People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples
When it comes to cartoons, what defines the difference between a boy and a girl if the character is an animal? Moreover, is there a need to clearly define the character’s gender anyway? Apparently, the studio executives behind the most popular cartoons think that it’s crucial, but the portrayal of female animal characters in cartoons is giving some people a serious headache.
Just a few years ago, there were even articles on popular news and entertainment outlets suggesting lists of drawn female characters that “sparked” someone’s “sexual awakening”. “I feel like I’m not the only one who would have this as their cartoon crush,” one person wrote while talking about Jessica Rabbit.
Apparently, when it comes to the question, people are divided into two groups: one group has had enough of “sexy” cartoon characters, while the other group finds nothing wrong with it. “The way I handle this is I remember it’s all fictional and I shouldn’t take it as a nature documentary,” one person wrote on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that, but when other Twitter users started posting examples of sexualized cartoon animals, it was apparent that there was a pattern.
More info: Twitter
Recently, one Twitter user pointed out a weird pattern they noticed while watching animated movies
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The user argued that anthropomorphized characters that are female are given exaggerated features
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“Been watching more animated movies lately and I go [wild] every time the animal designs are like this,” Twitter user slimyhipster wrote upon sharing a drawn picture of a male and female design of a character. “Like okay, there’s always been criticism of fantasy species and the females always look like recolored human women versus the males that look like actual cool monster designs,” the person continues. “But this… when they’re based on *real animal species* and the differences between male and female are not like this. Argue for “stylistic choice” all you want but when the consistent design trait that is used across the board for animated female creatures is boobs and eyelashes then we have a problem.”
Soon enough, other users on the platform were quick to share the examples they witnessed themselves
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Most of the cases involved a heavily sexualized female character
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Someone mentioned “the sexy lady goose” from the 2004 movie “Balto III: Wings of Change”
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And characters from the 2020 anime “Seton Academy: Join the Pack!”
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But one of the most disturbing cases was the duck from Marvel’s 1986 movie “Howard the Duck”
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Click here for the uncensored version (at your own risk of sanity).
Someone posted two deer from Open Season (2006) as a side-by-side comparison
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One user mentioned the female characters in “Ice Age” (2002-2016) as well
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Also, Angelina Jolie’s character in “Shark Tale” (2004)
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And many others
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Surprisingly, there was already some research done on the topic. Katia Perea, a Ph.D. of sociology, writes in her paper: “Disney’s pedagogy and gender coding set the stage for the princess master narrative that has come to be associated with animated women; young, thin, demure, attractive, orphaned heroines and their cute animal friends who passively await rescue from an unknown prince.”
“This image fitted into Disney’s feminine triptych, perpetuating heteronormative gender coding in the form of the princess, the witch, and the fairy godmother. To compete with the overwhelming appeal of the symphonic Disney style of sentimental and cute, rival Warner Bros. animators transformed their cartoons into a cacophony of the surreal. Whereas Disney portrayed its young women as conservative and beautiful damsels, Warner Bros. portrayed them as sexualized broads and dames,” she continued.
“These feminine characters’ gendered demarcations were shown through sexualized attributes such as breasts and curves, as well as feminine clothing, hairstyles, and long eyelashes. Although Warner Bros. women differ from Disney in their sassy attitude and overt sexual appearance, the message remains the same: women exist as the male object of desire. Disney’s damsels, like Snow White and Cinderella, reinforced domestic gender roles whereas Warner Bros.’ sarcastic and sexy dames, like Petunia Pig or Bugs Bunny in lingerie drag, reinforced women’s objectification and, at times, like the girl cat being chased by the boy skunk Pepe Le Pew, violence against women,” Katia argues in her paper published back in 2018.
However, there were some who didn’t have a problem with the animated design of females
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There were people who argued that it’s better when the female is “prettier and more colorful”
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To illustrate the point that it’s not essential to give exaggerated features to female characters, Twitter users shared good examples seen in cartoons
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Someone mentioned an animated movie from the 1970s, “The Aristocats”
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And the fish parents from Finding Dory (2016)
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Kitty Softpaws’ character in “Puss in Boots” (2011)
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And two people shared Kung Fu Panda (2008) as a great example of anthropomorphized designs
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Naturally, huge discussions like these sooner or later always retreat to jokes
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Which were quite spot on, actually
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And were mocking big studio execs
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Share on FacebookJessica Rabbit isn't a rabbit. She's human (an exaggerated cartoon human, but still a human). Her last name is Rabbit because she's married to Roger Rabbit. Now THAT'S the part that's weird.
Sigh, people need to stop with their outrage. Are some of these ridiculous? Sure, but if they all look the same it is hard to follow the story. And we are already anthropomorphizing them by giving them human specific emotions and story lines... video games are a whole different thing. Give a lady some armor!!!
That I can agree with. Female armour in rpgs is a running joke. I hold out hope for an rpg maker including bikini armour for the male characters too. The Chain Mail Beach Thong of protection + 1 would be epic.
Load More Replies...Really? People are having trouble with female character shorthand like a more puffed up chest an bigger hips? Its basic cartooning to make characters identifiable, like the barrel chest, big hands and chin a strong character gets (Montaray Jack f.e) or the thin slender built a sneaky character gets. Ok some instances are exaggerated, but most of the time there is a reason for it in the story.
