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Late to the party and shouldn't be doing this at work. But I read the thread before work and it has stuck with me.
Have what opinions of "Disney show" you have. Own them, that's fine. I don't have to agree. I will never respond with anything but thoughtful discourse.
So we're supposed to stick to the standards of dress and size and whatever else that they had in the fifties? OK, if no plus-sized women should be tour guides because of the vintage "show," OK. But there should be no male tour guides. No obviously lesbian tour guides, or straight women with buzz-cut hair. There should be no tour guides who are any color but white.
Of course I'm not OK with any of those restrictions. If I had a tour guide (if ever I felt inclined to take a tour) I'd hope that they looked kempt and clean and to "Disney show" standards, regardless of how attractive they were to me. Even more than that, I'd hope that they be passionate and knowledgeable about Disneyland, warm and friendly, and interested in interacting with their audience. That would be all that mattered to me, personally.
My disappointment in all of this is, as usual, not with anyone's concept of the "Disney show" but with society's desire to be conformist in their ideas of what is attractive (or conformist in any way.) So the very skinny girls are attractive to a sector of this society. But what about me? I'm not attracted to very skinny girls, and this is coming from a place on the Kinsey scale that is not zero. If taking the tour is truly about the attractiveness of your tour guide, why not be able to schedule the appropriate one for you? Butch Bill hosting the 2:00, Twiggy McPhee at 3:30, Zaftig Zoe at 5, Marlin Metrosexual at 7:32?
As for plus-sized people having a "problem" or "not being perfect"? To me, my weight isn't a problem. I'm happy with who I am. I'm more comfortable in my own skin than most thin people I know. If I was concerned about looking thin, I would look thin. I'm more concerned about weight in terms of health, and I know that I'm active and strong even if people who walk by me on the street think that I have a "problem." Or people I know.
My social, my professional, my sexual relationships are not affected by my weight... unless it's the friend, the colleague, the lover who has the problem. I'm a lover of things: food, art, sex, film, travel. If I'm baking a pie, eating a slice of it, I'm doing it fully and with passion. If I'm writing a play, if I'm filling it with complex characters from my collective experience, I'm making love to it. If I'm pleasing you sexually... well, you had really better be ready to handle it, because all of my being, all of my heart, all of my weight is behind it. Call me a hedonist, call me a hobbit, call me obsessive-compulsive, whatever. This is who I am and I'm not apologizing.
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