The English Department’s own Dr. Ken Gillam and Dr. Shannon Wooden are receiving attention for their recent book, Pixar’s Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age.
Boy Stories examines the depiction of male characters in fourteen of Pixar’s popular movies, including Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Cars. The book, which was released in April, was reviewed by SUNY scholar Tristin Bridges in the journal Gender and Society; Bridges later expanded on that review in “Barrel Chest, Brawn, and Buffoonery: Controlling Images of Masculinity in Pixar Movies”, which was picked up by The Huffington Post in September.
“We have two little boys,” explains Wooden, “so we’re very sensitive to how they’re learning to be boys rather than just people, and men rather than just adults.”
In his original review, Bridges states that Boy Stories examines “patterns that quietly reiterate gender relations and inequalities that the Pixar collection is more popularly understood as challenging”. The result, according to Bridges, is a book which offers “an intriguing appraisal of mediated masculinities that begins an important conversation and will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars and students alike.”
According to Gillam and Wooden, the idea for the book originated several years ago when their older son was, like many young boys, obsessed with the film Cars. Listening to the film being played repeatedly from the backseat during long road trips prompted Gillam and Wooden to discuss how the storyline and characters depicted gender and masculinity. “We have two little boys,” explains Wooden, “so we’re very sensitive to how they’re learning to be boys rather than just people, and men rather than just adults.”
Those Cars discussions led to a published article in 2008, “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar”, which “argued that Pixar had privileged the more communitarian male rather than the alpha male,” according to Gillam. When the article was presented at a pop culture conference, it generated a lot of enthusiasm and discussion amongst the audience “and we realized that this could become a book,” said Wooden.
The 2008 article has since been anthologized in The Gendered Society Reader and Men’s Lives.
A close reading of the films show that it is these characters’ bodies, not their intellect or other traits, which prevent them from being successful.
The focus of the book differs slightly from the original argument, Wooden states, because a critical examination of fourteen Pixar plots revealed that “the New Man” narrative was presented in conjunction with plots that “reiterated the privilege of a hyper-masculine physical form,” according to Wooden. For example, Gillam states, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., and Monsters University “implicitly argue that your body must be a certain kind of body. They essentialize the body so that we only see a small variety of types as successful or even acceptable.”
Pixar’s Boy Stories is divided into six chapters which discuss the movies’ treatment of the New Man plot, body stereotypes, characteristics of villains, and the role of parents/mothers.
According to the authors, the films often depict villains who are physically small or otherwise fall outside the social ideals of manhood, but who also tend to be very smart and inventive. These characters, despite being given sympathetic back stories, are punished for the ways they physically fall short of societal ideals and, oftentimes, for their ambition. Similarly, says Wooden, protagonists such as Mike from Monsters Inc. and Woody from Toy Story are often depicted as small, inadequate, and physically awkward compared to hypermasculine characters such as Sully and Buzz Lightyear. A close reading of the films show that it is these characters’ bodies, not their intellect or other traits, which prevent them from being successful in their ambitions.
“We own and love and watch a lot of Pixar movies, but we talk about the issues in them with our boys … being literate in the messages pop culture sends is necessary. It’s important. It’s powerful.”
Lastly, Boy Stories examines how parenting – particularly motherhood – is depicted in the films. According to Wooden, characters who are depicted as being “bullies” and villains are often given a back story which includes placing the blame for their “villainy on a mother character”, (the abandonment of Lotso the bear by his owner in Toy Story 3 as being one example). Thus, while the movies celebrate the fatherly role of the New Man archetype, they simultaneously posit the idea that a mother’s absence or failure begets villainy, even evil.
Wooden stresses that the book does not argue against allowing children to watch the movies discussed. “It’s not about censorship,” she states. “We own and love and watch a lot of Pixar movies, but we talk about the issues in them with our boys.” Boy Stories, she explains, regularly expresses approval or fondness for many things that Pixar has been able to create and imagine. “What we want readers to understand is, you don’t have to dislike or protest a text in order to critique it,” she explains. “Cultural messages are insidious, so being literate in the messages pop culture sends is necessary. It’s important. It’s powerful.”
Gillam and Wooden were also featured in MSU’s Mind’s Eye in September. Click here to watch the interview.
Ken Gillam is Director of Composition for the MSU English Department. Shannon Wooden is an associate professor of English at MSU.