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It appears that more “progressive” changes are continuing to be made within the Disney Theme Parks–by Disney’s hand or otherwise.
Credit: TokyoDisneyResort
While there are six Disney Resorts with Theme Parks established all around the world, The Walt Disney Company only owns a majority stake in three of them: The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, the Walt Disney World Resort outside Orlando, Florida, and the Disneyland Paris Resort in Coupvray, France. Disney has been criticized for making “woke” changes to its Theme Park experiences in the United States for the sake of being more “inclusive.” Those changes include adding gender-neutral terms such as greeting Guests over the PA system as “Dreamers of all ages,” instead of the seasoned “Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls,” as well as the apparent decision to no longer allow its Cast Members to automatically refer to female Guests as “princess.”
But those changes were pinned on the California-based corporation’s direct dominance over that particular Resort. Now, it appears that another Disney Resort’s owner is following Disney’s lead.
Credit: Disney
The sole owners and operators of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Cebu Prefecture, Japan, the Oriental Land Company (OLC), announced that it would be making a gender-neutralizing change to its Theme Park experience as well. The primary focus will be made on giving its Cast Members a more unisex appearance, along with relaxing some other rules as well.
OLC stated the following in a press release,
“We will abolish the notation of gender and change it to genderless content, and also relax some content. Regarding hairstyles and makeup, we will standardize the same rules for all cast members regardless of gender. In addition, hair colors and hairstyles will be relaxed to the extent that they meet the grooming requirements of cast members.”
Credit: OLC
The new changes are expected to go into effect on April 1, 2023. It should be noted that The Walt Disney Company leases its IP to OLC under strict conditions that the Disney standards of operation are met, and it is unclear at this time how much influence the Mouse House had on this decision.
This announcement comes shortly after it was announced that the mask mandate will finally be removed from Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.
