5: Why Pixar's "Turning Red" Was Phenomenal: An Analysis of "Girlhood" in Cinema

Hey :) Let’s talk about Turning Red, and how it gives excellent depictions on how the male gaze in film effects the girlhood and boyhood experience. Turning Red (2022) is a Disney Pixar movie directed by Domee Shi about a Chinese Canadian tween girl named Mei who must confront her mother during the midst of puberty.

TimeStamps:
Chapters
0:00 Funky Fresh Intro
2:30 Turning Red's "Relatability" (If You Don't Relate...That's okay)
4:30 Mei's Greatest Strength & Greatest Weakness is her Emotions
5:25 The Portrayal of "Girlhood" Through the Male Gaze 
7:15 Turning Red Challenges Typical 2000's Makeover Movies
10:34 It's Difficult For Girls to Have Innocent Hobbies (VSCO, Basic Bitch, Girly/Tomboy Stereotypes)
11:10 The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope & GoneGirl "Cool Girl" Trope
13:15 Wanting Not to Cause Too Much Attention To Yourself As a Girl
14:14 Exploring the Boyhood Experience Through Tyler's Character!
17:57 Tyler Being Gay? 
19:26 Talking Puberty with Children NEEDS to happen
20:23 Attraction/Crushes/Desire in Childhood
21:55 Asian Parents Tend Not to Like White Friends (Sometimes)
25:20 Why Turning Red Made A Lot of People So Angry 
26:45 New Mental Health Mondays!

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Transcript

0:00 As an early millennial who grew up in total fear of cringe,I always desired to be invisible turning red bring me a comfort and appreciation over the excitable silly teenage girl that i was and it was a way to look back at my youth fondly which women my age aren't really encouraged to do. 

0:22 Hey everyone! It's Reese, thank you so much for deciding to adventure with me today on adventure with me, we look at creations and experiences and art media music and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new! 

 So it's it's been a while, if you're listening via spotify  apple podcast we're catching it on reesegrey.com or if you mozied on over here from the HewwoReese gaming channel but for this new adventure with me Reese grey analyzes YouTube channel... hello i am 
consistent here [giggle]. 

1:04 Turning red is a new pixar movie released on disney plus exclusively and it's about a 13 year old girl in 2002 canada struggling with puberty periods boy craziness but most of all... she struggles with dealing with her inherited ability to turn into a red panda when she gets emotional, happens [giggle].

1:25 This movie is most notably different as it didn't paint the teenage girls as stereotypically conventionally attractive young girls who are too cool to have any hobbies. The girls are loud, they're determined, they're awkward! They're mini entrepreneurial superstars who are willing to put in the work to meet their goals of raising money themselves in order to buy their own tickets to go to their favorite boy band  4TOWN's concert.

They're not afraid to speak their minds, they're not afraid to speak up to their parents and stand up for themselves in front of their classmates, yes of course these girls in turning red like some stereotypical teenage girl stuff like boys in a boy band but the friendships between 
 the girls is the focus of the movie.

2:11 Their friendship and growth and sharing of hobbies helps each girl in their unique life situations this movie actually  makes the power of friendship trope work! I found this movie to be really wholesome uh very cute unlike some other reactors or reviewers or critics i wasn't shocked by this movie because it felt really familiar to my experience. That being said, if you look at mei's childhood story and the relationship with her mom and you don't relate that's okay some critics of the film think Me's story is unpalatable and unrealistic because the mom's too pushy so if you think that your parents probably treated you with dignity and valued your privacy, and that's great! But some people can't relate, to that myself included. 

This film gives a plethora of new representations and i'm not just talking about the obvious asian representation but the representation of feeling like you're not enough for your parents living in a conservative household dealing with generational trauma and all these things meant something to a lot of people and just because you don't relate to those themes doesn't make turning red an inherently bad film the film just wasn't for you and that's fine to not like the film because of that but it doesn't make it a bad film.

Let's talk about the film's relatability, or how the relatability of art and cinema affect people's 
 perceptions of that very movie though the movie stars a chinese-canadian family regardless of your cultural upbringings anyone who grew up in a more conservative home with stricter parents would probably be able to relate to may on top of that usually sensitive and empathetic kids who are more naturally mild mannered love to please their parents and they grow up afraid to show their personal thoughts and feelings on matters and that their parents don't bring up first in fear of rejection consequence or punishment or kind of general awkwardness or you can swing in the absolute opposite direction like me and rebel really really hard hate your parents and not do anything that they say may though tows this line of nuance which i really love where she wants to please her parents and she loves 
  them very much and she doesn't shut them out entirely.

