Comments on: Gender in Pixar Films

By: Delia

Delia — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:02:03 +0000

My brother watched Cinderella til the tape wore out. His next favorite show was Eureka’s Castle, all about a girl puppet & her fantasy land. My boyfriend couldn’t get enough of Lady & the Tramp. Do you know how many male kids love movies with lead females? LOTS! Even more would love them if girls were portrayed in story lines that weren’t just about getting the guy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 04:35:52 +0000

I wonder if it’s any coincidence that The Bear and the Bow is set in (a quasi-mythic version of) the Scottish Highlands? The Celts in general and Celtic women in particular have traditionally been depicted, at least in the UK, as rather more assertive and headstrong than English women, particularly in an historical “noble savage” role. It’s a pretty ancient trope, going back to interactions between the the Celts and Romans (most famously Boudica) which presented Celtic women as more assertive and, in some sources, more masculine than Roman women. (Oddly enough, a rather different view was expressed by the Celts themselves, who, being surprisingly non-misogynistic for an ancient culture, often regarded the unassertiveness of Roman women as childish and unwomanly, seeing the more assertive femininity of the Celtic women as powerful in itself.)

By: TheBear

TheBear — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:32:39 +0000

He’s also completely useless for the great majority of the film. Yes, he inspired the girls and got them working together, largely because he presented options that they hadn’t considered before, but he didn’t get anything DONE. He wasn’t the least bit involved in creating the final plan that saved them all (“The Crate”). His role in the movie is actaully one of morale and moral support.

By: sammy

sammy — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:11:42 +0000

Coraline is a pefect example of what you are talking about – in the book, Coralines’ male friend is barely present, and is at best, a secondary character. In the movie, he is given a much more present role. Even as I was watching the movie, I though they vamped up his role specifically so to appeal to younger boys who they feared would get bored with a female lead throughout the film.

By: Rita

Rita — Sun, 16 May 2010 04:51:44 +0000

They are kids’ movies. The main characters are male because the companies know that generally, for some reason, little girls don’t mind hearing and watching things about boys, but boys don’t like to do so about girls. Little kids=fear of cooties?

By: On Pixar and the lack of female protagonists « Girls Can Tell

On Pixar and the lack of female protagonists « Girls Can Tell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:17:35 +0000

[...] as Sociological Images points out: “. . . this is Pixar’s ‘first fairy tale.’ So apparently though we get a [...]

By: sara

sara — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:22:12 +0000

i work at a gamestop and i heard from my coworkers that people have been whining about how final fantasy 13 has a female, not oversexed main protagonist. i mean, seriously!

By: Gender in Pixar films « Vuoi una mela?

Gender in Pixar films « Vuoi una mela? — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:02:24 +0000

[...] in Pixar films Ho casualmente trovato questo articolo di sociologia a riguardo della caratterizzazione dei personaggi all’interno dei cartoni animati Pixar. Il [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:04:10 +0000

I feel like part of this “women will be able to relate to men but men won’t be able to relate to women” issue has to do with women’s liberation. Back in the day, women weren’t expected to be able to relate to male characters – the gritty detectives in film noir, for instance, were at times considered too “rough” for women to relate to and enjoy. Now that women are expected to be able to more easily step into roles that are traditionally considered male, we are also expected to be able to relate to them more. On the other hand, it’s still not societally accepted for men to be comfortable in traditionally female roles. Thus, filmmakers can reach a higher demographic by appealing to the “male” side of society – a side which is being more and more widely embraced by both genders.

By: Squoo

Squoo — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:36:37 +0000

Hurrah for Labyrinth!
Although that did have a romantic theme; the whole plot came about because the ‘Goblin King’ falls in love with the lead girl and tries to win her over. However (and I don’t know why this has never occurred to me before) on reflection it seems in many ways to be an inversion of the classic romantic fairytail: instead of the girl looking for her powerful male with the story culminating in her finally getting him, in Labyrinth the powerful male is seeking the girl and the story culminates in her rejecting him and taking back the power he held over her for herself. Interesting.

By: Squoo

Squoo — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:20:39 +0000

Isn’t that the one where the female characters can’t escape from danger because they can’t fly, so they employ the services of a male character who, it turns out, can’t fly either but still saves all the females by getting them organised and working together in ways they never managed without him? Hm.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:28:35 +0000

Something i twigged to lately was that Clown fish exhibit sequential hermaphroditism (all born males, when the dominant female dies, a male changes his sex to become the dominant female).

Nemo’s father would have become his mother when nemo’s mother was killed.

Not something that would have altered the plot significantly, but it’s always nice to teach people that a fixed male/female binary is not a biological ‘given’ by any means.

By: Race and Gender in “The Princess and the Frog” » Sociological Images

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:53:38 +0000

[...] wouldn’t be popular because it had an Asian lead character as well as our post on gender in Pixar films, gender roles in “Bee Movie,” 21 Comments Tags: gender, race/ethnicity, [...]

By: Hollywood Discomfort with Asian Lead Characters » Sociological Images

Hollywood Discomfort with Asian Lead Characters » Sociological Images — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:33:50 +0000

[...] see our post on gender in Pixar films. 9 Comments Tags: media, race/ethnicity, race/ethnicity: Asians/Pacific Islanders, [...]

By: Kali

Kali — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:17:10 +0000

The focus here was mostly on the gender issues apparent in Pixar films in particular. Of course there are many other films produced by different studios that DO offer prominent female characters that boys will also enjoy watching. However, with Pixar in particular, there are evdidently no female protagonists. Of course there are some important characters that are female, such as Dory in Finding Nemo, or Jesse in Toy Story, but essentially the film is about male character’s and their issues and all the females do is help them along their way, with not much significance to the movie at all. There are many roles such as Remy in Ratatouille, which could quite easily have been a female character, but was not. Why is this? Why would boys not relate to this character as much if it were a girl, it still produces the same message, and the same action.
Of course we are not asking Pixar to make films about the problems of females, but there are unisex problems and perhaps one of the films that Pixar has made could have been female dominated. In relation to what was said in the article about a male character being neutral and appealing to a wider audience, it is obvious that all what is important is the profit that can be made.
In no way am I saying that I do not enjoy Pixar films, and as a female myself, I have not been put off by the fact that all the main character’s are male, however it would be nice to see the females not portrayed as stereotypes, and have more of an individual and important role in the films, and perhaps once in a while be the main character.