#5 Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson has been a writer and producer of many a television show; she wrote and produced episodes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ellen, Battlestar Galactica,  Caprica, Torchwood, Husbands and Once Upon a Time.  At a lot of these shows she started out as a writer and was later promoted to producer or co-producer. When she started working as a writer she was often the only female in the writing room.

Jane also wrote essays for the Huffington Post about being a female writer, female characters and femininity. In the article 'On Sex and Writing (Not That Kind of Sex)' she actually spends the time to counter the argument that women are necessary to write about the female experience: man have been able to write female characters and women have been able to write male characters. This means that it is possible for good writers to cross the gender lines. The one fact is that sex should never make the list to not hire someone, male or female. If this would change, the number of female writers would change for the better. One of the interesting points she makes is the fact that we don't need to have women write female characters; we don't want female writers to be female character generators.

Jane addresses  the same problem as Linda Nochlin did all those years ago in her article 'Why have there been no great women artists':

"The problem lies not so much with some feminists' concept of what femininity is, but rather with their misconception-shared with the public at large-of what art is: with the naive idea that art is the direct, personal expression of individual emotional experience, a translation of personal life into visual terms."

Although much has changed in the last decades, this believe that what an artist expresses matches their own believes still prevails. The introduction of Espenson's interview with the Advocate started with the sentence "Television writer Jane Espenson isn't gay, she just writes that way." It is amazing that we still can't accept the complexity of human beings and think in these binary oppositions. If she's a straight woman, how on earth could she make a show about two gay men? How can someone without the 'gay experience' empathize and understand these people?  It is time that we realize that we acknowledge what's important in art: talent. If we focus on that and try to leave things like sex of the creators, commercial values or any other restraints that we face now out if it, there will be more equality in the art world and there would be more freedom to create art. To create an atmosphere like that starts with having good female writers like Jane Espenson around and to quote Espenson again, strive to create "a staff that looks like the world: a balance of men and women, an emphasis in diversity of cultural background, racial makeup, and orientation, based on the idea that talent is evenly distributed among humanity."

Source

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2011/10/27/tv-mastermind-jane-espenson-ellen-buffy-evil-queens

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-espenson/women-tv-writers_b_1322537.html

http://www.janeespenson.com/

Women, Art and Power and Other Essays, Westview Press, 1988 by Linda Nochlin, pp.147-158

In a League of Her Own: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Storyboard Artist and Animated Film Director

 By Kafaya Shitta-bey

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Jennifer Yuh-Nelson, is a storyboard artist and award wining film director. She is known for directing the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 and the sixth overall highest-grossing film of that year, DreamWorks: Kung Fu Panda 2. Until Disney’s Frozen of 2013, which was directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, Nelson was the highest-grossing female director of all time for a Hollywood studio film. Kung Fu Panda 2 had grossed over 650 million worldwide.

Kung Fu Panda 2

A graduate of California State University with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration, Nelson states that prior to her professional career she used drawing as a way to express the thoughts and ideas and that she had always loved movies but did not think that she could have a career in films because she did not know how to work cameras. “I have been drawing since age three and making movies in my head for almost that long”, she said. “When I was in college...a veteran storyboard artist…showed us how he drew movies for a living. My mind exploded and that led to a career in animation.”

What makes Nelson stand out in the animation world is that she is the first and only woman to solely direct a Hollywood animated film. Other women such as Jennifer Lee, for Frozen and Debra Chapman, for DreamWorks: Prince of Egypt, have co-directed their films with men.

In 2011, Nelson received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film for Kung Fu Panda 2 and in 2012 she won the Feature Director award at the Annie’s. Prior to Kung Fu Panda 2, Nelson was the head of story for Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and for Kung Fu Panda in which she won an Annie for in 2008 for Best Storyboarding in Animated Film. Nelson was the story artist for Madagascar and Sprit: Stallion of the Cimarron and she was also the story artist and character designer for HBO’s Spawn.

