Women and Hollywood: It's not news that the animation industry has always been a boys club, but that doesn't make BuzzFeed's recent longform exposé on the historical, institutional and ongoing sexism within the field any less powerful. Ariane Lange's piece is full of revealing tidbits, like the fact that wearing a pantsuit to the office was a fireable offense for women at Disney until 1958. But the most compelling elements of the article come from the many women -- both retired and still working -- who share their often horrific experiences about what it's like to be a woman in animation.
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I do believe that sexism is such a prevalent problem in the entertainment industry because I have had to deal with it personally, and I do not know a single woman who hasn’t. It isn’t just a problem that many men have sexist mentalities; it is also a problem that many women are raised to feel inferior. I’ve known plenty of talented young women who are afraid to go near anything considered “manly” like carpentry. I sometimes have the same feelings just because it becomes obvious when working alongside men twice my size that I am physically inferior. This physicality can reinforce the mental inferiority complex which plaques the modern culture of American theater industry.
Over the summer I spoke to a technical director female alumni and she gave me some incredible advice, but also showed me the reality of what it’s like to be a woman in any business. She told me that no matter what I just have to “ignore it and move on.” It seems like that’s the way people are looking into sexism now, similarly to how the women in this article progressed.
Jon Stewart once said, "Sexism, does it still exist? Many men would say no." In the worst way sexism, and particularly sexism in a business setting, is a "you had to have been there" experience. Which is why it is such a hard topic to talk about, because half the people, even the ones that truly want to understand and empathize, will never know what it is really like.
So far in my theater career, I have been lucky enough to not encounter any blatant disrespect towards me because of my gender. Although it is worth noting that up to this point I have been either acting, sewing costumes, or painting. In other words, sufficiently "female" jobs to not warrant a second glance from anyone.
However, what might happen to me if I dared to build a set or climb a lighting grid? As Sasha mentioned, one of the biggest problems with sexism in the entertainment industry is not only the mindset of the male artists, but the feeling of inferiority it can instill in the female artists, blocking them from achieving their full potential.
These stories put forward by Buzzfeed and Woman and Hollywood are just the known ones, there are probably dozens (or hundreds) of brilliant female animation artists who might have been the next Walt Disney but never realised their dreams because their boss had a problem with them not having a penis.
"Gennis also remembered a "recent" event when she was the first in her team to be laid off even though she was the only trained animator in the group. Her supervisor explained that he "wanted to keep his guys working."
To anyone who still believes that women are no longer disadvantaged, please read the above statement. In many fields, women are still seen as "other". A woman entering a predominately male field will face many more obstacles just being accepted and seen as a member of a team, because men used to an all male environment will see the women as an intruder. Going off of what Sasha said about women essentially being taught that women are inferior, women often will see each other as competition as opposed to allies. In this article (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117757/gender-language-differences-women-get-interrupted-more) it is shown that women get interrupted the most... even by other women. Women trying to "make it" in a male dominated field will align themselves with men to try and join the community, and in the process, take on the mindset of the men, seeing other women as intruders, or competition in the "who can fit in more?" category.
I have personally been in this situation. Often times on crew during a build, something I was carrying was taken out of my hands from young boys trying to prove themselves. Once, while I was operating a staple gun, a guy literally tried to wrench it from my hands because he thought he should be in charge (he was also a year my junior and had done exactly one show). I have often times been referred to as a bitch for getting higher level positions on show crews, disciplining misbehavior, or simply asking people to do the jobs they were assigned. Sadly, by now I am used to it. The worst times of this, however, are when these remarks come from other women. Women are so unused to women being in positions of power in typically manly areas that they themselves cannot even conceive it. Sexism in some areas is so ingrained in people's minds, women begin to believe it, and they feel they are inferior. Thus, they are less likely to be confident, less likely to push boundaries, less likely to contribute, and lo and behold, we have lost thousands of otherwise great and creative minds to insecurity.
This article is actually extremely relevant to me right now because not to long ago a male friend of mine and I were discussing the “abundance” of female scholarships in this field and how there weren’t any for males. How, due to affirmative action, a female is more likely to get hired than a male in his field.
He asked me “At what point is it unfair to the men in the field?”
This would have been an incredible resource to have during that conversation. In many fields white males are beginning to feel as if their rights are being infringed upon due to what they attribute to be the results of affirmative action, when in reality they are just beginning to feel the weight of the anchor that held women down in that field.
