So it's finally happening.
When the news broke about Harvey Weinstein and the exposure of Hollywood's groping culture turned into a cascade of denouncements which were suddenly being taken seriously, I wondered how long I'd have to wait until there was enough of a crack in the happy family for someone to point a finger at John Lasseter.
I was female at Disney, so of course I heard things – the
'whisper network' as
Variety calls it, though it was more brazen chat over lunch than hushed secret messages in shadowy corridors. Avoid him at wrap parties or anywhere there's enough alcohol. He's all right at work, but you should know. He's not a predator, he's “just really tactile.” That's just how he is. Oh, JL; chuckle, sigh, head shake.
I only ever encountered him once, when I raised my concerns about a minor edit on
Princess and the Frog which I felt had serious emotional consequences for the storytelling, and to my shock was listened to. He came to dailies (wherein I happened to be showing a scene) and I was pointed out to him as the one who had spoken up about the edit; afterwards he clapped me on the shoulder and congratulated me on the good call and the courage to speak up. There was no grope, no sexual subtext beyond what you might read into any powerful man touching a young female rookie. I felt it was no different from how he might have touched any of my male colleagues, and I am still very much of that opinion. My own feelings at the time were that he left his hand there a little too long, but:
he's just really tactile. The 'tap on the shoulder' from Lasseter is a signal of favour and advancement. I was a lowly apprentice and he was the most powerful person in the animation industry. Expressing discomfort at such a beneficence would have been profoundly ungrateful if not downright paranoid and/or rude, especially when I already have a low personal threshold of discomfort with being touched. If I had a problem, it was
my problem.
Disney, and the LA animation scene more generally, is a very huggy place. It's common to exchange hugs as a form of greeting. This took some getting used to, coming from a more reserved culture*, but get used to it I did. For the most part a hug is just a hug. Compared to the accusations levelled at Weinstein, 'unwanted hugging', even with the occasional wandering hand, is very much the Disney version of a sexual assault scandal. But you can almost always tell when physical contact is made as a social gesture, and when it's done more for the gratification of the toucher. I never received one of Lasster's hugs, but I saw them being dispensed, to men and women alike, and they appeared to me to be the latter, which is why I believed the 'whisper network' even though neither I nor any of my close friends among the studio's lower ranks had had any such experiences first-hand.
*My classmates and I did get into the habit of hugging, but we spent most of two difficult years locked up together, so we're practically family.I won't deny it was a little gratifying to see the news break last night, and not because I harbour much resentment of his interpersonal behaviour, but because finally an unhealthy workplace culture and hierarchy would come under scrutiny. Lasseter sits at the top like a charismatic messianic cult leader – the Second Coming of Walt in all but name – and is both toadied to and unchallenged in ways I don't think he's even aware of. Everyone down the pyramid from him works around and towards him, angling for his favour, and he elevates whom he wishes. He has absolute power when presiding over creative meetings; the self-censorship based on anticipating what Lasseter will and won't like is systemic and almost, at this point, unconscious. His goldenboy-to-outcast-to-saviour story is powerful, and as he's brought us all such success, how can we question how he runs things, or his taste, or his conduct? He is successful, beyond successful, therefore he must be right.
I was expecting to wait a lot longer than a month and a half for the searchlight to land on Lasseter. Not just because 'no one would believe it' but because it's such a closed society with such a fervent dogmatic belief in The Pixar Way and Our Great Leader. People on the inside are conditioned against, and restricted from, talking openly to the outside world, and representations of the society to said world are very, very carefully controlled.
Rashida Jones, as an outsider with an established career, didn't owe anything to Pixar, and they couldn't hold anything over her, so she had both the insight (from having worked with them) and freedom (by leaving and not fearing the consequences) to say something – and as a respected writer outside of animation, was more likely to be listened to than some no-name cartoonist. I believe her when she says she left because of
philosophical differences rather than sexual discomfort: a certain amount of discomfort is, sadly, par for the course in these sort of situations, but the constant fight with contrasting values in the interest of creative cooperation can really wear you down, and start to drive you crazy if you're an observant type. This is in no way entirely down to Lasseter either, but his heroic stature in the company, and the encouragement to fall into step with the values he and his core team established, intentionally or not, don't encourage dissenting voices. Having him and his example on top gives permission to a handful of little abusers, sexual and otherwise, to carry on below him. Removing him from the top of the pyramid makes the lower levels less structurally stable, and that's where a great deal of attention needs to be paid, and change to happen.
I don't like John Lasseter personally, and I definitely have beef with him professionally and artistically, but I almost feel a little sorry for him having this blow up in his face. I don't think he realises that he makes people uncomfortable, or that everyone was too afraid of him to mention it. I think he genuinely believes he just has a lot of love to share and can't understand why people don't want it. But this selfish viewpoint is in itself a problem, and the dysfunctional society that has grown up around him, that has preserved this limited perspective for so long, is an even bigger problem. The near future is going to be very hard for a lot of comfortable people, but I hope things will be better for everyone on the other side.
As Lissa Treiman very rightly points out, these studios are full of very talented and perfectly decent, loving, supportive, non-creepy people. They're the ones who actually make the movies. Don't let the tearing down of the figurehead ruin your appreciation of the work done by these people. Hopefully they'll get some appreciation within the studios themselves.
For the studios' sake, there's another very important aspect to this reckoning: succession. When Walt died, the company was bereft, and spent decades in the wilderness. There is no apparent strong leader to step into Lasseter's shoes, only people who have risen by proving their subservience to him. When I was there I was concerned about succession because he seemed at imminent risk of popping, in some cardiovascular way; I'd never have imagined he'd be removed from office for his behaviour. I don't think this is the end of him at Disney – I think the leave of absence is to allow the goldfish mob to forget about sexual harassment and be upset about something else, at which point they can quietly reinstate him – but I do hope it wakes studio leadership up to the idea he's not going to last forever and they'd better have a Plan B sorted out sooner than later.
For the next six months, though, while the cat's away, let's get some new voices heard and talents appreciated. There are a lot of deserving people out there waiting to shine.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
