(no subject)

[moominmolly]

I haven't seen Up yet. I probably will. But when I first read the synopsis, something snapped: AAAUUUUGH YET ANOTHER ADVENTURE MOVIE ABOUT A BOY OMFG. I think I bored everyone that day with my blah blah no movies about girls blah blah blah. But all I've seen so far are people talking about how good it was, or how sad, or possibly both. Nothing new there, really. So it was wonderful to catch this on twitter: "Ask Pixar to make a movie about a girl? Why, that's just P.C. B.S.!", referencing this open letter on NPR.org, entitled "Dear Pixar, from all the girls with band-aids on their knees". Read them both. It won't take long. (Also of note: a column about the Bechdel rule, and how hard it is to find movies that fit it.)

No point here, just life as usual.

Comments

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

i don't actually know enough male kids of the "dora" age. i note that dora has a cousin diego who has his own adventures, and i keep wondering whether there's gender segregation in the shows' audiences.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I had gotten the impression that the Diego show was for an older audience.

[justinjs.livejournal.com]

Your impression was correct about audience age.

In my limited experience, both shows are fairly good when it comes to this stuff. There's a strong supporting female character in the Diego show. The protagonists of both shows are independent and capable in ways that are much better (and more similar to each other) than you might expect from general kids' media.

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

I heard that when Dora first started, boys were really into it too and the producers were surprised, since it was about a girl, and "boys don't like stories about girls". So what did they do? They brought in Diego for the boys. Completely missing the point.

(Of course, this is only rumor and hearsay. But it's totally believable.)

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Sigh. That would not surprise me. Classic corporate greedthink, perhaps? They might've thought that if a lot of boys were into it without a boy character, even more boys would surely join their ranks if they just added a Diego.