Animation is Still A Boys Club
One of my favorite things to do after watching a movie is to look up who wrote it, who directed it, produced it, etc. If a female character does something blatantly sexist or something ingenuous happens to her, I guess that a man wrote it, and nine times out of ten, I’m correct.
It’s easy to spot in some shows: for instance, when I was watching True Detective and Alexandra Daddario is in a sex scene with Woody Harrelson where she’s completely naked and he’s fully clothed, anyone with a brain could guess that a man came up with that. And a man did. But what about movies and TV shows that aren’t gritty crime dramas, or stereotypically masculine? Like for example, fun animated movies. Surely there’s more opportunity for women in the realm where ogres are falling in love and colorful monsters can become friends with little girls.
It wasn’t until I interned for an animation company that I thought more about looking into how many women worked behind the scenes of Pixar and Dream Works movies. And what did I find? Tangled, written by a man, and directed by a man. Moana, written by mostly men and one woman with a “Story By” credit, also directed by a man. Brave, written by men and, ooh— one woman! It was almost directed by a woman….until, of course, she was replaced by a man.
I know I’m not the only one asking this, but why are men still predominately behind Disney princess movies?
I’ve always known that women are extremely underrepresented in the art world, even more so than in the film industry. Animation is a combination of both, so surely the numbers can’t be good. Like everyone else, I’ve heard the stories of it being difficult for female animators to “make it” in the early days of Disney, and even though I’d like to believe things are better, before even doing my research I knew they weren’t. Turns out I was both right and wrong. Lots of women are pursuing careers in animation, far more than men, which is great! The only problem is when it comes time for them to apply for a job, still, mostly men are getting hired. 60% of animation students are women, but only 20% actually land a job in the industry, according to Women in Animation.
But what about #MeToo? Aren’t things better? It’s easy to tell Pixar and Dream Works to hire more women, and they should. But it’s another thing for those women to be genuinely welcomed. Simply keeping up with quotas isn’t enough.
Sexism in the workplace and the entertainment industry hasn’t been solved, it’s just become more complicated. The cards are stacked against women before they even enter the room, especially in animation where women make up less than 25% of creative roles, according to Women in Animation, an organization devoted to getting that number up to 50% by 2025.
Of course, this is nothing new, but the men who run these rooms pretend to be tolerant and save their locker room talk for when the women (or in most cases, the one woman they were forced to hire) leave. It’s the same old bullshit in pink packaging stamped with an “I’m with Her,” sticker.
There was a moment in 2019 when the lack of women in Animation became a hot button issue for all of three seconds. When Rashida Jones and her writing partner, Will McCormack quit Toy Story 4 citing, “philosophical differences,” in reference to Pixar’s lack of diversity, it was front-page news. The duo said that Pixar does not create equal opportunity for women and people of color to share their creative voices. Given Jones’ star power, this sparked a conversation about Pixar’s horrible track record with hiring women. In Pixar’s defense they had hired one female director, Brenda Chapman, in the past. Glass ceiling—shattered. Just kidding. She was fired from the movie Brave, due to “creative differences” and replaced by Mark Andrews.
People seemed to take notice again when John Lasseter, famed Disney director, was ousted for sexual harassment. But don’t worry about him, he wasn’t fired, he was allowed to resign, according to Indiewire. This of course meant Pixar needed to hire a woman director but try not to fire her this time. Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a Pixar film, Frozen, and later, Frozen 2, co-directing alongside Chris Buck.
So, Pixar has its first female director and now sexism is solved. Hooray! Toss your pussy hats in the trash because women and men are now equal!
If it took one of the biggest names at Pixar to be accused of sexual harassment for a woman to co-direct a movie with a man, imagine how hard it is for women at animation companies or networks that aren’t in the spotlight? Not to mention all the women trying to make it as animators, writers, editors, etc.
If it’s a problem at Pixar, it’s worse everywhere else.
Let’s look at some stats, shall we? This is what the landscape of women in animation looks like as of 2019.
There’s something particularly jarring about these stats when they exist in a medium where absurdity is infinite and creativity has no limits. Yet it’s too far-fetched for there to be just as many women on the writing staff as there are men? Toys can come to life and dragons can exist, but it’s too bizarre for there to be just as many female animators, producers, directors, and editors? And this doesn’t even cover the disparity in hiring women of color. A 2019 study conducted by USC Annenberg and Women in Animation found that while only 3% of animated film directors are women, only 1% are women of color. In animated TV there were a whopping 13% of female directors and 2% of female directors of color.
So yeah, it’s still a problem and one that’s not getting addressed enough. It’s great that Pixar was held accountable after people started taking John Lasseter’s harassment allegations seriously, but we shouldn’t have to wait for women to be harassed to give them jobs in the industry. We need to continue to demand accountability from Pixar and every other animation company so women can not only be allowed in the room but wanted in those rooms.
I mean, just look at what happens when you give women space to be creative, Disney wouldn’t have made the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, Frozen 2. More importantly, young girls wouldn’t for the first time, have a fairytale that recognizes women’s self-reliance.
When women are valued for all they have to offer, everybody wins.
