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Business Insider
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Is Disney actually too 'woke'? We asked 12 of the company's most passionate fans
Is Disney too "woke," not "woke" enough, or not "woke" at all? In our highly polarized political environment, asking a dozen people may yield a dozen different answers. But what do Disney's most passionate fans think? Business Insider spoke with 12 of these superfans — sometimes referred to as "Disney adults" — and a clear takeaway emerged: They generally said they believed the company should take a stand on social issues and promote inclusivity, even if it meant getting caught in an anti-woke backlash. CEO Bob Iger seems keenly aware of Disney's precarious task of trying to appeal widely to fans across the US and the world. Prominent conservatives have for years accused the company of being too " woke" — or generally too committed to progressive ideals. Iger said in 2023 that the company's "mission needs to be to entertain," meaning its content should "not be agenda-driven." Following Donald Trump's presidential win, Iger was uncharacteristically quiet. That said, none of the Disney superfans BI spoke with — who were of varying ages and political convictions, and live in different parts of the US — said they felt the company had gotten too "woke." Several said they felt Disney could be making a costly mistake by shying away from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies amid political backlash in the second Trump administration. "There's a big audience out there that supports those initiatives and wants to see inclusivity, and they use their dollar to show their support for brands that support a world that is open and inclusive," said Trisha Daab, who was married at Disney's parks in 2005. Disney didn't respond to a request for comment for this story. 'So what if Disney is woke?' For much of the last decade, Corporate America has often loudly supported progressive issues. In that era, Disney was widely viewed as a champion of DEI causes. The company prioritized diverse hiring in the mid-2010s, started a "Reimagine Tomorrow" initiative for underrepresented groups in 2020, and added more non-white and LGBTQ+ characters into its shows and movies — including a gay protagonist in Pixar's "Strange World" and a same-sex kiss in "Lightyear." Decisions like these made Disney a lightning rod of criticism among conservatives. But many of the Disney superfans who spoke with BI said they viewed the moves as a way to make everyone feel welcome. Daab, who writes Disney-related stories for magazines and websites, said she'd seen how much non-white children love seeing princesses who look more like them, for example. "I hope Disney doesn't shy away from that," she said. Other Disney superfans echoed that idea. "If every Disney movie was, let's just say the story of Snow White, and it was the same look, the same characters, the same storyline — it's not interesting anymore, and it's not reflective of the population," said Shae Noble, a Disney superfan based in Washington state. Francis Dominic, a Disney-focused content creator and social-media influencer, said the company shouldn't have to apologize for making its movie characters or parks staff more diverse. "So what if Disney is woke?" Dominic said. Disney's casting of Latina actor Rachel Zegler as Snow White in the 2025 remake set some critics off, since in the original fairytale, Snow White got her name from having "skin as white as snow." Dominic pushed back on the critics: "It's not factual — it's a fairytale." Jay Yee, a 62-year-old Disney adult in New York City, said he wasn't sure if Disney had become "too woke." But the company shouldn't be responsible for representing same-sex couples or transgender people in stories designed for children, he said. It's a parent's job — not a company's — to initiate conversations on those topics, he added. Max Traughber-Crismon — a self-described liberal Democrat living outside Portland, Oregon — said that while Disney isn't too "woke," he believes it "overcorrected" with "in-your-face" social messaging in movies like "Strange World." "It's trying to put every personality, every gender, everything into one thing versus saying, 'Hey, we can have differences, and it's OK not to include everybody with everything,'" Traughber-Crismon said. Can anything please the critics? Disney is no stranger to the culture wars. The company made waves by resisting a Florida law designed to give parents control over LGBTQ+ issues taught in public schools, known by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Then-CEO Bob Chapek tried to stay neutral, before reversing course after employees protested. This angered some conservatives, and some progressives were still frustrated. Heightened political pressure in the second Trump era has led many companies — like Target, Google, Meta, and Amazon — to rethink their DEI practices. Even Disney has followed suit. In turn, some Disney adults feel the company has "backtracked," in the words of lifelong Disney fan Ellie Banks. "I don't know if they're focused on core values necessarily, other than I think they're going to go where the money flow is," Banks said. "If they feel that there is a larger amount of people that are supportive of one ideology, I think they're going to lean into that ideology." However, pandering to conservatives could backfire for Disney, as it might alienate progressives without winning back its detractors. Several Disney adults pointed to Target's flip-flopping on DEI as a cautionary tale. John Telyea, who's married to fellow Disney adult Shae Noble, said Disney should try to avoid alienating people generally, though that's much easier said than done. "No matter what you do, you're going to make somebody upset," Telyea said. 'Politics takes the magic out of the Happiest Place on Earth' While some Disney superfans were passionate about the company's stance in the culture wars, several fans said they only care about quality content and experiences. In their view, Disney shouldn't be a political brand. "I think it's really important to let the creative process drive itself without too many, in general, outside agendas on either side," said David Lewis, a Disney-focused travel planner based in Mississippi. Lewis said he didn't see "Snow White" in theaters, but it wasn't because of a boycott. He said he didn't make time to see it, though he's excited to watch it with his princess-obsessed daughter once it's on Disney+. For Disney parks aficionados like Florida-based Melania Murphy, Disney World can be an escape from a chaotic world. That's why she has little interest in online battles about the culture wars. "Politics takes the magic out of the Happiest Place on Earth," she said.
