Ex-employee sheds light on ‘Pixar’s sexist boys club’
Films spearheaded by co-founder John Lasseter reflect his attitude toward women, former designer claims
Along with a legacy of hugely successful films including Frozen, Finding Nemo and Toy Story, departing Pixar co-founder John Lasseter is leaving behind a culture of abuse toward women, a former employee for the company in Emeryville has claimed.
Pixar parent Disney announced earlier thismonth that Lasseter, who was Disney’s animation chief, would be leaving the company in December after allegations that his physical behavior toward women in the workplace made female employees uncomfortable.
This week, a former graphic designer for Pixar wrote a blog post and an op-ed claiming that problems went beyond the “lecherous” Lasseter, whom she blames for creating an environment hostile to female workers.
“Lasseter’s open sexism set the tone from the top, emboldening others to act like frat boys,” Cassandra Smolcic wrote in a Variety op-ed published Wednesday.
Smolcic is the latest woman to come forward with allegations about male misconduct toward women in the Bay Area’s technology industry, an issue amplified by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault of women. Ellen Pao’s groundbreaking 2012 gender-discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins failed, but catapulted the treatment of women in Silicon Valley into the public spotlight. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s 2017 blog post about sexual harassment atUber opened the gates to numerous other claims, many focused on male venture capitalists exploiting female startup founders.
Disney films spearheaded by Lasseter reflect his attitude toward women, Smolcic claimed.
“Lasseter set the bar shamefully low for the overall treatment of women in his empire, which also signals troubling themes in the films he’s
directed, produced, and overseen throughout the years,” she wrote. “These projects, which reach millions of children and adults worldwide, have consistently failed to give women equal voice on screen and behind the scenes.”
Pixar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For Smolcic, it was watching The Little Mermaid when she was 6 that led her to the Pixar design studio, she wrote in a Medium post also published Wednesday, which cited the #MeToo movement.
“When I landed my ‘dream job’ as an intern at Pixar at age 25, I thought for sure I’d made it in life,” Smolcic wrote.
She was to learn otherwise, she wrote in the blog post titled, “Pixar’s Sexist Boys Club.”
“At Pixar, my femaleness was an undeniable impediment to my value, professional mobility and sense of security within the company,” Smolcic wrote.
“The stress of working amidst such a blatantly sexist atmosphere took its toll and was a major factor in forcing me out of the industry.”
She was “overtly harassed and physically threatened by male coworkers” a “handful” of times, she wrote.
In 2010 when she was 26, she was told to stay out of certain meetings because Lasseter “has a hard time controlling himself around young pretty girls,” she wrote.
“Missing weekly art review meetings meant I wouldn’t be able to pitch, articulate my ideas or discuss my work with the director one- on- one like everyone else on the team,” she wrote. “It meant I wouldn’t be present for important conversation about his vision for the film, or to listen to the feedback and thoughts of a man who’s known around the world for his creative genius.”
Women at Pixar were regularly talked over by men in meetings and were passed over for assignments “while guys in our departments were often given more than they could handle,” Smolcic wrote in the Variety op- ed.
Bad behavior from on high trickled down, leading to incidents such as Smolcic being smacked on the rear end and grabbed forcefully at an after-hours employee party, she wrote on Medium.
Her “fierce desire” to keep what she’d thought of as a dream job kept her from speaking out while she worked at Pixar about the harassment, she wrote.
In 2014, on her last day at Pixar after more than five years there, she’d just finished packing up boxes when a production designer stopped by, she wrote.
“It’s a shame that you’re leaving us, Cassandra,” the man said, surprising Smolcic with what appeared to be sincerity, she wrote. “But then he spoke again: ‘ I’m reaallllly gonna miss the view,’ he said slowly, while his eyes gave me one last lecherous up and down.”
Disney and its subsidiary have work to do if they want to eliminate the kinds of behaviors and attitudes that contributed to her departure from Pixar, Smolcic wrote.
“Dismantling John’s legacy will take more than just replacing a single executive or releasing an article about the female contributions to a given film,” she wrote.