Nelson at the Annie Awards in 2012

A self proclaimed anime and video game geek, Nelson states that her creativity as an artist comes from the genres of martial arts films, science fiction and live action movies. She credits the sharp and stylized flow of Kung Fu Panda to her love of anime. As the head of story on Kung Fu Panda for four and a half years, Nelson accepted the role as director for the sequel because she fell in love with the characters. As director, she wanted to keep the characters familiar while changing the story so that it would not repeat itself to viewers. “We are very protective of the characters”, said Nelson. “There’s a very stylized world that we’ve created but you have to expand it in large amounts so that even though you are familiar with the elements [of the film], you feel like you’ve gone to a different place.” 

Visually, Nelson was able to be more hands on with Kung Fu Panda 2. She says that creating a set that had more detail than the first film made room for bigger stunts in the sequel. “That widened the scale of the world for us and also freed us up to do things choreographically that we could not do in the first film”, said Nelson. “We saw a chance to increase the scale of this movie emotionally and to push the technology so that we could tell a bigger story.”Although Nelson is the director for Kung Fu Panda 3, set to release in 2015, she is not quick to call herself a director. “I still always consider myself an artist first because that’s what I like to do, even while I’m directing, I’m drawing a lot to get ideas across.”

Interview of Jennifer Yuh Nelson speaking in depth about her career 

and Kung Fu Panda

Working in a male dominated field, Nelson does not feel that her gender has hindered her career in anyway. She does not believe that she is at a disadvantage because she is a woman. “No one noticed, or pointed out or seemed to care if the director was male or female, and I think that’s the way it should be. You’re a director; you’re not a woman or a man director. You’re just a director, making a film that you want to make without gender being involved at all”, she said. However, Nelson has acknowledged that there are not many female animators or female directors in animation and she is aware that she may be influential to young girls who want to pursue a career in that field. “When I speak at schools, I’ve had female students say to me afterward, ‘I never envisioned myself being a director, since I’ve never seen women do it.’ But after seeing me, they can picture themselves directing, so maybe we’ll see more female directors. Half of these kids in art and animation schools are girls”, said Nelson.

                        

                               Jennifer Yuh Nelson 2011 KoreAm Unforgettable Achievement Award

Works Cited:

A History of Women in Animation Part Two: Working Mothers of a Medium

retrieved from:http://www.themarysue.com/history-of-women-in-animation-part-two/

DP/30: Director of Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson

retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4vuA4nwID0

Feature Interview: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Director of Kung Fu Panda 2

retrieved from:http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-nonfiction/feature-interview-jennifer-yuh-nelson-director-of-kung-fu-panda-2/

Fewer Female Directors Worked on Top Films in 2011
retrieved from:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/women-directors-film-study-

Kung Fu Panda's Jennifer Yuh Nelson:2011 KoreAm Unforgettable Achievement Award

retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELxl-VxB5k4

THR's Women in Entertainment 2011: Power 100
retrieved from:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/jennifer-yuh-nelson-268636

Women Worth Watching and the Organizations that EmployThem 

retrieved from:http://www.womenworthwatching.com/jennifer-yuh-nelson/

Reshma Saujani: Women Who Don't Wait In Line

Women Who Don't Wait In Line by Resh

I believe writers  and activists are artists whose canvas is reality, and Reshma Saujani is an inspiration in the way she forged her own future and encourages former stereotypes of what women are capable of to remain in the past as we as women prove them wrong in our individual lives. In 2010, she lost the 2010 Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 14th congressional to incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, receiving only 19% of the vote. From experiences of losses such as this, she was able to find gold in the learning experiences that prepare you to win. Everyone fails at some point in their lives, and many people will say that failure is their biggest fear. Saujani, however, urges us to make failure something we hope for.

