Disney Walkout: Their Demands Have Bob Chapek Turning Red

The following article takes no position on social issues such as gender or sexual orientation. At times, issues can arise within and surrounding entertainment companies that require commentary — however, this is not a website that takes political, social, or cultural positions outside of that which might be construed as western mainstream ethics.

Did I tell you correctly that Disney had seriously stepped in it when they decided to become a political and cultural movement corporation rather than just staying out of the whole Florida legislation topic? They had the option. Look at other companies — they have no horse in the race and they’re doing just fine. But not Disney, they decided to take a strong position and allocate resources for political / social movement causes and lobbying. Did that help them? No it did not. Instead, the law in Florida passed, the governor of Florida dunked on their hypocrisy with China, a new Disney employee movement has risen up that looks to create walkouts for maximum public relations exposure, and the main group they tried to donate money towards decided to reject their offer.

Every part of that is a failure. Therefore, I’d argue that people like myself and Valliant Renegade have been on this 100%.

So what I’d like to do today is take a look at what the demands are from the new employee group that is threatening to walk out from Disney on March 22nd, along with some little fifteen-minute break walkouts up until that point. The group is called “Disney Do Better Walkout”, although their Twitter handle is just Disney Walkout. They seem to be a professional bunch… not necessarily a run-of-the-mill group of employees that had a sudden urge to do something. Some of their assets appear professionally done. Their website has a bit of legalese that indicates legal counsel of some kind. They have formed some impressive communication systems that require authentication of Disney employment. All of this suggests that the group has funding and professionalism. It looks to me similar to what happened with the Activision-Blizzard take down just before the real dirt started hitting public news.

But what is it that this group wants, specifically? I’m going to take a few quotes from their website and give my own take regarding those statements:

Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.

This is an outright ban on these subjects for K-3rd grade students.

Okay. So they want sexual orientation and gender identity concepts taught via classroom instruction to five year-olds. Alright, that gives us an idea of what sort of group we’re dealing with…

Governor DeSantis has commented that this bill would prevent children from learning about gender identity and from having a safe space to come out: “We’ve seen instances of students being told by different folks in school, ‘Oh, don’t worry, don’t pick your gender yet, do all this other stuff.’ They won’t tell the parents about these discussions that are happening. That is entirely inappropriate.” 

It seems to me they’re advocating for kindergartners to have a “safe space” to “come out”. I don’t see any other way of reading that. If a five year-old kid is “coming out”, I’d be very interested in why the child knows so much about sexuality at a time when that isn’t a legal option for the child. Children in kindergarten aren’t sexual by nature, they’re prepubescent, barely potty-trained, impressionable, and are not appropriate for any sort of sexual label. This Disney employee group concerns me for what exactly they are advocating.

Over 2,000 employees are being asked to either relocate to Florida or lose their jobs, with no options for remote work in states with friendlier climates to the LGBT community. For a company that advertises itself as a safe space for the LGBT comunity, it is innapropriate for them to force those employees to move to Florida with this legislation now passed, and more human rights-violating laws likely on the way.

Additionally, Disney has used its influence in the past to stop harmful legislation from passing. In 2016, Disney threatened to move business out of Georgia—where many of their films are shot, including Marvel films—unless the governor vetoed a bill allowing officials to refuse to conduct same-sex marriages on the grounds of religious belief and permit religious organisations to fire employees on the same grounds. The bill did not pass. Disney clearly has the influence to stop harmful legislation from passing, so it is telling that the company is not taking a stand now.

Right. So as I said before, this is about forcing Disney into a position they took against Georgia. Unfortunately for those who wish that to happen, Disney simply isn’t in a position to take on the government of Florida. I mean, I guess they can… and they are… but very unsuccessfully. It’s a hard thing to do when you’ve been coddling a communist dictatorship that uses slave labor, genocide, organ harvesting, etc. I suppose you lose the moral high ground.

While LGBT topics have always been viewed as overly sexualized by detractors, there is nothing inherently tied to sexally explictness about who you are attracted to and what gender you are. Children are both aware of attraction and gender. Movies, books, and other media constantly depict heterosexual romance with no protest from parents about “sexually explicit content.” Children develop crushes in elementary school and can understand personal expression and identity. Gay people start as gay children. Trans people start as trans children.

So there you go. “Gay” and “trans” labels are what they want for small children. They’re after the kids. I’m not trying to be political here, I’m not trying to misrepresent… these are just the things they say. You can’t apply a “gay” or “trans” label to a child without explicitly sexualizing the child. Advocating to do that is bonkers nuts.

So when people are out protesting and walking away from their job duties, this would seem to be what they’re advocating based on the group association. The group has instructions for how to walk out.

Consider that entire studios are reportedly signing onto this:

Disney Animation Studio joins the growing voices for inclusion and equality by signing our open letter#DisneyDoBetter #DisneySayTrans #DisneySayGay #WhereIsChapek

— Disney Walkout (@DisneyWalkout) March 16, 2022

Question for Disney executives: Exactly what happens when you have entire studios walking out AND your conservative consumers begin picking up on this in the mainstream, forming boycotts of their own? I’m just curious considering Disney’s job is to produce content that pleases the most families possible. How has any of this achieved that objective?

Also, I don’t know what the percentage of people it might be who would want kindergartners taught about gender fluidity, but I’m guessing it’s a very, very small percentage.

This is all in line with what we’ve been discussing in regards to “My Panda My Choice” and the propaganda inside Turning Red by Pixar. It’s in line with employee complaints that Disney executives have not allowed most displays of homosexual activity in children’s programming. There is an open and concerted effort to get LGBTQ+ displays, symbols, and patterns into movies for small children. Now you may think that’s a good thing or you may think it’s a bad thing… I’m not taking a position here. What I am doing is noticing what it is that the current group advocating for such is demanding, and I’m pondering how that affects Disney and its business. I do think that it is not much of a political or cultural statement (at least it most certainly shouldn’t be) to say that children, especially small children, are off-limits for sexual or identity manipulation. Kids should get to be kids, and they should develop their concepts of identity, self, and appropriate boundaries under the guidance of their familial guidance and within legal / ethical frameworks. If Disney is pushed to take a position in opposition to that idea, I think the “family friendly” reputation the company has could be under fire… and I don’t know what the financial worth of that might be, but it isn’t small.

I still don’t see any way for Disney to win in this situation. They tried to placate one group, and that group is actively working to push them farther than their business is likely to allow. They harshly criticized another group, and the damage is done there. There’s not a good way for Disney to try to go back to the middle or step outside of the political arena where they will be bludgeoned by at least 50% of their consumers.

Clearly though, this is a red-hot topic. We’ve had many… many thousands of readers checking out the articles on Turning Red and Pixar Propaganda. I think a lot of families were very surprised with what was in that movie their small children suddenly saw in a PG film. I think that Turning Red and this Florida legislation issue are arising at the same time does not play well for Disney. When small kids are “twerking” because a main character defeated her mother by doing so in a movie they watched unsupervised, that’s one way to get serious feedback. It turns out mothers aren’t keen on their little ones emulating a sex act. That might be dwindling the reserves in the good will well.

There you go Cuties again #Twerk #TurningRed #TurningRedMovie pic.twitter.com/Iad3uK3jtz

— Save Avengers 5 & 6 (@SaveAvengers5n6) March 11, 2022

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Keep it clean, no major profanities. And, as always, keep checking out That Park Place for all the latest news on Disney.