Arts
6 — Graduation Edition 2022
When we think of what defines
good art, nationality and language
are generally not the first factors that
come to mind. Yet, in reality, the cel-
ebration of the arts is often heavily
influenced by outdated ideas dictat-
ing what stories are deserving of rec-
ognition.
The British-Japanese pop singer
Rina Sawayama stands as one of the
clearest examples of this phenom-
enon. When BRITs and the Mercury
prize were released back in July, the
30-year-old
musician’s
critically–
acclaimed album, SAWAYAMA, was
noticeably missing from the lineup.
Sawayama sat down with Vice follow-
ing the news, describing her exclu-
sion from nominations, and even the
possibility to enter for consideration,
as “othering.” Despite having lived
in London for 25 years, Sawayama
was not considered “British enough”
according to stringent award guide-
lines, ones that she labeled as “border
control.”
Sawayama was born in Niigata,
Japan, where she lived for five years
before moving with her family to Lon-
don. She currently holds an indef-
inite-leave-to-remain
visa,
which
grants Sawayama stay in the U.K.
for an indefinite period of time and
allows her to study and seek employ-
ment. Most of Sawayama’s family still
lives in Japan, one of the few coun-
tries that prohibits dual-citizenship.
She explains that “getting rid of my
Japanese passport genuinely feels like
I’m severing ties with them.” The sit-
uation shines light on a flawed defini-
tion of Britishness and the persistent
view that non-European voices are
unwelcome in British culture.
But it’s not just a British issue; the
Grammys are notorious for exclud-
ing Latin and other foreign language
albums from their Album of the Year
nominations. An album in a language
other than English has never won
Album of the Year, and for 2021 alone,
there are only two nominations for
Latin artists outside of the Latin cate-
gories. It’s yet another explicit exam-
ple of the music industry’s tendency
to pigeonhole foreign talents.
The recently released film “Minari”
(2020), which follows the story of a
Korean-American family living in
rural Arkansas, faces a similar barri-
er. Although “Minari” was directed by
American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung
and produced by American compa-
nies A24 and Plan B, the film was cat-
egorized as a foreign language film in
the Golden Globes by the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association. The HFPA
guidelines stipulate that a film’s dia-
logue must be at least 50% English to
be considered for Best Picture nomi-
nations. “Minari,” which features
both Korean and English dialogue, as
well as Korean and Korean-American
talents, apparently didn’t make the
cut.
This exclusion comes on the tails of
two similar cases at last year’s Gold-
en Globes. The Oscar-winning film
“Parasite” (2019), which was entirely
in Korean, and “The Farewell” (2019),
a film with both English and Chinese
dialogue, were also ineligible for Best
Picture nominations despite receiv-
ing overwhelmingly positive reviews
from critics. Lulu Wang, director of
“The Farewell,” tweeted in response
to this year’s Golden Globe nomina-
tions, “I have not seen a more Ameri-
can film than #Minari this year. It’s
a story about an immigrant family,
IN America, pursuing the American
dream. We really need to change
these antiquated rules that character-
ize American as only English-speak-
ing.” So often in American pop culture
immigrant stories, especially those of
people of color, are labeled as outsid-
er experiences despite their central
importance to the American identity.
So, is the only requirement for artistic
recognition to speak English?
As evident from past Best Picture
nominations at the Globes, it’s not
that simple. The 2009 film “Inglouri-
ous Basterds,” which prominently fea-
tures dialogue in German, French and
Italian, was nominated in the Best
Drama category despite large portions
of its story transpiring in a language
other than English. Many of its stars,
including Christoph Waltz, Mélanie
Laurent and Diane Kruger, are not
American, calling into question why
“Inglourious Basterds” and “Minari”
have faced such different treatment
despite their many commonalities.
The problem that remains is that
works in the Foreign Language cat-
egory do not receive nearly as much
attention as those in the Best Drama
or Musical/Comedy categories. The
Golden Globes in particular nominate
Best Actors and Actresses exclusively
from these two groups, nominations
which are not afforded to actors in
foreign language films. They’re treat-
ed as an afterthought — never truly
equivalent to their “domestic” coun-
terparts. It’s disheartening, to say the
least.
The experiences of Sawayama and
“Minari” point to an overarching
issue with xenophobic microaggres-
sions in Western pop culture. When
the recognition of art is overshadowed
by arbitrary percentages and passport
statuses, it is abundantly clear that
English-speaking cultures are still
unwilling to view foreign works as
equal. These works are often placed
inside the box of their “foreignness”
and treated as some kind of novelty, a
completely separate entity from main-
stream American or British art.
