It’s been a rough few years for Disney and its various offshoots. The once-storied company has taken the phrase “go woke, go broke” as a personal challenge, so much so that it’s getting hard to keep track of all the failures.
When looking at its film endeavors, which were once a cash cow for The Mouse, things have been catastrophic. The fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise bombed at the box office despite Harrison Ford reprising his role. One of the chief reasons for that was the deconstruction of the supposed star in favor of another bland, unlikable “strong female character.”
Things weren’t any better regarding Disney’s live-action remakes of its classic movies. The new The Little Mermaid appears to be a commercial failure (perhaps only breaking even). Meanwhile, the remake of Peter Pan, which turned Wendy into the all-powerful girl boss while essentially making Peter a toxically masculine villain, was a total flop. Disney-owned Pixar’s efforts weren’t any better, with Elemental and Strange World both severely underperforming.
In fact, in search of a Disney movie in the last year that was actually a success, you will really only find the final installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. That was a lay-up, though, with James Gunn giving one last effort before heading to Warner Brothers. It’s also probably not a coincidence that the movie didn’t dabble in woke tropes and was led by Chris Pratt, one of the least political and most well-liked actors in Hollywood.
I could keep going, but it wasn’t just the movies. Disney was also forced to shutter a $1 billion Star Wars-themed hotel in 2023. Meanwhile, Bob Iger, who recently returned to lead the embattled company has resorted to a yard sale of sorts, looking to unload various Disney properties and networks.
There’s no question that Disney is financially in trouble, and with that as the situation, you’d expect a return to its roots as a family-friendly company. Unfortunately, that’s not happening. Instead, we are getting “gender-fluid” influencers promoting Minnie Mouse clothes.
The Walt Disney Co. and TikTok influencer Seann Altman – a biological male who identifies as gender-fluid – have joined forces to market girls’ attire on social media in the latest move showing Disney’s solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
The promotional TikTok video posted for Disney Style, a division of the Walt Disney Co. that promotes its clothing and accessories and offers style inspiration to fans, features Altman dressed in a Minnie Mouse-style getup, complete with a red dress with a Mickey Mouse pattern, a white collar, black tights, a white petticoat and yellow heels.
“Minnie is ME,” Altman, who uses he/him pronouns, wrote on the post. “I fit right in with Mickey and his friends! @disneystyle.”
Seann Altman is a male who uses male pronouns but is “gender-fluid” and styles little girls’ dresses while proclaiming that “Minnie is me.” I’d try to make sense of that, but I don’t feel like giving myself a headache.
Apparently, Disney thinks this is a great idea, though. Yeah, they are losing customers and money hand over fist on all of their business fronts, but let’s stick a man in a dress to market to children. That’ll win those families back.
There was a point where I thought Disney could be saved. That perhaps the company would wake up and realize it’s time to return to what made it such a behemoth in the first place. That’s obviously not going to happen, though. So let it burn.