The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. ----------------------------- This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all.
Load More Replies...Yes, i am female, but i don't really care. Just drop it. Please.
I'm female and I'm a character designer so no, this is not something I'll drop. Nearly everyone in the quoted Twitter threads is correct.
Load More Replies...The whole point is that this kind of portraial of female characters is in the first place not realistic. You don't need lashes, a pretty face, small nose and boobs to be a female. The main audience of animated movies are children. This is education! So I totally understand the whole point. A good example is piglet, roo and the snake Kaa. They are animals and it simply doesn't matter if they are pretty or have female features. The sex of somebody shouldn't be the most important thing or must have to be identified with the first view.
There's better ways of showing a visual difference between male and female characters than boobs and eyelashes. Make the females slightly smaller, and perhaps a little more slender. That's it. That's all you have to do. Females of many species are usually a little smaller than the males, so it actually makes sense. I think the part that bothers me the most is when the female characters are hypersexualized, while the male characters aren't. It's gross.
My experience is that females always seem to have large biceps, without much gym work. Maybe start there...?
Load More Replies...The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all. You can also see that when you draw a stick figure. Usually, if it is just the simple stick figure (head, limbs and torso) people assume it’s male. In order for it to be female there has to be something more, like a skirt or long hair. You also can see it in several culture products where there are a number of different male characters, each one with a different personality (the brave one, the intelligent/nerd one, the lea
You get it all wrong. The reason for all this it's extremely simple. Men like to see women that way, it pleases them more. So the producers know they'll sell more by doing this. Women, on the other hand, don't seem to care if the male characters are portrait in a more "identifiable" way or not. So they simply have no incentive to do that with the male characters. In summary, everything that is presented in the market is done in a way that pleases consumers the most. So, If you want this to change you will have to show the market that this is what you want, and that you are willing to pay for it of course.
Load More Replies...yeah, and the male leads in these animated films are NEVER exaggerated. Gimme a f*****g break.
They are and it’s mentioned in the article. The point if the read is that females are generally hypersexualized and “feminine” while the males are either left as is or are made to look closer to character.
Load More Replies...I've got boobs and proud of 'm. This isnt a battle we need to fight, there are worse problems in this world.
Chickens don't have any. They also do not have long eyelashes, high heels and makeup.
Load More Replies...I think it's innapropriate to be giving female characters such exaggerated features. As a young woman, I do not appreciate it when they do this to female characters. Plus, most women in real life don't look ridiculous like that.
Lamby: IKR? Especially in anime...some of us were hoping that they really looked like that..
Load More Replies...For the posters that think male are not subject to this presure: every...superhero...movie...ever! Boys/men are taught at a young age to just suck it up and deal with it. Why do you think male suicide rate is soooooo much higher than female. We have feelings too, we need to be told we look good too. Besides Captin Underpants, show me one superhero that looks like your average male.
Additionally, (now that I found my soapbox) portraying males like this is bad for women too. It leads women to believe they MUST find a man like that to be protected. You know what men who look like that are? Egotistical a******s that look at themselves in the mirror while they workout. And then the women wonder why their relationship sucked. I know this isn't 100% true, just 99.999999%.
Load More Replies...The ice age one I feel was deliberate, to show that the daughter was a very girly girl (not a bad thing and not always shown through the way she looks) and was separate from her parents, it could also carry the message of trying to fit in, by having her parents (who are comfortable with themselves) demonstrate the traditional mammoth look and then have her looking like a human (female) mammoth like the other teenage mammoths allows the audience to make connections that way. I don't think the design of these two characters is relevant in demonstrating male and female characters. Instead they should have used Manny and Ellie as a demonstration of it not happening in all cartoons.
I don't always notice the overdeveloped pectoral region, but the first thing I think of when I consider female cartoon animals is those dang over-exaggerated eyelashes!
Sometimes I think people google “what should offend me today” and come up with a new stupid thing to be offended by
Normally I’d agree but in this case, as a character designer and as a woman who’s tired of seeing female characters being sexualized, this legit ticks me off.
Load More Replies...Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Oxford English Dictionary... Most of the overly sexualized female characters are from the 20th century...
Missing the point here. It's the way the genders are anthropomorphized in such distinctly different ways.
Load More Replies...we should not be teaching little kids that to be female you have to dress and act like these images
I remember seeing a show with anthropomorphic lions, and the females had feminine features. Yeah, ignore the fact that lions are famous for their irl sexual dimorphism.
It CAN be a bit annoying sometimes, but they're the most recognisable characteristic of a female human at first glance.
Load More Replies...Birds with 'mammaries'?? Clue's in the name bozo, mammaries...mammal?? Birds aren't mammals, why'd we want our kids thinking they are??
bruh its a cartoon visit the boomerang nebula and chill
Load More Replies...Nvm, just haven't really noticed before. Think more movies should follow Kung Fu Panda and Shrek's female designs
Load More Replies...There was a fantastic "Rhymes with Orange" comic strip from Feb 28, 1999 that dealt with this very thing. It had a female bear deciding that she was tired of being distinguished from her male counterpart via lipstick and eyelashes, and instead making the male bear wear tighty-whities and hold a TV remote to indicate his gender. It used to be posted at http://rhymeswithorange.com/comics/february-28-1999/ but it seems to have disappeared from the internet. I wish I could find it again!