4:29 So there's a parable that states that your greatest weaknesses are your strengths overdone Mei's strength lies in her emotions she feels intensely and that's her greatest strength her emotions brings herself and her friends joy it brings everyone that she knows together but her emotions can also be her biggest weakness as her big personality can also command a room and if that same big personality isn't controlled it can lead to destruction if she doesn't acknowledge that her big personality has power the movie depicts that by Mei 
 literally destroying fixtures in rooms crashing and damaging the people and things around her while she's transformed into the red panda but she can also exist as the panda in peace around others it shows kids that there's nothing wrong with who you are if you understand why you are the way you are and work hard to control that for good.

5:24 More than anything else as well,  was really impressed by the portrayal of girl hood in this movie! The movie is one of the few representations of girls being awkward girls without the expectation of being beautiful or likable or existing through the male gaze.

So, the term male gaze was coined by filmmaker laura mulvey who wrote her now famous 1974 essay visual pleasure and narrative cinema. You can read her paper as well as all the other sources mentioned that are linked in the source notes on reesegrey.com r-e-e-s-e-g-r-e-y dot com and if you're watching on youtube the sources are also linked in the description below. The male gaze is sometimes misunderstood or thrown around as a way that i've been told can make men feel as if they're being villainized like it's their fault for women wanting to feel attractive but that's not the point. So laura's paper simply poses psychoanalytical questions that ask why women and girls are presented the way they are in film why unconsciously do we expect to see girls as cute?wWy do we think conventionally attractive 
 women are capable of more and are more successful? And where did that idea of the conventionally attractive woman come from? So, it's just a way to question status quos of 
 what we are expected to see when we hear the word woman.

6:45 Laura mentions that she challenges cinema to look past a woman's quote to be "looked at-ness" so she argues that cinema codes the female body through a gaze or seeing a woman as an object thereby producing an illusion to be desired, instead of a character that is to be developed.

Turning red challenges this typical coming-of-age young girl adolescent trope by mei's personality itself becoming transformed and to be corny about it she has a makeover of
the soul she grows closer with her mother by expressing her feelings and is able to draw boundaries with her friends as well when i think of representations of female adolescents in cinema for myself growing up as a kid i think 2000's makeover movies. Clueless, Miss congeniality, she's all that, and of course the princess diaries! As a woman, cinema can teach girls that there's a lot of power that comes from beauty... and there's a huge concentration on transformation but not of your personality but transformation into a new conventionally 
attractive woman. So, I like that for a movie about a 13 year old girl, there's no focus on her physical appearance and she changes personality wise.

8:15 But we gotta be careful of generalizations here! This isn't to say that physical makeovers or a woman's beauty in cinema are bad. Look at the devil wears prada, t's the same actress as the princess diaries, Anne hathaway in the princess diaries anne hathaway gets a makeover to be pretty, because she's princess! But in the devil wears prada, the makeover delivers anne hathaway a reality check... calling out people for looking down on her for the way she looks and making the character believe that she wasn't being adequately respected for her job because of her appearance.

[Soundbite From The Devil Wears Prada Begins]
 Anne Hathaway: No! I don't want to quit, that's not fair... but I... you know... i'm just saying, that I would just like a little credit for the fact that i'm killing myself trying.

Male Voice: "Ah andy be serious you are not trying... you are whining. Don't you know that you were working at the place that published some of the greatest artists of the century? And what they did...what they created... was greater than art! You think this is just a magazine? This is not just a magazine. This is a shining beacon of hope for...oh I don't know, let's say, a young boy  growing up in rhode island with six brothers. retending to go to soccer practice when he was really going to sewing class and reading runway under the covers at night with a flashlight. You don't care because this place where so many people would die to work you only dane to work. And you want to know why she doesn't kiss you on the forehead and give you a gold star on your homework at the end of the day? Wake up sweetheart. 

