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According to Nielson EDI, an animated children’s movie called Barnyard has earned almost $55 million since it opened a few weeks ago. Generally, this would not be particularly newsworthy, except that that the main character is a boy cow named Otis. I’ve seen several commercials for this movie, and Otis’s udders are very prominently featured. Hmmmm…. I thought to myself. Is transgenderism becoming mainstream, or did the creators of this film fail biology when they were in grade school? In the name of social science, I probed into the phenomenon that is Barnyard.
My first destination was the movie’s official website. Here I learned that the movie’s tagline is “What happens in the barn, stays in the barn.� This motto creeps me out, but that is another story.
Moving on to the synopsis, I discovered that the film is from “Steve Oedekerk and Nickelodeon Movies, two of the co-creators of “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius…� Interesting. Steve Oedekerk (also the brains behind Ace Ventura) is probably not taking on gender stereotypes with this film. Bravely facing the evil repetitive song that blasted during my time visiting the site, I continued reading the synopsis:
[the movie is a] hilarious look at what really happens in a barnyard when the farmer’s back is turned. “Barnyard� is a lighthearted tale centering around Otis (voiced by Kevin James), a carefree party cow, who enjoys singing, dancing and playing tricks on humans. Unlike his father Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott), the respected patriarch of the farm, and Miles, the wise old mule (voiced by Danny Glover), Otis is unconcerned about (voiced by Sam Elliott), the respected patriarch of the farm, and Miles, the wise old mule (voiced by Danny Glover), Otis is unconcerned about keeping the animals’ humanlike talents a secret. But when suddenly put in the position of responsibility, the “udderly� irresponsible cow finds the courage to be a leader.
Further site exploration revealed that Otis’s dad Ben is also a cow who gives Otis advice about responsible masculinity: “Otis, a strong man stands up for himself; a stronger man stand up for others.� (Very manly advice, isn't it?) Also, Otis attracts Daisy, a female cow, during a party in the barn. So, the plot thickens, although nothing officially discusses transgenderism. However, I think that Rick Santorum, the cretin senator from Pennsylvania who compared homosexual marriage to bestiality, is not going to like this movie anyway.
I am not the only one speculating about the underlying messages in Barnyard. There is much buzz on the internet, and disappointingly, not one supportive voice can be found for bovine transgender issues. The best commentary I found on the matter came from MaryAnn Johanson at FlickFilosopher wrote in a razor-sharp commentary on gender roles in the film:
That’s what we have here: a barnyard full of CGI cows with udders who are nevertheless somehow male. Even though “male cow� is like saying “girls who are guys.� If there was a point that writer/director Steve Oedekerk was trying to make with his strange transsexual bovines, it’s lost on me. Perhaps there was no intended point, and it’s merely that Oedekerk (who wrote such idiocies as Bruce Almighty and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps) holds females of whatever species in general contempt. After all, he could have made a story about barnyard animals that took a fantastical spin off the reality of the barnyard, in which there could well be no steers or bulls at all. But then he couldn’t have a barnyard ruled by males. And then he couldn’t shoehorn in a line in which the animal who rules the barnyard -- a male cow -- insults his son -- a male cow -- by mistaking him for a girl cow, or, in other words, a cow.
Reading further at her site is a must.
From there, the comments degenerate into the type of nervous titters that one might expect from sixth graders watching a skin flick on late night cable while their parents are out. A Movie Every Day wrote,
All I needed was one look at a father and son cow sporting their udders to sh-udder. ‘What? Male cows do not have udders!…� I have no clue what writer/director Steve Oedekerk, was thinking. I have to imagine this was done on purpose. The amount of extra time needed to animate all of these udders on the male cows would certainly not have made it worth it to do
