Disneyland: the Republican fantasy for America

I’m not a fan of Disney. I visited Disney World and was unimpressed. The Disney Cruise I took only solidified my dislike of the cruise ship industry. Most recently I visited Disneyland, and I’m still not sure why I bothered.

I spent about an hour in the park, an hour and a half max. I bought a ticket a few months in advance because VidCon has a Disney Day after the convention ends, and I wanted to have a ticket in case I knew anyone who was going. I didn’t get on any of the rides (because the lines were far too long for the couple I was interested in), so I walked around the park and took in the sights.

What did I observe? That Disneyland represents the America many Republicans wish they could achieve. Did that pique your interest? I hope so. Let’s run through the reasons I believe this to be so.

#1. Consumerist

The current form of capitalism that dominates our world relies heavily on consumerism. While there are reasons to believe this may be in the process of changing, with the response to the recession of 2008–2009 being one that focused on increasing the value of the stock market instead of helping grow consumer spending, consumerism is still a strong force in our capitalist economies, and we shouldn’t ignore the role Disney plays in perpetuating the consumerist mindset.

There’s a book that looks at this topic called The Mouse That Roared. It explores how, behind the façade of magic and whimsey, Disney is a corporation set on instilling consumerism in children from the youngest possible age. This becomes incredibly obvious when you enter a Disney park.

Those who visit Disney enter through Downtown Disney, its primary shopping district. I went into the main Disney store in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney. It had plushies, children’s toys, costumes, and similar items crammed as densely as possible, and everywhere there were children and parents running around picking up things they just had to have. Disney’s animated films and television shows help push this consumerism, because after creating the bond between children and the animated characters, they want to own the characters for themselves. In some cases, they want to be those characters.

Walking through Disneyland, the consumerist foundation of Disney becomes evermore apparent. There are shops everywhere, full of overpriced toys and branded junk. While there are rides, and they’re promoted as the reason to visit Disneyland, I’m positive their real boon is all the buying parents have to do inside the park. It’s designed to push people to buy more.

Republicans love the consumer addictions of our societies. They keep us trapped in a cycle of earning and purchasing, with little time to think about why we actually desire the things we purchase. Consumerism is oppressive, especially for those on the lower end of the income distribution. This leads us to the second point.

#2. Unequal

Disneyland is a fundamentally unequal environment. The poor can’t really access it. Not only is entry to the park expensive, but everything inside it has an inflated price.

Even for those who can access it, there’s a clear distinction between the experience of middle-class visitors, and rich visitors. The middle-class have the traditional experience of waiting in line to get on the rides, eating from the vendors, and maybe making a few consumerist purchases. Some may even get to stay on one of the cheaper resorts, but the experience of the rich is very different.

Disney provides VIP tours for those willing to pay. This includes private transportation from the resort to the park, the ability to skip lines, priority seating at Disney restaurants, reserved seating at its shows, among other perks. However, even for those not on a VIP tour, fast passes are available to skip lines, though some have even taken to “renting” handicapped guides to allow them to skip lines for an even cheaper price. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney,” said one rich mother.

With rising prices and a growing number of options for those able to pay big money for their Disney experience, Disney parks are increasingly becoming playgrounds of the one percent, pushing out the growing number of people who are struggling financially. It makes me think of the feudal past or even early capitalism, when there was a wider gap between rich and poor, but let’s not forget how Republicans love to romanticize those time periods.

#3. Fake

Disney parks are fake. They’re build on false ideas of magic and whimsy; of princesses, castles, and charming princes. They’re populated by fake environments, characters, and often even visitors. Why are so many unhappy in a land that we’re told is supposed to promote such joy?

They also create a romanticized ideal of a fake American past. All it takes is a walk down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom area of the various parks to see this on full display. Main Street is the American fiction all Republicans hold up as their ideal past. The one they want to return to; the one that never really existed.

Main Street is lined with little shops based on the various properties of Disney’s consumerist empire. Horse-drawn carriages go up and down the streets, bustling with people carrying their latest purchases. The image we’re presented is that they’re all happy nuclear families, but in fact we know they’re more likely to be sweaty, annoyed, and probably on the verge of an argument with their shouting kids who want more, more, more!

Let’s also not forget this fictional historical version of America Disney idealizes is also one with quite unequal gender relations, and vast gap between the rich and the poor.

Disney, as a company, promotes progressive values like LGBT rights and more equal gender relations, because society is changing and they can’t fall too far behind the views of the young people they’re trying to influence. However, entering the parks and looking around shows you where their real priorities lie.

Like Republicans, Disney wants an economy heavily dependent on consumerism, as they capture their customers from a very young age, and often strengthen that bond throughout their lives before using them as ambassadors for the next generation. Their parks are increasingly unequal, playgrounds only for those who can afford to spend. Why allow the poor to experience magic and whimsy if they can’t pay the inflated prices?

Probably most importantly, they idealize the same false historical image of America as Republicans. They want the image of America in the 1800s, when we’re falsely told there was greater freedom, yet the actions Republicans take are more likely to lead us to a society more like Disneyland, with the veneer of small town America, but where the whole town is actually owned by an oppressive corporation with more power than most countries.

Where will you live? Apple Place, Exxon Valley, the Toyota floating metropolis, Disneyland, or Foxconn City?

Disney desires the same society as Republicans: one that traps its residents in a cycle of consumerism, is built to serve those who can pay, and is based on a false construction of the past. Don’t believe me? Visit one of their parks, and look past the propaganda.