V Bechdel test
V Mako Mori Test
V Sexy Lamp Test
V The Crystal Gems Test
1) Joy, Sadness, Riley... er... Mom?
2) Now, Joy has her own story arch, because this movie is all about her. Riley and Sadness get their own story arch.
But mom? She doesn't. Her life is all about supporting her husband.
She even tells Riley to do that.
It's not about trying to support her 11 years old daughter about the inevitably stressful and traumatic event moving from Minnesota to San Francisco is, moving from countryside to a big city, leaving all her friends and everything she has ever known behind and start a whole new life from scratch. No, she needs to be the happy little manic pixie dream girl to help their dad to adjust to the new situation... dad who wanted to move in the first place.
They moved to SF because dad wanted to, and now the women of the family have to put aside their difficulties in adjusting to the new situation so that the man is happy! WTF?
X F-Rating
V Sphinx Test
Rating
IMDb 8.2 Rotten Tomatoes 98% CinemaScore A
X The Feldman Score 4p
X Furiosa Test
V The Roxane Gay Test
The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows
X Gender Balance - Gender Representation:
There are more male roles than female roles
Primary roles: 5 females, 4 males
All: 38 males, 27 females
Are they equal? No
- protagonist: Joy, a female
- Her sidekick: Sadness, a female
- her other co-workers; Fear and Anger, males and Disgust, female - these emotions are represented as of lesser value and interest
- they are Riley's emotions, Riley is a female
- Riley has mother and father
Now, Disney tried to say "pre-pubertal kids have emotions of both genders". The prepubertal boy had 1/4 ratio. Disgust was the only female in his head.
Also, when Joy and Sadness are swept away to have an adventure, they leave Riley with 2 males and 1 female...
Now, of course, it's great Joy and Sadness get to go out, have adventures and save the day, and all the three emotions who stay at home are depicted as fully equal, but she is still for most of the movie with male emotions... Maybe someone didn't quite think this through properly?
narrator female
role models, teachers, mentors, parents: both genders (mostly female)
Director male, written mostly by males, produced by males, edited by males
crew: male 635 female 280
And I'm happily surprised by seeing so many female names, until I noticed that they STILL are just 1/3 of the crew. X-[
V The Rees Davies Test
X The White Test
This was close, one of the closest I've seen. Half of the department heads were women, even more than half.
X The Hagen Test
X The Koeze-Dottle Test
V Gender Freedom:
She plays hockey.
She has mostly girly clothes, but she does get to wear pants, too. Every human gets to wear pants.
Her female emotions all wear skirt, male emotions wear pants.
Dad is shown carrying a broom around. He doesn't use it to clean, though, but to play hockey with.
Mom plays hockey as a goalie. Dad just picks her up to let Riley score, and then he lifts Riley up. That's supposed to be a fun family moment. I would be very upset for him using his physical strength to stop me from playing hockey with my daughter.
Mom and Riley don't play hockey without dad. When dad has to leave for work, Mom and Riley go to buy pizza.
How about boys, what do they get to do?
Dad takes care of Riley when she's little. Dad feeds her when she is little. Dad is depicted as capable dad.
Fear is depicted as male, so boys are allowed to feel scared.
Bing-Bong is male and he cries and sacrifices himself for Riley and Joy.
Anger is also depicted as male. The bus driver has only anger inside him, there's no joy, fear, disgust or sadness, just anger.
The depiction of dad during the dinner scene is deplorable.
But, all in all, it's acceptable. Not good, but OK.
V the MacGyver Test
V the Raleigh Becket Test
V Man-child test
V The Peirce Test
V The Villarreal Test
V The Landau Test
V The Tauriel Test
V The Willis Test
That looks good, doesn't it? So, why doesn't I let it pass "gender freedom" part of Maisy test?
Because the characters are STILL very gender stereotypical and the subliminal messages are pretty awful.
