BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: 0
[no significant representation of girls/women]
FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: 0
[no significant representation of women in authority]
THE MALE GAZE SCORE: 0
[no issues]
GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -25
WILDCARD SCORE: 0
Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)
No.
TOTAL SCORE: -25
IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)
IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)
BOTTOM LINE: As with so many children’s movies (same as grownups’ movies!), characters default to male most of the time. The two main human characters here — the Farmer and the Animal Control Officer — are male, and even among the animals, the sheep protagonist and the dog sidekick are both male. (Among the rest of the flock, one sheep is identifiable as female because she’s mother to a tiny sheep — hence equating femaleness with motherhood — and because she wears hair curlers on her head, which underscores that that femaleness may defined as “deviation from a neutral maleness.” The genders of the other sheep are not cued in any way, implying that gender doesn’t matter, unless that gender is “female.”)
The major issue with gender representation here is that a joke essential to the plot requires that the Animal Control Officer be romantically attracted to a couple of sheep dressed up like a human woman, which serves to make the Animal Control Officer look stupid (he’s the villain and is meant to be ridiculous) but which also renders signifiers of femaleness as ridiculous as well, in a way that simply is not applicable to the other sheep dressed up in non-female-coded human clothing. (Try to imagine a plot point revolving around a human woman being attracted to a couple of sheep dressed up in a business suit. As a joke, it doesn’t work, because there’s no perception of anything comic in a business suit, even worn inappropriately, the way there is in a flowered skirt and a handbag.)
I am almost tempted to deduct points because there’s no reason why the protagonist and titular character couldn’t have been female, except that the central character springs from a pun (“Shaun” taken as “shorn”) that makes it inevitable that the sheep hero be male. But I do wonder how much the fact that the joke works as a male name — hence creating a male protagonist — contributed to the premise ending up as a TV show in the first place!
Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.
Click here for the ranking of 2015’s Oscar-nominated films for female representation.
NOTE: This is not a “review” of Shaun the Sheep Movie! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Shaun the Sheep Movie.
See the full rating criteria. (Criteria that do not apply to this film have been deleted in this rating for maximum readability.)
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Ewe. Oh, I mean Ewwwwwwwwe.
Uh, anyone involved with this movie know any real sheep? In real farming life, a flock is mostly female. Rams are potentially troublesome. Wethers are sometimes kept around, but it is an extra step so extra male lambs are often slaughtered young for meat.
But… but… but then the movie (and the TV show) would have to be all about female characters. And who would watch *that*?
It’s fucking SHEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cute, clay-mation sheep. And Shawn/Shaun/Sean can also be a female name (at least in the US…I had two female classmates who were named that).
A friend of mine went to Scotland. She said sometimes she couldn’t drive anyplace, because she had to wait for a giant flock of sheep to cross the road.
It worries me. People might start counting the sheep and fall asleep at the wheel.
Better to count fire engines or balloons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pigcahytIH8
It’s remarkable how distinctive Jim Henson’s voice sounds. When I watched his shows, growing up, I just thought, “That’s Ernie” or “That’s Kermit,” even after I’d seen him in interviews and other filmed appearances. Now, I instantly recognize the real person playing the character and start to miss him tremendously.
Better than a flock of giant sheep.
Remember that movie *Barnyard* from a few years back? The one with male cows with udders?
No. Now I know about it. I am not better off for that knowledge.
Sheesh.
Are they male sheep?!
Shaun, yes probably, Timmy (the baby sheep) certainly, but the others? I don’t recall any gender ever being made explicit in the film or on the series, with the exception of Timmy’s mother.
I enjoy the Where are the Women? posts but this one seems a bit…unnecessary?…uncomfortable, at least.
MaryAnn discussed that issue at length:
Even if you want to argue that most of the sheep in the flock are actually female, they don’t speak or contribute much to the plot. They’re so anonymous that it’s impossible to figure out their gender. That’s hardly a step forward when it comes to the representation of women in movies.
The “3 rollers” is a Hilda Ogden homage and I wouldn’t expect MaryAnn to catch that (unless she’s a closet classic Coronation Street fan) not a glaring This Is The Female Sheep statement.
No one “speaks” in the film and while the flock doesn’t really help the plot along, (well, perhaps in the “prison escape” sequence which I won’t spoil) but they show loyalty, courage and friendship by following Shaun to the Big City.
Female characters supporting men — and doing little else — is part of the overall problem of the poor representation of women in film.
Yeah but in the show they are often shown as being female. Timmy and shaun are the only male sheep. The big sheep’s name is Shirley even. The movie doesn’t show that they are female because the tv show does.
I guess if you wanna complain that the leads(Shaun, Bitzel and the farmer) are male than ok…i guess they could have easily made any of them female.
Yes, they could have.
This rating is for what is onscreen in the movie, not the TV show.
