Is Disney GAY?

[nilyvn]

Millions of people visit Disney world every year but how much do you actually know about the company?It is definitely a huge company.Disney owns and operates eleven theme parks and several television networks.
Thanks.

[Lorddh]

I'm 18, I'm gay, I worked at the Emporium in Magic Kingdom, and yes I love Disney. Why? Because I grew up with Disney, and as I started growing up I got to truly admire Disney, for all they do and all the happiness they bring to EVERYONE of all AGES and all BACKGROUNDS. Anyone can connect to Disney! so please do yourself a favor and grow up and stop being so ignorant. If you're not GAY then you shouldn't care what your gay roomate or anyone else says. So childish!

[pap64]

Time to chime in my two cents...

Is Disney gay? The short answer is no. The long answer is that no, Disney isn't gay, because when Walt Disney started his empire by making short cartoons he thought of the general movie going audience rather than one small sector. If history is to be believed, Disney wanted to appeal as many people as possible, hence why he adapted beloved fairy tales and stories and expanded his business so that the Disney brand would never get stale.

But I sorta understand why Disney appeals so much to the gay fanbase. Think about it for a second...

What is the most common theme in Disney movies? True love and to be accepted for who you are. This resonates very strong in the Disney princess stories, where the main characters wishes to escape his or her dull life and embark on a journey where he or she will find someone that will love him or her for who he or she is and thus live happily ever after. With gay rights and issues being a hot topic, gay people often wish they would just be accepted and wish for people to accept gay love as normal love.

But really, these ideals are universal. EVERYONE, regardless of age, gender, nationality, sexual life etc. etc. etc., has felt under-appreciated and wish for true love and eternal happiness. It's why the Disney movies have been so successful for all these years: they strike an emotional core that is within us all and thus we believe in them.

In my case, I grew up being heavily bullied and abused by other kids just because I was "different". I was a special needs kid that had speech impediments as well as physical and emotional issues, and thus the other kids made fun of me for it. As a kid, I saw myself in the Disney movies, because I too wished for people to just accept me for who I was. I wasn't born perfect, but lord knows I am happy with who I am. In the end my dream came true. I surpassed all of my imperfections and became the person I dreamed of being, and people accepted me in the end.

So to sum it all up, Disney is for everybody, because all of us wish for a better world and a better life.

[Lazario]

Walt Disney wasn't gay. Nor are the majority of the people who contributed to Disney or Pixar. So why would the fans be gay?

That's a hilarious question (coming from someone like you). Director Joel Schumacher is gay. Do you think that means most of his fans / apologists are too?

Director Dario Argento is straight and I'm his biggest fan on this forum. Does that make me straight?

I think your roommate is a homophobe.

So do I. Gay people can be homophobes too.

[rodis]

I think it's like you said. I wouldn't assume an adult male is automatically gay because he loves himself some Disney but I would get "suspicious" if he was too much into Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. It's very individual.

It's like someone who loves Mariah Carey. You wouldn't consider him immedtaiely gay if he listened to her R&B stuff but you would if he hummed "Dreamlover" or "Fantasy"

[Lazario]

Hey wait now, hold on there...






Isn't Aaron a big Mariah Carey fan?

[rodis]

Hey wait now, hold on there...






Isn't Aaron a big Mariah Carey fan?

LOL! Then honey, he's probably "one of the guys"

[carolinakid]

Gay Disney fan here who ADORES the princesses! But I know plenty of straight guys who enjoy the parks and a lot of the films and TV shows....but they don't tend to be as OBSESSED with Disney as some of my gay friends and I are, in my experience. I DO see more straight couples who are Disney freaks as opposed to single straight males....

[David S.]

I think it's like you said. I wouldn't assume an adult male is automatically gay because he loves himself some Disney but I would get "suspicious" if he was too much into Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. It's very individual.

It's like someone who loves Mariah Carey. You wouldn't consider him immedtaiely gay if he listened to her R&B stuff but you would if he hummed "Dreamlover" or "Fantasy"

I know you're kidding around so this isn't directed specifically at you.

