wait, what's russia and china doing to disney???
People keep saying the reason there’s no gay stuff in Disney projects is because of Russia and China when I’m sure that plays a role but maybe…the mouse company is homophobic
corvussy
Disney's ban on same sex dancing in their theme parks lasted until 1985... and then conveniently only until after they (disney) lost a civil suit against two gay men who were kicked out the park for dancing together.
but yeah "foreign markets" are the reason why disneys allergic to making real lgbt characters and not a well documented history of carefully curating the disney brand as a xtian, "family friendly" movie company
ororomunroedontpullout
Yes thank you! To act like Disney doesn’t have a vested interest in maintaining a “family friendly” image as defined by white Christian standards is ridiculous
frankendykes-monster
There was that one incident where Love, Simon (2018) was removed from Disney+ (which is not available in Russia or China) for "not being family-friendly enough", but at the same time every episode of Family Guy is on the streaming service.
thefencebeetle
It’s definitely not about Russia though, Russia is a tiny market that is fairly pointless to pursue.
China on the other hand is gigantic, and it’s plainly obvious how more and more movies cater to the Chinese audience, beyond just traditionalist values.
China is a huge market for sure but overall when considering all Disney’s assets (theme parks, streaming services etc not just box offices)and their major money makers, the US and Europe outweighs that market by far. Also while they do consider the Chinese market (such as changing the live action Mulan because the animated version wasn’t well received there) to act like every business decision is to appease China is lowkey sinophobic. A prime example of this is the new Shang Chi movie where the star is actually being crapped on by Chinese people because audiences there don’t find him attractive. Will they recast him? Of course not. Or when Chinese audiences were ambivalent to Black Panther because of its predominantly Black cast.
Someone in the notes pointed out how Love Simon was taken off Disney+, a service not available in China or Russia, was done literally like two years ago with the “family values” excuse. The very specific idea that Disney can’t do any LGBTQ content because of China is just...not true.