Letters to the Editor
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A quest for truth...
Anonymous: "Regarding Ghibli characters, some of them are based on characters by women authors, but most aren't. All of the characters are more Miyazaki than anybody else in the details, and he is male, and his tastes/quirks tend towards male typical. He likes planes and fighter battles. He likes Rube Goldberg kooky machines. He's emotionally reclusive. Etc. So, on that level they're male typical.
"On a higher level, his characters are very androgynous in their major story arc which is philosophical, being for truth, compassion, peace, etc. (Same for PIXAR.) But in the details, aside from breats and hips, they're male. In fact they're Miyazaki himself for the most part."
What are male typical tastes? Here are a few things that Miyazaki likes that might not fall in what should interest a stereotypical man: he's a feminist; he claims to be influenced by a number of female writers like LeGuin, Diana Wynne Jones, Eleanor Farjeon, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Philippa Pearce.
As for his methods, he doesn't create characters that are simply himself in a dress. One example is the main character of Kiki Delivery's Service who just happens to be based on the producer's daughter.
"Miyazaki had older sons, so he consulted Suzuki's daughter on female adolescent experience. That's the kind of thing, Suzuki suggests, that always concerns Miyazaki: emotional accuracy as well as closely observed physical detail. But the latter is crucial. He always, says Suzuki, emphasises the importance of observation to young animators: study landscape, study people, what they look like and how they speak."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/10/1092102434674.html
The main character in Spirited Away was also based on a number of girls he's known (apparently, he was neighbours to a number of little girls and spent a bit of time in their company). As for them ringing true, a female interviewer noted that the main chraacter was like a lot of modern Japanese girls. As for personal identification in the film, Miyazaki said he wasn't like the female lead, but more like one of the monsters in the film.
Going back to Spirited Away, it's funny, though, to note in the whole discussion in what should or shouldn't interest boys or girls something that Miyazaki said about the genesis of the film. In Animage he said that he wanted to create a story for 10 year old girls that didn't revolve around romance. He thought that this was the only thing that society offered them, but that girls wanted more. Maybe he's right about this since Spirited Away became the highest grossing Japanese film.
As for drawing on one's own experience... Bad artists can only write about themselves. Good good artists can identify with other people. That's the nature of art.
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For the animation, you can blame America's macho culture
Boys and men will be teased if they willingly go to see a movie with a female protagonist. Girls and women will NOT be teased if they willingly go to see a movie with a male protagonist. Stupid, yes, but it's true.
For live-action movies, I think the other half of the equation is that movies have to have interesting, high stakes, and an easy way to raise the stakes is by introducing violence. And women are generally not very good at violence.
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Whoa, dude
Directors, writers, designers, animators, etc all help shape the character. Each of them has to reach into their own experience and memories for inspiration. The Hero characters have to be the most inspired and fullest. Until there are many more women in that creative process, the characters are by nature male, coming from the minds of men, and simply putting breasts and hips on them won't change that.
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You realize that most western animation is done by dudes. Does that mean that Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and the Little Mermaid are nothing more like dudes with breasts. That makes their films homoerotic fantasies. That's cool theory.
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Snow White, Cinderella
Snow White and Cinderella are certainly patronizing "female stereotypes" from that era. PC for their day, and good role models, for their day. Made by men.
The Little Mermaid and such contemporary characters are more PC for today, and "good role models" made by men for the most part, and still patronizing in that way.
It's good people are trying, and the standards have improved to be more enlightened, but they're still characters by men with the pretense of being female. They're a step removed from authentic. They don't have the depth and nuance of female characters developed by actual women, drawing from their own memories.
Take the characters in Toy Story 1. They were dead on because that's exactly how boys, especially boys, play with toys, the kind of toys they play with, including the psycho kid next door. (I think every boy knew that kid.) In Iron Giant, the characters are again very male pattern, because Brad Bird is drawing on his past. Same with the Incredibles based on action hero comics. He made his first animated movie at age 14 and met Lasseter in college. The guy was a major geek, in the best sense. But there weren't many girl geeks 40-50 years ago.
The primaries at top studios aren't 20yo, and 20yo kids aren't going to be heading $100M movies anytime soon. Lasseter and Brad Bird are 50. Miyazaki is 66. Takahata is over 70. Lucas is over 60.
If we want to see authentic female characters from animation studios with women primaries, then girl geeks need to get busy. To this day, it's hard to find women artists with good enough chops. There are some who are awesome, top notch. But too few. And many companies are trying to hire them.
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erlik9
blame America's macho culture...Boys and men will be teased if they willingly go to see a movie with a female protagonist.
Oh BS. That is truly one of the most retarded comments in this thread.
Look at the top grossing live action films. Plenty of female protagonists, including action heroes and traditionally male typical characters in addition to classical female roles.
The difference with animation is that it's actually a real woman playing the role, so her nuances and improvisations are female.