As a Central Florida native with the attendant love-hate relationship (mostly hate...) with all things Disney, I recently had an opportunity to think about Disney's role in our political culture.
I live about 10 miles from the Disney resort area in Orlando. I've been to the theme parks more times than I care to remember (though I've never paid admission because many of my friends are "cast members.") My wife and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary this week, but I will be away at a conference. So last night we took the opportunity to stay at a Disney resort and go to EPCOT this morning.
What follows are my reflections on the politics of Disney. Feel free to take the poll and add your views, as well.
Most people I know either love Disney or they hate it. Around here, we love Disney for putting Central Florida on the map, providing tens of thousands of jobs for our neighbors, and giving us a fun place to go that's only 10 miles away! We hate Disney because it generates insane amounts of traffic, robbed us of our quiet, small-town way of life, and contributes to our relatively low wage and tax base.
Growing up, I never knew that Disney was controversial. It was just there.
The first "political" controversy I was aware of had to do with Disney's policy of extending employee benefits to domestic partners of gay employees. This unleashed a boycott in the late 1990s, led by the Southern Baptist Convention. When I left home to attend a Baptist college in 1999, I was shocked to learn that many of the fundies there absoultely loathed Disney, on supposedly "moral" grounds. This surprised me, because our local ABC affiliate (Disney owned) aired services of a local Baptist church for years. In fact, the president of the Walt Disney Resort Corporation is an active Baptist layman in my town. So the whole Baptist boycott seemed rather unfortunate to me.
I do know a few people who think Disney, especially its television and film division, is immoral and contributes to our permissive, violent, and pornographic culture. On the other hand, Disney is one of the biggest employers of homosexuals in my community, something for which the gay community is quite thankful.
I honestly don't know much about the political motivations of top Disney executives. Today, I saw for the first time the "Universe of Energy" exhibit at EPCOT. The experience featured Ellen Degeneres, which may be controversial in some circles, and discussed in a general way many of the energy options we have for the future. There was obviously a deliberate attempt to make it as non-ideological as possible. When Bill Nye the Science Guy was discussing the origin of the universe, he used the caveat, "Many scientists believe..." Care was taken when discussing global warming and nuclear energy. In summary, "Universe of Energy" is intentionally nonpartisan.
Each year at Christmas, I look forward to attending an event at EPCOT, the Candlelight Processional. This features religious and nonreligious Christmas music, and includes a celebrity who reads the birth narrative from Luke 2 and then a brief reading called "One Solitary Life". The music is explicitly religious, but the way the program is introduced is deliberately "secular." Not that this is inappropriate, it's just my observation.
I could go on and on with examples. There are no unions that I know of (except musicians), but many "cast members" feel the wages and benefits are competitive. Their management of massive holdings has disturbed the ecosystem somewhat, but there is plenty of native foliage left and some sincere efforts at conservation.
My analysis is amateur at best, and I don't feel strongly either way. But I am convinced that Disney is neither a model corporation nor an evil one. I suspect they're just out to make a buck, and remaining neutral politically minimizes the number of people they'll drive away.
What are your thoughts? And what evidence do you have to back them up?
