It’s June 30 and hard to believe that our family’s Year Without Disney comes to an end today. Some parting thoughts about what we learned and what we’ll remember:
Unintended outcomes: It never occurred to me that writing about avoiding Disney was going to scare Disney sightings out of the woodwork. Don’t get me wrong — I appreciated everyone who wrote to me — but it kind of turned the Year Without Disney into the Year-With-More-Disney-Than-One-Person-Can-Possibly-Handle. Which, of course, wasn’t our intention. I am looking forward to not thinking about Disney.
Best discovery: Avatar: The Last Airbender. An absolute must-watch for your kids. Available on Netflix.
Weirdest discovery: The Disney-Kotex connection.
Worst discovery: Disney invading maternity wards. Ugh.
Lesson learned: Sometimes I really hate the Internet. I asked Michael to read threads like this for me — all 201 comments’ worth — because I have no stomach for it. Seems like so many internet dialogues turn into political rancor, and this was no exception. My question: What makes people so angry and hateful?
Something Disney did right: Placing Woody from Toy Story in a commercial for the “It Gets Better” Project.
Something Disney did right, sort of: My Twitter back and forth with Jim Fielding, @DisneyStorePrez. I should note that after this post, he followed up with another friendly tweet which I intended to link to here. However, it seems our discussion has been scrubbed from his Twitter feed altogether. Innnnteresting.
The alternatives: Non-Disney princess books. Non-Disney movies for kids. Non-Disney birthday parties.
What most ticked me off: Disney peddling its newly released movies through public libraries.
Coolest thing: Being featured in Adbusters.
The official count: We Disneyed twice during the year. The first was when C.L. was allowed to see Toy Story, the second when Michael mistakenly bought High School Musical-branded bread. Not bad.
What happens July 1? Well, not much is going to change. F.R. will probably turn on the most recent season of Lifetime’s Project Runway (in reruns) at 12:01 a.m. And yes, I’ll join her. C.L. has said that the first thing she’ll do is watch Bambi (huh?) and James and the Giant Peach. But that’s about it. There’s been no clamoring to indulge in all things Disney, as some critics had predicted. I think we’re all a little more turned off than when we began. I know I am.
The bottom line: I have to admit our year was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Granted, we rarely watch television so we were quite a few steps ahead of the game in that sense. The girls quickly adapted to the #NoDisney lifestyle and accepted that there were some things they’d have to do without for a while. This gave me hope and encouragement to get tougher with them on a few other fronts.
I stand by my concern about Disney’s reach. It really is everywhere, either explicitly or in the form of knock-off fairies and pink princesses. Hardly a day went by this year without some mention of Disney, in one way or another, and that awareness has been priceless. The girls are more able to draw a line between the appearance of a Disney image and the pressure to make an unnecessary purchase. F.R. recently commented, for example, “Who hasn’t Cars 2 partnered with!?” They’re also more aware of the assumptions made by Disney marketers and retailers. At a recent garage sale, C.L. was trying on a pair of black rollerblading gloves while the homeowner insisted she probably preferred something pink. When she didn’t respond, he continued to try to get her to say she’d prefer “sparkly” gloves. She finally told him, “I like black. I think it’s cool.”
I can’t think of any other corporation that has the same reach into our lives and into the fabric of our family culture.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our efforts and cheered us on, including: Naomi, Allison, Melissa, Anna from Massachusetts, deltaflute, Anna, Marina, Charles, Vanessa, Wondering Willa, Veronica, Rachelle, Krs, AEM, a different Anna, Ariah, Jeff Z, and Josh, Susan and Shara. Your kind comments and emails really helped keep us going. Because, believe me, there were many times when it would have been nice to say, “Oh, the hell with it.”
Now — who’s next? I’ve got a domain name I’m just dying to give away.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
How about a year without Nestle? or Monsanto!
It made me think a lot over this year about how much Disney is embedded into our culture. I appreciated your experiment, and think it caused a lot of us to be more thoughtful and intentional about what we expose our kids to, both knowingly and inadvertently. Thanks Lisa.
@Naomi, have at it. I’m done with vigilance for a while.
Thanks, Mary!