"Women are taught to be risk-averse. Starting at a young age, we are taught to stay off the monkey bars, stay in the shallow end -- with the result that too often, we prepare and prepare instead of boldly pursuing our dreams. 

In her book, "Women Who Don't Wait in Line," she explains the feelings and thoughts in her mind through all the struggles she went through. From creating clubs in High School for cultural awareness after being bullied violently for her Indian heritage to the anxiety and self-doubt of running for the Democratic primary, she elaborates on the consequences of her wins and losses. As the title suggests, the main objective she strives towards is to push the message "Do not wait in line" into women's heads. We all know the stereotypes given to our gender, but we do not know what to do about it. The solution she believes is in each woman's hands by blazing the trail of their own dreams. Because if each woman begins proving these stereotypes wrong with their unapologetic ambitions, collectively they would be shattering the foundation of our society and what they believe woman are capable of by surpassing it in quantities that overwhelm the status quo.

"I had thought I would be applauded for having the audacity to run. I had thought I would be praised for doing what the established Democratic women's groups were always urging young women - particularly of color - to do. But my 'upstart' status was viewed as an abomination - the reflection of an ambitious young woman who didn't know her place. I was literally told it wasn't my 'turn.' I was told that i had to 'wait in line'" (xxi).

This book, however, is not just about Saujani's experiences, it is also about the experiences of countless women of her generation that have become leaders of today that set an example for the leaders of tomorrow and give advice for us to find our strength in the face of adversity. Virginia M. Rometty the CEO of IBM, for example, shares her experience about her experience before she was the fearless tycoon she is today. When she was offered the position of CEO, she felt she needed time to consider her position and was unsure about whether she was able enough to take on it. Now, looking back she attributes her success to her willingness to try new things and the experiences that come from pushing herself towards the unknown.

"Growth and comfort do not coexist."
 -Virginia M. Rometty, CEO of IBM 

"If I could bestow anything on a twenty-five year old,
it would be the gift of confidence. i can't tell you how
many times I've seen great women, great girls who
have everything going for them, but they just have
this fundamental sense of 'I'm not confident.' Your
parents give it to you, your friends give it to you,
but ultimately you [have to] give it to yourself."

- Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer of GE

But Saujani talks about the hope she sees in the women of today. "They have an insatiable hunger for challenges on the job. We can learn from these young women in how they demand responsibilities and opportunities." The numbers of female world changers are increasing, but we still have a long way to go because many women have not been able to tap into that inner confidence that gives them the entitlement to believe in their abilities and pursue their dreams fearlessly. It's a very difficult place to get to, but the only way you get there is through failure and its learning experiences.

Works Cited

Saujani, Reshma,, and Tanya Eby. Women Who Don't Wait in Line: Break the Mold, Lead the Way. Unabridged.

Janine Antoni

                                                                                             Janine Antoni

Janine Antoni 

Janine Antoni was born in Freeport, Bahamas, in 1964. 

Her main focus is on body performative work where her body is the temple which she uses to deliver the message wether she is using her whole body, to individual parts such as her mouth and even her hair, she states in an interview her body "is a funnel through which the world is poured" . Her process of creating is uncommon in comparison to many other artists, it is quite captivating because she physically becomes one with her art. In an interview she talks about her creative process as being somewhat of a  mystery and something that is hard to teach others, and it is being able to stay on a floating place and not solidifying in an idea too quickly, she also states that her approach is "to be creative is to be limber". Janine Antoni emphasizes on the relationship she has with her artwork and her willingness to listen to the material. Janine values the relationship she creates with her audience, she fantasizes about the viewer as she is making a piece of art and the final outcome she wants to make sure people can relate to the experience being shown, and she accomplishes this by doing simple things in extraordinary artistic ways.  Out of all her contributions to the art world,  the one that resonates with me the most is Loving Care performed by Janine Antoni in 1993.  The reason for this connection is because I have a personal creative infatuation with black paint and movement quality that is very abstract.