Anne Hathaway: okay so i'm screwing it up. Um. I don't want to. I just wish that i knew what i 
 could do...
[SoundBite Ends]

9:58 A woman who is conventionally attractive versusa woman who is not conventionally attractive can often be weaponized in this false dichotomy between brains and beauty. But it's also important to remember that concepts like makeovers can be recontextualized to demonstrate that wearing different clothes makeup and presenting yourself in a certain way doesn't mean you've lost sight of your career goals but it can be a significant step towards achieving them. And that's the issue with the male gaze because this shouldn't be a game that you have to  play but it's a reality that women do. 

10:34 As a girl, growing up, it's really difficult to express your hobbies, likes, and desires. ven if they're innocent and harmless for example like...being a VSCO girl. A starbucks girl. Pumpkin 
 spice. That "basic" lifestyle. Anime, kpop, boy bands, being too girly, being too much of a tomboy, no matter how you express your hobbies or gender identity it's really easy to feel 
as if you should change it to be subdued. To be that "cool girl". More chill. To be that manic pixie dream girl type.

If you don't know the manic pixie dream girl term was coined by author Nathan Rabin back in 2007 after seeing Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown.

11:19 [Kirsten Dunst From Elizabeth Town Soundbite] "You're an artist man! Your job is to break through barriers, not accept blame and bow and say thank you i'm a loser i'll go away now have the courage to fail big and stick around make them wonder why you're still smiling!"

11:29 In western cinema, it's a common movie trope where a girl exists for another usually a 
 man's attention to help the male's goals and fulfill the male's dreams but the woman doesn't have any desires passions or goals of their own. he cool girl concept is commonly attributed to the 2011 book gone girl. 

11:59 [SoundBite from "Gone Girl" Movie Plays]"cool girl men always use that don't they as their defining  compliment. She's a cool girl. ool girl never gets angry at her man. She only smiles she likes what he likes who talks football and endures buffalo wings at hooters.

12:08 "I'm not like other girls" mentality. Speaking from the lens of western norms, men are taught to reject anything emotional, and focus on what's considered masculine. So much so, that men tend to shield themselves off from being friends with women because they're more "emotional". On top of the already existing notion that women aren't cool enough by virtue 
 because of their gender... So the temptation to say i'm not like other girls reinforces the notion that something is wrong with enjoying stereotypically feminine pastimes and
 expressing emotions. So endorsing the cool girl trope  subjects women to gender roles asking them to appear emotionless to please men who are taught from a young age that emotions aren't masculine so this phenomenon simultaneously promotes the idea that one girl is better
than another and not being like other girls is a bonus. So men and women suffer from this trope, because in the  cool girl world nobody gets to express their emotions or have complex conversations. 

13:16 And speaking from my own experience, it's easy to desire to be a woman who exists
 parallel to everyone else. ecause if you cause too much attention to yourself as a woman or a girl it can lead to terrifying judgments and preconceived notions of you either being basic or too much. And those feelings of fear come from the social norm of making fun of teenage girls 
 and women for just enjoying things that they like. But yeah, basic bitch jokes are hilarious, and there's a placefor them. But there's also a time to realize that those  kinds of tropes are targeted and unfair for a growing child's brain and body to be so self-aware and out of 
control of their bodily and hormonal changes and to only make fun of them without popular media ever celebrating them can be dangerous. And  think that's why i like turning red so much! I was a total cringe lord as a teenager... and um as an early millennial who grew up in 
total fear of cringe and not this cringe appreciation that younger people have i always desired to be invisible.Turning red bring me a comfort and appreciation over the excitable silly teenage girl that it was and it was a way to look back at my youth fondly which women my age aren't really encouraged to do.

14:45 And this movie doesn't stop with its critiques of the vilification of only girls interests
 but boys too the movie explores the boyhood experience through tyler's character and in the film tyler starts out as a school bully but we don't know why because we don't have much background on him he often makes fun of me overachieving dork narc gear picks on her in class tyler goes out of his way to mock the girls in Mei's friend group, especially when prodded by his friends.

[Soundbite From Turning Red Movie]
 Tyler: "we want more rides! 
Mei: "buzz off jerk face i'm busy"
 Tyler's Friends: "oh snap you're gonna take that"

15:22 Tyler in his birthday scene he's promptedto insult Mei after Mei stands up to him at a party! It's  later revealed that tyler feels emasculated by liking stereotypically girly things and attempts to assert his masculinity and gain public approval by denouncing the very things that make him happy. Because tyler is a secret 4Town Fan! And he probably feels really scared to admit that because boy bands are stereotypically for girls and his fear of being found out makes him a bully and i understand that tyler had most likely been going through some level of internalized misogyny and was taking it out on Mei. We see a lot of hypocrisy when tyler hires Mei to be the red panda at his birthday party. 