Even when music or films are pop-
ular among mainstream audiences,
accolades like the Mercury prize and
Golden Globes continue to either sub-
jugate this art or bar it from consider-
ation altogether. An unwillingness to
change award qualifications displays
an unwillingness to acknowledge that
“British” or “American” identities
today are not what they were in the
past.
Beneath this whole mess, what
is perhaps most ironic is that both
SAWAYAMA and “Minari” explore
the trials of finding acceptance in
Western culture and learning what it
means to belong under the so-called
Western
identity.
The
continued
exclusion of cultural “others” from
prestigious award show recognition
further solidifies how artistic inclu-
sion still has an incredibly far way to
come.
Stacey’s Mom has got it goin’ on — or
at least, the animated moms of Pixar do.
Since the 1995 premiere of “Toy Story,”
the world’s first animated film made using
computer technology, Pixar has become
a household name. The studio is best
known for its animated children’s films,
from “Finding Nemo” to their most recent
release, “Luca.” The name Pixar has long
been synonymous with childhood — and
now?
Pixar’s “The Incredibles”: Children
recall the slapstick humor of Mr. Incred-
ible; parents fondly note the hidden, wry
comedy that made the film a multi-gener-
ational hit. For others, it’s the firm, round
backside of Mrs. Incredible’s peachy-keen
cheeks; the tight elastic of a super-suit that
clings like saran-wrap around her wide,
womanly hips; the perkiness of a bum, the
audacity of an ass, the perfection of a pear
figure — aged by 40 years like a bottle of
something fine. That’s right, Mrs. Incred-
ible is a MILF. Sorry, not sorry.
Shocking, I know. Some readers may
even be turning away in thinly veiled dis-
gust. How dare we sour the sanctity of a
Pixar film with softcore erotica written in
fervent devotion to Mrs. Incredible’s pop-
pin’ figure? We dare in the spirit of jour-
nalistic integrity, a devotion to seeking the
truth. Because we aren’t the first to call
Mrs. Incredible a MILF — that dubious
glory belongs to the Internet and the horny
little shits who live there.
The MILFs: Who, What, Where
But first, what exactly is a MILF? As
Urban Dictionary describes it, a MILF
is a “Mom I’d Like to Fuck, or Mature I’d
Like to Fuck.” MILFs usually apply to “hot
moms,” but the term is liberally applied to
any woman above the age of thirty. The
MILF obsession is no niche Internet kink
found in the recesses of Reddit but an ever-
growing phenomenon found across adult
films, platforms like Instagram and even
dating apps. According to a 2016 survey by
the adult website GameLink.com, “inter-
est in MILF porn has risen 83%” between
2012 and 2016. This trend has continued to
grow in prevalence since.
Many consider the 1999 cult classic
film “American Pie” to have launched the
modern MILF obsession. The raunchy
comedy follows a group of teenage boys
competing to lose their virginity by their
high school prom. In the film, actress Jen-
nifer Coolidge (“White Lotus”) has sex
with her son’s friend — the true MILF
fantasy. However, it is important to offer
credit where credit is due to 1967 classic
“The Graduate,” where actor Dustin Hoff-
man (“Rain Man”) is seduced by a beauti-
ful, neglected housewife: Mrs. Robinson
(Anne Bancroft, “The Miracle Worker”).
In 2003, Fountains of Wayne released
their iconic hit “Stacy’s Mom,” a serenade
to Stacy’s (supposedly) hot mom. As adult
film star Tanya Tate remarked in a 2014
interview with Thrillist, “there are plenty
of guys out there who really had crushes on
their Mom’s friends (as teenagers).”
In fact, the target age group for MILF
content on adult websites is between the
ages of 18 and 25; this age range lands neat-
ly between the naivety of adolescence and
the “wisdom” of adulthood. It also corre-
lates with the widely accepted peak period
of horniness.
The classic MILF lover is a not-yet man
who washes his sheets every three months
(optimistically), shotguns Natty Lights and
advertises “MILFs only, seriously” on his
dating profile. He believes women his age
are “crazy,” “clingy” and far too sexually
inexperienced to possibly please him. He
longs for an older woman who promises
a brief, scalding affair of “no crap,” who
will usher him into manhood through the
power of her perky, never sagging triple-
Ds and lust for a barely-pubescent, skinny,
frat pledge’s medium-firm abs. It is this
dazzling specimen of raw masculinity that
drives the MILF-ication of Pixar moms.
The Evolution of the Pixar MILF and
Evolving Beauty Standards
Pixar MILFs walk a fine line between
the celebration of motherhood and pander-
ing to societal beauty trends. On one hand,
moms can be and are hot. Our critique of
MILF culture is in no way a rejection of
hot moms. Moms deserve to embrace their
femininity and womanhood, to embrace
themselves, to be a woman as well as a
mom. On the other hand, in consideration
of evolving beauty trends over the last
twenty years, there is an undeniable par-
allel between the developing animation of
Pixar moms to emphasize curves and con-
temporary beauty standards.
