Thursday, June 28, 2018
Pixar Designer Talks About Sexism at the Company
The Mary Sue: In a harrowing personal essay, former Pixar graphic designer Cassandra Smolcic discusses the habitual sexism and harassment she endured while working for the storied animation giant. Smolcic describes a pervasive atmosphere of harassment and objectification that defined Pixar’s corporate culture, starting with its CCO John Lasseter.
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This piece was truly revealing in how much sexism is inherent in corporate workplaces even in industries that you might expect to be more forward in what they do. These corporations are showing children movies that teach morals and values and may not treat everyone in their company equally which is upsetting. But I am proud of the Pixar designer for leaving the company and not engaging in a toxic atmosphere.
Additionally, It is truly interesting to look at this culture of sexism from a viewpoint that I may never have seen otherwise. If people can get away with ignoring someone's ideas and claiming that their gifts are flaws simply due to ethnicity or sex, it means that nothing will ever effectively get done in our culture because we will have people who are too worried about offending someone to speak out and risk running against society. The toxicity in a workplace that doesn't allow for gender equality is not only detrimental to the experience of one designer but to the outcome of the work because that one designer, whether its a woman, a man, of any race offers their own perspective and ideas so any opinions should be taken into consideration and not wholly rejected due to the idea that the other person is stupid due to gender issues.
This article has shed a light on how females still do not have an equal role in the workplace, although there have been plenty of laws passed to insure equality. I find it insane to think that Pixar is allowing such a sexist person to be the CCO. I believe that Pixar should take measures in order to show that they are not believers of the actions that the CCO is making. I also think it is truly disgusting how the CCO is objectifying people in the workplace. Like it is one thing to think that women are inferior, which they are not, but it is a whole different story whenever you prevent them from doing their job whenever you can very well work with them in your presence. This is similar to very restrictive dress codes in school districts because women are "causing a disturbance" with the way that they dress. While men are almost never approached.
I think that what makes this article most troubling is that it concerns Pixar. Personally, I have grown up watching and learning from Pixar films. Not only are many of their films meant to entertain children, they’re also meant to teach children about what is right and wrong in the world. Therefore, it is troubling to think that the company making these films has not yet figured out these things for itself. I think that it is a good thing that this article was written because the more light that can be shed on this issue, the better, especially in places where these issues aren’t expected. I also think that it is crucial in creative fields, of all places, to have equality because in order for art to be inspiring and truly educational, it has to be able to come from and represent many different voices, including those of females. I also think that the article brings up an interesting point about there not being many female main characters until recently. As girls grow up, it is motivational for them to see strong female role models in films doing incredible things. Sadly, when this is not the case, it sets up false standards for which gender is supposed to be the one saving the day and which gender is the one being saved. If not treated carefully, concepts like these are able to discourage children from a young age from achieving all they want to achieve. Fortunately, it seems like Pixar may be potentially moving in a better direction now. It is all of our jobs to make sure this process continues and that other companies follow suit.
By reading this article it just further proves how women do not have an equal role in the workplace' Furthermore, it shows the daily struggles many women go through on a day to day basis. It's just astonishing to me how the CCO of Pixar can get away with degrading women of their capabilities in the workplace, such as keeping out Cassandra in meetings because she can be too distracting or receiving her performance review which had a negative column of “designs too many options; seems like she’s trying too hard; asks too many questions." With that being said it's sad that women still have to go through these types of problems every single day, and if they ever want to be recognized they either have to work harder than anyone else or find another job that will recognize them for their talent and not objectify them because of their gender.
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