Normally, I’m never the type of person to actually correlate something we’ve done in class to something I’ve done in my spare time. This is one of those few exceptions. Never did I think that of all things, a Pixar short would have anything to do with my academic studies and yet, here we are. A particular quote that stood out to me throughout Butler’s Preface to Gender Trouble was “to be a woman within the masculinist culture is to be a source of mystery and unknowability for men”, and it just so happened that last evening, I happened to be watching a short from Pixar’s independent shorts program: SparkShorts dealing with a similar topic on gender.
It was named Purl, a short cartoon about an female anthropomorphic ball of yarn who got hired at BRO Capital, filled with white collar human men. Initially, Purl is quickly overshadowed and excluded from the company’s meetings and activities, and so, she attempts to fit in by LITERALLY giving herself an overhaul to fit in with the norms of the male exclusive culture, and for a brief moment it works, right until another female yarn ball decides to come in, starting out exactly like her. So the choice is, does she choose to continue to conform with the company’s established culture, excluding the new other yarn ball, or does she revert back to her old self to include this new hire?
This short, while cute(albeit bold and vulgar in a particular scene) has gained light controversy for its message being too heavy handed and obvious. I looked up another video and found out that this was a reflection of the director’s own experience working in a male dominated environment. The short’s overall message does directly align with the quote from Butler posted earlier. That’s pretty much the major correlation I found between something I did as entertainment vs. something I had to do for school.
Hi Trokon, this short was very interesting to me. Although Purl is pink (a very commonly used color to symbolize women and femininity), I had the initial thought that Purl was possibly gender neutral. I say that because the yellow ball of yarn we see later has eyelashes–another symbol used to differentiate “men” from “women” (and I use this lightly because everyone has eyelashes, but usually in cartoons things are more exaggerated). What if Purl had just been someone different than the white men, but excluded because of her/their yarn color? I personally took this short as not only one that discusses gender, but maybe even color and race as well. Nevertheless, this short did a great job of depicting what it means to be different in a world dominated by white men. Thanks for sharing!