Recently, Maria Zakharova and a number of Russian media outlets announced Disney's intention to increase the number of LGBT characters in its cartoons. Their share will supposedly be half of the total number of heroes. We checked whether the company promised this.
On March 31, 2022, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on her Telegram channel statedthat in Western countries no one cares about how their own children are mutilated there. She then quoted the following text from RT: “Disney found a “core problem”: too few LGBT characters in children's content. By the end of the year, it was decided to increase their share to 50%. The increase in the number of “inclusive” characters was announced by corporate representative Karey Burke, responsible for content policy, during the general meeting. One of her children is transgender, the other is pansexual.” RT, in turn, referred to the Daily Mail. Burke's words and the increase in the proportion of LGBT characters were also reported on the websites "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", Super.ru, News.ru, EADaily, "Peekaboo" And "Let's look", bloggers Roman Alekhin And Tatyana Storozheva, and also in public "News", "Radio Shame", "My Russia" And “Great Russia - this country cannot be defeated!”.
Let us separately mention two slightly different versions of the story. For example, according to the public "Anti-feminism and -LGBT", Burke said that "by the end of the year, Disney projects (and especially Disney+, the streaming service for children) will have a 50% increase in the number of LGBT characters." And Sandra Smith, Fox News Channel host, retold Burke's words as follows: "Disney executive wants 50% of all characters to be gay, otherwise they will be underrepresented. Now ask yourself if you think this reflects American society.”
March 28, 2022 took place large online meeting of Disney executives. Among many representatives of the corporation, the above-mentioned Karey Burke was present at it - president 20th Century Fox Television, incoming part of Disney General Entertainment Content. A couple of days later, a video of part of Burke’s speech was posted online, and RT just published a short excerpt on social networks. Only in the video there is no word about increasing the proportion of LGBT characters to 50%.
Post on Twitter published conservative activist and journalist Christopher F. Rufo. Previously he more than once spoke, which is “waging moral warfare against Disney,” and its goal is to destroy the company’s reputation and turn its customers against it. Also Rufo rejects critical race theory (a set of ideas proclaiming racism is an integral part of American history). In his tweet with the video, he captioned that Burke "wants at least 50% of the characters to be LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) and racial minorities." About LGBTQIA and racial minorities written and on the Daily Mail website, where they also posted Rufo’s video. However, in the video, Burke only mentions 50% once, and without context, it's not clear what she meant because you can't hear what question was asked in the recording. Below is our complete and almost literal translation of her words.
“I speak here as the mother of two queer children (yes, I have a transgender child and a pansexual child), and also as a boss. And this topic is very concerning to me because over the past couple of weeks I have heard so much from many of my colleagues in open forums, emails and phone conversations. And I feel a responsibility to speak not only for myself, but also for them... It lies with all of us. Last week we held an open forum at 20th Century Studios, which has produced some truly incredible, groundbreaking stories about the LGBTQIA community over the years. And one of our executives stood up and said, “In our content, only a small percentage of the main characters are queer.” And I thought: “What? This can’t happen!” But then I realized that it was true. There are many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, but there are still not enough of them in the main roles. There aren't enough stories where gay characters are just characters and where the plot doesn't revolve around their sexuality. This was a revelation for me. I can tell you that if this realization had not come, then I, as a boss, and my colleagues might not have focused on this. But now I will definitely pay more attention to this issue. I know that we will give everything. And I hope that we (damn, sorry, my 50% of tears are starting to fall) will not allow each other to turn back.”
Under Rufo's post you can find numerous comments with complaints and requests to say when in the video they talk about increasing the proportion of LGBT representatives and racial minorities to half the number of characters. In response to Rufo's criticism posted new tweet: “The Bulwark edition released an entire article calling my report that Disney “wants at least 50% of its characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities” a conspiracy theory. Although everything is right on the Disney website.” In addition to the text, the post contains link to the Disney Reimagine Tomorrow campaign, which included an online meeting, and a screenshot of the web page. “By 2022, 50% of major and supporting characters in Disney General Entertainment scripts will be from underrepresented groups,” the image reads. Please note that Disney General Entertainment Content include only television projects, and not only for children, but also for adults.
However, this screenshot was taken several months ago, and now the text on the site has been slightly changed. Now there it says the following: “We aim to inspire a more inclusive world by rethinking how we tell stories and who tells them. Our intention is to expand access and diversity in our industry by adopting inclusion standards across all Disney General Entertainment divisions and film studios by the end of 2022. Our goal is to increase representation on screen, behind the scenes, in advertising and beyond.” In this formulation, we are talking not only about TV projects, but also about films - for example, from the studios Marvel, Lucasfilm and Searchlight Pictures.
As an example given inclusiveness standards adopted by ABC Entertainment in September 2020. There, category A, consisting of five points, is responsible for on-screen representation. Item A1 states: “50% or more of the main and supporting characters must be from underrepresented groups.” At the same time, in order to meet the Group A standard, you must fulfill at least three of the five points.
The big question remains: Who does Disney consider an "underrepresented group"? To answer we go back to the official website company and read that “historically underrepresented and protected communities include Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous Americans, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, veterans and women.”
Thus, Disney's original statement expressed the company's desire to increase the proportion of characters from underrepresented groups to 50%, including not only sexual minorities, but also diverse peoples, people with disabilities, veterans and women. Then, on the Internet, this was reduced only to representatives of LGBT people and racial minorities, and as a result, in some posts and media, only mention of the LGBT community was left.
Cover photo: @disney (Twitter)
Mostly not true
- Is it true that the official Harry Potter series will feature non-binary and transgender actors?
- Is the selection of erotic and vulgar scenes in Disney cartoons true?
- Is it true that 108 Disney employees were arrested in the United States on suspicion of pedophilia and human trafficking?
- Is it true that Disney offered Johnny Depp $301 million to star in the new Pirates of the Caribbean?
- Is it true that Tom Holland supported the idea of making his Spider-Man gay?
- The fictional world of Gek publics (VMGP)
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