All grown up at the most magical place on earth: Refracting the Disney adult

Abstract

This article seeks to define and analyse the emergence of the term ‘Disney adult’, a pejorative term used by critics to describe adult fans of the Walt Disney Company. In reading the Disney adult as a kitsch-man, I draw attention to how critics play a role in the ultimate dismissal of a fandom that is attributed with excess sentimentality, feminized consumption and ornamentation, and aesthetic deviance. Additionally, I demonstrate how both mid-twentieth-century kitsch scholars and contemporary popular culture critics conflate aesthetic taste with the personal ethics of fans. In doing so, I demonstrate the politics of consumption and how discrimination can operate within fandoms not only based on gender, but also age.