Posted on 04/23/2021 9:03:17 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
A Disney theme park superfan wrote a scathing op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel declaring that “wokeness” is ruining the Disney experience.
Jonathan Vanboskerck takes yearly family vacations to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and takes a Disney Cruise every one to two years. The fan claims that Disney’s shifting political priorities have broken the magic of “immersion” at the famous theme park.
According to Orlando Weekly, Disney Park Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced that the company would allow park employees to showcase different hairstyles and tattoos to create a more “inclusive” atmosphere.
“Our new approach provides greater flexibly with respect to form of personal expression surrounding gender-inclusive hairstyles, jewelry, nail styles, and costume choices; and allowing appropriate visible tattoos,” D’Amaro said.
In his op-ed, Vanboskerck said that the priority shift takes away from the experience of customers.
“The problem is is, I’m not traveling across the country and paying thousands of dollars to watch someone I do not know express themselves. I am there for the immersion and the fantasy, not the reality of a stranger’s self-expression,” Vanboskerck said. “I do not begrudge these people their individuality and I wish them well in their personal lives, but I do not get to express my individuality at my place of business.”
The Disney megafan also claims that the company has taken a “woke scalpel” to many of its rides and attractions. He was particularly upset when the theme park opted to remove “Trader Sam” from the Jungle Cruise ride in Magic Kingdom. Trader Sam was considered “culturally insensitive” to management.
“The next time I ride Jungle Cruise I will not be thinking about the gloriously entertaining puns of the skippers, I will be thinking about Disney’s political agenda. That’s a mood killer,” Vanboskerck wrote.
Similar moves have been made in the name of diversity and cultural sensitivity. According to NPR, the famous Splash Mountain is undergoing a design change in response to complaints about the ride’s association with the song “Song from the South” from a 1946 film. The ride will be “re-themed” to focus on the 2009 film, “The Princess and the Frog.”
The changes were made after a Change.org petition claimed that the ride was “steeped in extremely problematic and stereotypical racist tropes.”
Recently, a top Disney executive boasted that the company was passing on well-written scripts because the characters were white.
The Daily Wire reported:
Walt Disney Television’s chairman of entertainment Dana Walden admitted this month that ABC passed on several “well-written scripts” because they lacked “diversity.”
Walden even bragged about passing on a script because it centered around a white family, only adding racial diversity through neighbors and other supporting characters.
Vanboskerck concluded his op-ed by claiming that these issues should matter to Floridians and the tourism industry.
“This should matter to the people of Orlando because, if Disney drives away customers like me, Orlando loses money. I can take my tourist dollars elsewhere,” Vanboskerck said. “I would rather keep spending them in Orlando but people like me feel more and more excluded by Disney’s decisions.”
Was Snow White black with brown dwarves?
” appropriate ... tattoos,”
Oxymoron alert
Rat Fink Rules!
Take a close look at Mickey Mouse. Looks like Beyonce with white face. Mick won’t last much longer.
You mean people don’t like being preached to about ethnic guilt and the need for diversity in all things after they’ve paid more than $100 a head for tickets into what’s supposed to be a day of carefree entertainment and fun?
Disney can go Donald Duck themselves.
Book a trip to the Tokyo Disney parks, they are far superior.
Rat Fink was called the anti Mickey Mouse. Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a visionary 😀
Yes, he was!
When I was in elementary school in the early 70’s, my politically correct, upper middle class elementary school brought in all these black speakers to talk about racism.
There was this one older black gentlemen giving a speech, and then he asked the kids if they had any questions. One girl raised her hand and said “I just have to say, you look exactly like Uncle Remus”.
Everybody cracked up, and the guy was clearly not pleased.
appropriate visible tattoos
In my opinion there are no appropriate tattoos. My understanding is they don’t wash off.
I appreciate the guy taking them to task, but cannot fathom spending that kind of of money yearly just to go to Disney.
Plus travel.
We used to have a timeshare that we bought from somebody who sold it cheap just to get rid of it and we used it to swap into timeshares at the Disney Vacation Club. We would stay at Bay Lake Tower, which is right outside of the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, for $150 for the week while people in the room next to us were paying about $600/day. Even if we never went into a park it was still a nice resort to use as a home base. We would also ride the monorail over to Grand Floridian for a drink then the Polynesian to watch the fireworks on the beach.
If you figure in what it would have cost us to stay at WDW then our timeshare was not only free it paid dividends. We sold it for what we originally paid for it when we decided to move out of Georgia.
why give them any money?
Let’s be clear here. Yes, Disney is becoming infected by wokeness and a good example of that is replacing Splash Mountain with Princess and the Frog, but there is also an overall decline in quality in the chase for more $$$. What do I mean? Loosening the standards allows Disney to hire from the bottom of the barrel where once it only selected quality people. Quality young people are getting to be fewer and fewer, and many of them know it and aren’t willing to work for peanuts, so rather than maintain standards like Walt would have even if it costs a bit more, they’re going for those bottom of the barrel workers. Just another reason to give up Disney.
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