Disney CEO Bob Chapek's Big Mistake
Disney CEO Bob Chapek's Big Mistake
A job that let's you pretend to be mice, dogs, ducks, princes and princesses isn't enough??
Well, these days it’s not enough that you have a job where you can pretend to be mice, dogs, ducks, princes and princesses. It’s not enough that you can be an “Imagineer” - a type of whimsical engineer, I suppose, (although I’m not sure I need a whole lot of whimsy in the engineering - imagineering? - of rides that take you hundreds of feet off the ground and rocket you along tracks, or drop you, or spin you around, etc., etc.).
But, no: Today, you have to be able to demand “respect” and “acknowledgment” for your self-described identity - regardless what it is or its placement on the scale of “Shit That Matters” (STM) to the general populace. Encroaching WWIII? Yah - some STM there and high on the STM scale. Gas prices? High residency within STM. Covid? Hah! Might’a got you on that one. Registers like the flu. Got it; got over it.
I’m not saying that people’s identities never matter. I just don’t get the situation at Disney (and many, many other places).
Well, here’s Disney’s current CEO - he does everything but cry and wring a handkerchief here:
I've always viewed Disneyland and Disneyworld as disgusting, bizarre, places (regardless of any particular decade or stances on social issues). Adults/teens in giant mouse, duck, dog, etc. costumes dancing around... princes and princesses... gack.
Small kids experience the same wonderment at the zoo - take them to a petting zoo. Take them to a museum to see dinosaurs. Take them to music lessons, second language lessons - do anything with their time and your money but to go to a Disney park. If you must go to an amusement park, go to one that simply provides simple amusement - absent politicking. Roller coasters and merry-go-rounds abound.
I'm not anti-LGBTQIA+. I legitimately, sincerely, wonder where the lettering will stop – seriously. There is now acknowledgment for Astro-sexuals – people sexually attracted to planets, stars, and other heavenly bodies. (I do confess a certain affinity for the Woman In The Moon - it is not a man! Stop saying Man In The Moon… please!). But in a more serious vein, anyone who has read my book, The Grim Grind of Life, knows a bit about my experiences as a Bohemian Libertarian vis-à-vis alternate lifestyles (or, if you prefer, the nuances to mainstream lifestyles). My fictional PI, Jack Trey, and his experience inside the Bend South club, should give me a bit of qualification for sympathetic views.
I just don't need people shoving their "identities" and sensitivities in my face any more than I need malodorous perfume gagging me or 3-inch fake eyelashes threatening my own vision (talk about a legitimate need for "social-distancing"!).
You know this "Don't be so white" theme sprayed around by BLM? How about "Don't be so gay"? - in other words, turn your brights down when another vehicle (person) is coming toward you. We don't need to be blinded with this stuff 24x7.
Gosh. Golly. Thanks. Thanks awfully much.
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David Scott Strain is a U.S. Army veteran (HQ, 500th Military Intelligence Brigade [Japan]; 1st Personnel Command [1st PERSCOM, Europe]; Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans [ODCSOPS, Pentagon], more) and a retired Fortune500 I.T. executive (Young & Rubicam, Inc., DC-NY; Burson-Marsteller, LLC, DC-NY; ShuffleLabs, Inc., Virginia, more) as well as employment at major non-profits (Nat’l. Food Processors Assoc., N. VA [now GMA]; Water Environment Federation, N. VA, more); as well as TS contract work for clients. Mr. Strain has passed three FBI background checks in association with his work. He is also the author of the novel THE GRIM GRIND OF LIFE: A PI’s strange bounces through a surfeit of eateries, juke joints, and dark doorways. Prior, he authored the MBA-text I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium (UofW, UofMD, more than a dozen others). Books and expanded bio are available on Amazon.