Daphne, I see Hilary Price's comic daily on FB. Get on there, send a message via messenger, and see what develops...
Load More Replies...This was probably just like 20 people on twitter that Bored Panda turned into an article as if it was some global movement. The truth is that, like that one person said, it isn't a nature documentary. The animals in these films have been anthropomorphized in order for the audience to better connect with the characters. If you want more accurate animals, try the animals in Snow White, Bambi, or the Fox and the Hound.
Okay I'm morbidly curious, what cartoon is the sexy chicken near the top from?
That's Goldie Pheasant from Rock- A -Doodle. She's actually a pheasant, not a chicken.
Load More Replies......maybe that bull was in the middle of transitioning or something o_O? any other way and it just does not add up. At all.
It was just a really lazy character design--that's why all the bulls in that movie had udders.
Load More Replies...As a female who's read a lot of the comments, I have to side with OP here, yes it's a cartoon/kids movie so you couldn't expect all female characters to be 100% biologically drawn but at the same time it's insulting to see what's supposed to be a female lizard drawn like a girl with bad skin, giving her a voice with a higher pitch and slightly longer lashes Isnt a problem but having her designed with shoulder length hair plus lipstick and massacre?? It's insulting, women are so much more than pretty colors and D cups. Take the princess and the frog for example, when Tiana is turned into a frog it's easy to tell them apart because prince naveen had the striped like pattern, deeper voice, and was taller by comparison. While Tianas voice was higher and her color was a slightly lighter shade of green.
This basically implies that you don't care what a female character's personality is if you judge her by her design alone.
Load More Replies...Soooo, how would they want them to draw characters then? Like real birds or cats? No one can friggin tell looking at a pigeon if it's a female or male. I can't believe this is an article even, and that proper are fucken bothered by such things.
You don’t have to oversexualize characters to show that they are female. But that’s not a problem of those specific cartoons, it actually shows that being female is culturally stereotyped. The cultural norm is being male. This has important implications in law making, politics, medicine and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And there’s also a tendency of objectification of women, which makes sense if you consider that the normal point of view is male. It usually means that women are not seen as fully person on their own right, but only in relation to men, and, in that sense, as a sexual/romantic partner to the male protagonist. That’s why you have so strongly sexualized features in female characters.
Load More Replies...I have a couple of thoughts here, not all necessarily what i think is right, just thoughts.. Firstly. They ARE just artists interpretations of anthropomorphic animals. Not all female animal characters are drawn hyper sexy. Just some are and this article has hand picked just a small handful of characters that are moreso than others. kind of like humans. you do get male characters drawn like human males too.. ive never seen a fox stand on two feet and walk around in clothes but zootopia and robin hood have this. just that the examples here differ. I might be wrong, but i feel like this article is body shaming animated animal characters? (why?) or are they saying its wrong to be attracted to some people for the way they look? is the article writer just uncomfortable with finding a drawing of a human-animal attractive? reminder that not all the animations above are aimed at children. the Howard the Duck example is actually from an 18 rated film and is meant to be uncomfortable.
Note how you point out that animals designed like human males = standing on two legs and wearing clothes... why would that not be the same for female anthro animals? Just to stand on two legs and wear clothes? The “human male” example you gave is fine because there’s nothing wrong with it. The problem with the female anthro designs is the idea that female = “SEXY BOOBS” or whatever. Why do female animals, particularly ones that are not mammals, need mammary glands?? There’s so many other ways to indicate the gender of a nonhuman character without making them as close to a “sexy” human woman as possible.
Load More Replies...blizzard entertainment be like: "remember our motto, concept artists!, tiddies over functionality!"
I think they are just meant to represent cute or sexy characters. The generally best most recognisable way to do that is to add some eyelashes, bust/hip shapes and bigger eyes. If the characters are not meant to be actual animals but more like animal people there is even less problem imho.
It's almost as if the word "anthropomorphise" means make something more human!
Load More Replies...I the movie rio, in the cover of the article, the female toucan were made like this not to look like a woman, but to resemble a specie of toucan, the toucan of green peak
"Do you think straight people understand what a mammal is?" I'd imagine yes, because they'd all have died out otherwise.
The reason for all this has nothing to do with what you say, and it is extremely simple. Men like to see women that way, it pleases them more. So the producers know they'll sell more by doing this. Women, on the other hand, don't seem to care if the male characters are portrait in a more "identifiable" way or not. So they simply have no incentive to do that with the male characters. In summary, everything that is presented in the market is done in a way that pleases consumers the most. So, If you want this to change you will have to show the market that this is what you want, and that you are willing to pay for it of course.
As an animesexual I am grateful that they do this. They look much better the way they created them :3
Also can we talk about how the "male" animal looks pretty damn neutral - no abs or bulges or anything that is considered stereotypically masculine. It is only once we get to the "female" animal that we see boobs and eyelashes. The standards are not carried through. There are other ways to gender characters - certain species have different colours, like peacocks and sunbirds; others have different mannerisms - female pigeons tend to drink differently to male pigeons; some have features - think manes on lions (although this is not definitive as there have been cases where lions with female genitalia grow manes). Teach kids about nature, not about unnecessary stereotypes.
to everybody saying this is stupid and that there’s worse going on: yes there is racism and starvation but there is also sexism and this is an example of it, so start realizing that women can get offended by this and it's not okay to make children think that what makes a woman a woman is her body. animals do not look like this, and woman aren't just made up of hips and breasts, and that's not how you should symbolize them. sure some of these are stupid, but a lot are not. it's showing men and boys (and girls too) that to be a woman you have to be sexy, and that the only representation of that is their body and that's not okay. it's not a good mindset for young girls and boys to be raised upon. so grow the hell up and realize that before saying that there are bigger issues. of course there are! we're sharing OUR troubles. this is an easy fix, and we're saying it should be fixed. so just stop spreading hate
You can dislike these designs all you want, but getting offended is going too far.
