reese Witherspoon). It sounds awesome. Check it out on Wikipedia.

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Some people are just looking for cracks. There's no particular bend one way or t'other as far as I see.

A more interesting gender debate, however, could be made regarding Studio Ghibli films, particularly the output of Hayao Miyazaki.

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I always wondered if it had to do with Pixar's close ties to Disney. Pixar working overtime to NOT be Disney or Disney related. Meaning Pixar doesn't adapt children's literature or fairy tales but goes with original stories. And Pixar shies away from the strong female leads on which Disney has built it's entire reputation.

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It seems the author of this blog disagrees with himself on Pixar's lack of female roles. He takes every Pixar movie and points out the female and her role in their movies except Up which has a lack of womanhood. One Pixar movie without a female role? What's his point? I don't think there is one. Another blogger trying to start something about nothing.

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This conversation is silly. Pixar is run by men. The founders (Lucas/Jobs) of the company, as well as the writers, directors and producers of the films are all largely men. They are likely writing what they know, which is what makes their stories so powerful. If they started making movies with the backwards intention of gender 'equality' in storytelling, the product would undoubtably suffer. Let the story decide the characters, instead of the other way around. Now, if you are trying to make an argument about high-ranking women in the Pixar power structure, that is an entirely different debate.

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Pixar is run by men. The founders (Lucas/Jobs) of the company, as well as the writers, directors and producers of the films are all largely men. They are likely writing
what they know, which is what makes their stories so powerful. If they started making movies with the backwards intention of gender 'equality' in storytelling, the product would undoubtably suffer. Let the story decide the characters, instead of the other way around. Now, if you are trying to make an argument about high-ranking women in the Pixar power structure, that is an entirely different debate.

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I read her post and noticed just how heavily her own bias influenced her ideas about the movies. She initially gives WALL-E a 2/10, but then goes back and tries to watch it in a gender neutral way and bumps it all the way up to a 7/10. Thats a pretty significant bump, and nothing changed about the movie except that she was trying to repress her own ideas on gender biased film making and watch it objectively. I pretty strongly disagree with her on some of these, and agree with her on some things as well (like the fact that Cars sucked ass). I strongly disagree with her assessment of The Incredibles as the story of a man going through a mid life crisis that the woman come along to support. Elastigirl had her own problems, and she was the one who saved Mr. Incredible. I can't recall a scene where the man had to be the knight in shining armor, and in fact the woman throughout show better judgement and clearer heads. As others have pointed out on this site I think this is a case of someone who sees sexism in pretty much everything, no matter how ambiguous. I'm not saying that Pixar is perfect when it comes to this issue, cause they're not, but they're not pathetic either. Pretty good, with room for improvement certainly.

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Personally, I just care about good films. Let the writer write about what she or he cares about. The only thing that bugs me is, if you're writing about ants or bees, for Pete's sake, make them female (that is, make the males drones, not workers)! Otherwise, write about termites or something else. I even liked Antz well enough, but there's still a voice in the back of my mind telling me all through the movie, "Well, this is just stupid."

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The blog seems hell-bent on portraying Pixar as promoting a hardline misogynist agenda and not asking legitimate "do women have a strong presence in Pixar's movies" types of questions.

Frankly, I think folks who are concerned with the presentation of women in film should be focused on more egregious examples, especially since there are no women in Pixar films who are strictly sex objects or worse. Most female characters in Pixar flicks are assertive and by no means weak-willed.

Pixar might not be making movies that fully embraces a strong feminist agenda, but they're not making movies where women have no purpose other than rewarding the hero with a good lay.

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I'm curious about that upthread mention of Miyazaki. Is it supposed to reference the notion that there aren't enough strong MALE characters in Ghibli work? Most of his lead characters -- from Naussica and Kiki through Mononoke and in "Howl's Moving Castle" -- are female, and uncommonly strong ones. Many of the antagonists are women too.

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