Oh, how the tables have turned . . .
I've been writing about Disney's failings for years, and one of its key issues was that it was just abusive toward men. It was almost as if the company was allergic to depicting men as masculine, independent, or heroic, and even if they were, they had to be upstaged in some way by a female to make sure the message got across that women were better.
No Disney property escaped the anti-male treatment, and audiences around the globe made it clear that this wasn't okay. It was fine to depict empowered women. That was never the issue, but why did it always have to come with some sort of misandrist message or influence?
Needless to say, the constant socio-political messaging Disney beat viewers over the head with caused many to wander off, and a lot of them were men. Now Disney is staring at a male-sized crater in their viewership and wondering how they got here.
According to Variety, men are largely missing from Disney's audience, especially Gen-Z men:
Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. “Young men” is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z.
First, duh. Every film studio is looking for better ways to convert young audiences into habitual moviegoers. Numerous studies show that Gen Z men in particular are a lonely, gaming-obsessed group who were hampered in their formative years by COVID-19 lockdowns — not the easiest segment to grasp. But what’s surprising producers, writers and other partners in the larger industry is that Disney has been calling for original concepts to lure the demo back to the movies.
This is the same Disney whose multibillion-dollar content engines, Marvel and Lucasfilm, have sated men of all ages over almost two decades since the company acquired them. The sources say Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor. The calls come as the Star Wars machine struggles to produce any film project and the superhero genre sheds audiences by the minute.
Let's dismiss Variety's own little barbs at men for a moment and focus on the fact that it thinks Disney has "sated men of all ages over almost two decades." While it's true that Marvel was a powerhouse, it began a steep decline after "Avengers: Endgame." Star Wars began tripping over itself after "Rogue One" and was stumbling ever since, with brief moments of sanity from shows like "The Mandalorian" (until the firing of Gina Carano and Season 3) and "Andor."
Men haven't been an afterthought to Disney; they've been at the center of many a producer and writer's ire. "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" was an anti-male slog, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" was practically a thick wad of spit in the face of masculinity, and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" wasn't much better in that regard either.
If I had to watch one more well-established male hero become a grumpy, disillusioned, and angry shadow of their former selves because Disney writers wanted to make a new female character look better artificially, I was going to lose it. Moreover, the constant accusations of sexism when audiences rejected these try-hard self-insertions from the writers weren't doing anything to win the goodwill of men.
Disney's approach to men protesting their mistreatment was forced participation through guilt and fear of social rejection, which isn't how men operate anyway.
Funny enough, this is the same problem the Democrats are currently having, and they're literally spending the GDP of smaller countries to find ways to win men back. As I've written previously, the problem the Democrats are having is like the same problem Disney will; the solution is something they can't embrace.
Read: Masculinity's Revenge on the Democrat Party Is the Result of Stupid Politics
They have to treat men... like people.
For the Democrats, this is an impossible task because they've built a hefty part of their platform on men being a societal negative, with women most affected. All they have to do is acknowledge the value of men, show appreciation for masculinity, and accept men as they are, but this is something that runs contrary to the left's core principles and doing so would cause the misandrists in their midst to turn on them, and the Democrats are too filthy with them at this point to risk the loss in support.
For Disney, this means creating movies, television shows, and products that actually put men in complementary roles. Just like they did in the good ol' days, they'd have to depict men as strong, heroic, brave, competent, and morally upright.
If a modern Disney writer or producer were to read that last sentence, they'd start retching. A hard and fast rule for these people is that men cannot be a boon to society unless certain limits are placed on them, and their work is primarily complementary to a female hero's efforts and actions. Putting a man in the driver's seat runs contrary to everything they believe.
That is a tall ask for Disney. Perhaps too tall.
Now, I could very well be wrong here. As I've been saying, there are signs that Disney is trying to turn itself around, and if the Variety article is true and Disney's C-suite is demanding the hiring of males and putting real effort into attracting them back to the company, then Disney will do something really surprising. I'd love to be wrong here.
But I don't think I am. Not at this juncture. The infection went too deep. Even if they are looking to attract men, I'm not even sure they remember how.
Time will tell, but I'm not exactly getting my hopes up.