Load More Replies...When did we got so frickin concerned with the accuracy of FICTION! 1st world problems.
I was today years old when I learned that Nemo's dad looks like he's balding.... and I've seen that a million times
That chicken looked NOTHING like a chicken. At least you can tell what the other ones are!
That's because she's a pheasant. She's still drawn very human like though.
Load More Replies...Why don't you just go make your own cartoon with anthropomorphic animals and make the female characters look like whatever the hell you want?
Why are people in this chat so mad that people are mad adjsjsjsjsk they have reason to be
Isn’t Otis canonical a trans character? He is referred to have been a girl in the past. “Remember when I was here with your sister? I don’t have a sister.” “Oh right it was you.” “Yes.”
The male cow with udders though I always thought was weird and creepy. Can't have a bull with a huge pizzle so let's give him breasts, the kids will never notice
Crybabies! You must be very happy if you have time and efford to cry about f*****g cartoon!
@Truth Monster We can use the face to help us know who is male and who is female. Voice? Name? Pronouns? Anything that isn’t tits and curvy body. If that doesn’t help, then use eyelashes.
On hand it’s fictional, but I do wish they would stop doing something when only the male looks like a male. Like eyelashes alone are good enough.
I honestly don't mind OVERLY exaggerated designs for different characters since most animated cartoons are for children. But sometimes they go over the top
To the man who was confused on the bull with utters, bulls have utters just like you (a dude) has nips.
The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all. You can also see that when you draw a stick figure. Usually, if it is just the simple stick figure (head, limbs and torso) people assume it’s male. In order for it to be female there has to be something more, like a skirt or long hair.
Just becuase you are offended doesn't mean you are right.Americans can be offended by everything
It’s not about being “offended”, it’s about criticizing a serious and harmful problem from our society: the masculine default. Those characters help us notice how the cultural norm is being male. When people think of a person, they think of a man. This has important implications in law making, politics, medicine and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s reality, and that the reality of women is considered “different”, an exception from normality. And there’s also a tendency of objectification of women, which makes sense if you consider that the normal point of view is male. It usually means that women are not seen as fully person on their own right, but only in relation to men, and, in that sense, as a sexual/romantic partner to the male protagonist.
Load More Replies...Some people have really too much to waste and they are too easily offended by anything. Nothing is good enough and they start to see issues even if where they are not! Seriously, the way "female" characters are drawn is an issue? It is ridiculous, but I cannot even laugh at it, it is sad! I am sooo amazed every time about people's imagination! There is so much beauty around us and some of them just dig to "find" s**t everywhere, when actually this is only in their mind! Get a life people!
The problem is that being female is stereotyped. The cultural norm is being male. You also can see it in several culture products where there are a number of different male characters, each one with a different personality (the brave one, the intelligent/nerd one, the leader, the funny/goofy one, etc.) and ONE female character whose main characteristic is that she’s female. The complexity and variability of women are denied, as if women weren’t as human as men.------------------------------------------- That’s not a problem of those specific cartoons. It’s a dangerous trait of our society, and cause real harm, because female reality is considered an exception. It causes problems with laws, economics, politics, medicines, medical treatments, products, etc., because they are created based on male needs.
Load More Replies...The one about alien lizards always gets me; same as the sexy orc/troll/etc. That's not so much character design, as it is creating fap material. :-)
Leave "Murenase! Seton Academy" alone. It's actually instructional concerning mammalian genetics and morphology. That, and the ethnic stereotypes are so funny... *snort*
I get it to a degree, it's for children... Created for children as the target audience, it's to help it make sense to tiny kids. That said the very over exaggerated show girl frog from Disney's thumbelina, will always haunt me.
Can't blame Disney for that one, Thumbelina was Warner Bros
Load More Replies...calm down everyone its just art its not like its gonna blow a tornado at your house or replace the moon with a painted plate or open a portal to a dystopian world and make humans unable to breed or slowly replace everyone with robotic clones of themselves
Right, because the over-sexualization of girls in media does NOTHING to actual women and girls in real life..
Load More Replies...Come on! In the real world for many animals we need to check their private parts to tell their gender, dog cat chicken rabbit etc etc. So would we rather spend some shots of private parts in an animation as well? Even so bet it will be confusing very soon anyway.
You realize you can design characters to look masculine or feminine without having anything to do with sexuality, right?
Load More Replies...Oh my god, some people really do have way too much time on their hands and whine for every single little f*****g insignificant dipshit.
The worst part is that they're a direct relation to Video Game "Journalists".
Load More Replies...Deleted my comment because it had already been made.
