“Women are the best judges of anything we turn out. Their taste is very important. They are the theatergoers; they are the ones who drag the men in. If the women like it, to heck with the men.”
— Walt Disney
Walt Disney realized when he made movies for children, by extension, he was making movies for wives and mothers. Even back then, his movies were watered down and cutified versions of european fairytales, said cutification was very appealing to women. Still. that wasn't that much of a problem since the public saw them as another version of those fairytales and many parents used to read to their kids.
Slowly but surely, Disney became a household name, mothers mistook the high production values from the movies as a sign of them being educational material. In a couple of decades you had a generation of mothers nostalgic for Disney, gleefuly introducing their kids to Disney's world. His movies eclipsed the original fairytales thanks to the accesibility of VHS and DVDs
During the 80s you at least could argue his movies were family focused and had traditional values, this changed with the 90s Disney renaissance, you had girls like Jasmine, Ariel, Mulan and Bella, who were rewarded for being rebels and going against societal norms. You can argue the merits of portraying female characters with more agency, but there was an undeniable shift in focus at the company.
Disney was at its peak popularity during the renaissance, however, they'd eventually lose their grip on the boy market due to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon offerings resonating more with them. The killing blow to Disney's dominance would arrive in the form of Pokemon. Anime was anathema to Disney's business model, they couldn't offer anything to boys, the closest they got was distributing Ghibli films, but even those were aimed primarly at girls.
However, Disney knew the importance of the female market, they began producing cheap sitcoms aimed at tweens; Lizzy McGuire, Hannah Montana, That's So Raven, etc. There was no trace of traditional values left, those sitcoms were overtly indulgent in how the female protagonists were the center of the world and were full of platitudes about friendship, teamwork, tolerance, kindness, etc.
With the female demographic captured, they launched a nuke, the Jonas Brothers. Disney primed a generation of girls to like boybands, their boybands. At this point there was a whole generation of girls who grew up with disney sitcoms and boybands, who were used to thinking themselves as the center of the world, who cared about the vapid values Disney were using to mask their shows in order to hide they were basically selling sex to female teens. They were selling the embodiment of an illusion.
Disney tried to recapture some of the male demographic by buying Marvel, but they had forgotten how to appeal to them. You know how it goes, the MCU became shit, Star Wars became shit. But don't think of Captain Marvel, Rey or The Acolyte as things that just appeared one day, no, they are a direct result of emotionally stunted women, be it as the audience or producers. Disney keeps buying other companies, hoping to diversify their audience, they unintentionally keep giving crazy women more power because that's what they have.
Since those girls, now adult women don't care about having a family anymore, Disney has developed a symbiotic relationship with them. "Disney adults" is mostly a female thing. Pronouns and gender shit is mostly a women thing. Racial issues are a women thing. Single women, non mothers disproportionally skew liberal. Black women want to turn Ariel black because they are jealous they didn't get coddled up in the same way, they are jealous and feel entitled to the same veneration, that's the true face of "representation". Rachel Zegler is self centered and smug because she really believes she's that special. Wish fails because those women are so out of touch with reality they fundamentally misunderstand morality; someone who gatekeeps, who tells them 'no' is a de facto villain.
Just recently Disney realized they accidentally fucked up their business model. They are at a crossroad, they can't keep pandering to stunted women while trying to capture the kid demographic. Boys don't watch Win or Lose, boys don't watch the Owl House.
But it goes further than Disney, Disney isn't the only cause, but it's the most prominent player on what effectively amounts to the feminization of (pop) culture. It bleeds everywhere. Games, movies, music, comics, literature, tabletops. Women demand to be coddled up and validated. Women resent men media and want to claim it.
In summary:
*Disney injected themselves in european and american culture, effectively replacing them with their own brand of consumerism.
*Disney groomed a generation of emotionally stunted women who are used to being told how special they are and seeing the world with a black and white morality.
*Disney literally forgot how to appeal to boys/men, as consequence, every male IP they buy becomes prime grounds for liberal women claiming it as their own
*Women are the biggest spenders and corpos like Disney thrive on compuse/feelings driven purchases
On the subject of the real fairy tales, there we numerous stories of spoiled women, usually princesses that had to be humbled before they would be worth a damn. Had to sweep, and mop and get their egos checked. Then they could be married. Complete inverse of modern morality.
I find it funny how the Little Mermaid's lesson is basically: don't let the tingles fool you, don't throw your life away for a man you don't even know, while the Disney version is the oposite.
Also, there were wicked women in the original fairytales. The message is clear, other women might want to bring you down out of jealousy or pettiness, don't trust them blindly. Nowdays Disney movies are all about da sisterhood or women not actually being evil, just misunderstood
Based Hans Christian Anderson
We need that attitude back. Women's egos are out of control
Spoiled crazy anti-creative women know this, and they don't want to be humbled. Which is why Snow White became the strong female hero in her own movie (even making the dwarves clean their house while she dances around), why Mulan was a girl-boss before she even joined the army, why the Rings of Power had an insufferable protagonist with no character arc...why...well you get it.
I bought a very cool old book of Anderson's Fairy Tales, and the very first one "The Garden of Paradise" is pretty much about how sexual immorality causes a man to fall.
Gee I wonder why that's one of the fairy tales which didn't get adapted for pop culture?