 [SoundBite From Turning Red]
Tyler: "i want to throw a sick birthday party an epic one if you're there everyone
  will come simple as that"

16:18 So people will show up to his birthday party. n a lot of media we see male characters
 belittling female characters until they can be used for gain prestige or profit. o tyler needing may the female character the red panda to get anyone to attend his birthday party which is very obvious by the body language of the other characters in the movie that nobody actually
wants to be at tyler's birthday party in the first placecan be seen as a really subtle parallel to a society that wants to use girls bodies and profit off of while simultaneously wanting to subdue quiet and shame the women who are attached to those female bodies.

17:00 In an interview with the creator Domee Shi, they revealed that they originally had a much bigger story for tyler. In an interview with slate, domi said Aaron Z from four town is the sporty one and he's very stoic and tyler really bonds with aaron z because both of them are 
blasian which is mixed ethnicity of black and asian so tyler really sees himself in aaron z! So domi said there was this whole backstory and it was actually cut from the movie. So despite tyler's story being cut like super short tyler understood that he was being a jerk because he was going through the same changes and growth as Mei was. I think after seeing may go through changes in emotional maybe he realized that he was doing the same so instead
 of the two being terrified of who they were they benefited each other and enjoyed their hobbies together.

17:56 Now i said i wanted to stay away from outside critiques of this movie but we have this weird meme floating around denoting that tyler might be gay or otherwise queer because of his love for boy bands and because he ends up being besties with the girls now to quickly bring up weird internet critiques just for a second we really need to let go of that trope as well that our hobbies and preferences and media have anything to do with our sexuality they can influence it sure but hobbies are not linked to sexuality and i feel like this is something 
that is being unfairly put on tyler's character via silly memes but i truly believe that's the minority of people doing this but i still think it's worth bringing up i think that it might be some misplaced goodwill though because a lot of the time in popular media misogyny and homophobia go hand in hand so people make this mistake of being anti-misogynistic with this over-representation of queerness and pushing sexuality onto things that have nothing to do with sexuality like music preference sure tyler can be gay yeah but it's not because he likes 4Townand it's not because he's friends with girls but i digress.

19:08 All in all, people become better when they have support systems good role models healthy friendships and acceptance because they now have room to grow! And people 
to learn from and be better with. Moving on, as pretty much everyone noticed mei's bodily changes against her will turning into the red panda represents puberty overall 
 people were either very impressed by the movie's attempt to bring up puberty and menstruating or very against it saying their kids weren't ready to hear that yet. On top 
 of that there's a lot of critics that say turning red had some kind of agenda or was too mature for children which is quite blatantly ignorant, because whether you like it or not kids are going to go through puberty and as children their hormones are going to make them start 
 having feelings of attraction and desire towards other people they're going to test their limits and start having their own thoughts and feelings independent of their parents teachings. It's better for parents and children to have an open dialogue than to go along with the status
quo common in both western and eastern parenting that represses and shames children for having normal thoughts and feelings and bodily functions.

20:23 We had people who were disturbed that may may at 13 had desires and attraction because she drew little fan art of her and her crush like hugging and her crush as a merman so are you guys really gonna sit there and tell me at 13 years old you didn't have a crush attraction or desire like get over it disney princesses and princes have been kissing in movies
for decades getting married at first sight and y'all never said anything because it fit the status quo girls have a desire and attraction and that starts in childhood we should teach young girls growing up how to deal with these feelings and desires instead of telling them to stifle
them it's okay to have those feelings and explore them. 

Additionally,we should express to growing girls to know that and truly understand that your worth doesn't come from your desirability or attractiveness as well this isn't a theme that the movie explores but there's this odd trope where women are supposed to be alluring and attractive and desirable but have no desires themselves so this is kind of shown in the movie you see how nobody was complaining that the girls had little crushes on the four town boys and fanned over them that was totally okay but mei exploring her desire and attraction on her own by drawing little pictures that wasn't okay growing girls and women have independent thoughts feelings and desires and that's natural and i'm glad the movie did something
to represent that.