Figure A
Loving Care, 1993

In Loving Care Janine Antoni dips her long black hair in black paint and starts painting on a room size white canvas, she accomplishes to cover the canvas with black paint by putting herself in vulnerable positions as she painted away as shown on figure A. According to the online article Beautiful Trap this art installation became more popular not from a video recording of the performance but  from the photographs that were taken while she worked away the paint. In this art installation Janine Antoni's intentions of covering the whole floor black were to claim the territory in a space that had been occupied primarily by male artists. An interesting aspect of this exhibit is that while Janine painted away she was slowly driving away her audience  from the space. In this particular project Janine confesses that this performance forced her to engage in positions that were dangerous and defiant at the same time.  Below is a short video from the reenactment of Janine's Loving Care.

    

                                                                                          Reenactment of Loving Care 

WORKS CITED 

"The Beautiful Trap: Janine Antoni’s Body Art." The Beautiful Trap: Janine Antoni’s Body Art – Border Crossings Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 


"Janine Antoni - Luhring Augustine." Janine Antoni - Luhring Augustine. N.p., n.d.

"Janine Antoni: Loving Care & Lick and Lather | Performance Art | Anxious Objects, Appropriation, Janine Antoni |." Contemporary Art. N.p., n.d. Web.

Post 5 - Brenda Chapman

Brenda Chapman

Brenda Chapman

            Brenda Chapman is a female with a lot of talent; she is an American writer, animation story artist and director. This woman had a pretty successful beginning, she studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts, and after graduation she was a trainee on Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Then she continued in Disney by being one of the key story artists for Beauty and the Beast, as she got more experienced she landed as the head of story for The Lion King. As you can already tell, this woman is on the track to being a very successful female in the industry because of how big these movies are. Some more of the movies she was involved with were The Prince of Egypt as director, and Brave, which she also directed and also wrote screenplay for. Brenda became the first woman to direct a animated film for a major studio when she made the Prince of Egypt in 1988. Her style is similar to the princess style of Disney films primarily because she worked for them and learned from them, but she does bring a different approach then typical men would. She doesn't rely on  aprince to come save the day like they seem to do in typical Disney films.

Brave (2012)

            Brave is an animated film that was released in 2012, it featured the main protagonist’s as females who wanted to break all the norms and kick ass. In the film “they took the heteronormative institution of marriage and used it as the vehicle through which personhood and belonging could be explored. While marriage and tradition are the surface issue with which Queen Elinor and Princess Merida struggle, their struggles and their bond with one another are much deeper than that.” The film despite being worked on by many men was very feminine due most likely to Brenda Chapman who actually wrote the story and directed it. The film was empowering because the characters formed relationships that helped them advance and they didn’t need to rely solely on the prince to come save the day like they tend to typically do.Along with that the female characters were not overly sexualized and objectified in the film. Princess Merida was drawn the way she was on purpose but its amazing how advertisements and toys were portraying Merida. They were more sexual and objectified playing into the typical female representation. Some people are trying to get the advertisements to stop changing Merida and to use the way she looks like in the film, Chapman wrote an article relating to this addressing the people who create the ads "They have yet to make a definitive statement that they intend to restore to Merida her original look, staying true to her character, on all future merchandise. The sexier, slimmer version of Merida with a come-hither look and an off-the-shoulder dress is still very much out there."This shows that Chapman wants to stay true to keeping her work the way she makes it, not allowing others to make it sexual.

  

Right: The original Merida

              It’s nice seeing that females get these jobs to direct films and create stories but there still needs to be progress made. Cases like this with Brenda Chapman are rare, she got a very easy pass with her early career which helped her achieve more, along with that she is married to a film director who she had met in California Institute of the Arts. Her husband could have easily helped her out because he has connections and of course he is a man who has power. Even so, this is still progress, seeing more females in these positions would be nice. There also has to be a shift in which the division between female and male movie categories. I understand chick flicks are made by women because they know how to represent it, but action films can also be created by females. Some argue that men direct those films because it’s masculine, what a load of bull, the actors themselves almost never do their own stunts.

