Clare Voince
In Spiritual Repose
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2009
Great point Tonyz. Walt also ran the ink and paint department with all women not because it was a lower position but because he felt that women were simply better at proper color identification and color perception than men.
That's just as sexist! Can't you see that?
Well... let's not lie:
"more women by percentage worked in non-ink and paint artistic positions at the Disney Studios while Walt was alive than any other animation studio in the world.
For the record, here are some specific names of just some of the women who worked in creative animation positions:
Animators: Retta Scott (Scott was the first Disney woman animator to ever receive a screen credit for her work. It was on Bambi. She joined the story department in 1938, the same year as that standard form letter, and was made an animator when Bambi went into production), Mildred Rossi
Art Direction: Mary Blair
Visual Development: Sylvia Moberly-Holland
Assistant Direction: Bea Selck
Story: Bianca Majolie, Sterling Sturtevant
Character Modelling: Lorna Soderstrom, Fini Rudiger
Background Painting: Thelma Witmer, Ethel Kulsar
Promotional Art and Advertising: Gyo Fujikawa
Assistant animators and In-betweeners: Freddie Blackburn, Elinor Fallberg, Mary Schuster, Grace Stanzell, Lois Blunquist, Elizabeth Case, Retta Davidson, Eva Schneider, Dolores Apodaca, Bea Tomargo, Jane Shattuck, Sylvia Frye, Nancy Stapp, Ruth Kissane, Janice Kenworthy
As an example, Retta Davidson was hired in July 1939 when she was only 17 years old. She did special-effects painting of fire, water and bubbles on animated features like Bambi and Fantasia.
In 1941, women who worked in the Ink and Paint Department were invited to submit drawings of Donald Duck in order to be considered for jobs in the Animation Department. Retta and nine other women were chosen to be trained as in-betweeners and background artists. This opportunity never happened at any other animation studio."
All from Disney historian Jim Korkis:https://www.mouseplanet.com/10606/Debunking_Meryl_Streep_Part_Two
So maybe Walt had more opportunities than other studios. Things were still far from equal. Just because he didn't dislike women doesn't mean that he treated them equally. I still would never trust his opinion on how women in the 21st century should be represented.