I dislike the idea of stereotyping people based on their interests. It is possible for someone to be a rough, tough, "macho" type of male who loves watching football and boxing and still be gay.

Likewise, it is possible for a male to be interested in so-called feminine, stereotypically "gay" things (like Princesses, show tunes, disco, dance music, and opera) and be straight!

Getting back to the topic at hand, I don't think a male who is Disney-obsessed (or even Princess-obsessed!) should be automatically thought of as gay.

Being gay is about who a person is attracted to, not what they are interested in!

I think a lot of people confuse the idea of ANDROGYNY with orientation. (or not even androgyny as much as the idea that people should be free to like whatever they like without worrying if it conforms to the silly, outdated, "gender roles" and stereotypes!)

[Scarred4life]

No. Your interests don't determine whether you're gay or not.

[Wonderlicious]

But my room-mate (who is GAY btw) is generalizing this fact. Single adult guy who is visiting Disneyland without a family/kids is gay, single guy who like the visionary work of W. Disney and his company is gay.

Maybe he secretly has a crush on you and thinks this type of pressure will get you to come out of the closet.

I think that the current link of Disney to homosexuality derives from the Princess brand and its great dominance in retail and how Disney promotes their films and theme-park attractions. Ten years ago, I think the only criticism for liking Disney was that it was supposed "kids' stuff". Now, with a good few of their most successful films and characters marketed as purely girls' stuff (often strictly in pink and with jewel-encrusted tiaras), the Disney corporation is essentially promoting itself to some extent as being effeminate.

Having said that, with "guy" films such as The Lion King, Aladdin, Lilo and Stitch, some of the Pixar movies and countless others (I was beginning to drag, I admit) still being amongst the most popular Disney films, I didn't think that the whole "Disney lover must be gay" thing is as strong as your roommate was making out, and it does seem a bit on the extreme side for him to say that all single men who like Disney are gay, and the logic is odd (what happens when straight male Disney-lovers in relationships split from their girlfriends? Do they suddenly become gay? Or gay until their next love-of-a-lifetime pops along? ). In the UK, although the likes of The Little Mermaid and whatnot are viewed generally as girls' films, I think that a lot of people can admit to liking a number of other Disney films and Disney theme parks, and would at least not use "ooh, it's so gay" as a reason for not liking them. And as JustOneBite87 has said, a lot of the people in Los Angeles are renowned for their judgemental and often shallow nature (just as the people in many big, fashionable cities can be...London, Paris, Vienna, New York, you name it). Though it may be hard, take what these sort of people say with a pinch of salt; a lot of people in big metropolises tend to generalise as they've been taught to hate themselves in this environment.

And an important quote from the poster above me:

No. Your interests don't determine whether you're gay or not.

Exactly. Straight guys can like The Little Mermaid and figure skating, and gay guys can like football and action movies.

[rodis]

I dislike the idea of stereotyping people based on their interests. It is possible for someone to be a rough, tough, "macho" type of male who loves watching football and boxing and still be gay.

I'm the first to admit this. My partner is just what you described, only more. You would never ever think he was gay.

So certainly there could be someone who was into fluffy stuff yet straight but people like to categorize and that's something we rarely try to avoid.

[Lorddh]

I love how some are saying that the reason why Gay guys like Disney is because of all the girlie pink stuff. Talk about ignorant. Anyway, people get it through your thick skull that being gay is a sexuality, not a way of being. Every human being is different!!!! I'm in no way feminine, though my favorite movie is the Little Mermaid, and honestly all the guys I've been with who are obviously gay have been the stereotypical macho man. So how do you explain that? Wow a gay macho man? A feminine straight dude? YES it's possible, and yes they're there.

[littlefuzzy]

To actually answer the original question "Is it true that American society considers adult male with passion for Disney (except the Disney Princess and Musicals) to be GAY?"

Yes.

I think most people were answering the question "Do YOU think Disney is gay?"

There are large segments of the population who think that, although not the whole nation, certainly. Of course, there are also large? segments of the population that still think "those durn "n-words" should be back on the plantation!"

