I’m so grateful I get to update myself. I’m small enough that not too many people point it out. I’d like to think I’ve never been TOO awful in public so there’s not THAT much stuff to update either, but there’s a couple of songs I don’t play anymore because I think they’re too harsh on an ex, there’s a couple of songs that I flinch at because of the way they portray my relationships – Hell, there’s been moments on stage when I said stuff without thinking – or without the right information. And I’ve deleted a couple of webstreams and videos over it, unpublished some things here and there. It’s my right to do so.
I’ve been very, very fortunate and have never been asked to do it.
Well – not “fortunate” – like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever been TOO awful.
Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head – whatever else that’s getting changed and people are attacking as “cancel culture” or liberal overreach or whatever seem to be missing a really fundamental point here. The Muppets and Disney and Gone With The Wind.
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together. Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe. To learn more about how stories have impacted society visit: www.Disney.com/StoriesMatter.”
Disney Plus Cultural Warning ahead of the Muppets and Jungle Book and Aladdin and a couple other things too…
I’m so angry to see people leaping at false headlines that items have been “banned”. A Facebook friend posted about how she couldn’t believe Dr. Seuss books were being burned. Without knowing a damned thing about what was going on (that the publishers had ceased printing 6 out of his 40 or so published books for things like… you know … illustrations of Africans as being feather-adorned bone-through-the-nose caricatures) had leapt salivatingly on headlines claiming that Virginia had banned the books (?!) and that those damned liberals were burning them.
The books are 60 years old. Disney’s older. The Muppets 40+. It’s a tribute to how forward-thinking, how positive Dr. Theodore Seuss and Walt Disney and Jim Henson were that they didn’t make MORE art that hasn’t weathered the years well. I’d LIKE to think (Hell, I think I may well fervently believe) that If Ted and Walt and Jim had survived to today they’d all have revisited their preconceptions and prejudices and renounced them – or at the very least struggled against them. Their works are inanimate. Their books and television specials and movies are frozen in time and cannot evolve.
Kermit and the Cat in the Hat and Mickey Mouse have all moved on. Let their portfolios do so too without misunderstanding (intentionally and maliciously it would seem) why. Jeezoflip.
