Disney's Double Standard
Disney has a public relations problem and it's entirely self-inflicted.
It's been a problem for a while now, but it really exploded earlier in the year when they decided to back LGBT activists instead of parents over the Parental Rights in Education bill which keeps age inappropriate discussions out of classrooms for kindergarten through third grade. While both sides of the argument hurled extreme narratives at each other, the thing to remember is it shouldn't have gotten to that. Sexual discussion shouldn't take place at those grade levels. Parents don't want them at those levels, and it's the parent's wishes that should be honored; not those of activists. While I wouldn't go so far as to say these activists are "groomers," their intentions certainly are dubious when looking to intentionally override parents over discussions of sex and gender.
Anyway, Disney, a company geared mainly towards children's entertainment, angered a lot of parents when they backed the activists instead of supporting parents, and those parents were rightfully angry.
Disney again stepped in it when they decided to support activists over a gay kissing scene in the recent flop, Lightyear. Critics have tried to pass off the idea that the movie flopped because it simply didn't get any good reviews, and that many people didn't know what it was. I find both of those arguments questionable. Children's movies seem like they're usually somewhat immune to bad reviews because kids don't care. The controversy over the gay kiss attracted a lot of attention. There were quite a few stories about it, so I'm pretty sure most people knew what the movie was about, particularly parents, who were probably looking at taking their kids.
The thing not mentioned in the couple articles I read was the Disney factor. I wonder if Disney underestimated the backlash for including the gay scene, and the betrayal over their stance on Florida's parental rights bill. While I feel that boycotts usually don't work, there may have been enough parents opting out for the dent to show. There certainly have been enough comments online and TV by parents saying they’re going to opt out of Disney movies, and Disney parks. Even if it’s not an organized boycott, there may have been enough individuals that carried through for the effect to be seen.
Of course, it didn't help that the movie was banned in 14 countries over the kiss.
Which brings us to the children's cartoon, Bluey. If you don't know, this is a cartoon made in Australia that Disney distributes in the U.S. It turns out, that Disney has been censoring the cartoon because of some things they feel parents would find objectionable.
Examples of Disney’s censorship include cutting out toilet jokes, fart jokes, dads talking about getting a vasectomy, Bluey’s dad Bandit struggling for an answer when Bluey asks where babies come from, Bandit reenacting childbirth, episodes with heavy teasing, and racially insensitive phrases.
I just recently learned about the censorship, and while a couple of those items listed may be inappropriate for the age group targeted by the cartoon, the fact that Disney has decided to censor these out, but leave the gay kiss scene in Lightyear is odd. It shows a complete lack of awareness on their part, and it shows how out of touch Disney is with it's customer base. I think that Disney feels all it's customers are LGBT activists, and not children and families.
I wonder how long it will be before stockholders start to push back on these irresponsible business decisions. As a publicly held company, Disney has a responsibility to make good financial decisions, and the woke direction appears to be proving a bad decision. One can only hope. It may be the only thing to wake them from their woke.