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Let’s talk about interns.
Animation is one of many industries that thrives on the “intern” process, on paying your dues before starting your real job. A lot of men use interns as their dating pool. It’s gross.
Young women aren’t taught out of school to know what’s appropriate or not, and you aren’t aware of the power dynamics at play when someone in a higher job position than you gives you that sort of attention. It messes you up.
When I first started out in the industry, it happened to me. A supervisor at my job for would chose a different female intern to focus on. He didn’t always date them, but he would ask/cajole that they hang out with him after work.
He did this for years, with a different girl every summer. He would force gifts on them. If you stopped, or said no, he would demand why, or tell you that he didn’t trust you as an employee because of it. He never did this to the men.
Only to the women. I felt as though if I didn’t hang out with him, I would not get as good work within the company. I’ve never spoken about this publicly because I’ve always been so embarrassed that I could be so weak.
It took me a few years to come to grips with all of it, and how it affected me.
I am already naturally a people-pleaser, like a lot of women. As an intern, and as I moved to a full-time employee, especially so. This was my first job. This is why it’s SO damaging for people to date interns.
You start to equate your value as an artist and as a person with how much people like you, and with how much men like you. Do they like me for me? Do they like me for my looks?
It sucks to second guess yourself, and it starts right as you’re first starting out in the industry. So anyway I wish companies would explicitly tell people to not date interns. lol.
Also I'm not going to name names because I honestly don't think it matters in this case. That's not really the point of this. Just felt like I wanted to share this. That's all.
