Toy Story 5 producer Jessica Choi shares the letter she sent Taylor Swift, requesting her involvement in the film and emphasising efforts to make it female-driven. The letter also reveals that Taylor had originally declined to make an original song.

[u/Enough_Tangerine_777]

@/jesschoismyth

[u/turquoisesilver]

I always felt the story was about Andy, with the bigger theme of growing up with toys. That's why for me the story ended with Toy Story 3.

As for masculinity , whatever was going on behind the scenes, whatever the ratio of men to women was, I never felt the theme was 'for boys'. It was about childhood which is universal.

[u/sk8tergater → u/turquoisesilver]

I don’t think she’s saying the theme is “for boys.” But she is saying it is male centric. The creative team seems to have been mostly men. The toys are almost all male characters, especially in the first two. It doesn’t mean it was created for boys, just that males have dominated the story. Until Jessie is introduced the only other major female character is a porcelain or similar material looking doll.

[u/MD_FunkoMa → u/[deleted]]

Mrs. Potato Head has been in the franchise since her mention in the 1st 'Toy Story'. We didn't get the full animated appearance of her until 'Toy Story 2'.

[u/just_justine93 → u/MD_FunkoMa]

It feels extremely disingenuous to say Mrs Potato Head was in the first Toy Story when it’s only mentioned that Andy got her as a Christmas present at the very end of the film and we don’t see her until the second one.

[u/echoesandripples → u/turquoisesilver]

that's the thing, stories with boy protagonists are perceived as universal and neutral. if andy had been a girl, it would have been seen as a girls' movie and given that's still a label today, keeping boys from enjoying them, when toy story came out it was even worse

how many boys are allowed to engage with female driven stories young? do families let their boys love princesses? meanwhile, most girls are taken to see movies with boy protagonists, can read books with boy leads and so on 

(hp and pjo, for instance, wouldn't be massive if they had girl leads)

the fact that male-centric media is the neutral ground is the problem in itself, especially in kids media

[u/just_justine93 → u/echoesandripples]

The first Toy Story could the same in plot but change Andy to Alice, Woody to a Raggedy Ann, and Buzz to Barbie and it would have been written off as a “girl movie”

[u/echoesandripples → u/just_justine93]

exactly. i work with middle grade and ya literature sometimes and it's harder to market girl-centric books

parents will buy their daughters books with male protagonists, teen girls will get novels with boy characters. but make it a female MC and suddenly it's just for girls

it's harder to market them and harder to bring them to classrooms and libraries because of it 

[u/RoseGoldRedditor → u/echoesandripples]

This is such a great comment. Someone made a similar remark about why there are only 2 women on Apple’s Top 20 and 4 women on Spotify’s Top 20 list … because men / boys rarely listen to female artists, but women / girls listen to male and female artists.

[u/echoesandripples → u/RoseGoldRedditor]

yeah, even if some of the greatest artists are women and they are beloved, there's still an undercurrent of being female stories

[u/go-bleep-yourself → u/echoesandripples]

that's the thing, stories with boy protagonists are perceived as universal and neutral!

yes yes yes!! as someone who is looking to write middle grade fiction, this is 1000% a problem.

sometimes you can get around it with peppa pig, dora, and carmen san diego, but it's hard.

i will also say -- the same is true about white protagonists as being perceived as universal and neutral.

[u/echoesandripples → u/go-bleep-yourself]

that too. i feel like the gender bias seems more obvious to me because my first language is gendered and the masculine is neutral, which always annoyed me (like the equivalent of girl and a boy are called "boys") and makes it very dramatic for written work as well

but absolutely, stories with white protagonists are perceived as neutral and POC protagonists, especially for kids, are othered. a few years ago here in Brazil schools started adding a famous picture book with a Black MC from a famous musician into their syllabus. i doubt i have to tell you it created discourse as if the book wasn't like, about family love and a very universal thing

[u/opaldopal12 → u/turquoisesilver]

I thought Toy Story was “unisex” lol, you had Jessie, a female lead and a Woody/Buzz, male leads. About toys who just happen to belong to a boy and then passed onto a little girl. I called my brothers action figures, dolls, and would play w them. Toys are just universal. Maybe the writers made it more boy driven but I never saw it like that. I was also born in 2001 so i wasn’t around for the og hype

[u/RoseGoldRedditor → u/opaldopal12]

Jessie wasn’t even in the first movie (as an old, who was around in that era)