As a single straight male who likes Disney (obviously, because I post here), musicals, The Wizard of Oz, and *GASP*, even figure skating (hey, the girls are hot!), I have seen comments like "You must be gay if you like Disney," and so on, although not directed at me. Of course, I've even seen the same comments if someone likes classical music, or doesn't like sports, etc.

Yes, I enjoy the Princess movies (and many other Disney movies), because they are good movies, and most of them are from the Walt era which is my particular favorite era for Disney films. Of course, I'm not going to walk around in a pink T-shirt with Cinderella on it, and I'm not going to walk out of the theater after seeing Tangled or something, going "It was faaBULOUS!" I grew up watching the Disney films, and most of them back then did have the stronger female characters like the princesses, many of the men were basically the bland Prince character, or comic relief like the 7 dwarves.

I think the Princess films are similar to the Hollywood musicals of the earlier years, in that they are basically a light hearted comedy romance, where the guy gets the girl in the end. Of course, they are cloaked in a bit more action and suspense than the actual musicals.

I'm a bit of a sucker for good romantic endings, although I despise the current crop of "chick flicks".*(see point 1 below) However, I do like some of the older ones like Sleepless in Seattle, and really old stuff (30s-50s) is great. Many men want to find that "one girl" and settle down, romance is a part of our lives whether we are men or women. Heck, look at even the most testosterone-filled action flicks, the guy always ends up with the girl there too, albeit often more as a "great, we like each other, let's jump in the sack" moment instead of a "let's grow old together" bit.

1. Actually, I pretty much despise films that are aimed at a very narrow audience segment, instead of the creators making something that will appeal to that segment and beyond - chick flicks, "urban" films (one step above blaxploitation, IMHO), something where the original vision is watered down and compromised for that all-important "PG-13" rating (or 'R' instead of NC-17, depending on the film), stuff like Treasure Planet that was aimed specifically at tween boys (or something aimed solely at tween girls instead of the whole family), foreign films that are chopped up for American audiences, etc.

[toonaspie]

I think this is becoming one of those discussion topics that you're all thinking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into

[disneyboy20022]

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[Super Aurora]

1. Actually, I pretty much despise films that are aimed at a very narrow audience segment, instead of the creators making something that will appeal to that segment and beyond - chick flicks, "urban" films (one step above blaxploitation, IMHO), something where the original vision is watered down and compromised for that all-important "PG-13" rating (or 'R' instead of NC-17, depending on the film), stuff like Treasure Planet that was aimed specifically at tween boys (or something aimed solely at tween girls instead of the whole family), foreign films that are chopped up for American audiences, etc.

YES! I hear you!

[Goliath]

I think your roommate is gay, and a homophobe.

Doesn't anybody read opening posts properly anymore? The OP said the roommate *is* gay.

If Disney is gay, then why does he have a wife and children, instead of a man? If Disney is gay, then why would he make movies that are NOT gay? If Disney is gay, then why would he establish a theme park for families instead of for gay people? if Disney is gay, then why would he market movies for families instead of for gay people? From the looks of Walt Disney's achievement, he is clean throughout his entire life. And above all, he is a family man, and proud of it.

I don't think Walt Disney was gay, but your 'defense' make no sense at all. There's one question to all your questions: because society doesn't/didn't accept it. That's why many homosexual people tried to hide their sexual preference by marrying and having children. It still happens nowadays. So what makes you think that, *had* Walt Disney been gay, he would've come out and said: "Hey, I'm a homosexual" and make movies with homosexual characters? In the 1930's, 40's or 50's?

[Little Red Henski]

Disney had a few gay characters. The Reluctant Dragon, Ferdinand the Bull, and Mr. Smee. The Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh also. They are just not I'm going to stick it in your face gay.

[David S.]

Disney had a few gay characters. The Reluctant Dragon, Ferdinand the Bull, and Mr. Smee. The Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh also. They are just not I'm going to stick it in your face gay.

Really? That's news to me that these characters are gay. And you know they are physically attracted to males because?