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Donald Trump, the once and future president, hasn’t taken office yet. He’s already done a lot of things that make a lot of people nervous, but he still hasn’t had a chance to really do anything directly.
Yet the nature of his win is changing an awful lot.
For all the hysteria we saw eight years ago, and the way some people are freaking out now, things feel a lot more subdued this time around. Further, it seems the fact that he won so convincingly is waking up the previously woke.
Disney pulled a transgender storyline from “Win or Lose,” an eight-episode Pixar streaming series that debuts in February, the company said Tuesday.
“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement, “we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”
The character will remain in the show, but references to the character’s gender identity have been removed, the company said. The alteration involves “just a few lines of dialogue” near the end of the season.
“Win or Lose” centers on a co-ed middle school softball team in the lead-up to a big game, with each episode focusing on a different character’s perspective. The animated series features the voices of “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Will Forte and “Fresh Off the Boat” actor Ian Chen.
The storyline alteration drew criticism from Chanel Stewart, an 18-year-old transgender actor who voiced the transgender character.
“I was very disheartened,” Stewart told Deadline, an entertainment news website. Stewart told the publication that Disney called her mother Monday night to let her know about the change.
Learn to deal with disappointment then.
See, look at Disney’s statement for a moment. Isn’t that what most of us have been saying about this push to include the LGBT agenda into every kids’ program and movie? I know it’s been a lot of what I’ve said, at least. I understood the argument about “normalizing” it, but it’s not their place to decide when and how my kids and I talk about these things.
They ignored this argument for years.
Now, Trump has not just a convincing electoral win but also taking a convincing enough majority of the popular vote as well to signal that people are kind of sick of a lot of the nonsense we’ve been inflicted with for years.
Some aspects of the media might just be getting the hint that they can’t just dictate to us how things are going to be. We’re the consumers, after all, and it’s pretty clear that we aren’t interested in having our children lectured to by some of the most morally reprehensible people out there.
Especially on such controversial issues.
Now, there may be some other cause for the outbreak of common sense at Disney other than Trump’s win but damned if I can think of what it might be.
It’s bad enough when they insert it into adult-focused television, but I understand what’s happening and can decide whether I want to turn it off or not. My kids may or may not understand, and while it’s easy to say that parents should monitor all of the media kids consume, that’s not going to happen in a lot of homes.
Plus, this was a couple of lines at the end of a show. Unless you watch the whole series first, you’d never know anything about it until it was too late. That’s kind of the problem, too, because I have to believe that was by design. Now, Disney pulled those lines because they realize that this is not the way forward if they want to continue being the children’s entertainment juggernaut they’ve always been.
Trump’s election signals that people are sick of all of that crap. Since that’s also the people who spend money, Disney had to rethink where they were going.
Now, if they’d just get rid of Kathleen Kennedy at Lucasfilm, I’d be a happy camper.
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Politics, culture, a dose of snark, and a profound love of personal and economic freedom.
Just remember, if you have to "Normalize" something, that's because it's not normal.
Disney used to be respected as family focused. I recall the Wonderful World of Disney growing up and so many great movies. Now I will avoid like the plague. So very sad what they've done to that brand. 😞