What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Did Disney 'Cancel' Tinker Bell?

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This week, the agendas of people on X, right wing radio programs, and Disney fan blogs came together to form a Voltron of awfulness around a single issue: Disney canceling beloved Disney icon Tinker Bell for lack of wokeness.

"Woke destroys everything. No wonder mental health is declining," X user Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW posted in reaction to the news.

"Oh geez," political commentator/ghoul Tomi Lahren said on Fox New Radio, "here we go again with the political correctness overload that is literally ruining everything innocent and fun."

Ben Shapiro posted a YouTube video entitled "Disney Erases Tinker Bell." (I don't know what he said about Tinker Bell specifically because he starts his video by announcing, "There are two visions of Western society that are currently on the table—" and I had a stroke and died.)

But is everything innocent and fun being literally ruined, like really? To get to the truth, I did an investigative journalism by visiting Disneyland's website and learned that Bell is scheduled for a meet-and-greet at Pixie Hollow tomorrow between 8:15 AM to 10:30 AM and 11:15 AM to 2:30 PM. I also checked Snopes, the source for all fact-checking.

So no. Despite the mountain of innocent ones and zeroes that being wasted to spread this story over the internet, Disney is not removing Tinker Bell from anything. You can still stream Peter Pan from the Disney+ streaming service. You can still meet Tinker Bell at Disney parks. She's still spreading glitter on the intros to Disney videos and is, in every way, functioning as mascot for the Disney corporation.

Why do people think Tinker Bell is canceled?

The rumor has a history that goes back years. Back in 2022, The New York Times posted an article that touched on the review process Disney uses for content that appears on Disney+ streaming service. It quotes unnamed Disney executives as saying, "Tinker Bell was marked for caution because she is 'body conscious' and jealous of Peter Pan's attention," and including her in a list of characters and content that are potentially problematic.

Fast forward to May 3, 2024, when Disney blog WDW News posted a story entitled "Tinker Bell Meet & Greet Signs Removed from Town Square Theater."

On May 7, TheStreet.com posted an article that states, "Disney World has quietly axed one of its classic characters from doing meet-and-greets at the park."

On May 9, some rando on Facebook posted (then deleted) a made-up quote from a "Disney executive," and the culture warriors had enough evidence.

If you put all these pieces together, filter it through a lens of paranoia and squint hard, you can kind of see how it adds up to "Tinker Bell is canceled." (All of that seems like a lot of work compared to "checking Disney Land's website for Tinker Bell's schedule," though.)

Maybe Disney should cancel Tinker Bell

For as much as I know about Tinker Bell, she seems fine. I don't think anyone has a problem with her (except when she drinks), but if she isn't fine, I hope Disney cancels her quickly. Cultural tastes changes. Something can be innocent and harmless to one generation and totally unacceptable to the next. Adults (ideally) can put things into context and decide what's acceptable for themselves, but kids can't. So if Tinker Bell is encouraging little girls to feel bad about their bodies or something, I'd hope Disney would de-center her from their park, put disclaimers on her movies, and gently push her onto an ice floe. And I hope they'd do it quickly. While the company isn't against cancelling things for cultural reasons, they sure take their time: There are still vestigial Song of the South remnants in Disney parks in 2024, and everyone has known that movie was racist since Adam Clayton Powell said so in 1947.

Despite categorizations of it as an evil empire preying on children, The Disney Corporation is just a company trying to make money, so there's no teeth behind any of the editorial decisions they make about their intellectual property. It's just the bottom line.

This is a great disappointment to me, personally. If I had my wish, Disney would be the leading the charge of cancel culture. I want them to cancel things that are creatively bankrupt, like 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 dollar Star Wars hotel (Oops. Too late.) Cancel my credit card debt. Go nuts with it. But most of all, Disney, I want you to cancel everything that Tomi Lahren and Ben Shapiro and their ilk hold dear. Mickey, Minnie, all of 'em. I want Disney to say it's because talking animals might disturb PETA, or that Donald Duck not wearing pants is too sexually suggestive (I mean, it's pretty hot, not gonna lie). Right-wing people are always talking about boycotting Disney, but they never seem to stop showing up. Maybe that would be the push they need, so they can stop being in front of me in line at the Haunted Mansion.