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Dear Disney: don't cave to Trump. We need you to shape dreams for kids everywhere
I remember the moment I truly recognized the power Disney has to move young hearts and minds. It was when I attended a sneak preview of Disney's adaptation of the Chinese legend of Mulan, about a young woman who disguises herself as a man and takes up her wounded father's sword to defend her nation. I enjoyed the movie, with its combination of swashbuckling, slapstick and show tunes. But as I filed out of the theater, what I saw hit me like a fire-dragon rocket: two blond, apple-cheeked siblings, probably under the age of eight, leaping and sparring and loudly arguing over the right to pretend to be the movie's main character, Mulan. A boy and a girl, neither of them Asian, both so enthralled by the film's Chinese protagonist that they each aspired to be her. It reminded me that Disney doesn't just tell stories; it shapes dreams, creating heroes iconic enough to inspire young kids to imagine and be more, and providing empowering figures that enable people from different backgrounds to see themselves – and one another. It's still staggering for me to think that Mulan, a story from China with a gender-blurred title role, was greenlit, made and released in 1998 and is now broadly accepted alongside Bambi as a timeless animated classic – especially now that Maga has announced it's coming after the House of Mouse, with the apparent objective to make sure that nothing like it is ever made again. On 27 March, the Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Carr – a dead ringer for Who Framed Roger Rabbit's mirthless toon-terrorizer Judge Doom – sent a letter to Disney's CEO, Bob Iger, informing him that he had directed the agency's enforcement bureau to begin an investigation into Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Carr stated that he wanted to ensure that Disney had not been 'promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination', calling out as examples the company's employee affinity groups, its 'Reimagine Tomorrow' multicultural showcase and especially the company's 'inclusion standards', a set of goals that aim to increase the number of characters from underrepresented groups to half of the regular and recurring roles on its TV network, ABC. It's hard to explain why any of these are 'discriminatory' or 'invidious'; voluntary employee-led clubs – which have no restrictions or requirements for membership – are discriminatory? A website featuring remixes of Disney songs sung by artists of color and explanations of how to sign 'Mickey Mouse' in ASL is invidious? Even the 'inclusion standards' are just broadly aspirational objectives, which could be met in any number of ways: Disney's definition of 'underrepresented groups' includes women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, disabled persons and military veterans. But the mere threat of the investigation hastriggered Disney to begin a cautious reframing of some of these initiatives. The Reimagine Tomorrow site is gone, and now points to a generic inclusion page headed by the message: 'At Disney, we want everyone to belong and thrive.' The company's business employee resource groups have been redubbed 'belonging' employee resource groups. Carr's letter makes it clear that mere semantic shifts won't be enough, demanding that Disney's policies be 'changed in a fundamental manner'. And while Carr cites 'equal opportunity rules' and the need to ensure 'fair and equal treatment under the law', it's obvious that he won't be satisfied until Disney changes the one thing that the FCC is restricted from regulating by the US constitution: its content. Of course, the first amendment prevents the government from infringing on freedom of expression, except in very narrowly delimited ways. Where the FCC is concerned, the only way it can impose its will on a creative company's storytelling choices is if they are obscene, indecent or profane or contain dangerous disinformation. So the agency can't just demand that Disney stop making shows about Asian princesses or Black superheroes or Latina anthropomorphic automobiles. Yet that's just what Carr is doing – using the back door of equal employment opportunity to claim that by casting people who aren't straight or white or male in its movies and TV programs, Disney is unfairly withholding employment from straight white males. And unless Disney is ready to announce Timothée Chalamet as the new Black Panther, which, thank God, it isn't, targeting the studio's ability to hire diverse talent is a deliberate attempt to force it away from making diverse stories. That would spell business disaster for Disney. Yes, the studio has had its share of flops, which the Maga mob has blamed on multicultural casting – including, most recently, its unfairly pilloried live-action remake of the 1937 animated masterpiece Snow White, starring Rachel Zegler, whose mother is Colombian. The film, made on a $240m budget, has so far earned just $142m at the box office, its prospects poisoned by controversy over Zegler's advocacy on behalf of Palestine and racist backlash over her Latina heritage from online creeps. But similar attacks were also levied against Disney's The Little Mermaid remake, starring the African American actor Halle Bailey as Ariel, and that film was a box-office success and global streaming blockbuster. It also made the storyline relevant in new ways to young women – which makes