Disney’s Chief Diversity Officer Exits Role

[Chi84]

"we can at least consider other people’s sensibilities as long as they’re not hateful."

Implying that the attacks on drag queens and other marginalized people are in the realm of reasonableness when it's just the target of hatred of the moment.

I never did any such thing. Attacks on drag queens or any other marginalized groups are illegal and morally wrong. “An attack” is by definition hateful.

But I believe that people can hold the opinion that drag queen story hours for children are inappropriate without being accused of prejudice and hatred. I’m talking about their own children, not about banning them for other people’s children or making them illegal.

I personally don’t have an objection to people holding drag queen story hours or taking their kids to them. I’m just not prepared to call people who object to them hateful or bigots. If you disagree, that’s fine. We have different opinions.

This “my way or the highway stuff” isn’t working in our society. We need to find ways to discuss and compromise.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Are these needy female impersonators that desperate for validation from straight society that they need to read books to children in their costumes?

No.

 

[mickEblu]

No.

So why invite children to some “sanitized” version of something that’s always been very sexual by nature? Aren’t drag queens just super sexualized imaginings of women?

 

[Californian Elitist]

So why invite children to some “sanitized” version of something that’s always been very sexual by nature? Aren’t drag queens just super sexualized imaginings of women?

No.

Have you ever been to a drag show? I think I already know the answer, but maybe I’ll be surprised.

 

[lazyboy97o]

So why invite children to some “sanitized” version of something that’s always been very sexual by nature? Aren’t drag queens just super sexualized imaginings of women?

Is the Jimmy Fallon ride at Universal Studios Florida super sexualized?

 

[Chi84]

I only mentioned drag show story hours as an example of the type of outlier distraction that derails serious conversations about diversity and inclusion initiatives. It wasn’t to start a discussion of them.

 

[TP2000]

So why invite children to some “sanitized” version of something that’s always been very sexual by nature? Aren’t drag queens just super sexualized imaginings of women?

It's weird. Like asking stripper pole dancers to cover up a bit and then read Clifford The Big Red Dog to children in the public library. Why?

Have you ever been to a drag show? I think I already know the answer, but maybe I’ll be surprised.

I've been to many, many drag shows. Since long before you were born. Since the bars they appeared in were still being raided by the police in many states. Drag has always been fabulous adult entertainment, but it has also always been bawdy and lewd and often overtly sexual, if not outright obscene. The Drag performer names alone... Vivian Von Brokenhymen, etc.

I haven't been to a Drag show in the last six months because I happily moved to a town that is still excited about our first Trader Joe's, but I plan to see a few Drag shows at a favorite San Diego bar later this summer with some old friends. Then a few more this fall out in Palm Springs. Something tells me that Drag hasn't suddenly gone Rated G and is no longer the same Drag it's been the past 50+ years.

I'd bet you a two-drink cover charge that almost all Drag shows are still fabulous, still bawdy, still lewd, and still sometimes overtly obscene.
And certainly no place for a child.

 

[TP2000]

So why invite children to some “sanitized” version of something that’s always been very sexual by nature? Aren’t drag queens just super sexualized imaginings of women?

Just to clarify this a bit, as a man who has been to many Drag shows for decades from coast to coast, talking to another man who has probably been to few or only seen the TV versions that pass the network censors in the 2020's.

Drag wasn't as much "super sexualized" imaginings of women, so much as it was openly making fun of women. Especially pre-1990's before drunken bachelorette parties and straight "cool girls" started hanging out in gay bars much more. Previous to the early 90's, gay bars were almost always only men, not a girl in sight except the fake one on stage in the Dolly Parton wig making fun of menstrual cycles.

Drag often made open mockery of women and their habits and their perceived faults, because we as gay men were jealous of women for being able to live so openly in love (or just convenience) with a man when we could legally not. Or lose our jobs if we were found out.

Drag was a comedic pressure valve release, one of several, that the gay community had for much of the 20th century.

Then the bachelorette parties showed up in the 90's and Drag got cleaned up just a bit, then Drag Race showed up around 2010 in the pop culture consciousness and things got even more tamed down. The Drag icons like Coco Peru started doing PG rated YouTube shows in the 2010's to make a few bucks, and it kind of went into straight suburbia land from there.

I'm sure in about 5 minutes some brilliant young thing will come along to tell me my decades of lived experiences are wrong and that Drag was always in honor of women allies, or some such DEI drivel. But I know the truth, and I remember the past. Drag was making fun of women, while also simultaneously being jealous of them.

Drag could often be very lewd, very sexually perverse, and not very nice. In a real gay bar after 11pm, it usually still is.

It's funny what it's become, especially for straight people under age 40 who think it's just "Drag Race" and library story hours.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I never did any such thing. Attacks on drag queens or any other marginalized groups are illegal and morally wrong. “An attack” is by definition hateful.

But I believe that people can hold the opinion that drag queen story hours for children are inappropriate without being accused of prejudice and hatred. I’m talking about their own children, not about banning them for other people’s children or making them illegal.