 Video that touches upon Merida having power as a woman to go against the rules set out by family/culture.

_________________________________________________________________________________

McFadden, J. (n.d.). Feminism, Beyond and Within: A Review of Brave. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.gender-focus.com/2012/07/02/feminist-review-of-brave/

Chapman, B. (2013, May 23). Staying True to Merida: Why This Fight Matters. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brenda-chapman/staying-true-to-merida_b_3322472.html

Post 5

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola is an American director and screenplay writer. She has directed and written Lost in Translation, Somewhere, The Bling Ring and has made adaptations to The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.  Sofia is the daughter of famed film maker Francis Ford Coppola. Sofia has said that her love of art, fashion and photography has influenced her decisions as a film director.

Sofia has a very stylistic approach to her films, while critics may argue she lacks in depth of story, it’s her artistic touches , fluid camera movements and modern soundtracks that have been important to her films. Coppola writes and directs her films which gives her full control of her vision. She incorporates her real life into films, such as Lost in Translation. From an interview on the David Letterman Show, Coppola talks about writing the film with Bill Murray in mind as a lead actor and said she wouldn’t have made the film if he wasn’t in it. The story was written about her experience being in Japan alone after college.

This is a photo of Sofia when she was featured in Interview magazine

The director was brought up in a wealthy family from her father’s success. The films she makes and the projects she takes on I would say reflects that. To me, the characters in her films, the females specifically, are well off and not too far from Sofia’s upbringing. The Virgin Suicides is a story that was adapted by Coppola in 1999. She took this story that had a male narration and adapted it to focus on the story of these 5 girls. All of the girls came from a private school background and well off. Her 2013 film The Bling Ring tells you the story about five privileged teenagers obsessed with celebrities who break into the homes of the rich and famous. Her role as auteur in her films gives light of an elite class of white women.

“ I TRY TO JUST MAKE WHAT I WANT TO MAKE OR WHAT I WOULD WANT TO SEE. I TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT THE AUDIENCE TOO MUCH.” —SOFIA COPPOLA

Sofia Coppola has said to  Interview magazine, “I try to just make what I want to make or what I would want to see. I try not to think about the audience too much.”  In 2003, she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. In 2010, with Somewhere, she became the first American woman to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

From the Linda Nochlin reading “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists” Nochlin says it has to do with the lack of opportunities for women in art, I think this goes for film as well. We can’t assume that great artists are born great and in Coppola’s case just because you’re the daughter of a very successful film maker doesn’t mean you will be the same. Although with Coppola she was always exposed to that but she dipped in fingers into others things before directing but that exposure because of her father I think helped her. According to Nochlin, it is the lack of education opportunities that explains why there have not been great female arts. In the future, as more women get the recognition they deserve we can even out or exceed the playing field.

The following in a link to the interview on David Letterman with Sofia Coppola. She talks about making Lost in Translation and her experience with her muse Bill Murray.

.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAdvYmDljU
_________________________________________________________________________________

Works Cited

Nochlin, Linda. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"Sofia Coppola." Interview Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

"Sofia Coppola on Letterman in 2004." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

