For years I didn’t watch kids’ movies. Then I had kids — a boy and girl, now 6 and 7. I take them to the theaters. Sometimes I remember to bring ear plugs. I treasure the really funny stuff, like the Ice Age movies. I groan (quietly) through others. Half the time I leave with a headache. But the kids love it and it gets us out the house for a while.
I’m having a hard time though. Because I’ve had it up to HERE with animated female characters in G or PG children’s movies who look like porn stars. When I was growing up there was an outcry about Barbie’s figure, that it was unrealistic, impossible to attain, and damaging to little girls’ body images. Where is the outcry about these movies and the wholly unrealistic (their waists are no bigger than my little finger, their breasts resemble those cosmetically enhanced) and hyper-sexualized (they’re all dressed in cat suits) images of women they are giving our little girls and boys?
I was doing some googling and found interesting recent work funded by the actress Geena Davis. In a brief co-published by a scholar at the Annenberg school, they find, among other things, that in children’s movies:
Fewer than one out of three (28%) of the speaking characters (both real and animated) are female.
More than four out of five (83%) of the films’ narrators are male.
Style of presentation affects how females are featured in G-rated films. Animated females are more likely to be shown in a thin and sexy light than are live action females.
And in children’s television:
Similar to our other studies, we observed significant deviation in alluring attire and body shape variables. Females are almost four times as likely as males to be shown in sexy attire. Further, females are nearly twice as likely as males to be shown with a diminutive waist line. Unrealistic figures are more likely to be seen on females than males.
The summary of their major findings is available here.
Categories: Childhood
Want some strong girls in children’s movies? Try My Neighbor Totoro or Kikki’s Delivery Service.
On a somewhat related note, have you heard about the Bechdel Test?
To pass the test, a movie (1) has to have at least two women in it, who (2) talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.
Ear plugs: Especially during the trailers. It’s ridiculous…and I actually like loud noises.
I agree in general about the character design of girls in animated pictures, but I have to admit I am having a little trouble thinking of a Pixar character design where “porn star” seems like an apt description.
That said, being the father to a daughter has woken me up to the lack of female characters. It’s ironic that you mention Ice Age because because that was one movie where we really did notice that none of the leads was a girl. Haven’t seen the sequels, yet.
Thanks for the link!
It’s not so much the lack of strong girl characters that concerns me. I think there’s a lot of those, and in fact sometimes I think the girl power stuff gets overdone. It’s strong girl characters who look like porn stars that I’m tired of.
Yeah, the Ice Age movies are basically a guy buddy movie. Which is fine. They’re so cute and funny.
I shouldn’t pick on Pixar. But it alliterates nicely with porn. If they complain, I’ll change it.