The Visibility of Women in Animation: An economic analysis

Before this continues, I think I should mention that this analysis comes from my outsider male perspective which is intrinsically worth considering as you read. And this essay was written for a university module about gender and sexuality. I share it here as I hope the information is of use. I would like to note that in this essay, I will be discussing various individuals gender identities and due to a lack of literature detailing those individuals’ genders, I will be risking the assumption of gender frequently in my essay. I researched to the best of my ability the gender of everyone mentioned and attempted to be as accurate as possible. Women are visible within the animation industry in mainstream cinema. And there are women working in various fields within the industry, from appearing on screen to working behind the camera and to operating the businesses that produce animated films. However, most roles available within the animation industry are occupied predominantly by men. To evidence this claim, I have selected the most successful mainstream animated films in terms of gross revenue and critical acclaim (at the time of writing this essay January 2021). According to Box Office Mojo as of January 4th, 2021, the five highest grossing animated films are (from highest to lowest): 1. The Lion King (2019) worldwide gross $1,656,943,394 2. Frozen II (2019) worldwide gross $1,450,026,933 3. Frozen (2013) worldwide gross $1,280,802,282 4. Incredibles 2 (2018) worldwide gross $1,242,805,359 5. Minions (2015) worldwide gross $1,159,398,397 (Box Office Mojo, 2021). And to find the most successful animated film critically, I have used the Annie awards to measure critical acclaim in film animation. And Pixar’s Coco (2017) has won the most Annie awards of any previously nominated feature film. Boasting 11 awards, winning in every category in which it was nominated including best animated feature (Flores, 2018). Because of these six films exceptional success, I will refer to them as indicative of mainstream animated cinema and use them to discuss to what extent women are visible in animation industries. I have researched the women involved in the production of these films. I have focused on the central characters that appear in these movies, the senior creative positions which have significantly influenced the final cuts of the films, and the corporate management that are responsible for the existence of these movies. I also investigated whether these critically and financially successful films have passed the Bechdel-Wallace test. The Bechdel-Wallace test was developed and popularised by Alison Bechdel and Liz Wallace when they were discussing a set of criteria for high quality portrayals of women in cinema – which Bechdel featured in her 1985 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (Ulaby, 2008). The criteria for a film to pass the Bechdel-Wallace test is as follows: 1. It must have at least two [named] women in it 2. Who talk to each other 3. About something besides a man (Bechdeltest, 2021). I will now detail (in alphabetical order) whether the previously mentioned films have female acting leads, senior creative roles i.e., director, writer, music composition, producer, cinematographer, editor etc. excluding actors. And whether they pass the Bechdel-Wallace test. Coco (2017) does not have a female protagonist. Women leading the production are producer Darla K. Anderson and lighting cinematographer Danielle Feinberg. Coco passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. Frozen (2013) has two female protagonists in Anna and Elsa. Women leading the production are director/writer Jennifer Lee, song writer Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Frozen passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. Frozen II (2019) has two female protagonists in Anna and Elsa. Women leading the production are director/writer Jennifer Lee and song writer Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Frozen II passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. Incredibles 2 (2018) has a family as protagonist but a central focus on Helen Parr aka Elastigirl’s role as provider for the family. Women leading the production are producer Nicole Paradis Grindle. Incredibles 2 passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. Minions (2015) has a genderless group as protagonist however the only named Minions have conventionally male names. Women leading the production are producer Janet Healy and editor Claire Dodgson. Minions passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. The Lion King (2019) does not have a female protagonist. Women leading the production are producer Karen Gilchrist, adapted story credited writers Irene Mecchi and Linda Woolverton. It is worth noting the original The Lion King (1994) also credited Brenda Chapman and Lorna Cook for story writing alongside 16 other male writers. The Lion King passes all three of the Bechdel-Wallace tests. Five of these films fall under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Company. I will detail The Walt Disney corporation’s management staff and detail the women in management as their visibility in the animation industry is as important as the visibility of women in the content they produce. On the board of directors are Susan E. Arnold, Mary T. Barra, Safra A. Catz and Maria Elena Lagomasino. Senior corporate officers include Christine M. McCarthy, Diane Jurgens, Lowell Singer, Zenia Mucha, Jayne Parker, Latondra Newton and Nancy Lee (The Walt Disney Company, 2021). I researched female senior staff and have found there are a significant number of women responsible for producing animated content at Disney. I have selected these notable examples based off the relevance of their role regarding the animation industry. Notable examples of female senior staff who produce animated content for Disney include: President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy (Lucasfilm, 