It’s vitally necessary. The neutrality of maleness and the Otherness of femaleness is something kids are learning from a very young age. Pointing this out when it comes to kids’ movies is *essential.*
Yes, but sometimes, as I think it does here, that reverts to the viewer, who is *seeing* maleness where none is stated and is not pleased to see any female characteristics and that is not a fault of the film.
I’m uncomfortable that that weakens the whole premise when it’s applied to things like Shaun the Sheep.
The main characters are all male. The only distinctly female character is a stereotype, even if she’s also an “homage.” Background characters who might possibly be female, if you look carefully enough, don’t really improve the situation.
When we reach a point where hundreds of films are released each year that have four women in major roles, and just one man in the main cast, this sort of thing might not be a problem, but we’re nowhere near that kind of balance.
The main characters are not “all male.” They mainly consist of sheep of indiscrimate gender. I personally do not know any sheep mother’s so I cannot possibly comment on her being a “stereotype” :)
I am not arguing against the “where are the women” test (as stated I enjoy them) and I am not saying there is not a need for one (God is there ever a need for one) but applying it here does the test little favours.
indeterminate… flipping autocorrect…
But that’s just the problem: there are sheep of indeterminate gender, and there’s the Female Sheep.
No, it really isn’t. But it illustrates the tests uselessness in this context. The lack of “female Otherness” of the other sheep means the *viewer* not the film imposes maleness or gender neutrality upon them. So having one identifably female character seen as bad.
Conversely, if all the sheep bar(!) Shaun and Timmy wore bows or whatever, advertising their female otherness (because the only other way is anatomically and no…) then that too would be bad because you shouldn’t *have* to make a sheep obviously female for it not to be male.
No, you shouldn’t. But that’s how cartoons generally work.
But never mind the sheep of indeterminate gender. We are still left with Shaun, Bitzer, and Farmer, and the Animal Control Officer. All of whom are male. *That* is the major issue with this movie when it comes to female representation.
I think you are absolutely wrong. SHEEPS AND COWS (about Backyard film) IN REAL LIFE ARE ALWAYS FEMALE, sheeps in indiscriminated gender? it sound like a think I read about the Backyard movie “cows of male gender”. It doesn’t exist. Their male equivalent are rams and bulls. If the series name were Shaun the lamb or Shaun the ram or Shauna the sheep, then there will not be any problem but in here, even if it is not the intention, they are erasing females in a context that is always female. Imagine the series were named “John the hen”, you may think “?? but… the hens are female ALWAYS”.
What happen then? is simple, when you think into drawing a character it is always male if it is not pink or has great eyelashes, think “Oh, I can draw a sheep (the normal) and then a female sheep and a child sheep and grandma and grandpa sheeps” No! you can’t! because you can’t draw a woman, then a female woman… to have the complete family.
The way to female visibility is not neutral characters of “indiscriminated gender” it is simply to normalize female characters. I think it is what this post is about.
Of course, we still enjoy watching Shaun the sheep, and all of that but at last these post should be make us think
A “mother” *is* a stereotype, when she is present to be *only* a mother to another character (as if the case here).
I am making no assumptions whatsoever in stating that the two main animal characters and the two main human characters are male. This is a characteristic of the film that it shares with most entertainment aimed at children.
If you want to be uncomfortable with something, why not be uncomfortable with that?
Shaun is male. There’s an episode where Shaun gets a girlfriend, also in Wallace & Gromit, Wallace says “Let’s call him Shaun”. Timmy as the name suggests male.
The rest of the flock are female, there’s an episode where a full grown ram visits the farm, it involves the entire flock except Shaun and Timmy swooning over the ram.
The one with curlers is “Timmy’s mom”, (Timmy is the lamb), and Shaun’s aunt. So I assume that means it’s a female. The largest sheep is named Shirley, and I have never met a man named Shirley but who knows.
I think in recent generations it hasn’t much been used for men.
I had assumed that adult male sheep were normally recognizable by the horns. Apparently, that is true only for some species. For a kids show, though, I would still assume that this holds true, which would make Shaun and Timmy the only males.
Slip, the little brown stray dog who helps rescue the sheep is a girl! A big hero and friend in the movie.
And supporter of male protagonists! It’s been months since I saw the film, but she might qualify as a “perfect awesome girl who is present only to support a male protagonists.” Perhaps I didn’t deduct extra points for this because she’s not only screen long enough. (I can’t recall the details at this stage.)
Just an FYI, the sheep with the curlers on her head, is in fact a female sheep. She is Timmy’s mother. (Timmy is the baby.) Shaun The Sheep was a TV Show years before this movie came out. Do your research before you go and bash a great movie.
Also, the fat sheep is named Shirley. So…again, research people.
If you read the other comments here, you’ll see that your objections have already been addressed.
So… read, people.
Watch the episode “Foxy Laddie” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt5mWSRbRJQ and by the way the three sheep in that picture are all girls.
I am not reviewing the TV show.
And what does that have to do with my analysis of the movie’s gender representation?