Nails and lips glitter, the crown sits perfectly. The dream of strolling around as a princess in a puffy tulle dress for a day is made come true by good fairies – of course, how could it be otherwise – in the Disney theme parks. Parents pay $200 for a 60-minute makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, located in Florida’s Magic Kingdom Park just behind Cinderella Castle. Wave the magic wand just once and hey presto, this is how Disney advertises it on its website“the trainees of our fairy godmother will pamper and dress up your child until it looks stunning like in a picture book”.
The message conveyed to the three to twelve-year-old children is that if you want to be beautiful, you have to dress up. And to look stunning, you need makeup and hairspray. But that’s not the only problem. The concept, which is brimming with gender clichés – girls dress up as princesses, boys as knights – is rounded off by the fact that until now only women were allowed to work in the salons.
So far, only women were desired as fairies
Well, oh dear, the fairy godmother is threatened with Disney’s end: Disney World simply renames the “Fairy Godmothers in Training” to “Fairy Godmother’s Apprentices”, i.e. the good fairy’s apprentices. New name, same job. A Disney spokesman told CNN, so men can also work in the boutique. So far, these were not wanted as fairies. The company sees a change of image in the gender-neutral concept of apprentices. But is a mere name change enough to improve diversity within a company?
As early as last year, Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of the Disney Parks, in a blog post transforming theme parks to take a more inclusive approach, modernizing park values and relaxing employee appearance guidelines. The actors should be given greater flexibility with regard to “forms of personal expression”: hairstyles, jewellery, nails and costumes can now be selected regardless of gender. Even tattoos in an appropriate form are now allowed. D’Amaro describes the theme parks as “a place where everyone is welcome”. The goal is “to enable the performers to better express their culture and individuality at work.” According to media reports Recently, the way the audience was greeted at a fireworks show was changed from “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” to “Good evening, dreamers of all ages.”
A “silent majority” is supposed to reject the renaming
But the abolition of the fairy godmother is now causing a controversial debate in the USA. The “silent majority” of his colleagues reject the renaming, claims Disney employee Jose Castillo in an interview the American news channel Fox News. Currently running for Congress as a Republican in Florida, Castillo worries that the Disney theme parks could degenerate into a world of political correctness and indoctrination. Meanwhile, more liberal circles have embraced the company’s drive to become more diverse and inclusive.
Whether the renaming actually attracts more male fairies, or correctly formulated fairies’ apprentices, will only become apparent in late summer. Due to the pandemic, the Bibbidi Bobbidi boutiques will not open until the end of August. In any case, parents would like to see more girls dressed up as knights. It only costs $20.