sense, given that Disney's goal with its remakes isn't simply to photocopy the past, but to extend and refresh it, reaching untapped audiences of the present and emerging markets of the future. If that means they sometimes swing and miss in the short term, in the long run it all evens out, because Disney doesn't actually plan their business by quarter or year – they blueprint it by age bracket. Their franchises are designed to be evergreen and intentionally aligned to 'graduate' kids up a ladder of content: girls go from Muppets to Disney Fairies to Disney princesses to Disney's Descendants. Boys go from Cars to Pirates to Star Wars to Marvel superheroes. The ultimate goal is to ensure that there's something for every stage of growing up until young adulthood arrives and their fans become parents themselves, allowing Disney to earn money across the consumer life cycle, generation after generation. And every generation of Americans is more diverse. Baby boomers were 29% people of color. Gen X, 41%. Millennials, 46%, gen Z, 50%. The youngest rising cohort – those born after 2012, and currently squarely in Disney's prime target demo – is officially the first to be 'majority minority', with kids of color making up a full 52% of gen Alpha. Whatever Trump's mandate may be, Disney's demographic mandate should be stronger. The company defiantly and successfully resisted attempts by Ron DeSantis to strong-arm it into ending its diversity practices in Florida. While Trump's flying assault is coming from a higher top rope, the Mouse should still be mighty enough to fend it off and roar back. Disney's incentive will be what it always has been: making money. But for diverse communities, the positive manifestation of Disney's profit motive has been that kids growing up today know what it feels like to be mirrored in the media they consume, with all of the psychological and emotional benefits that confers. I've seen this first-hand, as someone who grew up in an era nearly devoid of Asian representation in Hollywood, and who went through the bizarre experience of having my elder son, Hudson Yang, star in the first hit TV series focused on an Asian American family. To this day, Hudson still receives surprise hugs from people who grew up tuning into Fresh Off the Boat once a week, and wide-eyed stares from kids who have discovered it years later through TikTok clips and streaming reruns. The network that aired the show for six seasons, beginning in 2014? Disney's ABC, a decade before inclusion standards existed and before Maga was around to protest them. And that gives me optimism that Disney will keep doing what it has done so well for generations, regardless: give children from a wide array of backgrounds an answer – 'now and here' – to the question in Mulan's signature ballad: 'When will my reflection show who I am inside?'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FCC to investigate 'DEI discrimination' at Disney, ABC
March 29 (UPI) -- The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau has launched an investigation into hiring practices at Disney and ABC to ensure neither is violating equal employment opportunity regulations through "DEI discrimination." "I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employee opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of [diversity, equity and inclusion] discrimination," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday in a letter to Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger. The FCC investigation is to ensure Disney and ABC have ended "any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just in name," Carr said. He also wants to determine whether Disney's actions complied at all times with applicable FCC regulations, even if those actions have ended. "Disney started out a century ago as an iconic American company," Carr said. "For decades, Disney focused on churning out box office and programming successes," he continued. "But then, something changed. Disney has now been embroiled in rounds of controversy surrounding its DEI policies." Carr said "numerous reports" suggest Disney's leaders "went all-in on insidious forms of DEI discrimination" in a manner that "infected" the company's decision making. The Communications Act and FCC rules prohibit entities like Disney and ABC from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age or gender, Carr wrote. "I am concerned that ABC and its parent company have been or may still be promoting invidious formed of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations," he said. Carr said Disney in recent years prioritized DEI and "embedded explicit race- and gender-based criteria across its operations." Such practices include implementing "racially segregated affinity groups and spaces" and launching Disney's "Reimagine Tomorrow" initiative that Carr called a "mechanism for advancing its DEI mission." Carr also accuses ABC of imposing mandatory "inclusion standards" that require half of all regular and recurring characters to depict underrepresented groups and at least half of all writers, directors, crew and vendors be hired based on group identity. "It appears that executive bonuses may also have been tied to DEI 'performance,' and ABC has utilized race-based hiring databases and restricted fellowships to select demographic groups," Carr wrote. He said it is unclear if Disney and ABC have fundamentally changed their recent DEI-driven policies and if their past practices violated FCC regulations. Disney officials are reviewing Carr's letter, according to a prepared statement shared with the BBC. "We look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions," the statement said. ABC officials did not respond to a UPI request for comment on Saturday afternoon. The Trump administration has banned DEI practices within the federal government and is opposing discrimination among U.S. employers.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
