Erasing Tinker Bell and Your Heroes

Disney has been gradually phasing out the classic character, Tinker Bell. She has now even been removed from the park, because she displays an “unrealistic body image” and is “jealous of Peter Pan’s attention”. The latter is said to be problematic because that’s indicative of her seeking male attention.

Disney characters were once designed to be both entertaining for children and wholesome. Now, they must fit a very different moral framework, as we enter an age that repudiates the Christian worldview.

Tinker Bell in the 1953 animated film, Peter Pan

Tinker Bell first appeared in the 1953 animated film by Disney, Peter Pan. In it, she has a classic hourglass female figure. She’s slim but not anorexic. She has feminine hips that our male transgender actors are having trouble attaining. She was modeled after Margaret Kerry, who also had a healthy frame.

But therein lies at least part of the issue—it’s verboten now to use phrases like “healthy frame”. That would suggest that the obese are unhealthy, which of course they are, and cast judgment on such self-destructive lifestyle choices.

Tinker Bell with the woman she was modeled after, Margaret Kerry

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that the entertainment industry does have a history of promoting women who were so thin as to require models to have eating disorders. That’s still a problem in some circles, but it is far less common. Now we have the opposite extreme—the promotion of women who are undeniably unhealthy, as exemplified by the notorious Gatorade advertisement, and the marginalization of women who look healthy and fit. There’s a push to eliminate the very idea of a healthy body, and promote a kind of celebration of obesity.

From a modern Gatorade advertisement, portraying obesity as the model of health.

Tinker Bell, for her part, is not supposed to be human at all. She’s a sassy, expressive fairy that introduced many lighthearted scenes in the Peter Pan movies.

Disney began an extensive review of its library in 2019 as it prepared to introduce its catalog via online streaming through Disney Plus. They called that initiative “Stories Matter”, which added warning labels to everything from The Muppet Show to Dumbo. That’s when Tinker Bell was marked for caution and it was noted that Captain Hook could “expose Disney to accusations of discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities because he is a villain”.

One thing that Disney understands is that who children see to be heroes and villains affects them. Truthfully, it affects all of us. (There is an argument to be made that adults are lacking heroes, which has led to the emergence of superhero movies that are geared toward them. But that’s a topic for another time.)

The heroes of a society mean something. They are our moral compass points; they are the stars we steer by. We can't help but have heroes. As a visual and imaginative species, we need the stories of heroism that unite us and that call us to be better than we are. But what about when the heroes are less than we are? What if those presented to us as heroes don't point us to where we could and should be? What if those presented to us for admiration and emulation point us to places that we should not aspire to? What if the uniting values presented by these heroes aren't values at all? This is the morally warped context that new-and-improved Disney is offering to us and our children. The ‘heroes’ presented to children are becoming ethnically-ambiguous lesbians who are fighting the patriarchal system of oppression. We should not be surprised that the new Disney is offering us dystopian avatars for their impossible utopias. What else could they offer, as they have consciously and proudly renounced the values that define Christian family and moral life?

Our current problem is analogous to living as a Christian in Rome during the last days of Galerius. Christians are tolerated, but pagans are given preference. The symbols of the pagan gods abound. Sacrifices are made to them on public altars. Bath houses, pederasty, and deviance are taken for granted. The Christians of the era had to reject most of the culture that surrounded them. We must do the same.

The main difference is that in pagan Rome, the alternative religions were clearly stated as such. It was more clear that their sacrifices were religious in nature. Now, there is a desire to couch pagan ritualism under the guise of an ever-expanding, "tolerant" secularism. The drag show might not be labeled as the worship of Pan, but it doesn't need to be for us to recognize its true nature. They don't need to cite Moloch in their fervent defense of abortion for us to recognize and reject the practice for what it is.

As Disney and others work to create an inverse value system for young minds, the faithful must protect children from it, and ensure that their young are familiar with real heroes and sacrifices, which paved the way for an unparalleled—and, yes, let's admit it—distinctively Christian culture to develop.