As many a parent who has visited Disneyland can tell you, the happiest place on earth is nothing of the sort. That was my experience after spending 14 hours straight in that giant asphalt and concrete enclosure on a day when the temperature reached 42 degrees. Long queues, exorbitantly priced and barely edible food, and loud, garish entertainers with the sweetest of saccharine smiles.
But kids love the place, which is why parents grin and bear it. Now Disneyland, or specifically its owner, The Walt Disney Company, has found a new way to mess with the minds of adults.
Last week leaked footage from a virtual meeting of Disney employees revealed the company plans for half of its characters to fall into the categories of racial minority or LGBTQ by the year’s end.
To ensure those targets are met, a “tracker” will monitor the number of “gender nonconforming characters,” as well as “canonical trans characters,” and “canonical bisexual characters”.
Revised terminology
A kookiness performance indicator, you could say. And to ensure transgender children do not feel excluded, the company has revised its terminology.
“Last summer we removed all gendered greetings in relationship to our live spiels,” Vivian Ware, the company’s head of diversity and inclusion, told the meeting. “We no longer say ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’. We’ve provided training to all our cast members, so now they know it’s ‘Hello, everyone,’ or ‘Hello, friends’.”
To put this in perspective, around half of the US households that subscribe to Disney Plus – the company’s subscription video service – have children under 10 years. Note to Disney: children in that age group who identify as transgender or non-binary have many issues but being offended by traditional greetings is the least of their worries.
Not that this has occurred to Karey Burke, the president of Disney’s general entertainment content. “I’m here as the mother of two queer children, actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader,” she told the meeting. Since when did it become acceptable to use gender dysphoria – especially that of your offspring – for woke marketing cred?
Are they killing Bambi?
The revamped content should be, as they say, interesting. Which of Bambi’s two mothers will be cruelly snuffed out in the remake? I cannot wait to see the look of surprise on the faces of Huey, Dewey, and Louie when they discover Uncle Donald is now Aunty Donna. Hey kids, today Goofy will talk about gonads in the women’s change room and why we should celebrate this.
They could also tweak some classic Disney songs to reflect the lunacy of gender fluidity. To the tune of The Lion King’s Hakuna Matata, everyone: “It’s our logic-free philosophy”. As for one that captures the parasitic behemoth the diversity industry has become, I can think of nothing better than Mary Poppins singing ‘Super-crappy, flagellistic, expensive, and atrocious”.
You could say Disney itself is transitioning, but not of its own free will. CEO Bob Chapek has made it the company’s mission to repeal Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which forbids educators from offering instruction “on sexual orientation or gender identity … in kindergarten through grade 3”.
But only a month ago he had opposed taking an official stance on the bill, saying corporate statements “do very little to change outcomes or minds” and are “often weaponised by one side or the other to further divide and inflame”. Following the backlash from activist employees, he issued a grovelling retraction only days later.
“You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down,” he said to employees. “I am sorry.” Saying the company would be “assessing our approach to advocacy, including political giving in Florida” (read “No more donations to the Republican Party”), he announced Disney would give $5 million to LGBTQ organisations.
But as Chapek is discovering, appeasement simply emboldens the aggressor. Artists at Disney-owned Pixar have since written a letter complaining the company’s actions were “not enough.” Now the CEO has an even bigger problem. Infuriated by what they see as corporate meddling, Florida Republicans are threatening to terminate Disney World’s self-regulating municipal privileges, an arrangement that has existed since 1967.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In April last year, the Chairman of Disney Park, Josh D’Amaro, declared the future was about celebrating “allyship” to “bring a greater focus to inclusivity and belonging” for employees. Referring to the company’s tradition of The Four Keys – Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency – he proudly declared a fifth would be added.
“Like The Four Keys before them, The 5 Keys – with Inclusion at the heart – will continue to guide us as we interact with guests, collaborate together, create the next generation of Disney products and experiences, and make critical decisions about the future of our business,” he wrote effusively. The result? A Mickey Mouse collective.
A question for you, Josh – have you and your fellow executives seen that splendid Disney film ‘Fantasia’? You might want to watch the part featuring The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It depicts what happens when you dabble with forces beyond your control, and now it is your reality. Only this time it doesn’t finish with the wizard putting a stop to the madness.
It could have been avoided had Disney not pandered to wokeism in the first place. “I encourage everyone to ignore the bloviating of Disney executive leadership, from CEO Bob Chapek all the way down to park VPs,” wrote Disney employee Ethan L. Clay (a pseudonym) in the online magazine Quillette last month. “These people are not thought-leaders or cultural revolutionaries. They are cowards held hostage by the prevailing narrative, and they will run in whichever direction that narrative dictates.”
He is right. Looking to Disney for moral guidance is akin to invoking Dumbo to explain gravity. The happiest place on earth? More like the harpiest.
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How outrageous that Disney is trying to represent it’s actually audience. I’m outraged. #disney
— Patricia Karvelas (@PatsKarvelas) March 31, 2022