Manchester Animation Festival:
In the Frame: Women in Animation
This was a panel that I was excited for all week, it was very refreshing for the importance of this subject to be recognised by the festival. Animation is known to be a male dominated industry and this panel sat to discuss how women have historically been presented in animation as well as the women's involvement behind the screen. Whereby representation has always seen the female character to be inferior to the male protagonist, needing his help as she stands as a damsel in distress, or presented in an overly sexualised manor, as seen in so many different forms of media. It was interesting to hear a female, expert opinion on this topic.
The panelist Lindsay Watson works in association with Animated Women UK whom aim to support a network of women in fulfilling their potential in the industry. They believe that "This change will be visible when we see results such as: better female characters on screen, an increase in women-led start-ups and an increase in women winning awards in technical areas." Saying this, I think it's important to mention that there are no women of colour amongst their assigned "amazing team".
Another notable panelist was Terry Wragg, who showed us the work on Give Us a Smile which was in partnership with Leeds Animation Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81z4A1g2T6Q .
I loved this piece of work, it was another healthy reminder that animation can be a platform for dicussing topics that are considered 'taboo'. In retrospective I can now see that this may have influenced an initial idea that I had for the module 'Make 'em Laugh' which dealt with the every day sexisms that women encounter.
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