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influenced by outdated ideas dictat-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

Bis etum il ius eliquam usaerum eium 
velicti comnit dunt, tota que consequo is 
essunture dolor molesti beriore, il ea ne 
plab ipsae excero te volorep tation re 
videndunt omnihil ipienda veliqui nobites 
et laboriame lantiossunt hil ius arumqui 
dentibus, qui aliat pa qui simolessit, nes 
escilit harum que volorit eicia con plis 
everum fugitatur si quiae esto blaturem labo. 
Itatas mos venis arumnihilla ntentotatem 
aut etum hil il mod quam es est as endaesc 
ipiendis escium lation cupta doluptam ab 

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. 

