[...] You Hate Disney, Maybe You Hate America Why Do We Love to Hate Disney? | Strollerderby theres a family boycotting Disney for a whole year and they are just 2 weeks in.. its going to be [...]

[...] Wow. I didn’t think I’d have to publicly defend myself quite so soon, but three weeks into our Disney boycott Strollerderby blogger KJ Dell’Antonia questions my patriotism in If You Hate Disney, Maybe You Hate America. [...]

This was a great piece. I don’t see how people can complain about a high jobless rate while also complaining about big business. Big businesses employ the most people. Crush them and watch that unemployment number get bigger. And really, big unemployment is much worse than big business.

Comments I’ll bet that the people who boycott Disney are also the ones who hate any band who begins to “make it” because they’re “selling out to the masses.” They probably also hate anything from a major retail chain because their products are affordable for everyone, thereby making them less trendy.

I love Disney and find their princesses to be better role models than our politicians, athletes and entertainers. At least the princesses keep their clothes on and morals intact.

I might actually stand up and applaud my computer screen. What a great piece.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for a similar defense of Wal-Mart, but I love this attitude of pointing out the good, the bad, and the mediocre a company has to offer and reacting appropriately to it.

My two cents for Disney—For the love of Pete, get rid of Zack and Cody and their boat full o’ offensive class/gender stereotypes and give us more Phineas and Ferb, please. Seriously, I want toy versions of those contraptions, maybe a video game, and a book of blueprints.

I’m not expressing an opinion about Disney. My beef is with the author throwing around the “Maybe you hate America” accusation.

Jenny, I am with you on the Phineas and Ferb, our whole family loves that show, along with Wipeout, which is an ABC show. Oh and there is a Phineas and Ferb game for the Nintendo DS. My son points it out to me constantly because he wants it tremendously.

I never quite understood what everybody was so against Disney for, Princess included. Somebody said it above, at least they are fully clothed and not running around dating anybody and everybody who breathes. I am not a fan of Hannah Montanna, but I take care of that by not letting my daughter watch her show or listen to her music. It is like the author said, there are good things and bad things. Don’t use or watch what you don’t like. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I for one happen to like Disney. I love that most of their shows and cartoons are pretty wholesome. Notice I didn’t say all, there are def. some out there I won’t let my kids watch. I also love that they make shows that we can all watch as a family without me wanting to scratch my eyes out from boredom, or traumatize my kids. Those are few and far between these days.

Sometimes I think that the people who find problems with every little thing a company does or produces are often the people who are looking for something wrong and don’t really want to be happy with the product.

@ Anon, Wikipedia on Small Businesses:
“In the US, small business (less than 500 employees) accounts for around half the GDP and more than half the employment. Regarding small business, the top job provider is those with less than 10 employees, and those with 10 or more but less than 20 employees comes in as the second, and those with 20 or more but less than 100 employees comes in as the third…”

The problem is not necessarily with big corporations. It’s that those big corporations become very powerful and abuse their power.

If Disney (or any other megacorp) suddenly disappeared, All of the employment and GDP it produces would not. Those employees are not feeble-minded idiots, other opportunities would appear. Other production companies would appear. Other theme parks would fill the void. THAT’s how a properly democratic capitalist society works – not by worshipping virtual monopolies who abuse their power to lobby for their own special interests.

Disney specific beefs: they have used sweatshop and child labor. They deliberately market to exploit childrens’ underdeveloped minds. Their characters shill junk food. They lobby incessantly for longer copyright laws (quite hypocritical when you realize they made their fortune from public domain fairy tales). They sell jewelry made out of lead (incidently, this was not some QA testing boo-boo, this is what happens when a megacorp pressures the market to provide the *cheapest possible manufacturing by any means possible*). They don;t care about kids. They care about the profit those kids provide for Disney. If that means lead jewelry, so be it.

Allow me to provide a standard, canned right-wing response: “What about personal/parental responsibility!!”
Many people, even parents, are irresponsible human beings. Many try to be responsible, but it is not easy when you are a single parent working two jobs, trying to provide for your kids.

Support your small businesses. The ones in your own community, not the ones who outsource production to sweatshops.

@Jeff – Disney was also one of the first companies that provided benefits to same-sex couples. That is just one example, but big companies can do some good too.