2021) Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Jennifer Lee (LaPorte, 2018). President of Production Services, Franchise Management, and Multicultural Engagement, Cathleen Taff (Variety, 2021). Co-Chairman, Searchlight Pictures, Nancy Utley (Donnelly, 2019). And Fox Animation Co-President, Andrea Miloro (Donnelly 2019). The one film to challenge the Disney monopoly in highest grossing films is Minions (2015). I will detail notable women in management within Universal Pictures and its associated animation studios: Illumination’s co-owner and Chairman, Donna Langley. President of Dreamworks Animation, Margie Cohn. And President of Distribution, Veronika Kwan Vandenberg (Universal Pictures, 2021). In my research investigating the most successful animated films and the women who made them I have noted a larger number of men working on these films. For instance, at Universal Pictures, the leadership team is comprised of 11 men and 5 women. Within Disney’s executive leadership, there are 14 men and 7 women. And Disney’s board of directors contains 6 men and 4 women. The Frozen films are the only two of the six films listed that have female protagonists. And the only movies to be directed by a woman. And while these films have a diverse cast of performers, the creative roles behind them are predominantly occupied by men – apart from the role of producer which is sometimes occupied by women. But out of the six most successful animated films, few have a 50/50 split in creative roles and when a woman works as editor, cinematographer, songwriter, director, and writer - the credit is often shared with a man. My investigations are similar to Martha M. Lauzen’s research into this subject. Lauzen studied the highest grossing films of 2019 and found that “females accounted for 37% of major characters” and 34% of all speaking characters (Lauzen, 2020). Lauzen also found that in 2019-20, “women comprised 38% of directors” and 35% of writers in independent films. In addition to that, Lauzen noted that “66% of those working as directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers were male” (Lauzen, 2020). These findings indicate that women are visible throughout the animation industry regarding high grossing mainstream cinema however women are overshadowed by the larger number of men who occupy most of the roles in the narrative, production, and business of films. When it comes to mainstream US television, women are even less represented, and the environment is majority male. However there has been a recent shift in women’s visibility. “In 2018, the number of television episodes directed by women grew by 36% compared to 2017” (Mihailova, 2018). It has been argued that this growing trend of women in television animation has occurred because of the #MeToo movement and the proliferation of crowdfunding services (Mihailova, 2018). Even though the mainstream animation industry is dominated by men, there are still a lot of women training to become professional animators. “More than 70% of the animation students on Valencia campus [at CalArts] were female.” And a further 69% at UCLA and 55% at USC – yet “women still hold fewer than a quarter of the union jobs” (Ito, 2017). Jeremy Kay’s inclusion report at Annecy found that while roughly half of the executives and most powerful positions in major films animation companies and studios were women, few made it to head of story positions or lead creative roles. “Data on film directors and unit heads in animated movies and TV series suggest that once women enter the animation field, they opt out or are pushed to other work as they navigate the career paths to a prominent creative job” (Kay, 2019). Approximately, for every woman visible in the animation industry there are two men or more. What is the effect of this visibility? Historically it has resulted in undermining the achievements in animation by women, such as the minimisation of the artistic merit of Lotte Reiniger (Boeckenhoff & Ruddell, 2019: 76). Or the belittlement of female capability by Walt Disney (Acuna, 2014). Or the standardization of eroticised depictions of women in animation textbooks (Ito, 2017). Recently women in animation have been contesting this historically male-dominated industry. One notable example is the work of Rebecca Sugar and her show Steven Universe (2013). Sugar is the first female showrunner on Cartoon Network (Segal, 2016), the series featured the first ever same-sex wedding on children’s television and her work has been awarded a Peabody award (Blanchard, 2019). While the titular protagonist of the show is male, the characters that dominate Steven Universe are non-binary. I am referring to the fictional race of gems within the show which are voiced exclusively by female voice actors and the character designs do not shy from feminine portrayals. Sugar has commented on the show’s attempt to subvert historical gendered animation: “so much of the pre-existing language for cartoons is heavily gendered. For example, how many cartoon couples are two identical characters, except one has eyelashes and a bow?” (Opam, 2017). Sugar went on to encourage the creation of gender nonconforming characters because of their wide audience appeal. Perhaps this characterization reflects Rebecca Sugar’s own nonbinary identity, but the content of the television series seems to imply that this is the new wave of thinking in animation. No longer beholden to traditional depictions of gender. In conclusion, I have investigated the most successful animated films and analysed them as a reflection of the animation industry to determine to what extent women are visible in the animation industries. After detailing the previously mentioned films number of visible women, I noted most ‘visible’ workers within the animation industries are male and have historically defined the practice. Finally, I mentioned an example of how the animation industry is changing with the work of new voices, and new ideas about gender evidenced by the work of Rebecca Sugar. 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