Sharpe's Opinion

Do Pixar Have Girl Issues?

Via kottke I came across this from a few months ago, concerning the lack of strong female characters in Pixar movies:

Whenever a new Pixar movie comes out, I wrestle with the same frustration: Pixar’s gender problem. While Disney’s long history of antipathy toward mothers and the problematic popularity of the Disney Princess line are well-traveled territory for feminist critiques, Pixar’s gender problem often slips under the radar.

The Pixar M.O. is (somewhat) subtler than the old your-stepmom-is-a-witch tropes of Disney past. Instead, Pixar’s continued failure to posit female characters as the central protagonists in their stories contributes to the idea that male is neutral and female is particular. This is not to say that Pixar does not write female characters. What I am taking issue with is the ad-nauseam repetition of female characters as helpers, love interests, and moral compasses to the male characters whose problems, feelings, and desires drive the narratives.

I think it’s absolutely fair to say that Pixar’s major characters are more male than female, and that they should endeavour to work on that problem.¹ However, I think criticism of Pixar for this is misplaced. Pixar grew out of a group of computer programmers, not out of a bunch of film students. Toy Story was the first script John Lasseter ever wrote. Pixar began as a tech company, not a film studio, so I would posit that Pixar’s girl problem is a direct result of the way the technological industry skews male-ward. In turn, that’s a direct result of the fact that men seem to be more willing to isolate themselves from society and plug away at computers than women.

1. Although I’m not sure I like the way this piece immediately pours scorn over an upcoming picture The Bear and the Bow precisely because it’s a fairy tale with a female lead. That’s a bit of a damed-either-way approach. [↩]