FCC Targets Disney, ABC With Potential DEI Programs Probe
As the Trump administration campaigns against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the media and entertainment sector, FCC chair Brendan Carr has urged the agency's enforcement arm to open an investigation into Disney and ABC. Carr, in a letter to Disney chief executive Bob Iger released on Friday, said the probe will relate to whether Disney maintains discriminatory policies through racial quotas, among other things. He cited concerns the entertainment giant and ABC 'have been or may still be promoting invidious forms of DEI' in a manner that doesn't comply with FCC regulations, which bars discrimination on the basis of race or sex. More from The Hollywood Reporter Disney Names Tamotsu Hiiro New Japan Managing Director 'Snow White' Producer's Son Slams "Immature" Rachel Zegler: "Clearly Hurt the Film" Box Office: How 'Snow White' Landed in Potential Bomb Territory The move follows Disney earlier this year rolling back some of its DEI efforts in a bid to ensure that it doesn't wind up in the crosshairs of the government. This included scrubbing references to the 'Reimagine Tomorrow' initiative, which launched in 2021 with the purpose of amplifying underrepresented voices, and employee development programs and fellowships for underrepresented talent. 'Although your company recently made some changes to how it brands certain efforts, it is not clear that the underlying policies have changed in a fundamental manner — nor that past practices complied with relevant FCC regulations,' Carr wrote. In a statement, a Disney spokesperson said, 'We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission's letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions.' The letter points to reports detailing Disney's efforts to boost diversity in recent years. In at least one account, a company employee detailed the company's decision to launch 'racially-segregated affinity groups and spaces,' Carr says. Also at issue: mandatory inclusion standards requiring that at last half of regular and recurring characters come from underrepresented groups, as well as executive bonuses tied to meeting DEI goals. 'These standards may have forced racial and identity quotas into every level of production — demanding that '50% or more' or writers, directors, crew and vendors be selected based on group identity,' the letter states. That policy was targeted last year in a letter sent to Disney's top brass by America First Legal Foundation, a conservative group founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. It claimed that Disney maintains discriminatory hiring quotas, among other things that it said violate civil rights laws. For ABC, Carr says that the network's employment of race-based hiring databases and its decision to restrict fellowships to select groups may violate FCC rules. If an investigation is greenlit, Disney would become the latest of several companies across media and entertainment to be probed by the FCC. They include Paramount Global, whose pending merger with Skydance is being reviewed by the agency, over its handling of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris and Comcast, which was also accused by the FCC of maintaining illegal DEI policies. During his tenure as FCC chair, Carr has threatened to revoke broadcast licenses for stations owned by networks that've drawn the president's ire under the agency's authority to ensure that public airwaves operate in the public interest. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FCC Opens Investigation Into Disney for Going ‘All In' on DEI
After previously warning that he planned to investigate Disney and ABC over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the FCC has officially sent a letter to CEO Bob Iger inquiring about the matter. 'While Disney started as an iconic American company, it recently went all in on DEI,' chairman Brendan Carr wrote in a post on X sharing the letter. 'I am concerned that their DEI practices may violate FCC prohibitions on invidious forms of discrimination.' While acknowledging that Disney has recently walked some of its DEI programs, Carr's letter said that 'significant concerns remain' due to public reports and whistleblower documents that 'paint a disturbing picture' of the company's DEI practices. He cited at one account where a Disney employee described the company's decision to 'launch what would amount to racially-segregated affinity groups and spaces.' He also took aim at the company's 'Reimagine Tomorrow' initiative, which he said was a 'mechanism for advancing its DEI mission,' and ABC's inclusion standards, arguing that they 'may have forced racial and identity quotas into every level of production.' Additionally, he claimed executive bonuses may have been tied to DEI performance and that ABC utilized race-based hiring databases and restricted fellowships to select demographic groups. More to come… The post FCC Opens Investigation Into Disney for Going 'All In' on DEI appeared first on TheWrap.
