Like many a mouse, Mickey has had his issues because of big cheese decisions.
In March 2022, following the introduction of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act (a bill which prohibited classroom discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade), then-CEO Bob Chapek sent a memo to all staff members, which contained the following quote to explain why Disney had not addressed the act:
“Corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds. Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame. Simply put, they can be counterproductive and undermine more effective ways to achieve change.”
While Chapek made it clear that he and Disney leadership “unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees,” and he cited examples of Disney media he believes had helped push forward more progressive beliefs, Chapek also said he didn’t want the company “to become a political football in any debate.”
But when Chapek received pushback for the memo, he walked the statement back, hoping to appease his many protesting employees by promising to fight to have the law repealed—simultaneously alienating the company’s Christian conservative consumers. And since that moment, Disney has engaged in fierce legal battles with conservative Florida lawmakers since the bill was signed into law in March 2022.
Around the same time, previous (and now current) CEO Bob Iger tweeted his opposition to the bill and said to CNN’s Chris Wallace that he felt standing against the bill was a matter of doing “what is right and not [worrying] about the potential backlash to it.” And it wasn’t long after (following poor company performance which included the flop that was Strange World), Disney fired Chapek and brought Iger back out of retirement.
But with Iger back in charge, the now-realized backlash may have caused some second thoughts on the strength with which the CEO came out swinging. That’s because Iger told investors during a Sept. 19 presentation that he wanted to “quiet the noise” it was making in “the culture war.” While Disney’s reputation has been on the downturn since 2017 (according to an Axios Harris poll), its engagement in said culture war has helped to earn it the rank of fifth most polarizing brand in 2023’s Axios Harris Poll 100.
It’s not the first time Iger has expressed a desire to move past the culture wars. At Disney’s 2023 Shareholder Meeting in April, he said, “Our primary mission needs to be to entertain. And then through our entertainment to continue to have a positive impact on the world. I’m very serious about that. It should not be agenda driven. It should be entertainment driven. That should be the goal in all of our stories.”
Such comments feel like a stark reversal compared to other comments from prominent Disney officials, which we’ve previously noted in another blog post. These comments include some from Karey Burke, the president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, who stated in a leaked 2022 video that the company sought to add more LGBT characters to its content. And executive producer Latoya Raveneau’s admitted that her team had embraced a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” that includes “adding queerness” to kids’ shows.
So, in light of all of this, how should Christians take Iger’s most recent comments? What does it mean that Iger says he wants to quiet Disney’s noise in the culture wars? Is Disney turning over a new leaf?
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It could simply mean that Iger is growing tired of the company’s public fencing match with Republican politicians. Perhaps it means that Disney, in an effort to draw more conservative families back in the fold, won’t be so vocal in its support for LGBT causes. The only thing we can all but confirm at this point is that Disney is tacitly admitting to the negative effect its soapbox stand has had on its bottom line.
But regardless of whether Disney makes real changes in its entertainment offerings, Plugged In will be here to report what we see and hear. And we’ll leave it up to you to decide how to respond.
Still, we can’t end without noting an encouraging fact underlying Iger’s statements: Enough families want family-friendly, agenda-free content to cause the CEO to reconsider the company’s strategy. And those families can still impact a corporate culture drifting away from its original family-focused vision. In a postmodern era that increasingly embraces the subjective truth of the world over the objective truth of God, that’s a fact that is nice to see.
16 Responses
-“And executive producer Latoya Raveneau’s admitted that her team had embraced a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” that includes “adding queerness” to kids’ shows”
Considering that kids, LGBT or no, often have to deal with a lot of bullying, I’m not surprised that more shows are trying to add characters with similar experiences and stories, lest their target audiences be faced with only stereotypes if they see any representation at all. It wouldn’t be all that different from the struggles with racism I had as a child.
“hoping to appease his many protesting employees by promising to fight to have the law repealed—simultaneously alienating the company’s Christian conservative consumers”
Sounds to me like an odd thing to say ‘alienating’ about. On what grounds would the original law even stand? It’s not as though the kids, if told about “classroom discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity,” were being given age-inappropriate instruction about intercourse. That would be objectionable. Even a statement as simple as “some men enjoy the romantic company of other men” would be likely to run afoul of such a law despite not being tactless or graphic. I was never transgender, but growing up in an outwardly conservative but often heinously misogynistic cultural environment, with my dad being one of the few Godly examples of masculinity in my life who actually treated my mother and other women with respect, I was frequently treated as ‘effeminate’ just because I didn’t want to join in the un-Godly but endemic examples of the men and boys around me.
