Big Apple's Fantastic Toon Femmes
The women of New York's thriving animation scene are rewriting the old rules and breaking away from traditional stereotypes
"If I were to look for something that might be a factor, I've heard it said that women are more nurturing by nature and that is certainly a necessary quality for producing. A producer needs to nurture both the project itself and all those involved in creating it. A hefty burden, but a satisfying one." She adds, "Animation is obviously still a male dominated field and I would like to see more women get into it. We do have a different perspective that is not always represented in mainstream cartoons and I think it would be welcome."
Kris Greengrove
When it comes to representing the main stream, Linda Simensky
would know a bit about the TV toon market. She was Cartoon
Network's director of programming, has been a development exec
at Nickelodeon in New York, and is currently the senior director
of PBS Kids programming. "Women have always worked on the
development and programming sides of the television industry, so
there's not really much of a difference for men and women in
what I do," she says. "I think there have been many more
opportunities for women, especially as the industry has grown
and has come to encompass more areas than just action cartoons.
I think women have become more interested in working in
television animation due to the variety of shows there are
now."
Linda Simensky