Disney changes aren’t wokeness, they’re attempts to stay relevant | Commentary

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Changes at Disney parks aren't about wokeness, they're about the parks evolving to meet the company's own expectations for how it treats guests.

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In this 2007 file photo, the character Brer Rabbit, from the movie, "Song of the South," is depicted near the entrance to the Splash Mountain ride in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. (John Raoux/AP)

 

Disneyland in California unlocked its gates on April 30. A second opening day carries much symbolic opportunity — indeed, the company tried to maximize that potential last summer, scheduling the (failed) reopening for the auspicious date of July 17, the park’s anniversary.

What will the company do with all that promise? During Disneyland’s yearlong closure, the world has changed. And whether from a sense of social justice or financial shrewdness, Disney is changing with it. The company announced more inclusive cast member appearance guidelines and the removal of outdated, racist imagery from two hallmark attractions, the Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain.

Predictably, there has been some pushback. A recent op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel complained about “wokeness” ruining the parks, maligning among other things the Jungle Cruise’s removal of the Trader Sam animatronic character (and, implicitly, the addition to the backstory of a female character of color) as “a mood killer.”

Shannon McHugh, assistant professor University of Massachusetts Boston (Handout / Courtesy photo)

Now a professor of gender history and participatory fan culture, I was once a devoted cast member, guiding the five-hour Keys to the Kingdom tour in the Magic Kingdom. I can tell you that historical evidence demonstrates that there is no dismantlement of Disney values afoot. Rather, the company’s recent decisions are completely in line with tradition.

Disney has been accused of drawing political realities into immersive spaces. I’ll momentarily set aside that doing nothing about, for example, a “take a wench for a bride” auction would in fact be a political decision; or that Walt Disney never eschewed politics, having volunteered to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Let us simply concede that, yes, world-building is a trademark of the Disney parks.

But immersion is only one piece of a longstanding, meticulous philosophy of experiential entertainment. For over 60 years, cast-member conduct has centered on the Four Keys: safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. These are the core of training, and they are hierarchized. Knowing this, even the most proudly un-woke patron should concede that making a guest feel welcome (courtesy) actually does take priority over immersion (show).

Another feature that could disrupt illusion: ADA-accessible ramps. As a tour guide, I took guests on the Haunted Mansion; but wheelchairs and scooters could not access the main entrance. Accommodating these guests does momentarily impede show, but this is not only courteous, it is the only safe solution. Should Disney be condemned for cowing to political pressures?

I love Disney World, but wokeness is ruining the experience | Commentary

APR 23, 2021 AT 9:00 AM

 

Even more unfounded is the logical consequence of anti-change arguments: that the parks should never evolve. But Disney has always remade its attractions. In the 1960s, beloved Imagineer Marc Davis was tasked by Walt himself with overhauling an already-stale Jungle Cruise. Trader Sam was not even part of the original attraction.

Despite recent handwringing over Dr. Seuss, stewards of intellectual property have long made changes to maintain relevance. When Disney’s 1940 Fantasia was released to video in 1991, editors quietly expunged horrifyingly racist images of two Black characters, including a “pickaninny centaurette.” Disney scholar John Culhane sagely observed that these depictions were never the point, and that retaining them would have been the real distraction from the work. This is also just the way of art: when Shakespeare moved Romeo and Juliet from the Middle East to fair Verona, nobody accused him of being political.

In short, there is no parks “canon” under fire. What these naysayers imagine themselves to be preserving never existed at all. Splash Mountain only opened in 1989, when it was constructed from the flotsam of the mostly-forgotten America Sings. These parks are built on progress. Guests arriving at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom pass beneath a plaque inviting them to “enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.” The spirit has never been to stand still.

Of course, this brawl with Disney isn’t actually about rides. It’s about an ongoing mission to preserve a white-centered vision of society by illegitimately laying claim to America’s most popular spaces of entertainment and idealism — even as not only the so-called liberal media, but also the most popular Disney fan sites, promote these changes.

I, like many others, wish the company were so aggressively political. Realistically, I think the best we can hope for is that Disney continues to cautiously adapt its ersatz reality to be palatable to as many market demographics as possible.

And yet I cannot help but hope for better. In 1955, on that first Disneyland opening day, Walt Disney declared: To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. What if, finally, the company were to give those words the power they deserve?

Shannon McHugh is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.