So wait. Is Riley from “Inside Out” bi?

I mean, yes, “Inside Out” was wonderful. A terrific response for any Pixar nay-sayers who claim the company can only do sequels, etc.

But I’m wondering: All of Riley’s mom’s emotions are female. All her father’s are male. All the teacher’s are female. The ending sequence went by so fast that I didn’t note the genders of the other characters (except the bus driver’s, who were definitely all male.)

But Riley’s are three female, two male. Does that indicate something about her future sexual personality? Granted, she does have a fantasy male boyfriend, but all that indicates is that she’s contemplating boyfriends. But we don’t see her with any boy. She bumps into one at one point, but we don’t see her display any sort of romantic reaction. We see her with female friends, but no males.

Or is it that when she becomes an adult, some of the emotions will change genders, so they’re uniform like her parents?

Just has me wondering.

PAD

30 comments on “So wait. Is Riley from “Inside Out” bi?

  1. Of more concern: the dog’s emotions display basic intelligence. The cat’s emotions are just five cats. Does this confirm that cats are dumber than dogs, or does Pixar just employ dog people?

    1. Maybe the cat’s emotions don’t run things for them. Or maybe they’re just not interested in providing direction. Or…

      Well, I’m a dog person myself, so maybe I shouldn’t speculate further.

    2. As I understand it, canines in general are in fact considerably more intelligent than felines.

  2. I also found that detail distracting (perhaps unnecessarily so). It’s possible that a diversity of gender inside Riley’s head might mean she’s on a gender-fluid spectrum, and may not identify strongly with either sex. Of course, she’s 11/12, so maybe that’s perfectly average. The Puberty light flashes red, and *poof* gender realignment for the emotions.

  3. I was thinking the same thing. Her emotions might gender uniformly as she got older, or they could stay split. It might not necessarily mean she will be bi. It could just mean that she is more open minded and empathic.
    Did anyone catch if the boy she ran into had a mixed gender emotions or were they all boy?

  4. I interpreted the gendering of Riley’s emotions relative to the adults as a hint that some elements of identity, including both gender identity and orientation, aren’t fully fixed in preteen children, at least not consciously. In other words, Riley hasn’t fully discovered those parts of her identity. So it’s not so much that Riley is bisexual as she doesn’t know yet what she is, or hasn’t really thought about herself in those terms yet.

  5. Probably not bi. Maybe intersex.

    I was more concerned by the fact that Joy is like the “leader” of Riley’s mind, but her dad seems to be governed by anger and her mom by sadness. Could their ostensibly happy marriage be a lie? That’s way more depressing than Riley’s issues.

  6. The only part that made me wonder if Riley was bi or gay was that after we’re shown her imaginary dream boyfriend, we’re told that “He lives in Canada” — which is the cliched line some closeted gay people use to explain that they do have an opposite-sex partner, but they’re in another country which is why they’re never seen. (There’s a great song in AVENUE Q about this.) Then again, if there is that subtext to this perfect boyfriend, would that mean Riley is lying to or fooling herself?

    Then again, for almost all of the movie Riley hadn’t even hit puberty yet, plus Pixar hasn’t exactly shown interest in their characters’ sexuality, so I think it’s a moot point for this movie. Loved the joke about bears, though!

    1. The boy/girlfriend from Canada bit was also a popular line in teen movies from the 80’s. In those films it was typically a nerdy, self-aggrandizing male character who claimed to have a “girlfriend from Canada.”

    2. The “boyfriend/girlfriend in Canada” bit goes at least as far back as 80’s teen movies (I know it was used in Weird Science and Pretty in Pink, both times by Anthony Michael Hall’s character). There, it was meant to indicate a nerdy/socially awkward self-aggrandizer’s insistence that he did, in fact, have a girlfriend, though no one had ever met her. In those instances I don’t think it was meant to call the character’s sexuality into question.

  7. It’s an interesting question. I don’t remember now whether the closing sequence depicted the emotions of any other pre-teens. We did get a glimpse inside the head of that one boy Riley ran into, but in the chaos of his “It’s a girl!” red alert, I didn’t notice whether he had any female emotions.