21:56 And lastly i want to touch on the cultural representation of this movie in fact this movie brings up some racist tendencies that Asian parents tend to have which is really unique and self-reflectory and cool. They set it up by having may shove her friends out the window when they sink into a room 
[Soundbite from Turning Red]
Mei: "Crap you guys better go but no but Mir my mom already doesn't like you..
Mir: " She doesn't?"

Later the mom says to the husband that she doesn't trust her friends especially that Mir girl. Mei: "Some of the kids at school like them..."
Meis Mom:  "you mean miriam that girl is odd..." 

And finally the third time when she walks up to the girls after the party and is talking to all of the girls but is actually pointing straight at mir and looking directly into her eyes alone when accusing them here of corrupting her baby girl Mei 

Mei's Mom: (What Kind of) Girls would use her like this? 
Mei's friends: "What but we didn't we'd never!" 
Mei's Mom: Well i knew you were trouble putting all these thoughts into MeiMei's head parading her around now she's lying sneaking out she attacked a defenseless boy you think this is a joke do you know how dangerous this is you wanted to don't you blame her she is a good girl and you've taken advantage of her

23:09 So oddly there can be a lot of mistrust in preconceived notions and racial and cultural stereotypes from people of color on to white friends some people of color especially immigrants don't speak very good English not really have much interaction with white people and they may generalize them and think that all their white friends are spoiled their bad influence based solely on the fact that they're white turning red shows in a really subtle way that marginalized people can also harbor sweeping generalizations and stereotypes that can cause harm to their very children to the people that they love and they're trying to help but  it actually ostracizes the child from other children on the basis of cultural differences
and misunderstanding.

24:00 The movie also makes a few other subtle cultural difference notes for
  example when the girls are playing dodgeball and they're all complaining about how they were told they were all told by their parents they couldn't go to the concert but culturally the 
parents all told them they couldn't go to the concert differently my parents said i could 
go when i'm 30. mine called it stripper music what's wrong with that mine said yes but i have
to buy the ticket who the heck's got that kind of cat so these moments felt like little nods 
to how our parents were like when we were growing up based on cultural differences it gives the audience an option on who they can relate to regardless of what they look like instead 
of giving the audience one story one background to relate to it's many different ones and 
it's a way to also see people in cinema who look different and also that's inconsequential
to your experiences maybe you can relate to one character and they look different than you
and that just makes you realize some similarities that you didn't know you had with someone
of a different culture so you have this ability to relate and learn from each other in each
character the movie presents these themes very naturally and subtly and i'm glad they wrote
it the way that they did and i loved it.

25:20 I hope you guys really liked this little video that kind of explored why turning red would make people angry i think it pretty much challenges  the typical coming-of-age films and i think when we're used to seeing one point of view for such a long time used to seeing like really similar representations of girlhood and girls and childhood experiences when something comes along that's different that maybe people who usually can relate to movies can't relate to it they get defensive and just things  think it's a bad movie but it's not it's just different but you don't have to like it that's okay i liked it though thanks for adventuring with me today.

Let me know if you  like turning red or not you don't have to agree with me just let me know in the comments! I love talking to you guys like oh my gosh you guys have all been so nice. I've gotten really really nice comments especially on the Bo Burnham video so i like the communication aspect of content creation is like my favorite! So i-- i--- just i just highly encourage you guys to to to please talk to me. Just, I... sound desperate. I'm lonely. No. 

But like um oh before you go um before you go wait wait wait wait make sure you like and subscribe and or rate this podcast on spotify or apple podcast wherever you are so you can keep adventuring with me and we can keep this conversation going on mental health Mondays. So mental health Mondays will be a segment of the show where we'll get answers to any listeners questions about love life prior video essay here with me Reese Grey!

You can submit your questions anonymously on ReeseGrey.com under "Mental Health Monday" that's r-e-e-s-e-g-r-e-y.com or leave a comment on youtube uh on instagram i'm at hello reese tweet me. People don't usually do that. I'm not even--- i'm bad at twitter.  Don't... don't tweet me, please. I don't know what to do on there. If you do choose to submit anonymously on the website you can do so or if you want to be notified that
your question is being chosen for a future episode you can leave your email or other 
social media handle in the submission box and i will let you know. Always with genuine 
enthusiasm. Always anonymous. Looking forward to hearing from you.I think that's it? Yeah 
that's it.

Okay love you bye!

[indiscriminate noises & bad singing] never gonna let me never not oooh ahahaha