From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 08:03:47 -0400

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NEWS YOU DIDN'T SEE ON TV

A commentary by Patricia Nell Warren                      
7/4/96

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CLAP YOUR HANDS FOR DISNEY
By Patricia Nell Warren

Once upon a time, I was a little kid booing the wicked Queen  in a small-town
theater, with all my friends from the town's staunchest Catholic and
Protestant  families.   I haven't forgotten those movie evenings, and I'll
bet that a lot of other Americans my age haven't forgotten, either.  We
cheered for Snow White.  We yelled for Mickey.  We cried buckets for Bambi.
Best of all, we clapped our hands and swore we believed in fairies, so
Tinkerbelle wouldn't die.

Today, the entertainment company that made seven generations of kids shriek
with delight is in big trouble. Extremist religious groups are attacking
Disney. These church folks say  that once upon a time Disney made movies for
the American family.  But today, they say, Disney has betrayed "family
values." 
   
The trouble is, the extremists aren't telling us the whole story. Their real
aim is to oppose any works of the imagination  that they believe have
"pagan," "satanic," "occult" content. Americans  who tracks the growth of
book-burning know that these groups are working hard to ban fairy tales,
novels, etc. that they deem "satanic". The American Booksellers Assn.'s
annual publication "Banned Books" documents the profile of themes that the
extremists want removed from American culture. Gosh, these people even hate
stories in which animals talk like humans.   Where does that leave Mickey?
Donald Duck?  Bambi et al?

If Walt Disney were to create Mickey Mouse now, in 1996,  the Southern
Baptists and their cohorts  would glower like the wicked Queen.  Probably
they'd say that Mickey is "blasphemous -- unnatural." "After all," they'd
thunder, "God gave the power of speech only to humans.  It's not natural for
animals to talk."   If Disney released <Snow White and the Seven Dwarves>
today, the Southern Baptists would accuse him  of going "morally astray" into
"pagan fairy tales and satanism."  Indeed, any beloved Disney classic with
fairies in it would be mincemeat today.   Flitting sprites  with magical
powers would definitely be interpreted by overheated believers  as a "hidden
agenda to seduce American children into  the homosexual lifestyle." Clap your
hands for Tinkerbelle today?  Not if you're an extremist believer.

In other words, when these animal-and-fairy-infested  films were originally
released  there was no national uproar.  Fifty years ago, such movies were
part and parcel of the "family values" of most conservative  Americans.
Like the ones I knew in the small town where I grew up.  Like my own family.
Even in those strait-laced times, Disney stood for the victory of
imagination.  Bigots have always tried to chain imagination, because -- like
democracy -- it works best only when freed.

So the Southern Baptists and their fellow travelers have got it all wrong
about those days of yore.   Disney's films haven't changed all  that
radically.  True,  the company didn't stick its neck out for  domestic
partners in those days -- but it always managed (however discreetly) to touch
its magic wand to themes and stories not found in the Bible.  No...what HAS
changed radically  is extreme-right-wing  religion in America -- its rise to
power, its naked ambition to control us all. 

At stake is not just the future of a corporation.  At stake is the survival
of imagination as a driving force of American culture.  At stake is  the
right to imagine.  Yes, there is a right to imagine, and no culture can stay
healthy without it.   If Disney goes down, it will be a dark day for anybody
else who messes with sparkle dust.  Let's hope that enough people clap their
hands for Disney. 

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Patricia Nell Warren is author of "The Front Runner" and other bestselling 
books about gay life.  Her publisher is Wildcat Press. 
 For information on her books, her web page can be found at
http://www.gaywired.com/wildcat/wildcat.htm

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Copyright (c) 1996 by Patricia Nell Warren. All Rights Reserved. 
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