  8. Well, if we go back to this movie’s earliest inspiration, the old Fox TV show, “Herman’s Head” (starring William Ragsdale–better known as Charley from the original “Fright Night” movie). For those who don’t remember the show (or never knew about it), Herman is a rather average guy working as a researcher at a publisher. But his “inner conflicts” were expressed by four distinct characters–Animal (representing lust and hunger), Wimp (representing anxiety), Genius (representing intellect) and Angel (representing sensitivity–and played by a woman). One of the show’s production companies was Touchstone Television (founded by Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner) and Disney/ABC Domestic Television currently owns the rights. (And which company is one of the producers of “Inside Out?”)

    It’s also notable as one of the few live-action series featuring Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria in regular roles (rather than recurring or guest roles) as “Herman’s” co-workers; another co-worker was played by Jane Sibbett (who would be better known as Ross’s lesbian ex-wife, Carol, on “Friends”). The show’s been referenced a couple of times on “The Simpsons” by Lisa (voiced by Smith) and Comic-Book Guy (voiced by Azaria)–and a couple of the show’s early episodes referenced “The Simpsons,” with one episode having Louise the secretary (played by Smith) hanging up after a phone call and asking Herman if she sounded like Lisa Simpson.

    One of the show’s writers had posted that, before the show’s cancellation was announced, there were plans for a fourth season to develop “head” characters for Jane Sibbett’s character, Heddy, to help the audience learn what made Heddy tick.

    All that aside, I did find it odd from the trailers and commercials that Riley’s parents’ emotions were “same-gender-matching” but Riley’s were “mixed-gender.” (I’m also a bit disappointed that the emotions are somewhat gender-stereotyped–“anger” being a guy, “joy” being a girl. Having “disgust” as a girl makes a bit of sense as she looks like an extra from “Mean Girls” and “fear” as a boy since he looks like the proverbial 98-pound weakling. Hëll, even “sadness” shares a bit of physical imagery with Despair of the Endless–well, if Despair ever wore clothes.) Maybe this was just a case of lack of real development for the parents’ emotions; it is, after all, Riley’s story. So I’d say there’s probably nothing to read into Riley’s own gender/sexuality from the emotions’ physical aspects.

    1. I was going to bring up Herman’s Head, but you beat me to it. It was the first thing that I thought of when I first came across the trailer for Inside Out.

  9. PAD,

    When I saw the title of your article, I initially thought that you had noticed that the lead character in Inside Out and one of the lead characters in Sense8 is named Riley. Co-incidentally both productions provide a perspective of the mind. Pixar’s Inside Out shows the inner workings of the mind, whereas Netflix’s Sense8 produced by J. Michael Straczynski and the Wachowskis shows how the limbic system of empathically connected individuals interacts.

  10. I would suggest that since Riley is pre-puberty, that she isn’t sexual, but the mix of genders for her emotions represent the kind of crossroads we are all at before we become sexually aware.

  11. This just reflects on a conceit that, despite all the raves, does nothing for me. I haven’t skipped a Pixar film in a while, but this one leaves me scratching me head from the outside of the theater.

  12. It’s also interesting to note that whereas Riley’s emotions are led by Joy, her father’s are led by Anger (a more self-contained Anger) and her mother’s are led by Sadness (again, a more balanced Sadness). Also, her dad’s “command center” looks like a sports broadcasting room, while her mom’s looks like a focus group, and her own looks like a video game controller.

  13. Hmm. There is also the view inside the head of the boy she briefly encounters at the end of the movie. All the emotions are definitely male and all of them panic over contact with a girl. No gender identity confusion there, just panic.

  14. What interests me more is why her emotions didn’t look like her. All the emotions in other people’s heads looked like the person they were controlling (ex: dad’s had mustaches, mom’s had glasses, goth had the same hair). I think the real reason the mix of appearances and genders in Reily’s head was to make it more intersting for the audience to watch. The reason everyone else’s emotions are the same is for the visual gag. I can only guess at the kayfabe reason. Maybe her emotions only appear as different to us but are actually the same like in everyone else’s head. Or maybe her emotions are different and special so they don’t match their body’s appearance. Maybe it’s a puberty thing and the emotions of the other children’s heads have already gone through that phase. Or maybe it doesn’t matter and I should just shut up and watch the movie.