Personally, I consider myself a leftist, but I am still for personal responsibility. Of course I sympathize with people struggling, but what I personally see is people with high incomes who complain about this kind of stuff, and for them I think they can control what their kids see.

I am a Disney hater, but not a boycotter. I have many reasons, but mostly for their preteen and teen shows like the Suite Life and Life of an American Teenager. They put on shows with kids who seem to have no parents or if they do the parents (or all adult characters) are shown to be idiots or clueless. While trying to show diversity, I think they mostly promote stereotypes. Or perhaps even worse, they erase the ethnic heritage of their stars.

I also hate how Disney holds up young children as idols to be worshipped. This only sets them up for failure when the world finds out they are actually normal kids who can do stupid things just like yours. Only your kids don’t get lambasted by the media doing it. Does any remember that Britney Spears is a product of Disney? Financially that may have worked out for her, but what is her grasp on reality? Could she even begin to do what her sister did and go home to a quiet, press free life? (I apologize if that makes it sound like having a child at 16 is a good thing. I really don’t mean that.)

Anyway, I won’t be caught dead at a Disney park anytime soon nor do I knowingly buy Disney products for my child. I do have a few friends who love Disney and have been planning the family pilgrimage to Orlando for months. They think I am weird for my opinions (in fairness, I hate all theme parks, not just Disney’s), but they don’t call me un-American. However, I am sure there are those that would. I do live and die by Diet Coke. Does that make me a patriot?

@Laure68 I was raised in a non-Disney home. My mother objected the right-wing bent of a lot of it’s programming and treacly sweetness, as well. I do control what my child sees, but the stuff is so prevalent, that she knows what things like princesses are because kids at her preschool wear outfits with one or the other on them, or they’re allowed to watch Disney stuff and talk about it at school. It’s like McDonald’s that way (and my kid doesn’t go there either.) @theAuthor And, yeah, I object to that. Get over it.

I don’t know, “hate” is kind of a strong word, isn’t it? Anyway, I’ve responded over at the Disney boycott blog.

I do need to add that I am still surprised by many people’s attitude about parents who bought the Baby Einstein videos. New parents are especially vulnerable and want to do what’s right for their kids — add new immigrant, teenage or limited-income parents to the mix and yes, you have some well-intentioned people who did buy Baby Einstein because they thought it was a good choice. Is that really cause for ridicule?

And thanks, Bob, for your comments.

Comments“After all, they’re…big. And bad. And all that bigness and badness just can’t be good for anybody. Can it?”

Yes, Strollerderby, it is about size. A Year Without Disney is not solely about drawing attention to Disney’s hypocritical image; it’s also about drawing attention to the sheer size of it and corporations like it. The larger the corporation, the more the consolidation of power and the less choice we as consumers have. And when that consolidation of power occurs in media, the less diverse the message, and the more likely that message is, at the heart, about money. Michael Eisner himself says he has no obligation to create art or to be concerned about the messages Disney sends, which would be bad enough if much of the Disney focus weren’t on Children. But when many of its images sexualize children, perpetuate sexism and racism, then size does matter. There are fewer sources of counterbalance, fewer competing images.

The conservative, pro-capitalist argument that corporations create jobs is valid, but when only a few conglomerates control employment, the opposite is true. Corporations consolidate to downsize jobs; less competition means fewer opportunities, lower wages and more outsourcing to lesser-developed countries with cheap labor. Yes corporations create jobs, but this means small corporations, small business. Small businesses create jobs domestically; large corporations shed jobs and ship jobs overseas.

Yes, but doesn’t Disney’s sheer size mean that it offers choice? That even if I don’t like Hanna Montana, I can still go to a Pixar movie? In fact, not only can I pick and choose, the argument goes, I want to and should support Pixar, for example, because most of its films are gems, almost little works of art. True “UP” and “The Incredibles” were great. Problem is, being a buffet style consumer doesn’t mean I’m controlling what the corporation does with my money. My $8.00 for “Toy Story Three” funds “Hanna Montana,” allows ABC to reduce its news reporting, helps fund the distribution of lead-laden jewelry, so no I can’t simply take what I like and leave the rest. It’s all a part of the same. That’s why they call it a conglomerate. That’s why big is bad. That’s why we have anti-trust laws. Big reduces choice, competition, and yes, jobs.