Minions creator on why there are no female minions

Frank O. Pinion · 19-07-2015 09:54AM

This is certainly an outrage. Of course women can be stupid. Women need to fight for their right to be seen as equally stupid as men.

Wibbs · 19-07-2015 09:59AM

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Same with Meryl Streep. Everyone seen her visible support for the equality in Hollywood with regards to pay at the Oscars and she of course is celebrated feminist who regularly speaks out against sexism, but yet how does she speak when she's alone in a room full of like minded femenists?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MlGgcHNZE

Yea, but again more empty "you go girl" stuff that preaches to the cheap seats, helps the Streep branding and gets more bums on seats for her next flic. The Maggie Thatcher quote is demonstrably inaccurate, unless you live in opposite land. Let's face it the overwhelming majority, hell, damn near every single thing in civilisation around you; technology, culture, science, the arts, government, whatever was created by men. Even in popular culture girl power style stuff it's male. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Madonna et al, check the credits on their stuff. How many women do they use as writers and producers and technicians? Oh wait…

Henry9 · 19-07-2015 12:34PM

NachoBusiness wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MlGgcHNZE

Hahahaha..... what kind of Bizarro World bullsh1t is that?
Travel the world and see the things that men have built, roads, bridges, dams, skyscrapers. The feats of engineering are incredible, you can drive across continents on roads and railways that men have built through sheer back breaking labour, many of them dying in the process.

Hollywood actresses moaning about equality, L O fcuking L.

If you want someone to engage in over privileged whining, and reduce every single issue to the same middle class, liberal land grab.... ask a feminist.

Oh and Thatcher is ok with feminists now?? That's funny, because they hated her when she died.

Cold War Kid · 19-07-2015 12:51PM

Thatcher hated feminists herself, which was ironic seeing as she wouldn't have been in the position she ended up in, if it weren't for the original women's rights movement.

Cold War Kid · 19-07-2015 12:53PM

Mint Aero wrote: »

Clearly there's no female minions because women just aren't funny. The creator obviously had a face palm moment at another PC brigade offence and he used the get out of jail free card that every male with a shred of intelligence uses.

We know that self deprecation of our own sex is the only answer women accept. It makes them happy and think they're right about stuff leaving us men in peace to get on with more important matters.

The thanks button is often more useful for identifying misogynists than actual posts are.

FortySeven · 19-07-2015 01:01PM

Cold War Kid wrote: »

The thanks button is often more useful for identifying misogynists than actual posts are.

I resemble that remark. Wouldn't call is mysogynistic though. I personally believe that women have a role as do men. I do not believe this to be in anyway offensive to women. We are equal, but very different. The feminists try to make out we are the same. If they want to be the same then let us start with reform of the social welfare system. They usually shut up when you mention the massive subsidies us men are paying them.

Wright · 19-07-2015 01:05PM

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

So Minions can't produce sexually apparently. We don't know why, it's not very realistic but anyway the creator has a curious reason as to why there are no female minions.

This is on the BBC

I don't think he would get a way with saying that the other way around against women.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJ3Pd9jVEAAnsVO.png

So why is it ok to say that about boys/men? Gender equality anyone?

Perfectly ok with this. Guy here. We are sillier, we think farts are funny, and its a fact we perform worse on examinations. Also we watch men run around a field after a ball for long periods of time, and idolize them and talk about them nonstop.

This however is gonna send the most pathetic brigade of all, the Mens rights activists, into overdrive. They even went nuts over Mad Max having so few lines in the new movie, thats how nuts they are. This is gonna cause a stink.

volchitsa · 19-07-2015 01:15PM

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

It wouldnt be just let go like that and you know full well.

What about little black fictional cartoon characters that are too stupid to be white? All good too?

Needs to be the other way around to be comparable : women were refused the right to vote, to hold their own property and so on, because they were held to be stupider than men, just as block people were held to be inferior. So your comparison requires that little white fictional characters are described as being too stupid to be black to be comparable.

When you do that, the irony that you appear to have missed becomes obvious, surely?

volchitsa · 19-07-2015 01:19PM

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Thatcher hated feminists herself, which was ironic seeing as she wouldn't have been in the position she ended up in, if it weren't for the original women's rights movement.

It's a case of pulling the ladder up behind you. Not uncommon, unfortunately, and not limited to women either.

Allyall · 19-07-2015 01:22PM

Derp.

SparkySpitfire · 19-07-2015 01:26PM

Frigating wrote: »

I haven't seen the films, but it doesn't see like there's that much masculine about them. Apart from the names (Dave, etc.) they could all be of no gender. Is anyone checking inside their overalls?

There's actually a part in the film where one of them gets hit in the crotch with an iron bar, and he looks shocked and waits for pain, but then he laughs cos he doesn't feel any.