Load More Replies...So, that they are walking up right and are dressed like humans and have the cognitive abilities of humans, that's all ok, but to exaggerate feature to make your point who's the boy and who's the girl by using well known stereotypes is a problem. OK, let me write that down in my policor notebook. I must say it contains so many contradictions it's actually becoming more of a funny joke collection.
The issue is that folks think that you apparently need to SEXUALIZE AN ANIMAL so the audience knows it's female.
Load More Replies...The people who think this is a problem have zero problems in the real world. 1st world, ritch white girl problems aka no problems just the perpetually offended.
I DO have problems in the real world with dudes thinking I exist to give them sex. I have gotten harassed by men over this. The problem with the female animal character designs here is just an extension of the issue of people thinking women exist as sex objects.
Load More Replies...Dude i only wanted to say that yes the chicken in rockadoodle was overtly sexualized but that was a big part of her character and i cant help it that movie was the s**t cant deny the 90s kid in me lol
Also dont forget that elvis chicken was super over the top too
Load More Replies...I'm surprised nobody mentioned "Blacksad". Check out the gender differences there, you will be shocked.
If you are going to use that, then go back to 1980's "Animalympics"...
Load More Replies...Funny how all the boys who have plenty of time to watch sport and play games suddenly get short of time when women want to talk about the way their sex is represented in popular culture.
Notice how mainly females think that way, showing their own insecurities of not able to look that femininely attractive in real life. Otherwise, it's cartoon, animation, fictional! Admit it ya'll will still outraging if they make it too realistic. Smh.
I... don’t want to look that way in real life. It’s not insecurity—it’s being tired of being sexualized.
Load More Replies...What hath offend me this morrow? Ah this wilth do! Nom nom nom nom nom.
Our lives are so good that we have time to spend on these futile subjects... #Firstworldproblems
You’re literally on Bored Panda. Taking a lunch break from Medicine Sans Frontier?
Load More Replies...Anyone who's finding this problematic and going to these lengths to show it should re-evaluate their lives. Perhaps they can put their energy into solving actual problems. Worry about things like homelessness and hunger.
Jessica Rabbit isn't a rabbit. She's human (an exaggerated cartoon human, but still a human). Her last name is Rabbit because she's married to Roger Rabbit. Now THAT'S the part that's weird.
Sigh, people need to stop with their outrage. Are some of these ridiculous? Sure, but if they all look the same it is hard to follow the story. And we are already anthropomorphizing them by giving them human specific emotions and story lines... video games are a whole different thing. Give a lady some armor!!!
That I can agree with. Female armour in rpgs is a running joke. I hold out hope for an rpg maker including bikini armour for the male characters too. The Chain Mail Beach Thong of protection + 1 would be epic.
Load More Replies...Really? People are having trouble with female character shorthand like a more puffed up chest an bigger hips? Its basic cartooning to make characters identifiable, like the barrel chest, big hands and chin a strong character gets (Montaray Jack f.e) or the thin slender built a sneaky character gets. Ok some instances are exaggerated, but most of the time there is a reason for it in the story.
The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. ----------------------------- This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all.
Load More Replies...Yes, i am female, but i don't really care. Just drop it. Please.
I'm female and I'm a character designer so no, this is not something I'll drop. Nearly everyone in the quoted Twitter threads is correct.
Load More Replies...The whole point is that this kind of portraial of female characters is in the first place not realistic. You don't need lashes, a pretty face, small nose and boobs to be a female. The main audience of animated movies are children. This is education! So I totally understand the whole point. A good example is piglet, roo and the snake Kaa. They are animals and it simply doesn't matter if they are pretty or have female features. The sex of somebody shouldn't be the most important thing or must have to be identified with the first view.
There's better ways of showing a visual difference between male and female characters than boobs and eyelashes. Make the females slightly smaller, and perhaps a little more slender. That's it. That's all you have to do. Females of many species are usually a little smaller than the males, so it actually makes sense. I think the part that bothers me the most is when the female characters are hypersexualized, while the male characters aren't. It's gross.
My experience is that females always seem to have large biceps, without much gym work. Maybe start there...?
Load More Replies...The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all. You can also see that when you draw a stick figure. Usually, if it is just the simple stick figure (head, limbs and torso) people assume it’s male. In order for it to be female there has to be something more, like a skirt or long hair. You also can see it in several culture products where there are a number of different male characters, each one with a different personality (the brave one, the intelligent/nerd one, the lea
You get it all wrong. The reason for all this it's extremely simple. Men like to see women that way, it pleases them more. So the producers know they'll sell more by doing this. Women, on the other hand, don't seem to care if the male characters are portrait in a more "identifiable" way or not. So they simply have no incentive to do that with the male characters. In summary, everything that is presented in the market is done in a way that pleases consumers the most. So, If you want this to change you will have to show the market that this is what you want, and that you are willing to pay for it of course.
Load More Replies...yeah, and the male leads in these animated films are NEVER exaggerated. Gimme a f*****g break.
They are and it’s mentioned in the article. The point if the read is that females are generally hypersexualized and “feminine” while the males are either left as is or are made to look closer to character.
Load More Replies...I've got boobs and proud of 'm. This isnt a battle we need to fight, there are worse problems in this world.
Chickens don't have any. They also do not have long eyelashes, high heels and makeup.
Load More Replies...I think it's innapropriate to be giving female characters such exaggerated features. As a young woman, I do not appreciate it when they do this to female characters. Plus, most women in real life don't look ridiculous like that.