While the definition of the ideal body
changes, women will always be subject to
damaging and often unachievable beauty
standards regardless of the form they take.
The idea of the “perfect” ass, or, if you’ll
allow me, “booty standards” has varied
wildly, reaching all ends of the spectrum
in the last three decades. Pixar, of course,
animates the women who appear in its
films to comply with such booty stan-
dards, sculpting and reinforcing the image
to which real women and girls compare
themselves.
In the ’90s, as Bustle puts it, “the ideal
(…) butt was super tiny and kind of flat.”
The original Toy Story hit theaters in 1995
and, accordingly, Andy’s mom, the only
human woman who appears in the film,
has an unremarkable, flat behind (and zero
impact whatsoever on the plot or any char-
acter development). Andy’s mom is also
known as Ms. Davis (little-known fact,
courtesy of Pixar Wiki) and is a secondary
or even tertiary character, background to
Andy, who is background to the real stars
of the film: the toys, who compete for
Andy’s affection.
As the flat ass went out of style and the
Kardashian-style (read: humongous, typi-
cally cellulite-free and expensive) booty
began to take its place in pop culture,
Pixar’s animation choices reflected the
change onscreen. In 2004, Pixar unveiled
the Incredibles and thus the MILF of all
MILFs (and, with her, the dump truck ass
of all animated dump truck asses): Mrs.
Incredible, AKA Elastigirl. The matriarch
of the Incredible family is the most iconic
superhero mom of all time (and unques-
tionably hot). In the first movie of the
franchise, she’s got a more than ample size
booty and a stick-thin waist, giving her
curves so dramatic that she’d fall over if
she were real.
Jump to 2014, when “Big Hero 6”
blessed us with sexy-ass MILF Aunt Cass
who is also, to put it mildly, well-endowed
in the behind area. Then, in 2017, “Coco,”
a musical tale of a boy with a dream to
realize his stardom and the history of his
family, hit the big screen. The boy, Miguel,
finds himself in the land of the dead and
among many of his ancestors, including
Mama Imelda, his great-great-grand-
mother. Despite Imelda being not techni-
cally human but an adorned skeleton (thus
lacking any flesh or muscle), the animators
make use of her bones to give a suggestion
of her figure. They suggest, of course, an
enormous ass. Imelda wears a royal purple
dress that flows out at her hips and behind,
suggesting the big booty underneath that
once was.
Mama Imelda’s imagined backside was
nothing in comparison to that of Mrs.
Incredible in the second installment of
the Incredibles franchise. In “Incredibles
2,” released in 2018, Mrs. Incredible’s ass
reached new heights, or, more accurately,
new voluptuous extremes. As we’ve stum-
bled through the 2010s into the 2020s,
the size of the ideal booty has grown dra-
matically alongside our enormous exis-
tential anxiety. Thus, Mrs. Incredible’s
perfectly smooth and gigantic ass (which
was already highlighted by her new suit)
needed to be bigger, too.
Fan Art of Pixar MILFS and non-
MILFS
When Pixar does fail to animate a
woman character in compliance with
exaggerated beauty standards, “fans” take
matters into their own hands and hyper-
sexualize the characters themselves. The
result? Fan art. In this case, crude illustra-
tions and photoshopped images of MILFs
and non-MILF characters alike. If she’s
not a MILF, she becomes one. If she is, the
features that make her so become even
more exaggerated. A quick Google search
for images of Ratatouille’s Colette yields a
drawn resemblance of the character, but
with a dramatically contoured face, pouty
lips and a big, bulging, smooth ass.
The aunt from “Big Hero Six” is another
serious offender: Aunt Cass is regularly
photoshopped in illustrations to have
Hooters-level pornographic cleavage. Her
polite, crew-cut neckline swapped for a
scoop-neck design barely able to contain
her overflowing breasts. The image prac-
tically drips with the drool of horny men
who salivate every time a woman bends
over.
It is in the hyper-sexualization of Pixar
moms in fan art that MILF culture truly
becomes apparent. Where Pixar may be
guilty of pandering to popular beauty stan-
dards — elevating moms who are often
absent from and even rejected by fashion
and beauty trends to a level of femininity
offered only to the young (and perky) — fan
art reveals the sheer infatuation fans have
with fucking moms.