“For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” ~ 1 Peter 4:3-5, New International Version. I saw and recognized a lot of this un-Godly conduct in various churches and schools from the time I was a young child, and later in life, I heard a lot of it being preached from certain pulpits, sometimes even in the name of asserting and defending the church’s cultural relevance in society.
“Our primary mission needs to be to entertain. And then through our entertainment to continue to have a positive impact on the world. I’m very serious about that. It should not be agenda driven. It should be entertainment driven. That should be the goal in all of our stories.”
I do like this. Stories that don’t know how to be entertaining, no matter how diverse or ideologically well-intended they might be (“children shouldn’t be bullied or subjected to hate crimes just because their different-but-not-harmful interests don’t look like yours”), aren’t likely to attract a wide audience, whereas even stories that aren’t very demographically diverse but know how to tell a good story will still be likely to have a great reception. Every story has an agenda (including Christian movies by default), but not every story feels a need to verbally preach it to you.
“Perhaps it means that Disney, in an effort to draw more conservative families back in the fold, won’t be so vocal in its support for LGBT causes. The only thing we can all but confirm at this point is that Disney is tacitly admitting to the negative effect its soapbox stand has had on its bottom line.”
That’s … questionable. According to your review, “Elemental” also had LGBT content, but it performed notably better than “Lightyear” did (I just didn’t think that was a good movie), especially in international markets, where “Elemental’s” worldwide total more than doubled “Lightyear’s.” “Strange World” seemed to barely receive any marketing, and I wouldn’t expect a secular company to arbitrarily assume a story isn’t ‘family friendly’ just because it throws in LGBT representation (the issue I had with “Lightyear’s” specific instance thereof is that it seemed more important to the story than Lightyear himself did). Which specific subset of religious agendas would they be expected to cater to?
That said,
“In a postmodern era that increasingly embraces the subjective truth of the world over the objective truth of God”
Interpretations of “what God wants” have changed wildly over the years, including within the church, from slavery and racism (it wasn’t all that long ago that some Christian universities would have needlessly banned me from dating white women), to the importance of democracy and critical thought, to the place and position of women. That’s not to say that there is no true standard of what God wants – I’m a lifelong Christian, and I believe that that truth exists – but let’s not give “popular theology” too much credit for remaining consistent any more than we would say for Hollywood’s values. Both are widely influenced by secular popular culture.
-I was struck by the “postmodern” comment too, since the cultural right has coopted postmodernism and radical subjectivity by denying science, propping up politicians who lie compulsively, and embracing conspiracy theories and alternate historical narratives.
For complicated reasons, the political polarity of postmodernism has switched. It was created mostly by the left to expose what they saw as the hollowness and hypocrisy of the cultural consensus that had resulted in two world wars. Today it’s the trolls and conspiracy theorists of the cultural right who’ve rejected the concept of objective truth. What could be more postmodern than “alternative facts”?
And unfortunately, the Christian right, which is supposed to stick up for objective truth, has decided to hitch a ride on the post-truth train.
-Very well said. I could sympathize at some level with a secular version of “postmodernism,” in questioning the validity of faith and also questioning the concept of basing society’s values or understandings of truth on something we ultimately cannot prove. I have less sympathy for the newer version of postmodernism, that puts forth all of the awful things referenced and portrays them as “alternative facts” or “resisting liberal censorship.”
I’ve long enjoyed a lot of your comments, Kenosha Kid. Keep sharing your voice.
-honestly most families do not want agenda pushing crud which Disney has been very forcefully and obviously pushing ever since the live version of beauty and beast…Contrary to what secular also agenda pushing “news” trys to tell us there are not as many families wanting this as families not wanting it. So despite politically crap pushiness most people want to see Disney returned to what it was- which is wholesome agenda free family oriented that doesn’t have forced in storylines to just appease those radical liberals. Disney himself would have been appalled and rolling over in his grave. The new Disney was crap and most people knew it. The classics were classics for a reason and that’s what majority of America still wants to see despite what propaganda pushing inmoralists try to say
-Even if Disney withdraws from the culture wars, there are a lot of other companies that are fully engaged. The only change we are likely to see is not a reduction in movies with LGBT characters, but a reduction in animated movies with LGBT characters. Animated movies are often a lot more expensive to make than live-action movies. So we’ll still be getting movies like Lightyear and Strange World from other movie studios such as Universal and Warner Brothers and MGM, they’ll just be in live-action rather than animated. Also, movies with LGBT will be more likely to be used to start the careers of new actors and actresses instead of prolonging the careers of existing actors and actresses, just to save money.
What Hollywood needs to realize is that less than 10% of the United States population considers themselves LGBT. Only then will we have any hope of seeing the change we want.
