Posted on 08/09/2015 10:15:31 AM PDT by Defiant
In the spring of 2015, a nine-year-old boy named Dexter went to Disneyland with his family and found himself deeply unsettled — not by a scary ride or the unpleasantness of waiting in line, but by some of the most unsettling cultural issues of our time: racial and gender stereotypes. Disney, the world’s most prolific purveyor of pink plastic, has a long history of perpetuating gender stereotypes and feeding our unconscious biases, but what Dexter so astutely observed seemed like a particularly acute symptom of a larger cultural malady.
..........
Dexter and Sybilla go to The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in Harlem — one of those New York City schools proactive about teaching kids about white privilege and its consequences — and their teacher, Ms. Elena Jaime, had instilled in them a deep concern with social justice around identity. But beyond that foundation, out of which their disappointment with Disney sprang, there was no adult hand in the letter — the kids dreamt it up, drafted it, revised it, and mailed it all by themselves.
.............
Dear Disney,
Like most people we love your attractions, but we found some problems with some of them and those problems are stereotypes. Stereotypes are something that some people believe are true but sometimes may not be true. For example say somebody said “girls only like pink,” that’s a stereotype, some girls might like yellow and not pink. You can never really judge.
We are third graders from New York City at The Cathedral School. We learn about stereotypes, and the impact they have on people’s identities. For instance, in the jungle cruise, all the robotic people have dark skin and are throwing spears at you. We think this reinforces some negative associations, we think you should replace them with monkeys throwing rotten fruit.
We noticed that on our trips to Disneyland and Disneyworld that all the cast members call people Prince, Princess, or Knight, judging by what the child “looks like” and assuming gender. We think some feelings could get hurt, say by accident you called someone a Prince who wasn’t a Prince or a Princess, or a Knight, or who was identifying differently than what they were called. We suggest you say “Hello, Your Royalty” instead.
With the Princess Makeovers, we think you are excluding other people who might want a makeover to be something else, including boys and transgender people. When we went to the Princess Castle, the characters only greeted the people they thought were visiting girls, not the visiting boys and again said “Hi Princess.”
We hope you know we had an awesome time at Disney and these are suggestions to make it more inclusive and magical for everyone. Please reply and let us know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Sybilla and Dexter, The Cathedral School
Scary that the author is so proud of these little propagandized children. What's also scary is the prospect that Disney will follow their suggestions.
This is the entire letter written by the children, but the blog post by the author is excerpted. Full post at the link.
That is so sad.
But if that letter was written by 2 9 y o kids I will vote for Obama next time.
And yet being called “Prince” doesn’t seem to have put off some of the more...flamboyant...poofters who have held the title in Real Life.
While I would never go quite that far I agree that it was at the very least heavily coached.
So now truth and reason are to be considered “stereotypes” in the most negative sense of that word.
And God gave them over to a depraved mind...
Obviously, they didn’t visit the park during “Gay Days”. They’d have seen all the princesses and fairies they could ever hope for.
I sure hope the Cathedral School is not Catholic. I would guess it’s Episcopalian. The Episcopals are post-Christian, and don’t deserve to be called a church. More like a leftist social club.
Dear Sybilla and Dexter,
I'm sure your parents pressured you into writing that letter. I regret that, and find it sad. Tell them to please consider going elsewhere on their next vacation.
Sincerely,
Disney
P.S. Don't even think about visiting Stone Mountain Park. That would probably get your parents all upset as well.
The Cathedral School belongs to St. John the Divine in NYC - Morningside Heights, near Columbia University. They are the mother church for Episcopal Churches in NY City.
I visited there about a year ago. At the time they had had a huge sculpture of a dragon hanging from the ceiling, produced by a Chinese artist. I wasn’t quite sure of the point of it, and given that most of the pews were removed to accommodate the sculpture, I surmised they probably didn’t have many attendees at mass. It was a grand, beautiful church from the late 19th Century, but like America’s mainline Protestant past, I suspect now it is barely running on fumes, and that political correctness reigns supreme at this place.
This is child abuse. I weep at the thought that these children have “parental figures” who are paying at least $2,000 a month to have their own flesh and blood mentally abused at this institution. It will come home to roost one day. These children are already evidencing signs of a neurotic “disconnect” to their own childhood. It is unnatural and sadly, the shape of things to come unless God intervenes.
Yes
Love it
too bad people at Disney will cave to the insanity.
like Target
Isn’t there a whole historical thing about children writing letters to Stalin? Nothing but an ass listens to a child, they at best regurgitate propaganda.
“If its Gay and its Ghetto then its Good!
Stand up for what is Right!
We dont allow bigotry, We dont allow Hate!
NORMAL is the only thing we dont tolerate!”
A few years back, the Cathedral’s first telephone directory listing was “Boxoffice”. I guess they thought their worship services were off broadway shows. I’ve read about resident clowns, having to scoop up elephant poop in the center aisle and other assorted new age crap and goings-on in the cathedral for many years.
It was written by the teachers or parents. Probably carefully coached and approved. But even if not in that manner, it was still certainly written by the adults in the larger sense.
That wasn’t the little homos talking.
It is a reflection on the parents, and a window on society that we need to be aware is out there. These kids will grow up, and they will be even more whacked out than their ultra liberal parents.
Disney is in the money business. They will not commit financial suicide and anger stockholders.
Can mental illness be taught?
I was guessing Episcopal. They use lesbian “priests” at their schools around here. Satan has taken hold of that church.
no this letter was dictated to the students by the teacher .. My bet is the students came back from vacation and the teacher asked the kids shared about Disneyland and the teacher went into indoctrination mode and mentioned the jungle cruise and the prince and princes issue she had with Disneyland and then convinced the kids to write the letter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.