Sex Toy Story

We all grow out of our toys don’t we? And then we move on to sex. At least that’s how the story goes. Or at least that’s how the Disney story goes. Or at least that’s how the Disney story used to go, all things being equal.

But things are not equal. Not in this Sexular Age. Now, for Disney, toys and sex must go together. The cultural hegemony of the sexularists brooks no rivals and Parental Guidance is not only not recommended, it is no longer welcome.

The upcoming Toy Story spin off Lightyear, based around Buzz the celebrated spaceman from the four amazing movies, has ensured it will be memorable because of the same sex kiss the movie will contain. Has to contain. Must contain. Did contain, but then didn’t contain, but now does contain again. With me so far?

Disney has backed down from its removal of the kiss after an internal campaign, and is now clearly hoping Lightyear will be memorable in the same way the Sharon-Stone-not-wearing-any-underwear-scene in Basic Instinct is memorable.

The decision to remove the scene was met with uproar by the company’s LGBTQI staff who are all for diversity. Except of course when it comes to their conservative and religious work colleagues. A recently leaked letter from Disney voicing the concerns of many religious staff was that their own views were now considered hostile and bigoted within the company.

Rod Dreher’s blog on the American Conservative website quotes the letter in full. Among many concerns, it states this:

Much has been made of our internal efforts to Reimagine Tomorrow, but as much as diversity and inclusion are promoted, the tomorrow being reimagined doesn’t seem to have much room for religious or political conservatives within the company. Left-leaning cast members are free to promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources. They call their fellow employees “bigots” and pressure TWDC to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals.

Which is exactly as the sexularists would have it. Diversity and inclusivity doesn’t include inclusivity or diversity to the point that alternate viewpoints are tolerated. And that’s not just in faraway Disneyland and all of its colour. It’s here in Australia too, where yet another church plant I know is refused use of a community facility because, as the person on the end of the line said when refusing the request, “Sorry, but we’re about inclusivity here.’ Badda bing, badda boom.

Of course the Disney decision is all the more stark when it is seen against the backdrop of the “don’t say gay” Bill in Florida, which is purported by activists to be an excuse for homophobia in schools, but which in reality is actually an attempt by that state’s legislature to ensure that children in kindergarten through to Yr3 are not exposed to sexualised ideas in the classroom.

Or to put it another way, the bill is designed to ensure that grooming does not take place in the classroom. Because folks that’s what we used to call any action by a teacher in a classroom who sexualises children or offers to guide them through what they should feel about sexual matters. Grooming 101 right there.

And of course that’s why Disney and its progressive cohort is so eager to get that Sharon Stone/Lightyear moment back on the screen. It will give them a bit of a buzz, so to speak, to know that they can, as they have been attempting to, get their mitts on a younger and younger cohort. After all, that’s the way the revolution works. Get to the kids through the adults who are not their parents.

It’s not really a time to be outraged though is it? Or perhaps it is. It’s definitely a time to be saddened. Saddened that yet, once again, a piece of art that is beautiful, true and noble (I’m looking at you Toy Story 1 thru 4) is being co-opted and muddied for the sake of propaganda. Because that’s what propaganda does. It muddies reality not by posing outrageous facts, but by embedding itself in those things that are beautiful, noble and true. The revolution just can’t leave anything alone. It just can’t.

So will we go see it? I mean I love Toy Story. So did my son back in the day. So much so that we bought him an amazing high end Buzz Lightyear toy. It was truly a work of art. It was proof that a film about toys can create the reality of those toys, and engender them with all of the wonder and magic of the film. Dare we turn our backs on Buzz? He might hotfoot it out the window!

Buzz had all the kit. He even had a button which, when pushed, went through a list of familiar Buzz statements including “To infinity and beyond!”. But here was our dirty little secret: if you pushed the button really quickly it would go through the start of all of the statements, only to be cut off and start the next one the more you pushed the button. And here’s what it sounded like Buzz was saying when we did that: “I did a poo!”

We’d walk around the house laughing, pushing the button frantically so that all and sundry could hear Buzz’s assertion about his bowel movements. Why was it funny? Cos for kindergarten kids, “poo” jokes are the bomb. That’s the low level of sophistication required to make a child laugh. Here’s what they don’t laugh at, or don’t get, or don’t even want to get at this stage: ideologically charged same sex kisses on screen. I know that sexular activists want them to be normalised into that sort of thinking (and dare I say it, even that sort of behaviour), but kids don’t. And for me, it’s just one more souring of childhood that this Sexular Age is committed to.

So I won’t go and see it. And I won’t take my son to see the denouement of the series he loved. Even though he’s 14 and emotionally he can cope fine with a same sex kiss on the screen, and he’ll want to talk about the why of that in a movie on the drive home. I won’t go and see it even though I’ve seen plenty of movies that have complex heterosexual and homosexual relationships in them.

So why won’t I go and see it? Because this isn’t about the relational complexity many movies with homosexual characters contain. It’s about strait-laced ideology. It’s about a sermon. It’s as gauche as going to the Louvre and painting a wider smile on the Mona Lisa.

Every time we say “Hey that’s okay, it’s just the way things are!“, we fail to remember that it isn’t simply the way things are. Culture and art have been hijacked not merely to confirm reality, but to embed new, false versions of reality in the form of propaganda.

Perhaps that’s over-reaction. It’s just one kiss after all. And we’ve seen plenty of heterosexual, yet illicit, relationships on movies haven’t we? And that hasn’t harmed us at all, has it? That hasn’t shaped our thinking even as Christians to the point that “following your heart” is actually promulgated even among confessing Christians as the default for actions they take? Touché.

One thing I know, plenty of activists will get a buzz out of it. Proof if ever it was needed that beautiful art has become ugly propaganda. It’s sex toys all the way down now.