Disney Mirrors American Culture Last fall, the Walt Disney Company did something rare: It admitted defeat in its fight to build a history theme park in Virginia. The park was going to be called “Disney's America." Some people might be wondering, however, if Disney lost the battle but won the war, as it seems everyone is living in Disney’s America these days. With its purchase of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. last month, the company founded by Walter Elias Disney in 1923 deepened its claim on American culture. In fact, it would be hard to find another company so widely respected—even loved—by Americans. Americans rush out to see Disney films, and then replay them—on videotapes; they read Disney books to their children; they watch Disney shows on Disney TV; they make trips to Disneyland and Disney World, where they stay in Disney hotels and eat Disney food; Americans buy Disney products at Disney stores, and listen to Disney records of Disney songs. The world of Disney is becoming anything but small. All this makes some people more than a little upset. Harold Bloom, a professor at Yale University, provides an examination of the cultural history of Western society. “At the end of this road lies cultural uniformity of the worst kind. It’s just terrible.” This is becoming a popular opinion in universities around the world. “Disney products,” said Paul Fussell, a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, “have always seemed to me seriously sub-adult.” Those who oppose Disney (and there are many) see its films and by-products as sexist, racist and as simpler, cheered-up accounts of American history and folklore. “There’s a kind of protection at work here,” said Henry Giroux, a professor at Penn State University. Like all those opposed to Disney, he can list, in detail, Disney’s many crimes against culture: he is very angry, for example, about the treatment of American Indians in Pocahontas. “I mean, the entire history of what happened to the Indians, which some people would call the murder of their people, is sort of played out as a love story,” he said angrily. Giroux said he believes that Disney has become a basic educator of America’s children, most of whom will be able to perform every word of The Lion King long before they even learn US President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address. However, even the most strongly opposed are quick to note that Disney has many positive values—cheerfulness, good-hearted fun, and a tradition of artistic quality—that help explain its success. Critical or not, most of those who oppose the company are Disney customers themselves.