A Woman's place in Advertising- Post 3

                    In the world of advertising, the intent is to manipulate and endorse a product or an item so that the consumers may feel compelled to buy it.  To almost feel as if they cannot live without it.  With that said, in the world of advertising the tactics that are used to sell or lure the consumer is questionable or darn right absurd.  Things like gender discrimination, and the male gaze are very much prevalent in the world of advertising today.  Sexism and patriarchy are generally what advertising is centered around.  The idea of catching the consumer with tricky tactics like race discrimination, male gaze, body image manipulation and much more, is what advertising is made up of.  By any means necessary is what advertising is centered around.
                  In today's wold, advertising has evolved in such a way that it's effect on the consumer has grown .  There seems to be no limit on the tactics that are being used to sell the products.  We live in a society that is so overly advertised that we are bombarded with ads wherever we go.  You can't step out of your house without an ad being shoved down your throat.  There are billboards, buses, train platforms, everywhere on social media, television commercials, I mean everywhere you look these days, some new product is finding a way into your life, and into your thought pattern.  Advertising comes across to us in such a way that it affects our psyche.  The images that we consumers are bombarded with are of thin, beautiful, flawless women who cause the consumer to feel that if they get this product, maybe they can look like that.  It plays into our (the consumers) insecurities.  The ads that are always centered around women are always centered around unattainable perfection,  What they don't tell us (the consumers) is that almost all of these ads are photo shopped to attain a perfect beauty.  But what they do say is that this cream or whatever the product may be that they are trying to sell will make look like the model who is in the ad.  As described by Jean Killbourne in Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, "They sell values a, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy.  They tell us who we are and who we should be.  Sometimes they sell addictions."  This in a nutshell is what advertisers do on a daily basis.

They teach people that body they are in is not acceptable and that they can keep what they love as long as they change themselves while doing so to "look perfect."

They make everything too sexual to catch peoples attention.

                    The manipulation tactics that are used in advertising has created a society of already damaged individuals.  It is responsible for women never feeling good enough, never feeling like they measure up.  Women have developed eating disorders and are doing multiple things to themselves to to attain an unattainable body.  There is no such thing as perfect, yet the women who are displayed in the ads look near to what we all deam perfect would look like.  Because of this, women everywhere have fallen victim to this form of manipulation.  Women in today's society has fallen into thinking that by changing parts of their of their bodies through whatever means, whether through exercise, surgery, and/or diets one would fall victim to it,  When women cant attain the perfect body, or look, they feel insecure, turning on themselves, as well as their bodies.  They are made to feel a sense of contempt and failure towards themselves.  This is a tactic that advertisers use to get their product sold.  "Women will buy more things if they are kept in a self-hating, never-feeling, hungry, and sexually insecure state of being aspiring beauties."(Wolf, 52)
                     "Photographs of models are often trimmed with scissors, 'computer imaging'-the controversial new technology that tampers with photographic reality- has been used for years." (Wolf, 83).  Photoshop is designed to create this is unrealistic image of what a woman should look like.  It leads a lot of women to feel inferior and less than other women,  To always compare themselves to what the person in the ad looks like.  If you ask me, Photoshop is what is damaging our society today.  The ads portray skinny models who are photo shopped to be even thinner all the time, and portrays all these unattainable bodies as ideal.
                      Advertising is also famous for racism and sexism.  There are so many advertisements purposely designed and exclude blacks.  Advertisements are directed towards the white public.  If ever other races apart from the white race, like a person of color for instance, it will play into the stereotypes.  People of other races are often placed there as ploys to create a sense of equality.  Advertisement is sexist in that there are always ads to sell men products that show women as sexual objects who are supposed to buy the product to please or lure their male interest in.  These ads are created for the male gaze. "Advertising has become sexual harassment." (Cortese, 30) Advertisements seem to use women strictly as sex objects that are solely designed to please men.  To entertainment, serve and be objects just to validate their manhood.  Cortese says this in chapter three, Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads, "What kind of representations does advertising produce? It creates a mythical, WASP- oriented world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, toiling, or physically or mentally disabled- the way in which we think men and women behave- not the ways they actually do behave," (Killbourne, 1989)

All ads targeted towards men.

                       There are so many things that are wrong with advertising.  In today's world we are all guilty of allowing this because we as a society accept these images that are given to us.  We all fall victim to these ads and play right into the trap that the advertisers place for us.  We as people must take a stand and not fall victim by these blatant plays that advertisers put in place for us.