The crew that brings us Happy Tree Friends!
Kenn Navarro
Director, Animation Director, Writer [2000 – present]
Rhode Montijo
Director, Art Director, Writer [2000 - 2004 ]
Aubrey Ankrum
Director, Writer, Storyboard artist [2000 – 2006]
Warren Graff
Story Editor, Writer [2000 – present]
Ken Pontac
Story Editor, Writer [2004 - present]
Jeff Biancalana
Writer, Animator, Storyboard artist [2001 - 2005 ]
David Winn
Writer, Animator [2003 - present ]
Alan Lau
Animator, Writer, Director, Storyboard artist [2001 - present ]
Jason Sadler
Animator, Writer, Director [2001 - present ]
Mark Fiorenza
Writer [2000 – 2003 ]
Brad Rau
Animator, Storyboard artist [2001 - present]
Roque Bollestros
Writer, Animator, Director, Storyboard artist [2001 - present ]
Paul Allan
Writer, Animator, Director [2000 - present ]
Nica Lorber
Animator [2000 - present ]
Michael "Lippy" Lipman
Storyboard artist, Animator, Director, Writer [2000 - present ]
Peter Herrman
Storyboard artist [2000 – present ]
Jim Lively
Sound Designer, Music [2000 - present ]
Francis Carr
Foley artist [2004 - present ]
Jeremy Rossen
Music Composer [2005 - present ]
Liz Stuart
Producer [2000 - present]
*data obtained from Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_tree_friends]
From the table above, I’ve observed that the people involved in the production are mostly males. What does this signify?
The main theme of HTF is violence and gore. Males are more involved in this production then females. Does this mean that males are more able than females to cope with this issue? Or is it that males like the theme better than females hence they prefer to work for HTF? So does it mean that males are more violent than females?
We have always known the man as the more aggressive of the two sexes. Physically, they are stronger. This could lead to the idea that men are generally more violent than woman. However, members of the opposition advocate that it is because man finds it more difficult to come to terms with their feelings, that they find it difficult to talk to anyone about their feelings, being afraid to be called a woose and choose to protect their ‘pride and dignity’. In the end, they choose to express themselves in another way - violent acts. Such examples include punching the wall with their fists or kicking the furniture.
So are men really more violent than woman? Just because they show more of their violent side, does it justify that the nature of man is more violent than the woman? It could just be the MAN way of letting off steam.
When more man is working on this production, could it be because man actually like violence more than the woman? Since young, boys play with toy guns and swords. Girls play with Barbie dolls. The notion that man has to be more aggressive is actually inculcated in us. Could it be that violence has always been part of the man’s life that they actually accept and embrace it?
Of course, it might just be that men are more creative than woman in churning out ideas for the various episodes of HTF.
I would agree with Geck Ying that gender IS a social construct, i.e. whatever it means to be masculine or feminine has been inculcated into us through socialisation and not predetermined by biology (that would be our sex), which may have a trickle down effect onto production, especially in the way they script violence in.
ReplyDeleteHowever, perhaps more than the issue of whether males really are/like to be violent is how each gender is perceived and the impact of having such 'appropriate behaviour' drilled into each individual.
Because of such concepts of masculinity and femininity, the 'appropriate behaviour' that comes along with it affects and polices us as much as the producers are policed by these ideas of gender. They then reproduce it in their work as a belief/norm that they subscribe to, in the content, in their choice of production crew.
This simply further drives home gender division and through that, gender ideology.