THEY DON'T HAVE GENITALS

19-07-2015 01:36PM

I can't believe everyone is being so right-wing as to project genders onto people without asking them what they are and getting their preferred pronouns.

19-07-2015 01:38PM

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

There's actually a part in the film where one of them gets hit in the crotch with an iron bar, and he looks shocked and waits for pain, but then he laughs cos he doesn't feel any.

THEY DON'T HAVE GENITALS

Well not where we have them anyway. I can't believe you're being so anthroponormative!

Wibbs · 19-07-2015 01:43PM

Wright wrote: »

Perfectly ok with this. Guy here. We are sillier, we think farts are funny, and its a fact we perform worse on examinations. Also we watch men run around a field after a ball for long periods of time, and idolize them and talk about them nonstop.

Self hating man alert and talk about stereotypes. Like the stereotypical women obsessed with soaps and celebs and horoscopes and cattiness and giggling and kittens. Are you for real?

volchitsa wrote: »

Needs to be the other way around to be comparable : women were refused the right to vote, to hold their own property and so on, because they were held to be stupider than men,

You do realise that in the majority of countries the average man didn't have a vote either and either got the vote at the same time as the average woman or just a few years before.

19-07-2015 01:58PM

Wibbs wrote: »

You do realise that in the majority of countries the average man didn't have a vote either and either got the vote at the same time as the average woman or just a few years before.

It would be nice if people would unite against cabals and oligarchies rather than buying into the gender-based stuff. Would require a bit too much subtlety of thought for many alas.

NachoBusiness · 19-07-2015 01:58PM

Wright wrote: »

This however is gonna send the most pathetic brigade of all, the Mens rights activists, into overdrive.

They even went nuts over Mad Max having so few lines in the new movie, thats how nuts they are.

I think your confusing MRAs with sexist male chauvinists.

somefeen · 19-07-2015 02:03PM

There is a weird bias towards portraying men as stupid in the media. No idea why considering most of it is created by men.
Its actually bad for feminism to if you look into it.

But in this case who cares? Its ****ing minions lads, get over it.

NachoBusiness · 19-07-2015 02:19PM

somefeen wrote: »

But in this case who cares? Its ****ing minions lads, get over it.

Why are people still not getting the OP's point? You don't have to agree with it, but at least see it.

It's clearly not about the Minions cartoon. It's about sexist comments (back tracking or otherwise) made by it's creator:

“Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn’t imagine Minions being girls”.

It's the overall suggestion and implication of what he is saying that some are objecting to.

Cold War Kid · 19-07-2015 02:21PM

It helps keep any hostility between the genders going, and as well as putting down men, it's pretty patronising towards women. Lots of us women are stupid, and its OK to say that.

NachoBusiness · 19-07-2015 02:26PM

Cold War Kid wrote: »

It helps keep any hostility between the genders going, and as well as putting down men, it's pretty patronising towards women. Lots of us women are stupid, and its OK to say that.

Indeed, and that's the flipside argument and one which I have no bother endorsing.

Yes, women can be dumb and stupid (if I get banned now I'm blaming you) :P

Seriously though, this female journo made that very point today:

Girls can be just as ‘dumb and stupid’ as boys, so why can't they be minions?

To me, this sounds like another poor Hollywood excuse for excluding women, disguised as a compliment. Girls are just as likely to be "dumb and stupid" as boys, so that reasoning doesn’t exactly ring true. Coffin has essentially taken a bunch of jobs away from female voice actors and been insulting about boys in the same breath.

I think the reason so many children (and adults) have fallen in love with the little yellow henchmen is that they’re silly and childlike and joyful. They’re always getting into slapstick scrapes, and giggling and jabbering excitedly. None of these characteristics or actions are inherently male or female. The minions didn’t really need to be assigned a gender at all, and if they were to be gendered, there’s no reason why there couldn’t be as many female minions as male ones.

hatrickpatrick · 19-07-2015 02:42PM

somefeen wrote: »

But in this case who cares? Its ****ing minions lads, get over it.

But in this case who cares? It's ****ing Hunky Dorys ladies, get over it.

See what I did there?
No double standards should be acceptable.

Cold War Kid · 19-07-2015 02:44PM

In fairness plenty (including me) said "it's hunky dorys get over it".

hatrickpatrick · 19-07-2015 02:47PM

Cold War Kid wrote: »

In fairness plenty (including me) said "it's hunky dorys get over it".

And yet the ad was still found to have breached standards, and pulled. There is absolutely zero chance of sexism against men, like this, being banned or censored.

Either both should be ok, or neither. Personally I'm anti censorship so I'd vote both, but honestly double standards are worse.

FortySeven · 19-07-2015 02:50PM

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Indeed, and that's the flipside argument and one which I have no bother endorsing.

Yes, women can be dumb and stupid (if I get banned now I'm blaming you) :P

Seriously though, this female journo made that very point today:

From the last paragraph.