Although these female characters have
enough ass for everyone, the actual number
of Pixar mom characters is limited. This
only communicates that more important
than the personhood of a mom is her body,
because her primary value will always be
as a sexual object; her primary purpose to,
as an asshole once yelled at me at a repro-
ductive rights protest from his truck as he
drove by, “go make a baby.” Women get to
be either caring mothers or bad bitches;
then they’re forced into two-dimension-
ality. These characters exist to serve men
— be it by birthing them and caring for
them directly, or by offering themselves as
sexual objects. In this light, Pixar’s work
doesn’t empower moms but rather harms
women and girls because it doesn’t glorify
moms as they truly are. Instead, it suggests
that they can only achieve glory or even
be worth anything if they embody these
impossible standards.
Why MILFs?
This discussion leaves us with one final
question: Why MILFs? There are sev-
eral arguments to consider. The Oedipus
complex suggests that children form an
unconscious sexual desire for parents of
the opposite sex and a sense of competition
with the parent of the same sex. In this
sense, young men begin to idolize older
women as sexual partners due to lingering
envy and desire for their own mothers. In
other words, “mommy issues.”
Absent mothers can push men to seek
maternal-sexual affection to replace or
make up for that neglect; overbearing
or extremely affectionate mothers can
prompt men to project their relationships
with their mothers onto other women in
their life. For some men, it’s a question of
helplessness. Unable to cook, clean, dress
or navigate the wild, these young pups
find themselves defenseless and unwilling
to adapt to the newfound independence
of adulthood. Traditional gender roles
emphasize women as caregivers — perhaps
MILFs developed through a fetishization
of the traditional housewife role as women
become increasingly independent.
Perhaps the most common drive, how-
ever, is the perception of older women as
sexually experienced, mature and taboo.
In this relationship, the young man offers
nothing but their hot-stud body. The MILF
would cater to their pleasure while simul-
taneously acting as a caregiver: maternal
and comforting for the sexually inexperi-
enced. MILF culture is obsessed with what
women can offer to men. There is no sense
of a woman’s sexual pleasure — if she does
benefit, it is through the ability to “catch”
a young man. Notice how the condemna-
tion of “cougar” and the fetishization of
“MILF” are simultaneously incongruent,
yet strikingly similar.
Even in the supposed renaissance of the
older woman, mothers are still constrained
to the desire of men, eternal caregivers.
When’s the last time a man between 18–25
years of age found the clit? Yeah, that’s
what I thought.
As perhaps the MILF-man (a “mommy
boy”) would put it best: “Mommy? Sorry.
Mommy? Sorry. Mommy?” — Mommy, not
sorry.
Rina Sawayama, ‘Minari’ and cultural ‘others’
Pixar moms: A deconstruction of MILF culture
This photo is from the official album cover of “Sawayama,” owned by Dirty Hit.
NORA LEWIS
2021 Daily Arts Writer
EMMY SNYDER AND MADELEINE
VIRGINIA GANNON
Daily Arts Writers
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
over the
YEARS
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APRIL 5: Lil Nas X’s remix of “Old Town
Road” featuring country star Billy Ray
Cyrus is released. The song’s popularity
was born largely from a viral explosion
on social media sites such as TikTok.
DECEMBER 16: The film adaptation of
the Broadway Musical, “Cats” starring
James Corden, Dame Judi Dench
and Ian McKellen releases to shocked
audiences worldwide.
`
JANUARY 15: The Regents’ release of then-
University President Mark Schlissel’s private
emails prompts a renaissance of “Schlissel
memes” on social media. Popular meme
accounts such as @umichaffirmations
quickly capitalize on the opportunity to gain
tens of thousands of likes.
MARCH 27: After Chris Rock makes a joke about
Jada Pinkett Smith’s Alopecia disease at the 94th
Academy Awards, Will Smith walks on stage and
slaps the comedian.
2020
FEBRUARY 9: “Parasite” makes Oscar history
as the first foreign-language film to win Best
Picture. Directed by Korean filmmaker, Bong
Joon Ho, the film centers themes of class
conflict and colonialism.
MARCH 19: Shortly after the first coronavirus
lockdown and mounting police brutality in
response to Black Lives Matter protests, Gal
Gadot and many other celebrities sing John
Lennon’s “Imagine” on social media.
ARTS
over the
YEARS
2021
2022
2019
AUGUST 21: The University of Michigan Museum
of Art unveils an exhibit titled “Oh, honey…”
Curated by graduate student, Sean Kramer, the
exhibit critically analyzes the museum’s art
collection through a queer lens.
NOVEMBER 12: Taylor Swift releases, Red
(Taylor’s Version), a re-recorded version of her
fourth studio album, red. Taylor’s 10-minute
unabridged version of “All Too Well” holds the
Guinness world record for longest song to reach
number 1 on the Billboard Top 100.