Lamby: IKR? Especially in anime...some of us were hoping that they really looked like that..
Load More Replies...For the posters that think male are not subject to this presure: every...superhero...movie...ever! Boys/men are taught at a young age to just suck it up and deal with it. Why do you think male suicide rate is soooooo much higher than female. We have feelings too, we need to be told we look good too. Besides Captin Underpants, show me one superhero that looks like your average male.
Additionally, (now that I found my soapbox) portraying males like this is bad for women too. It leads women to believe they MUST find a man like that to be protected. You know what men who look like that are? Egotistical a******s that look at themselves in the mirror while they workout. And then the women wonder why their relationship sucked. I know this isn't 100% true, just 99.999999%.
Load More Replies...The ice age one I feel was deliberate, to show that the daughter was a very girly girl (not a bad thing and not always shown through the way she looks) and was separate from her parents, it could also carry the message of trying to fit in, by having her parents (who are comfortable with themselves) demonstrate the traditional mammoth look and then have her looking like a human (female) mammoth like the other teenage mammoths allows the audience to make connections that way. I don't think the design of these two characters is relevant in demonstrating male and female characters. Instead they should have used Manny and Ellie as a demonstration of it not happening in all cartoons.
I don't always notice the overdeveloped pectoral region, but the first thing I think of when I consider female cartoon animals is those dang over-exaggerated eyelashes!
Sometimes I think people google “what should offend me today” and come up with a new stupid thing to be offended by
Normally I’d agree but in this case, as a character designer and as a woman who’s tired of seeing female characters being sexualized, this legit ticks me off.
Load More Replies...Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Oxford English Dictionary... Most of the overly sexualized female characters are from the 20th century...
Missing the point here. It's the way the genders are anthropomorphized in such distinctly different ways.
Load More Replies...we should not be teaching little kids that to be female you have to dress and act like these images
I remember seeing a show with anthropomorphic lions, and the females had feminine features. Yeah, ignore the fact that lions are famous for their irl sexual dimorphism.
It CAN be a bit annoying sometimes, but they're the most recognisable characteristic of a female human at first glance.
Load More Replies...Birds with 'mammaries'?? Clue's in the name bozo, mammaries...mammal?? Birds aren't mammals, why'd we want our kids thinking they are??
bruh its a cartoon visit the boomerang nebula and chill
Load More Replies...Nvm, just haven't really noticed before. Think more movies should follow Kung Fu Panda and Shrek's female designs
Load More Replies...There was a fantastic "Rhymes with Orange" comic strip from Feb 28, 1999 that dealt with this very thing. It had a female bear deciding that she was tired of being distinguished from her male counterpart via lipstick and eyelashes, and instead making the male bear wear tighty-whities and hold a TV remote to indicate his gender. It used to be posted at http://rhymeswithorange.com/comics/february-28-1999/ but it seems to have disappeared from the internet. I wish I could find it again!
Daphne, I see Hilary Price's comic daily on FB. Get on there, send a message via messenger, and see what develops...
Load More Replies...This was probably just like 20 people on twitter that Bored Panda turned into an article as if it was some global movement. The truth is that, like that one person said, it isn't a nature documentary. The animals in these films have been anthropomorphized in order for the audience to better connect with the characters. If you want more accurate animals, try the animals in Snow White, Bambi, or the Fox and the Hound.
Okay I'm morbidly curious, what cartoon is the sexy chicken near the top from?
That's Goldie Pheasant from Rock- A -Doodle. She's actually a pheasant, not a chicken.
Load More Replies......maybe that bull was in the middle of transitioning or something o_O? any other way and it just does not add up. At all.
It was just a really lazy character design--that's why all the bulls in that movie had udders.
Load More Replies...As a female who's read a lot of the comments, I have to side with OP here, yes it's a cartoon/kids movie so you couldn't expect all female characters to be 100% biologically drawn but at the same time it's insulting to see what's supposed to be a female lizard drawn like a girl with bad skin, giving her a voice with a higher pitch and slightly longer lashes Isnt a problem but having her designed with shoulder length hair plus lipstick and massacre?? It's insulting, women are so much more than pretty colors and D cups. Take the princess and the frog for example, when Tiana is turned into a frog it's easy to tell them apart because prince naveen had the striped like pattern, deeper voice, and was taller by comparison. While Tianas voice was higher and her color was a slightly lighter shade of green.
This basically implies that you don't care what a female character's personality is if you judge her by her design alone.
Load More Replies...Soooo, how would they want them to draw characters then? Like real birds or cats? No one can friggin tell looking at a pigeon if it's a female or male. I can't believe this is an article even, and that proper are fucken bothered by such things.
You don’t have to oversexualize characters to show that they are female. But that’s not a problem of those specific cartoons, it actually shows that being female is culturally stereotyped. The cultural norm is being male. This has important implications in law making, politics, medicine and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And there’s also a tendency of objectification of women, which makes sense if you consider that the normal point of view is male. It usually means that women are not seen as fully person on their own right, but only in relation to men, and, in that sense, as a sexual/romantic partner to the male protagonist. That’s why you have so strongly sexualized features in female characters.