X Molly Haskell test
Frankly, the mom of the family sacrifices her life and career for her husband, and even expects her daughter to do the same. As far as I can see, there is nothing in the movie that says the family didn't move half across the world for any other reason but for the dad.
V Gender Safety:
Well, there isn't objectification, sexualisation, scenes of sexual nature or sexual violence in this movie. The only nudity is of a toddler Riley whose bare bum is shown.
I would say the body image is OK, too. Everybody eats.
Oh, except for the Brazilian helicopter pilot... he is objectified.
X Social Justice and Equality:
It's pretty good, just not good enough.
There are colored people and people of all shapes and sizes. The main characters are all white.
Both Joy and Riley are slender and traditionally pretty.
Riley's mom and Sadness have glasses.
The new class teacher is a black woman. Most of the students are white.
Now, when it comes to social justice and equality... not really.
V THE REPRESENTATION TEST B
X Kent test
X Aila test
V The Waithe Test
V The Ko Test
X The Villalobos Test
WTF quotes
"Dad just left us. He doesn't love us anymore. That's sad."
"Your dad's under a lot of pressure, but if you and I can keep smiling, it would be a big help. We can do that for him. Right?"
"For this we gave up a Brazilian helicopter pilot?"
How to make it better?
* all the emotions should have been female, and they should have been dressed gender neutral way, like in scifi uniforms or something like that.
* the supporting cast and people in background need more women, more POC, more disabled people, more LGBT people
* The "Brazilian helicopter pilot" is too adult for a family movie and unnecessary sexualization and objectification.
* skip the mother and make the dad a whole person. Yes, it is totally OK to show the father as a sole parent, even when the lack of mothers is a Disney trope. Right now the mother was a bit of a cardboard character.
Or skip the dad and make the mother a whole person.
Or keep both parents and make both of them whole people. Like show how the decision was made by both, how the mom also has a work, perhaps they work together? Perhaps that made them ignore the kid?
* Having the dad "put his foot down", sure, it was comical, but now they punished her for being sad and upset and having difficulties adjusting to the new situation, which is totally normal, acceptable, to be expected. Punishing her for it, is not. Also the whole discussion between mom's and dad's emotions was not OK. It was confirming harmful stereotypes.
* They really do nothing about the "girls have to be happy" conditioning. "Oh, sweetheart" says the mom. Marge Simpson at least told Lisa "Be you. It's ok to be sad if you are sad". No, it was "I miss Minnesota, too." They need to tell the 11 years old that her parents didn't mean she needs to be happy even when she isn't. She doesn't need to be anything but what she is. All emotions are OK and should be expressed, but it would be helpful if she told them that she is unhappy because this house is scary and ugly and dirty and their stuff is gone and she's in a new school and doesn't have any friends, but her former best friend already has a new friend, and that makes her sad and angry and scared, and it's natural that makes people sad and angry and scared and it's OK: There are things in life that won't be all sunshine and unicorn farts, but it's OK. Everything will be OK. She will be OK. SF will be OK.
Apologize for not being her emotional support in this traumatic event in her life. Apologize for being thoughtless and stupid. That they will not punish her again for not being "positive", they will not ask her to be happy and they will not define her as their happy girl.
So...one little nitpick about Inside Out
Actually, Inside Out's Gender Norms Are A Major Problem
When "Choice Feminism" Really Means "Don't Question The Status Quo, Ever"
No, Dudes, Sitcom Dads Are Not An Evil Feminist Plot. They're Postmodern Patriarchy.
Look How Hilariously Political Traditionalists Are, (Especially) When They Think They’re Not
Inside Out's Feminism, and Other Imaginary Friends
Has Anyone Else Noticed That Riley's Parents Kind Of Suck?
When Sexism is More Than Just Bad Table Manners
BTW, here's the house:
What Does Pixar’s "Inside Out" Say about Gender?
Getting Inside the Messages in “Inside Out”
No comments:
Post a Comment