It is as if they feel it unjust that they should have to carry a fraction of that weight, of “not being what the company is looking for,” or “being discriminated against because of their gender.” And they shouldn’t have to let that weigh on them at all times- but neither should women! And they have for decades!
To go back to the scholarship discussion it is so vital to have SOMETHING motivating young women to pursue these fields when there are such horror stories such as these, and very few women at the top to look up to. All while lifting off the financial burden, these scholarships are providing the necessary support to these young artists.
The problem with sexism in entertainment fields beyond the obvious (it's existence), is that is so completely engrained in the structure of some of the major organizations that there is no one to speak up when injustice like this does happen. Women have a hard time reaching high level positions because there aren't any women there already to advocate for them. Stereotypes, like men needing the job in order to support their family, or that women will stop working when they get married or have children, are perpetuated because there aren't any people counteracting them and proving these antiquated assumptions wrong. This cultural road block, as difficult as it may be, only makes the advancement of women in these boys-club fields all the more important. People assume that women cannot do certain things because they have never seen it be done. If we can have people grow up with a new assumption-- that the talents of women and men are equally vital to creating extraordinary art-- then, with time, we can fix this stunted industry.
Sometimes I wonder why we even bother to write articles like this at all, half the time the fact that it had a female author is enough to get it dismissed as feminist rantings. I really appreciate that the article worked in chronological order, here’s why: It should us that while things are still at a reprehensible level, they are improving. The things that the women of the 50s through 80s had to go through were much worse than the majority of the experiences today. Yes work place abuse does still exist, but now there are some measures in place to punish those who think they can get away with it. Women can advance much easier than they used to be able to. The struggle now is balancing out the numbers. The case of CalArts and its skewed representation of women in its producers show (even though women make up the majority of the class) is the exact place our focus needs to be directed to. Just because we are starting to see women more fairly represented does not meant the battle is over, we’ve just finished the hard part.
Growing up in an academic setting (parents were professors) it was hard to imagine stuff like this going on with the scale it does. However working in theater changed that pretty quickly. I have been amazed from the beginning at how sexist people in theater have been. I always picture artists and the artistically inclined being progressive and on the "right side of history". The sexism in theater is casual (still damaging but often not intentional or stemming from "chivalry") at least that's how it seems as a male. But the articles that have come from the gaming and film production industries have been revolting. It blows my mind that people still behave like this. Id like to believe we have come a long way as a society but the fact that we only recently legalized gay marriage, and that people are still fighting the ruling demonstrates pretty clearly that our society has some deep seated problems that will likely take us decades to correct.
Sexism doesn't just exist in the entertainment industry. Yes, the article speaks about the glass ceiling in animation, but in reality, all STEM-like jobs are dominated by males. It's a hard reality to live with.
I first encountered sexism in the 7th grade. I had signed up for a "Design and Technology" class (it taught basic drafting, architecture, and engineering designs). I had just moved to the Detroit area and I was extremely excited to start the class work (my father, a mechanical engineer, had already kindled a flame in me for woodworking). I walked into the class to realize I was the only girl in it. After the first class the teacher pulled me aside and asked me if I wanted to continue in the class. The day after that, a guidance counselor asked me if I wanted to switch to something different. I stuck with the course. Over the semester, I drifted away from the other students (no one wanted to work with a girl). On the bright side that class inspired me to continue on to more CAD and engineering courses in high school.
A year ago I asked some of my (female) friends, who are pursuing engineering/science, what their experiences were. Two others were also the only girls in their CAD/engineering courses (I should note that in high school, I was always in a class with at least one other girl). A friend who participated in the robotics team (one of three females) said she felt she was viewed as a prize. In one year, she was asked out 19 times by fellow team members.
I'm not trying to belittle the struggles of women in the animation field. I simply want to point out that any woman in a "man's job" faces sexism. Be it engineering, lighting, or animation.
The thing that scared me the most about this article was how possible it would be for these things to happen today. These things could happen to me, they could happen to me and all of my other creative female friends. Sexual harassment has definitely gone down in the workplace, but the issues of hiring men over women are still extremely prominent. And even though these types of things happen all the time, they are swept under the rug and ignored. Women are constantly ignored, put on another level, or seen differently than men. And the problem is, the person in charge, the person putting a woman on another level, probably doesn’t even realize they are doing so. This idea is so engrained into our society, at this point, we just naturally see all women with a different set of skills as men, instead of looking at each person individually. This problem has been bred into the professional world, and it is going to require a lot of work and radical thinking to change it.
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