Load More Replies...I have a couple of thoughts here, not all necessarily what i think is right, just thoughts.. Firstly. They ARE just artists interpretations of anthropomorphic animals. Not all female animal characters are drawn hyper sexy. Just some are and this article has hand picked just a small handful of characters that are moreso than others. kind of like humans. you do get male characters drawn like human males too.. ive never seen a fox stand on two feet and walk around in clothes but zootopia and robin hood have this. just that the examples here differ. I might be wrong, but i feel like this article is body shaming animated animal characters? (why?) or are they saying its wrong to be attracted to some people for the way they look? is the article writer just uncomfortable with finding a drawing of a human-animal attractive? reminder that not all the animations above are aimed at children. the Howard the Duck example is actually from an 18 rated film and is meant to be uncomfortable.
Note how you point out that animals designed like human males = standing on two legs and wearing clothes... why would that not be the same for female anthro animals? Just to stand on two legs and wear clothes? The “human male” example you gave is fine because there’s nothing wrong with it. The problem with the female anthro designs is the idea that female = “SEXY BOOBS” or whatever. Why do female animals, particularly ones that are not mammals, need mammary glands?? There’s so many other ways to indicate the gender of a nonhuman character without making them as close to a “sexy” human woman as possible.
Load More Replies...blizzard entertainment be like: "remember our motto, concept artists!, tiddies over functionality!"
I think they are just meant to represent cute or sexy characters. The generally best most recognisable way to do that is to add some eyelashes, bust/hip shapes and bigger eyes. If the characters are not meant to be actual animals but more like animal people there is even less problem imho.
It's almost as if the word "anthropomorphise" means make something more human!
Load More Replies...I the movie rio, in the cover of the article, the female toucan were made like this not to look like a woman, but to resemble a specie of toucan, the toucan of green peak
"Do you think straight people understand what a mammal is?" I'd imagine yes, because they'd all have died out otherwise.
The reason for all this has nothing to do with what you say, and it is extremely simple. Men like to see women that way, it pleases them more. So the producers know they'll sell more by doing this. Women, on the other hand, don't seem to care if the male characters are portrait in a more "identifiable" way or not. So they simply have no incentive to do that with the male characters. In summary, everything that is presented in the market is done in a way that pleases consumers the most. So, If you want this to change you will have to show the market that this is what you want, and that you are willing to pay for it of course.
As an animesexual I am grateful that they do this. They look much better the way they created them :3
Also can we talk about how the "male" animal looks pretty damn neutral - no abs or bulges or anything that is considered stereotypically masculine. It is only once we get to the "female" animal that we see boobs and eyelashes. The standards are not carried through. There are other ways to gender characters - certain species have different colours, like peacocks and sunbirds; others have different mannerisms - female pigeons tend to drink differently to male pigeons; some have features - think manes on lions (although this is not definitive as there have been cases where lions with female genitalia grow manes). Teach kids about nature, not about unnecessary stereotypes.
to everybody saying this is stupid and that there’s worse going on: yes there is racism and starvation but there is also sexism and this is an example of it, so start realizing that women can get offended by this and it's not okay to make children think that what makes a woman a woman is her body. animals do not look like this, and woman aren't just made up of hips and breasts, and that's not how you should symbolize them. sure some of these are stupid, but a lot are not. it's showing men and boys (and girls too) that to be a woman you have to be sexy, and that the only representation of that is their body and that's not okay. it's not a good mindset for young girls and boys to be raised upon. so grow the hell up and realize that before saying that there are bigger issues. of course there are! we're sharing OUR troubles. this is an easy fix, and we're saying it should be fixed. so just stop spreading hate
You can dislike these designs all you want, but getting offended is going too far.
Load More Replies...When did we got so frickin concerned with the accuracy of FICTION! 1st world problems.
I was today years old when I learned that Nemo's dad looks like he's balding.... and I've seen that a million times
That chicken looked NOTHING like a chicken. At least you can tell what the other ones are!
That's because she's a pheasant. She's still drawn very human like though.
Load More Replies...Why don't you just go make your own cartoon with anthropomorphic animals and make the female characters look like whatever the hell you want?
Why are people in this chat so mad that people are mad adjsjsjsjsk they have reason to be
Isn’t Otis canonical a trans character? He is referred to have been a girl in the past. “Remember when I was here with your sister? I don’t have a sister.” “Oh right it was you.” “Yes.”
The male cow with udders though I always thought was weird and creepy. Can't have a bull with a huge pizzle so let's give him breasts, the kids will never notice
Crybabies! You must be very happy if you have time and efford to cry about f*****g cartoon!
@Truth Monster We can use the face to help us know who is male and who is female. Voice? Name? Pronouns? Anything that isn’t tits and curvy body. If that doesn’t help, then use eyelashes.
On hand it’s fictional, but I do wish they would stop doing something when only the male looks like a male. Like eyelashes alone are good enough.
I honestly don't mind OVERLY exaggerated designs for different characters since most animated cartoons are for children. But sometimes they go over the top
To the man who was confused on the bull with utters, bulls have utters just like you (a dude) has nips.
The importance of this discussion is that evidences that being male is the “default/ neutral/normal” in our Society. That being female is considered a specific characteristic, as if women weren’t 50% of the population. This has important implications in law making, politics and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s needs and men’s reality, and that the reality and the needs of women are considered “different”, exceptions from normality. And, because of that, a lot of the times are not considered at all. You can also see that when you draw a stick figure. Usually, if it is just the simple stick figure (head, limbs and torso) people assume it’s male. In order for it to be female there has to be something more, like a skirt or long hair.
