LIZZO V. DISNEY: How One Learned From Past Mistakes And The Other Never Will

If woke culture offers judgment without redemption, it’s almost an act of rebellion to cheer on an icon from the ‘other side’ when they learn from a mistake and get something right.

Two stories this weekend offer an opportunity for the political right to better navigate that difficult path of holding moral principles while also leaving an invitation to the path of redemption.

With Disney and Lizzo, we see two very vocal and bellicose icons of movements on the political left, not merely believing toxic ideas, but proudly and loudly insisting others should share in embracing them… to the point of being hostile to anyone who did not bend the knee to their worldview.

News from this weekend gives us an opportunity to revisit that fork in the road, and see how those choices have played out.

First, Disney.

For decades, now, the soulless husk of the grand vision of its namesake has been looking for every opportunity to not only abandon the family-friendly values of its progenitor, but to declare war upon them.

Here’s a quote from an LGBT source in early 2024 cheering Disney’s announcement to double down on the woke agenda (in this case, the LGBT flavor of it) rather than responding to parental petitions to leave the gender questions out of the kids shows.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek when intervened by LGBTQ+ activist said that the company will focus on increasing LGBTQ characters and stories.
Chapek said that Disney strongly believes in reflecting the creative content to the majority of audience and that they will have an increased commitment to move forward with the implementation of LGBT in their characters and stories. He said, “We want to tell stories that our audience wants to hear, that reflects their lives.” (Source, March 2024)

They’ve done a little backpedaling since then, dropping a trans character from a project, and shoehorning a Christian character into the story as something of an olive branch. But it’s tough to take such overtures seriously when you look at how they’ve handled projects like Snow White.

The title character — whose appearance is literally baked right into the name — has been cast by someone who has been jokingly called by many other names in the vein of “snow tan” or “dirt white” has been blasted a little more on the nose as ‘Snow Woke’ which fits with her now-infamous savaging of the origninal beloved film. “”The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird! So we didn’t do that this time.”

Fans rightly noted how it was a bad idea for someone who clearly hates the original story to be chosen as the face of the live-action remake.

The big test for what the public thought of this offering would come where people voted with their wallets. It failed that test.

Trouble is a brewin’ for the controversy-laden Snow White, the live-action remake of the iconic 1937 animated film that put Walt Disney‘s film empire on the map.

The big-budget tentpole opened to $43 million domestically, enough for a first-place finish but behind even the most modest of expectations after getting battered by so-so audience scores and underwhelming reviews. That’s even less than Tim Burton’s Dumbo, which came in at $45 million in 2019. Overseas, Snow White took in $44.3 million for a global launch of $87.3 million after hoping to clear $100 million. — Hollywood Reporter

Second, Lizzo

Many in our audience might be surprised even to read a mention of Lizzo, with a ‘who cares what Lizzo thinks’ kneejerk reaction to news about a personality they don’t follow in a music genre they don’t care about.

But if any of us are serious in our desire to see the culture transformed, we WILL have to interact with the people in it, and that includes influencers.

In this case we see someone who had been leading those who followed her down a dangerous path, has rethought her life choices and is now leading — by here own example, no less — anyone who looks up to her in a much better direction.

It wasn’t so long ago that Lizzo was, in some literal sense, the poster girl for what has been dubbed ‘body-positivity’.

She describes herself as fat and says she wants to normalize and destigmatize larger bodies. Yet, in an interview with People magazine in 2022, she said she’s gotten tired of people constantly talking about her body size. “I know I’m fat. It doesn’t bother me. I like being fat, and I’m beautiful and I’m healthy. So can we move on?” — DW

Fast forward to this past weekend, where she was in the news for different reason. We’ll not include the photo of her wearing fishnet stockings. (You’re welcome.) But her update is worthy of notice:

“I did it,” she captioned an Instagram post. “Today when I stepped on my scale, I reached my weight release goal. I haven’t seen this number since 2014! Let this be a reminder you can do anything you put your mind to. Time for new goals!”

In one photo, Lizzo posed in a maroon sports bra and matching leggings. In another, she shared a screenshot of her progress, which showed that her BMI was down 10.5 and that she had lost 16% of her total body fat. — Men’s Journal

The Christian world has a word for this kind of a transformation story: repentance.

Now, let’s not over-hype this. She’s not rushing off to preach the gospel or anything. But in a world that is crying out for answers to an obesity epidemic, an ‘influencer’ like her who was once held up as the big is beautiful archtype has taken ownership of her health and fitness, that’s a win.

Who knows? Maybe there’s an opportunity for her and RFK to work together on crafting a message that will inspire a generation of people who would give greater (ahem) weight to her encouragement to take charge of your life than they would from an old guard from Camelot.

Who knows? In bridging those divides, maybe they will discover some of us aren’t the monsters talking heads on TV have told them we are.

(And even… vice versa.)