Cowardice

I am a small person. Not physically, but in the general scheme of things. No matter how big this site gets, I will still be pretty much a nobody. I matter to my friends, and my readers, and my family, but I’m never going to have the influence of, say, Roger Ebert in his prime. My words might persuade a few people, but I can’t even get various of my friends to watch Candleshoe. I do believe that enough nobodies added up can and do change the world, but I’m also too mentally ill to be the leader of a movement. I’m one of the millions of stressed people, and we can try to stand tall. And remember who is standing beside us.

In the 1930s, the studios were faced with a choice. They had to face the rise of fascism and decide if German markets were more important to them than human lives. The comics industry made a choice—Captain America started out punching Nazis, after all. For the most part, though, the studios made the wrong choice. Actually, I don’t blame Disney in that one—the kind things the studio was releasing in the ‘30s wasn’t exactly conducive to a strong anti-fascist message, and while it wasn’t exactly supportive of minorities, the years before the war were still primarily in Disney’s Funny Animal Cartoon days; only two features were released before the US entered World War II.

Disney is making a choice now. Canceling Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, one of their most interesting programs and one strongly featuring black voices, was a bad choice to begin with, but the word is that they have pulled an episode wherein the character of Brooklyn comes out as trans and faces consequences for it, including the attempt to remove her from a sports team. The episode is apparently on YouTube, but all this dropped in my writing time, so I’m admittedly relying on summaries. Still, it seems those who are trying to keep her out of sports are shown to be explicit villains in the show.

That is a stand that we at Media Magpies are comfortable making. If you don’t stand with trans people, if you stand against them, you’re the one in the wrong. Which means that, by dropping the episode—according to people who worked on it specifically because of the political climate and the results of the election—Disney is in the wrong. They should support voice actress Indya Moore and the rest of the Moon Girl creators by releasing the episode. They should fight Trump the way they’ve fought DeSantis. Pulling the episode won’t stop conservatives from thinking they’re grooming kids; it is just an act of cowardice.

Word is now also sneaking out that they have forced Rachel Zegler to apologize for her declaration of anger and frustration. It’s not exactly hard to understand why the daughter of a Colombian mother might feel dismay over the election results; immigrants, children of immigrants, and even grandchildren of immigrants are afraid of being deported, many to countries they’ve never even visited. The rhetoric is scary for anyone in a minority population, be it ethnic, religious, gender/sexuality, or any other. Apparently not scary enough, given the number of people who I guess thought they didn’t mean it, but if you’re paying attention, it’s there. Zegler won’t know peace for at least four years; why should those who have created the situation?

Movies are more than just mindless escapism. Girls who saw Halle Bailey as a Disney princess who looked like them—who saw Lunella Lafayette as a superhero who looked like them—had reason to be proud of Disney and their works. My daughter looks like a perfectly normal Disney princess, and I was proud, too; just because my daughter is white doesn’t mean that I wasn’t proud to see her fall in love with Tiana and Moana and Mirabel. I quote Ebert on “the empathy machine” all the time, and for good reason. That episode would have not just helped girls who are realizing that they are, in fact, girls feel seen but would have helped kids realize that there’s nothing wrong and scary about that. Which is of course why conservatives want it pulled.

Today, right now, the studios have a choice. Do they keep using the Empathy Machine to show people the lives of those they might not be familiar with and remind them that we are all human? Or do they fold, and let those of us who still care be swept away? I am a small person, and I am using my voice to beg Disney to stand beside us. Remember that those who remember 1930s Hollywood remember the cowardice of the studios; remember that those of us who remember the history of Marvel remember Jack Kirby going out to the street. And remember that those who threatened him ran away. Be Jack Kirby, not Jack Warner.