This was an entertaining read - A Disney fan complaining about the park's "wokeness"

This is very helpful, thank you! I don’t like accepting cookies :laughing::+1:t2:

Any well expressed points the author was trying to make were lost after this line. With this, they just sounded petulant and narrow minded.

The argument that I thought they were trying to make, was that the CMs are ON STAGE and as such playing a character. While I don’t think immersion is broken (and I’m certainly not offended) by someone serving me a Mickey pretzel with, for example, a nose ring, I do wonder how I would feel if Belle suddenly materialised in ETWB with one. 🤷

Anyway, I thought that was their stance, but I can’t get on board with ‘CMs shouldn’t be allowed to express themselves because I can’t’.

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Hate is a powerful thing. Luckily it most often is worse for the hater than the hatee.

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For character performers that require a full costume I’m sure tattoos will be covered and piercings will be removed while in costume, but the words “costume” and “character” imply that to begin with and it would be part of the job description, while the general “Cast Member” and “uniform” do not. A Jungle Cruise skipper’s uniform is just that, because isn’t trying to precisely replicate a specific character.

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Yes, that was the distinction that I was making.
However,

one of the original authors points is that it used to be part of the job description for ALL CMs to not have tattoos/beards/bright nail polish etc.

To be devils advocate, if it’s ok for that to be removed from the job description of ‘general’ CMs, why shouldn’t character CMs be allowed to express their personality while in character?
Has the line been drawn already??
And just to reiterate, I’m playing devils advocate. I’m not proposing or against this!!

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Honestly, what kind of sadist is upset cast members can now wear shorts instead of long pants in the summer? Happier cast members=happier guests. It’s not only more inclusive, it’s more humane.

As for being upset over the POTC, Splash, and JC changes, good grief… It’s fine to prefer things the way they were, but change is inevitable. If Disney wants to distance themselves from racist/sexist stereotypes, in what world is this a bad thing?

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I think the distinction is that a character performer is essentially an actor playing a part, and therefore they would understand that they are bound by whatever costume, hair, and makeup they are assigned.

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I think when you say “Hey, I want get paid to dress up like Cinderella!” It’s not unreasonable to expect one to try to look like Cinderella. It’s an integral part of the job.

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For the record, I do agree with you both @Nikkipoooo and @amvanhoose_701479.

It’s just CM - Cast Member is supposed to be considered ‘part of the show’. I was just exploring that idea with more than one type of CM.

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Adam Serwer, an outstanding writer for, among other publications, The Atlantic, coined the essential phrase for these times: the cruelty is the point.

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I think I need to clarify I was referring to the asshat who wrote the article not you. I’m all for Disney being more inclusive, it IS the world we live in now. Changing a ride that is offensive to a large subset of the population and allowing people to wear natural hair and tattoos are changes I can 100% get behind.

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What really gets me about the Splash complainers is that they fail to recognize that the entire theme is something the vast majority of kids (who the ride is aimed at) don’t recognize. The movie its from was already pretty much relegated to the vault by the time the ride opened, and I’d guess that 90% of kids do not actually get the gist of the story from the ride anyway. Replacing outdated themes with something that’s relevant to the current market is an important part of keeping a park fresh.

The people getting actually worked up about the removal of individual elements that don’t change the overall experience at other rides are just displaying their true colors. “Because that’s the way it was when I was a kid” has never been a good justification for keeping things the same, even if whatever was changed wasn’t harmful or offensive. Change is life, and it’s what’s driven the entire history of the world.

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(But seriously, bring back Dreamfinder)

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Disney’s actions are aligned with their new key
https://wdwnt.com/2020/09/disney-introduces-inclusion-as-fifth-key-in-cast-member-training-worldwide/

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I wrote out this entire response w/ a bunch of changes that I haven’t been happy about and the very first one was about Dreamfinder/Original Figment. :slight_smile:

(I may have gone on to rant a bit about the disturbing Railway animation and the pink paint on the castle so I never posted it.)

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I thought it was satire at first. That would have been well written satire. This isn’t exactly a viewpoint I can understand. Reminds me of watching Dumbo when DS13 was a baby. I thought he’d like the animation so I pulled out the VHS tape. Yikes! Those crows! It made me verrrrry uncomfortable. I love Dumbo back in the day too, but I fully understand why it’s not in the regular rotation anymore. Things change, hopefully for the better.

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I was really surprised to find that Splash Mountain in the World opened in the 1990s. Song of the South was never released for home video in the US, so the theming is truly an odd choice.

The author’s mention of Pirates just reminded me how my 4 year old daughter asked what was happening during the auction scene, before it was redesigned. I much prefer the new version.

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The idea was inspired by the Tom Hanks/Darryl Hannah movie of the same name. Not sure how it got flipped theming-wise to SotS after that.

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Hmph. People crazy. I’m just sayin’. Is all.

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I didn’t know that! But I did ride it twice on a soft opening in July 1992 on my first ever trip, and despite never having seen SotS I loved it.

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This couldn’t be a more true statement IMHO

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