Just becuase you are offended doesn't mean you are right.Americans can be offended by everything
It’s not about being “offended”, it’s about criticizing a serious and harmful problem from our society: the masculine default. Those characters help us notice how the cultural norm is being male. When people think of a person, they think of a man. This has important implications in law making, politics, medicine and economics. Being man the “neutral” form means that the thought process is usually focused in men’s reality, and that the reality of women is considered “different”, an exception from normality. And there’s also a tendency of objectification of women, which makes sense if you consider that the normal point of view is male. It usually means that women are not seen as fully person on their own right, but only in relation to men, and, in that sense, as a sexual/romantic partner to the male protagonist.
Load More Replies...Some people have really too much to waste and they are too easily offended by anything. Nothing is good enough and they start to see issues even if where they are not! Seriously, the way "female" characters are drawn is an issue? It is ridiculous, but I cannot even laugh at it, it is sad! I am sooo amazed every time about people's imagination! There is so much beauty around us and some of them just dig to "find" s**t everywhere, when actually this is only in their mind! Get a life people!
The problem is that being female is stereotyped. The cultural norm is being male. You also can see it in several culture products where there are a number of different male characters, each one with a different personality (the brave one, the intelligent/nerd one, the leader, the funny/goofy one, etc.) and ONE female character whose main characteristic is that she’s female. The complexity and variability of women are denied, as if women weren’t as human as men.------------------------------------------- That’s not a problem of those specific cartoons. It’s a dangerous trait of our society, and cause real harm, because female reality is considered an exception. It causes problems with laws, economics, politics, medicines, medical treatments, products, etc., because they are created based on male needs.
Load More Replies...The one about alien lizards always gets me; same as the sexy orc/troll/etc. That's not so much character design, as it is creating fap material. :-)
Leave "Murenase! Seton Academy" alone. It's actually instructional concerning mammalian genetics and morphology. That, and the ethnic stereotypes are so funny... *snort*
I get it to a degree, it's for children... Created for children as the target audience, it's to help it make sense to tiny kids. That said the very over exaggerated show girl frog from Disney's thumbelina, will always haunt me.
Can't blame Disney for that one, Thumbelina was Warner Bros
Load More Replies...calm down everyone its just art its not like its gonna blow a tornado at your house or replace the moon with a painted plate or open a portal to a dystopian world and make humans unable to breed or slowly replace everyone with robotic clones of themselves
Right, because the over-sexualization of girls in media does NOTHING to actual women and girls in real life..
Load More Replies...Come on! In the real world for many animals we need to check their private parts to tell their gender, dog cat chicken rabbit etc etc. So would we rather spend some shots of private parts in an animation as well? Even so bet it will be confusing very soon anyway.
You realize you can design characters to look masculine or feminine without having anything to do with sexuality, right?
Load More Replies...Oh my god, some people really do have way too much time on their hands and whine for every single little f*****g insignificant dipshit.
The worst part is that they're a direct relation to Video Game "Journalists".
Load More Replies...Deleted my comment because it had already been made.
Load More Replies...So, that they are walking up right and are dressed like humans and have the cognitive abilities of humans, that's all ok, but to exaggerate feature to make your point who's the boy and who's the girl by using well known stereotypes is a problem. OK, let me write that down in my policor notebook. I must say it contains so many contradictions it's actually becoming more of a funny joke collection.
The issue is that folks think that you apparently need to SEXUALIZE AN ANIMAL so the audience knows it's female.
Load More Replies...The people who think this is a problem have zero problems in the real world. 1st world, ritch white girl problems aka no problems just the perpetually offended.
I DO have problems in the real world with dudes thinking I exist to give them sex. I have gotten harassed by men over this. The problem with the female animal character designs here is just an extension of the issue of people thinking women exist as sex objects.
Load More Replies...Dude i only wanted to say that yes the chicken in rockadoodle was overtly sexualized but that was a big part of her character and i cant help it that movie was the s**t cant deny the 90s kid in me lol
Also dont forget that elvis chicken was super over the top too
Load More Replies...I'm surprised nobody mentioned "Blacksad". Check out the gender differences there, you will be shocked.
If you are going to use that, then go back to 1980's "Animalympics"...
Load More Replies...Funny how all the boys who have plenty of time to watch sport and play games suddenly get short of time when women want to talk about the way their sex is represented in popular culture.
Notice how mainly females think that way, showing their own insecurities of not able to look that femininely attractive in real life. Otherwise, it's cartoon, animation, fictional! Admit it ya'll will still outraging if they make it too realistic. Smh.
I... don’t want to look that way in real life. It’s not insecurity—it’s being tired of being sexualized.
Load More Replies...What hath offend me this morrow? Ah this wilth do! Nom nom nom nom nom.
Our lives are so good that we have time to spend on these futile subjects... #Firstworldproblems
You’re literally on Bored Panda. Taking a lunch break from Medicine Sans Frontier?
Load More Replies...Anyone who's finding this problematic and going to these lengths to show it should re-evaluate their lives. Perhaps they can put their energy into solving actual problems. Worry about things like homelessness and hunger.
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