It might seem trivial to write about the gender of made-up yellow characters, but pop culture - in all its guises - reveals a lot about society. Stereotyped or nonexistent portrayals of women reinforce to female viewers that they are the "other" in a world where men function as "standard".

Don't you mean she tried to turn it on its head and make it another feminist issue?

conorhal · 19-07-2015 03:08PM

kneemos wrote: »

Miss Piggy used to bate Kermit.
Was the there a word ever said?
Was there hell.

Na, because,

A) it was absolutely hilarious

and

Why should we get exercised? Do I call the RSPCA every time a Tom and Jerry cartoon comes on? Should Elmer Fudd be hounded by PETA every time he goes after Buggs or Daffy with a 12 gage?

Frankly these threads and those that start them have become a toxic irritant on the internet. At every turn these days it feels like some idiot social justice warrior's SJW superpower senses tingle when a statement like this gets made and they all collectively plop down their copy of the Irish Times and lumber to their keyboards to go to war, because 'somebody somewhere on the internet has just been offended by something trivial!'.

As for the being outraged by the fact that women have just been failed by the failure to portray them as 'just as stupid as men. Well that' modern equality for you isn't it. Forever striving for the lowest common denominator of equality.

Personally I just assumed that since they were a species created by Groo, an antisocial malcontent to whom women are a foreign species, that he created them all male because that was his uncomplicated comfort zone.

.

NachoBusiness · 19-07-2015 03:09PM

FortySeven wrote: »

Don't you mean she tried to turn it on its head and make it another feminist issue?

I just meant that her: Girls can be just as ‘dumb and stupid’ as boys argument is as valid as men's argument that: Boys are just as clever and bright as girls. I went to a mixed primary school and a mixed secondary one also, and so I know what girls are like. They were just as wild as us lads, just as many bullies were female, and they were equally as filthy minded as us, if not more so, and so to spring out the secondary school gates at 18 into a world which contradicted what I had just been witnessing for the guts of 15 years, was somewhat perplexing and jarring.

The world needs a reset button.

mackg · 19-07-2015 03:20PM

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Indeed, and that's the flipside argument and one which I have no bother endorsing.

Yes, women can be dumb and stupid (if I get banned now I'm blaming you) :P

Seriously though, this female journo made that very point today:

Jesus, the state of this thread. I'd say that poor fella knew he was goosed the minute that question was asked in the interview. Whatever he said, some clowns would be writing articles about it and there would be a social media 'backlash' to some extent. The response could be a complete joke on his part for all we know, an attempt to humorously sidestep the most loaded of questions. ("Well then it was misguided humor" I hear you whine)

http://www.thewrap.com/minions-creator-pierre-coffin-on-why-theres-no-female-characters-in-the-animated-hit/

That's the article in full (I think). There have probably been 100s of interviews done with the guy during promotion of the film, all more or less indistinguishable from each other. So how do you make your article stand out and garner clicks for your site? You play on the 'gender war bs' obsessed internet.

I wonder how many other interviews with him about Minions generated the number of comments, shares, likes and retweets that the ones that played on this quote did. Then other sites starts to treat it like it's news so that they can muscle in on those lovely clicks.

This stuff is the most predictable type of rabble rousing going these days. How people continue to bite is beyond me. Then again I guess the 'gender war' is a vocation for many people these days, get home from work and police twitter for 8 hours.

To this day I have never had a conversation irl about this stuff that wasn't fairly measured and rooted in common sense. I guess the internet is peoples opportunity to exchange the required reason and rationality of the real world for shrieking hysteria.

EDIT: I'm not using your post as a specific example of 'state of this thread' NB.

OneOfThem · 19-07-2015 03:30PM

My first thought was that he sensed a feministy "How dare you not write any female characters!?" coming and deftly slipped it by making the comment he did.

"ehh well, you know, women are just so awesome, so that's why. Quick, look behind you! "

meeeeh · 19-07-2015 03:36PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

And yet the ad was still found to have breached standards, and pulled. There is absolutely zero chance of sexism against men, like this, being banned or censored.

Either both should be ok, or neither. Personally I'm anti censorship so I'd vote both, but honestly double standards are worse.

There are not too many adds focussed on man's groin area. So do not do nonsense comparisons.

Hollywood, advertising or society has no problem peddling dumb blond with big tits stereotype since ever so I really don't know why sudden fuss about only one gender being considered stupid. And finally, that quote was only a deflection to avoid uncomfortable question why there is such a gender imbalance in favour of male characters in Hollywood. If you want to be outraged about that you have all my support.

Mint Aero · 19-07-2015 03:48PM

Cold War Kid wrote: »

The thanks button is often more useful for identifying misogynists than actual posts are.

Useful for spotting the normal posters too.

Minions creator on why there are no female minions

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