-If 10% of the United States considers themselves LGBT, that is a far greater percentage than millennials who affirm the Nicene creed concerning Christianity and personally follow God’s laws against fornication and adultery so it would make more sense for Disney to cater to them rather than us.
There is so much guilt-tripping in our culture that is carried into the church that it is rare to hear a pastor preach against adultery because pastors don’t want to shame people like the world does, but can we really hold Disney to model moral standards for kids when there is so much remarriage after divorce or “living together” among Christians? When “Christians” mock others for waiting for marriage? We can’t change people’s pasts but we should do as much as possible to strengthen Christian marriages now.
-I wouldn’t trust Bob Iger as far as I could throw him. Words are cheap. Actions speak louder, and so far, I don’t see Disney changing its course anytime soon.
-There’s a saying about actions speaking louder than words, and (to me at least) Bob Iger’s talk about pushing for Disney to back away from the culture war rings pretty hollow given the actions from the Mouse House (particularly since he was in charge when this more aggressively pro-LGBTQ push began a few years ago).
-Something tells me Walt wouldn’t even recognize his company if he were alive today.
-My mom was in the local version of the Mickey Mouse Club when she had to ride the streetcar to the theater back in the 1930’s. I was raised in a Christian home and at church every time the doors were open. I am a Bible-believing, Jesus-following Christian. I was also raised to love and trust Disney. My mom was still visiting Disney parks up until she passed away at 90 in 2018. After retiring from teaching I have become a Disney travel advisor because of my love for Disney and because I normally go to the parks 4-6 times each year. But my love of Disney is for the “old Disney”….when the company was still trying to honor the wishes of Walt Disney by creating family-friendly entertainment and theme parks. Bob Iger has allowed the company to drift very far away from Walt Disney’s original intentions. Now when you visit a Disney theme park, there are gay and transgender cast members, and guests, everywhere. Most cast members don’t have the clean-cut Disney look that Walt always required of his employees. Park guests are drinking their way around Epcot which has turned into a Disney version of Bourbon Street. You can find drunks and hear foul language in every park. I could see the tide turning in 2017 when Disney announced its first gay character in the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. Before 2017, they had quietly been adding flamboyant characters, and park cast members, to their fold. For the past 6 years, Disney has shown its true colors. It is agenda-driven. There are too many people in the current leadership that are LGBGTQ and now there is no way to turn this ship around even if they truly wanted to, no matter what Bob Iger is saying. I have decided to give up my position as a Disney travel advisor because I don’t want their influence on my grandson. I have prayed about it for a while now and God has changed my heart and opened my eyes to the evil they are spoon-feeding our children. As a Christian, I can no longer make excuses for them and endorse what they do. I used to be able to trust their content, but now I check PluggedIn reviews for everything they produce because they can’t be trusted. It breaks my heart, but it’s time to show Disney the door. Thank you PluggedIn for doing the leg work for thousands of us so that we can make well-informed and wise choices for our families.
-I totally agree with previous post from another anonymous! Very well said! Disney is not the Disney of the past and we long for the old Disney.
-I know I said it in a previous post, but it really bothers me how many Christians, Plugged In, Franklin Graham, etc., did not criticize Disney until after the company’s feud with the Florida government started.
Many Christians didn’t speak out against Disney over its other recent controversies (like filming Mulan 2020 near Chinese internment camps or refusing to let a father put Spider-Man on his 4-year-old’s tombstone).
I don’t know how many people knew about Mulan 2020 or about Disney lawyers forcing the dad to alter the tombstone. I knew, but I think it was only because I read news about China and Spider-Man.
-I totally agree with the article and honestly yes most families do not want agenda pushing crud which Disney has been very forcefully and obviously pushing ever since the live version of beauty and beast…Contrary to what secular also agenda pushing “news” trys to tell us there are not as many families wanting this as families not wanting it and the amount of trans people is also very very small. So despite politically crap pushiness most people want to see Disney returned to what it was- which is wholesome agenda free family oriented that doesn’t have forced in storylines to just appease those radical liberals. Disney himself would have been appalled and rolling over in his grave. The new Disney was crap and most people knew it. The classics were classics for a reason and that’s what majority of America still wants to see despite what propaganda pushing inmoralists try to say
-I did not know they had drinking at Disney World. I don’t think it is good to combine alcohol with riding roller coasters and the large crowds. Drunks are one thing I worry about everytime I go to Six Flags. I haven’t ever been to Disney but I’d hoped they’d have sense to avoid serving alcohol like Silver Dollar City does.
It is sweet that your mom continued to love the Disney characters until her old age
-I realize this isn’t clear because the sentence has 2 mewnings. SDC doesn’t have alcohol and it has a nicer atmosphere than SF because of this. I thought Disney would be the same.