Pixar and the Smurfette Principle (and other tropes of women in media)

[chimerically]

It's been a long time since I've written about this, but a couple of links showed up on my RSS feed today that made me curious about the actual number female characters in Pixar films. I adore Pixar's films, but I've long felt irked by the lack of women in them, particularly in major roles. But just what are the numbers? Are they bad enough to

Comments

[eeyore_grrl]

Don't forget where Disney kills off the moms and often adds the evil stepmother...

[leora]

That makes a certain degree of sense in some of the stories, as they are based on fairy tales that either require that element or have morphed into doing that (Snow White really requires it and Cinderella pretty much needs it too). But the first few I thought of were the more modern movies I am familiar with, The Little Mermaid (does Ariel have a mom? I don't remember... I don't recall the story well enough to remember if she should anyway and they mutated it so much). Beauty and the Beast, where there is no justification to kill off the mother, although I do like their portrayal of Beauty, her father, and the Beast for the most part. Aladdin, where again, I don't think there's a reason to kill off the mom. The Lion King killed off the dad though. Maybe killing moms just gets to be a habit that's hard to quit.

[corpsefairy]

Ariel has no mom. King Triton is a single dad.

For that matter, Prince Eric has no mom.

Aladdin is an orphan and lacks both parents. If I recall one of the original stories correctly, he's actually living with his mom and Jafar tricks them both by posing as his long-lost uncle.

Lilo is also an orphan, but she does have a mother figure in her sister Nani.

Hercules is a weird case. He's got two human parents who raise him, but at some point he decides to seek his fortune, and IIRC he's actually the son of Hera and Zeus in the movie (I guess Disney didn't want to mess around with the whole Zeus-is-married-but-likes-to-fool around with/rape-humans thing).

Mulan: dad, but no mom.

Quasimodo is an interesting case because he's got the evil stepmother thing in reverse: Frollo is the evil stepfather who killed his real mother.

Tiana has a mom and no dad.

Pocahontas has a dad and no mom.

Dumbo, famously, has a mom. I would argue that so does Pinocchio, in the form of the Blue Fairy.

[leora]

And the moral of the story is that happy children with good parents they are content to stay with are highly unlikely to have nifty adventures. So, if you had the misfortune to have two loving parents, well, your life is going to be dull. Bit of a pick me up for the kids who don't though, perhaps.

[plymouth]

I am reminded of this NPR piece from a couple of years back:

Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees: Please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess.

[chimerically]

Wow, nice! Thanks for posting - I hadn't seen (or heard) that.

[fanlain]

I passed my dissertation proposal defense yesterday (yay!),

congrats!

[chimerically]

Thanks! :~) One more hurdle ...

[chimerically]

A fellow dancer who works at Pixar pointed out that their upcoming movie Brave does have a female main character! Pity she's a princess, but we can hope that they shake up the "princess" category by making her a convincing tomboy.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/28/brave-pixar-first-look/

[corpsefairy]

Congratulations on passing your defense!

"Lilo and Stitch" passes the Bechdel Test several times over. Much of the movie is about Lilo's relationship with Nani, and Lilo has a couple of conversations with other little girls.

"Pocahontas" might pass, but just barely. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think Pocahontas and her friend Nakoma have a conversation about how Poca is always running off.
...Oh wait no, it does pass, because Pocahontas has a conversation with Grandmother Willow, and it's before she meets John Smith.