Thanks to my friend Ronan, I was at Disneyland Paris last weekend for my birthday. It's a great park, incredibly beautifully thought-out and detailed, and with so much space that the original Magic Kingdom in Anaheim would be dwarfed. (However, please understand, the Anaheim park is still the best!)
Something that pleasantly surprised me which I had not noticed on my previous visits is that the Pirates of the Caribbean have not been PC'd up. For those of you not as mad about Disneyland as I and some of my friends (you know who you are, Ange), that means that the pirates are still chasing the women after the bride sale scene. Confused? Let me explain. In the original ride there a scene in which the pirates after entering the town and kidnapping the mayor, hold a 'bride' auction, selling the townswomen to the highest bidder. In the following scene there were various scenarios of the pirates chasing the women, and one wimpy pirate being chased by an amorously inclined fat (it was un-PC so I can simply say 'fat') woman. About 15 years ago there was a re-vamp of the ride and the women now had trays of food in their hands. From this we were supposed to conjecture that the men weren't chasing the women, they were chasing the food. Gluttony was clearly more acceptable than lust. On my latest visit, I noticed that these scenarios had again been changed and now the women are chasing the men, who are themselves now carrying the plates of food, the inference being that they are attempting to steal it. Again, stealing and looting is more acceptable than lust and even gluttony. (Maybe the rising obesity among Americans had something to do with this.) In Paris not only do the pirates still chase the women, but two new scenes are added: one in shadow-play where two pirates pull and shove at a women as they fight over her; in the other two audio-animatronic pirates carry on a sword fight to win a particular women who stands by crying. Lust is still d'accord.
As an ex-pat you get a particularly outsider's perspective on your home country, because you see it both through the eyes of the foreigner, but with the upbringing of the native. Living in the UK, one aspect of American culture which has become blatantly clear to me is that for Americans sex is the great bugbear which it is simply is not for Europeans For example, when the Clinton/Lewinski affair occurred the French could not get their heads round why it was such a big issue — French politicians are expected to have mistresses. On the other hand, Europeans tend to find Americans' obsession and over-consumption of food particularly — how shall I say it? — distasteful. Europeans relished Super-Size Me not only as a indictment of the America's fast-food industry, but as a satire on America's gluttonous eating habits. So, for Americans, the pirates could not possibly be chasing the women! What message would we be sending out? Chasing food is alright. It's what you would expect. But chasing the women is beyond the pale. For Europeans, it just isn't an issue and chasing the food would be rather non-sensical (as I am sure that it is to some of the Disney die-hards — we know who we are, don't we Ange?).
1 comment:
As ever you have provided an alternative insight into the world around us. Clear and to the point and always interesting. I have to ask, when will the Pirates be chasing other men? That will certainly make it equal, or perhaps female Pirates chasing women.....the possibilities are endless!
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