EJ Dickson admits he is what many would consider a "Disney adult." He likes taking his family to the parks, and he's seen all the movies. And, yes, he is well aware of the disdain directed at people like him, as he explains in a piece at Rolling Stone. "To declare oneself a Disney fan in adulthood is to profess to being nothing less than an uncritical bubblehead ensconced in one’s own privilege," he writes. It is, in the eyes of the internet, an "embarrassment." But why? Dickson (who interviews academics and pop-culture experts) tracks the history of the ridicule, noting that articles with headlines such as "9 Things to Never Say to an Adult Disney Fan" began surfacing in 2014. Momentum has grown since, with the phrase "Disney adult" coming into play in 2020, thanks to a mocking Reddit thread headlined “Disney adults are worse than any other ‘cringe’ group of people.”
Dickson suggests the critics are simplifying things, failing to recognize that "this emotionality might be more complex than simply worshiping a cartoon mouse." A big defender in the piece is Jodi Eichler-Levine, professor of religious studies at Lehigh University. "When we pathologize these people, we are calling normal joy and grief and the human experience something that is diseased," she says. Adult Disney fandom is “a place where meaning and ritual and capitalism all come together, just like MLB, just like Star Trek," she adds. "Name your fandom.” Dickson's article runs through all of this, noting that the much of the vitriol is often directed at childless female millennials, or at people who go to Disney to celebrate major life events. As for himself, Dickson writes that joy can be hard to find in the world, but "at Disney, it’s nothing less than an IV in my arm." (Read the full piece.)
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