What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Disney “Cancelled” Tinker Bell?
This week, People on X, right-wing radio programs, and Disney fan blogs came together to form Voltron of Terror around one issue: Disney canceled beloved Disney icon Tinker Bell due to lack of awakening.
“Wokeness destroys everything. No wonder mental health is on the decline,” wrote X user Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW, in response to the news.
“Oh my god,” said political commentator and ghoul Tomi Lahren on Fox New Radio , “here comes another political correctness overload that is literally ruining everything innocent and fun.”
Ben Shapiro posted a video on YouTube entitled “Disney erases Tinker Bell l.” (I don’t know what exactly he said about Tinker Bell, because he starts his video with the announcement: “Two visions of Western society are currently being discussed…” and I had a stroke and died.)
But is everything innocent and fun literally destroyed, as it really is ? To get to the bottom of this, I did some investigative reporting by visiting the Disneyland website and learned that Bell had an appointment tomorrow at Pixie Hollow from 8:15 to 10:30 and 11:15 to 2:00. 30 pm. I also checked Snopes , the source for all fact checking.
Then no. Despite the mountain of innocent ones and zeros spent spreading this story online, Disney isn’t taking anything away from Tinker Bell. You can still stream Peter Pan on the Disney+ streaming service. You can still meet Tinker Bell at the Disney parks. She still adorns the title cards for Disney videos and is, in every sense, the mascot of the Disney corporation.
Why do people think Tinker Bell is cancelled?
The rumor has a long history. Back in 2022 , The New York Times published an article that addressed the vetting process that Disney uses for content that appears on the Disney+ streaming service. It quotes unnamed Disney executives as saying, “Tinker Bell has been given caution because she is ‘body conscious’ and jealous of Peter Pan’s attention,” and included her on a list of characters and content that are potentially problematic.
Fast forward to May 3, 2024, when the Disney WDW News blog published a story titled ” Tinker Bell ‘Meet and Greet’ Signs Removed from Town Square Theater.”
On May 7, TheStreet.com published an article saying , “Disney World has quietly banned one of its classic characters from holding meet-and-greets in the park.”
On May 9, some random person on Facebook posted (and then deleted) a fictitious quote from a “Disney executive,” and culture warriors had ample evidence.
If you put all these pieces together, filter them through the lens of paranoia, and squint really hard, you can see how this makes Tinker Bell Cancelled. (However, this all seems like a lot of work compared to “checking the Tinker Bell schedule on the Disneyland website.”)
Maybe Disney should cancel Tinker Bell
From what I know about Tinker Bell, she seems to be fine. I don’t think anyone has a problem with her (except when she drinks), but if she’s not okay, I hope Disney cancels her quickly. Cultural tastes change. Something may be innocent and harmless to one generation and completely unacceptable to the next. Adults (ideally) can put things into context and decide what is acceptable to them, but children cannot. So if Tinker Bell is encouraging little girls to worry about their bodies or something, I hope Disney takes her out of their park, writes disclaimers on her movies, and gently pushes her onto the ice floe. And I hope they do it quickly. While the company isn’t opposed to canceling events for cultural reasons, they’re certainly not in a hurry: There are still vestigial remnants of Song of the South in the Disney parks in 2024, and everyone has known the movie was racist since Adam Clayton Powell said this is in 1947. .
Even though The Disney Corporation is classified as an evil empire that preys on children, they are just a company trying to make money, so none of the editorial decisions they make regarding their intellectual property are decisive . This is just the gist.
For me personally this is a big disappointment. If I had my way, Disney would lead the cancel culture. I want them to cancel the creative bankruptcy of, for example, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then they should cancel things that don’t even make sense, like that little old man from Up , just because it would be funny.
Just do whatever, Disney. Cancel that $500 million Star Wars hotel (Oops. Too late.) Cancel credit card debt. Go crazy about this. But most of all, Disney, I want you to cancel everything that Tomi Lahren, Ben Shapiro and the like hold dear. Mickey, Minnie, all of them. I wish Disney would say it’s because talking animals might disturb PETA, or that Donald Duck without pants is too suggestive (I mean, it’s pretty sexy, not gonna lie). People on the right are always talking about boycotting Disney, but they never seem to stop showing up . Maybe this will be the push they need so they can stop standing in front of me in line at the Haunted Mansion.