getting down with the mouse

in defence of Disney adults

This essay was written by one of my fave writers and thinkers, Sacha Judd. You might know her as SYSCA’s Chief Harry Styles Correspondent and generally excellent contributor, and I’m telling you now, you’re being CRAZY if you don’t already subscribe to her newsy, What You Love Matters 𓆩♡𓆪

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Getting down with the mouse

I was obsessed with Disneyland long before I ever got to go to the Magic Kingdom, mostly because it was so completely out of reach. We definitely did not have enough money for international travel when I was a child, and I was 19 before I first went to Anaheim on a wet day when pretty much all the rides were closed. I loved it.

When Alex finished her oral defence of her PhD at Oxford, we went to Paris to celebrate — seeing Madonna in concert and hitting up Euro Disney the next day (a trip that mystified the dons of her Senior Common Room). Last year, we managed to recreate the magic at Hong Kong Disney:

we look exactly the same

I wouldn’t describe myself as a Disney Adult — I’ve only been to the parks on these three trips — but I’m completely fascinated by the people who are and the reactions they engender in others.

In 2022, Rolling Stone called Disney Adults “the most hated group on the internet”, which is a pretty bold claim:

On the internet, however, being a Disney adult is nothing short of an embarrassment. A Disney adult is someone who lives and breathes the brand, buying limited-edition mouse ears and popcorn buckets and branded fitness trackers the moment they drop, constantly posting free advertisements for the park in the form of Cinderella’s Castle and Purple Wall selfies (so named for the violently mauve wall in Tomorrowland) whilst wearing rose-gold mouse ears. 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, suspended in a state of permanent adolescence, raised on a diet of wasp-waisted princesses and talking-animal sidekicks and dancing candelabras, refusing to acknowledge the grim reality that dreams really don’t come true.

This article talks to the awesome Amanda Brennan about the origins of all this backlash, and as ever it’s rooted in calling things that (predominantly) women love “cringe”.

Brennan says. “It’s emotion-driven — with these fans, there’s so much emotion wrapped up in all of this, so it’s perceived as a very feminine activity. And there’s still an element of female fandom that is looked down on in a certain way.”

She also points to the mainstream crossover being when people first learned about Disneybounding.

This term is attributed to Leslie Kay, who created a Tumblr back in 2011 to showcase outfits that adults could wear to Disney parks that nodded to their favourite characters without being explicitly a costume. People over the age of 14 are not allowed to wear costumes to a park so as not to confuse guests about who is an official character and who’s not.

posts from @thedisneybound

I have huge respect for cosplayers in general, but I particularly love this subtle version, which relies on colour palettes and accessories as context clues. There’s also, as ever, something so joyful about it:

I am not, and never have been, a person for whom joy really comes in consistent supply. But at Disney, it’s nothing less than an IV in my arm. Even the meticulous planning of the daily schedule gives me more of a sense of satisfaction than I feel in my everyday life. And considering how hard joy is for me to come by, I feel no need to apologize for that…
“There’s an expectation for Disney adults of what kinds of feelings they should have in the park,” he says. “People who think Disney is only for kids, they’re not thinking of how our sense of joy can evolve over time. And I think there’s an element of jealousy toward the Disney adult, that they are able to live so freely.”

Like all fandoms, at its heart it’s about community:

Tiara Henderson, a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom in Houston, says she has found a community among fellow Disneybounders after once feeling like she was “the weird quirky Black girl who likes Disney.”
As a plus-size bounder, she has drawn inspiration and gotten tips from others, and was recently featured in a fan magazine for her look as Scar from “The Lion King.”
“If you love Disney and Disneybounding and you feel like you’re not going to fit in, you probably just haven’t looked,” she said. “I’ve never felt more included probably in my life as I have the last three years.”

Did you know Disney Adults commonly shelter from hurricanes at the park in Florida?! This was something I learned from Tiktok during Hurricane Milton. Disney is pretty safe, designed to withstand the storms, and a dedicated Rideout Crew of staff volunteer to stay on throughout.

Kat Tenbarge wrote a great piece about the relationship between Disney and Disney Adults for her new independent Spitfire News (paywalled, but you should support her if you can). It’s about the tension surrounding the opening of a new Disney Resort in Abu Dhabi, which has met with pretty intense negativity within fandom:

At the end of the day, Disney Adults return to the parks because it feels like an escape from the world outside. If you can’t stop thinking about modern-day slavery when you look at Mickey Mouse, the company has a huge problem.

Not all Disney Adults are charming, however. You’ll want to set aside time and a glass of wine to enjoy this long, unhinged story of the Andersons, who sued Disney over kicking them out of the exclusive Club 33 (a private members club within the park) and lost.

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Luce note: I took Sacha’s advice and set aside some time to read that story about the Andersons and oh my god they are assholes. You should read it.