    But seriously, what if Fear wasn’t on dream duty that night?

  15. Wow. It’s possible this is a lot of over thinking. I just assumed this was a visual indicator of which parent she inherited those emotions from. Dad’s anger is in control of him, and mom is being driven by sadness. Also of note, All of mom’s emotions wear glasses. Riley’s sadness is the only one that wears glasses! Recessive gene!

  16. From http://collider.com/inside-out-pete-docter-jonas-rivera-interview/

    Were the emotions in the mom all female and all male in the dad?

    RIVERA: They were, they were.

    Was that a specific choice?

    DOCTER: Really what it came from was trying to make it bulletproof clear, because we’re cutting from all these different places one after another, so we just came up with a convention of dad, mustache, all the guys inside have mustaches, and it just seemed weird to have female voices with the mustache, that was kind of confusing. And same with mom. She has the glasses and the hair, so it was really just about a quick read and for the humor of it.

    RIVERA: Yeah, we were cutting it together on storyboards, too. We’re like, ‘Ah, there’s 18 characters in this thing,’ and we were just worried that it wouldn’t read, so it was really about preserving comedy and all of that. We kind of justified it later as we made it like, similar to the ‘who’s driving,’ like maybe as you get older you calcify a little bit who you are, but it was really – nah, let’s not kid ourselves. We just did it to make it read and funny.

  17. I’ve not seen the movie, but from the description, it sounds to me like the entire philosophical foundation is false:

    1) Emotions don’t have genders, and to say they do creates sexual stereotypes.

    2) All sexual stereotypes are learned, and any concept of some kind of innate “sexual orientation” which rests on them is false on its face.

    3) Teaching of a culture’s sexual stereotypes begins (for most) shortly after birth and certainly from two years onward.

    Which obliges me to ask Peter (or anyone else except maybe Jerry): Precisely what do you mean by “bi”?

      1. That was my fault. I didn’t realize Crim had posted at all. I’ve disemvoweled him as I will always do for as long as he continues to butt in.

        PAD

      2. I could repost my poem (and maybe I still will); however, as a direct answer to Marina (who should receive it regardless of anything Peter does):

        Yes, I agree that, ideally, one should see the movie first; however, there are 24 hours in everyones day, and sometimes all one has time for is a look at the reviews.

        As a matter of technical information: Emotions do not have genders — anger, for example, is not an emotion improper to girls — and young women schooled otherwise are potentially at risk for doing themselves psychological harm when they try to wall such sentiments off for being “wrong” or “improper.” [See further Nathaniel Branden, The Disowned Self (Los Angeles: Nash, 19??)].

        Indeed, this is the correct reason why some of these SOCT/SOCE “therapies,” recently prohibited by California and New Jersey, qualify as quack science — the correct procedure for changing sexual orientation is to expand, rather than constrict, a patient’s understanding of it. Sexual identity primarily is learned. There may, indeed, be “critical times” during which learning is rapid and, later, difficult to reverse (be aware, however, that “critical times” are more commonly observed in Cercopithicidaeans rather than Pongid apes and, by extension, hominids). But, it’s certainly common for an eleven-year-old girl to have more in common with members of her own sex than with members of the opposite sex (true for boys of that age also), and it is not a reflection upon a young woman’s developing sexuality that she likes to play ice hockey or baseball, or likes karate or judo or even boxing.

        To the extent the movie suggests otherwise (or to the extent Peter THINKS it might suggest otherwise), it’s not relating good information.

        If that helps?

  18. If everyone will forgive me for a slight deviation from the topic, I’d like to take a moment to give a thumbs up to “Lava,” the short subject that runs before “Inside Out.” I’m not going to say that no one has ever done an animated short featuring anthropomorphic volcanoes because I’m sure someone will pop up with something to prove me wrong. But the amount of emotion evident in the seven minutes that this short runs is amazing. It’s another short that may well result in Disney-Pixar taking the Oscars for Animated Feature and Short next year.

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