I personally don’t have an objection to people holding drag queen story hours or taking their kids to them. I’m just not prepared to call people who object to them hateful or bigots. If you disagree, that’s fine. We have different opinions.

This “my way or the highway stuff” isn’t working in our society. We need to find ways to discuss and compromise.

It’s an odd battle to fight, same with the nuns in drag the other day at Dodgers stadium, it hurts the cause but they don’t care because they’ve decided it’s for the greater good.

No different from the extremist Christian who stands on the sidewalk with a bullhorn and a sign… they ”think” they’re helping their cause but the reality is they are turning people away and making it harder for the other people in their group to be seen as normal.

Should either be illegal? no, but both are situations where a little common sense would make a law unnecessary. You catch more bees with honey but people love attention and nothing gets attention like controversy.

 

[TP2000]

It’s an odd battle to fight, same with the nuns in drag the other day at Dodgers stadium, it hurts the cause but they don’t care because they’ve decided it’s for the greater good.

No different from the extremist Christian who stands on the sidewalk with a bullhorn and a sign… they ”think” they’re helping their cause but the reality is they are turning people away and making it harder for the other people in their group to be seen as normal.

Should either be illegal? no, but both are situations where a little common sense would make a law unnecessary. You catch more bees with honey but people love attention and nothing gets attention like controversy.

Agreed.

I always thought of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as a bawdy group who did some good charity work in the gay community. But then, I'm a WASP who never considered the insulting and degrading Catholic angle to it all.

Imagine the Sisters doing their schtick dressed up as the Prophet Mohammed and a few of his virgins, and then consider how a Muslim person would feel about that. Or how that sort of mockery of Islam would get shut down within about 40 seconds, much less never invited to be "honored" by the LA Dodgers.

Perhaps the right call here is to just not make fun of other people's religions or cultures, and then you don't have to worry.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

I only mentioned drag show story hours as an example of the type of outlier distraction that derails serious conversations about diversity and inclusion initiatives. It wasn’t to start a discussion of them.

 

[mkt]

Good riddance! She’s the one that ruined Disney for her political behavior!

How is recognizing the existence of a group of people and making sure that they're represented a political thing?

 

[mkt]

But this is the kind of thing people are not used to seeing - I haven’t heard of bringing drag queens into children’s events until very recently. Maybe try to be a bit more understanding of people who don’t immediately accept them.

This is something that's been happening for years in large diverse cities. For someone whose profile implies they're from Chicago - a major city where this has happened - I'm surprised you never heard of this.

 

[CaptainMickey]

This is something that's been happening for years in large diverse cities. For someone whose profile implies they're from Chicago - a major city where this has happened - I'm surprised you never heard of this.

Stop gaslighting. For most normal people, it's new and weird.

 

[Andrew C]

because I happily moved to a town that is still excited about our first Trader Joe's

This made me laugh. Also, let's talk about the impact of Trader Joe's on American society, social and economic. Positive, negative, mixed bag?

 

[Californian Elitist]

It's weird. Like asking stripper pole dancers to cover up a bit and then read Clifford The Big Red Dog to children in the public library. Why?



I've been to many, many drag shows. Since long before you were born. Since the bars they appeared in were still being raided by the police in many states. Drag has always been fabulous adult entertainment, but it has also always been bawdy and lewd and often overtly sexual, if not outright obscene. The Drag performer names alone... Vivian Von Brokenhymen, etc.

I haven't been to a Drag show in the last six months because I happily moved to a town that is still excited about our first Trader Joe's, but I plan to see a few Drag shows at a favorite San Diego bar later this summer with some old friends. Then a few more this fall out in Palm Springs. Something tells me that Drag hasn't suddenly gone Rated G and is no longer the same Drag it's been the past 50+ years.

I'd bet you a two-drink cover charge that almost all Drag shows are still fabulous, still bawdy, still lewd, and still sometimes overtly obscene.
And certainly no place for a child.

But we’re not talking about bringing children to drag shows. Men in drag reading age-appropriate books to children is not the same as bringing children to an actual drag show. We are all smart enough to know the difference. I’d happily let a man in drag read a book to any future children I may have.

This has gotten way off topic, so that’s the last thing I will say.

 

[mkt]

Stop gaslighting.

This isn't gaslighting, but ok.

For most normal people, it's new and weird.

Define "normal people".

 

[CaptainMickey]

This isn't gaslighting, but ok.



Define "normal people".

Normal - conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Gaslighting - a type of manipulation where the manipulator is trying to get someone else (or a group of people) to question their own reality, memory or perceptions.

 

[Figgy1]

Stop gaslighting. For most normal people, it's new and weird.

Who is a normal person and what makes them one?

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

But we’re not talking about bringing children to drag shows. Men in drag reading age-appropriate books to children is not the same as bringing children to an actual drag show. We are all smart enough to know the difference. I’d happily let a man in drag read a book to any future children I may have.

This has gotten way off topic, so that’s the last thing I will say.

That is clearly not the case.

Not that it matters. For those who "don't know" the difference, it's irrelevant. They just need a minority to pick on.