To ask what you think about grown women who go to Disneyland without dc with Disney ears and wearing Disney dresses?

[Witchofzog]

Before anyone flames me this is meant to be light hearted. Obviously a holiday is about doing what you want to do and I strongly believe each to their own. I also don't get holidays where you fling yourself out of trees or go to back to basic retreats where you pay a fortune to effectively starve yourself.

But I have 2 friends on Facebook - one an ex colleague and the other a distant family member who have been to Disneyland Florida with their partners (who look a bit bored in the photos) over the last 2 months. Both have dressed in cutesie Disney dresses, Disney shoes, bags and ears despite being in their 30's and their photos are mainly all with various characters. I just don't get it. I imagine with children or for a few days it would be totally magical but I think 2 weeks of meeting characters and eating Disney shaped food would get a bit boring after a while. But I am prepared to be educated. These women look like they are literally having the time of their lives so there must be something I am missing.

Would you go on your own without dc's for 2 weeks?

To me, visiting the Harry Potter studios is very different because it's a bit more like a museum, with props and sets on display, and explanations of how special effects were made.

I like the Disney parks I've seen, they're incredibly well done, and I love the rides. That's not what the thread is about though. It's about the dressing up as an adult. I can't get my head round it. It's the same at some National Trust type properties where you can dress up in period costume and wander round if you like, I don't get that either. I guess I'm not such a fancy dress type and I'd not enjoy the attention that dressing up would bring.

Yes, you find it weird and stated factually that it is weird. As I said, maybe YOU are weird for not understanding why people do it?

Can you see that it goes both ways? My point is there are certain areas of interest in life that are deemed worthwhile or not worthwhile. Disney falls into the Not Worthwhile camp and seems to be fair game to be scoffed and sneered at, there's other interests that fall into this bracket too eg train enthusiasts/spotters or those people who dress up in historical clothing and reenact battles at weekends. It's fine to take the piss and label them as "weird" and it's almost like a form of bullying as in they're wrong and therefore fair game. You and others like you are "right" and because of this are surprised when you're challenged on your unpleasant attitudes.

As I said earlier I like Disney but I am not a huge fan, my daughter is though, she has autism. My son is obsessed with trains also has autism and we spend a lot of time travelling round heritage lines and rail tours looking at rare trains and stations that feel like you're stepping into 1920 or something. Before I had my son I would have dismissed this as "weird" and boring and I just didn't get it. I do now. I will never be as passionate as him but I know more about locomotives and the "transgressions" of Dr Beeching than I could have ever thought possible. I've seen people sneer and snigger at him behind his back when he talks about trains and yet they're fascinating, I KNOW they are, I just didn't get it before. Maybe you all Just Don't Get It and sneering and labelling people as weird because YOU Don't Get It, is a shitty thing to do. Maybe you'll never get it and that's fine but it doesn't make you anymore superior to anyone that does.

The thing is, CarolDanvers, only people with feelings of general inadequacy, struggling to 'fit in' would need to make these puffed-up pronouncements about other people based on what they enjoy. These puffed-up persons don't add anything, haven't anything of interest to do or say so to compensate, they tear down other people.

They understand (in the main) that to criticise an activity/location is within bounds - but to make judgements of people isn't the done thing - but they have to do it, because there's nothing else there.

It could be jealousy? Could be envy at seeing other people's satisfaction? More likely though, it's just a general and enduring dissatisfaction with themselves and a sense that they're perceived negatively too. People happy in their own skin aren't inclined to get their kicks from pulling others down. Pity them and ignore, lack of audience is their Kryptonite.

There are enough of us on the thread who GET IT - even without ever having been to Disneyland and, as soon as my Minnie Mouse knickers are out of the tumble dryer, I'll be proudly wearing and prancing around in them in honour of the fans on this thread!

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe - I am wearing my Minnie Mouse PJ's as I type With PRIDE!

If this makes me weird/unintelligent/pathetic, then I don't care. I am HAPPY!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe
It's perfectly reasonable to find certain behaviours weird in an adult.

I find it weird that an adult would spend 17 hours a day playing on a gaming console.
I don't think they are a horrible person but I do think the behaviour is weird for an adult. To me that sort of obsession with gaming is something for teenagers. Zero feelings about adults enjoying gaming. Just think that the obsessive nature some adults have is a bit bizarre.

Same with Disney.
I like some of the films. The holiday parks are my idea of hell but I get other people like them (I also dislike Alton Towers for many of the same reasons I wouldn't like to holiday at disnry). But the obsessive behaviour of some adults towards it is peculiar and odd to me.

Indeed MaisiePops but you'd (general) have to be lacking in any kind of awareness to not realise that using terms like 'weird', 'creepy' and 'pathetic' to list a few, would cause upset. To then choose to blurt them out 'because you can' shows stunning disregard for other people.

ProfMoody has already made the point that learning disabilities/special needs oughtn't to be a factor in keeping one's counsel but my view is that if it gives pause to people posting to think that they might inadvertently be sweeping up others affected by LD/SN then that might not be a bad thing.

I personally don't understand LOTS of things that other people enjoy. That list includes gaming, gambling, alcohol, mushrooms, soap operas and any sort of reality tv. I would say that I don't like any of those things. I would not though say, "Anybody who likes is pathetic/creepy/". Because I'd be pricking somebody who does like one or more of those things and why would I need to do that? I don't. Because I don't set out to be a dick.

I probably wouldn't like Disneyland as I'm not fond of crowds but who knows, I might like it. I don't much like people screeching around me for anything because it makes me jump out of my skins, but I won't call them names because they do it. It's a snapshot, it's not an indictment of them. If they're wearing a princess dress or gnome ears, more power to them, it's not hurting me so I don't need to voice every thought that passes.

In short, a previous-puffed-up-person suggested that the Disney-lovers "wakes the fuck up". I would retort that if you (general) are not harmed by somebody else's delight then kindly..."shut the fuck up" because your right to an opinion ends when you insult other people who are not insulting or causing harm to you.

one2three, Minnie-Mousers of the world, UNITE!

I have a nightie with MM on it and Mickey on the back. I wear that quite often. It would look better with 'ears', I think?

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe - Minnie Mouse ears are practically compulsory with a nightie like that You will look and feel fabulous!

I have Sparkly Minnie Ears! I wear them at Disney and it is fun! I find Disney Holidays fun.

When we went to Universal Studios grown-ups were wearing full school uniform and cloaks.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe
I think there needs to be an understanding that there is a difference between people giving their opinion that some behaviours are a bit odd in grown adults and personal comments about individuals being stupid or creepy. There has been both on this thread.

It's the person vs behaviour thing.

I wouldn't say a person was an odd or creepy person for wanting to get way over invested in Disney and get hysterically excited about meeting an adult dressed as a fictional character. I would say it's odd behaviour for an adult because it seems to go hand in hand with other quote infantalised behaviours. (An acquaintance of mine is lovely but once she goes into sparkles and princess mode I really struggle not to get irritated. There is something really bizarre to me watching a 30 year old woman wave her phone around showing me her sleep countdown until her princes themed birthday do. She's lovely. I don't think she is a weird or creepy person. I do find the excessive regress to being a little girl thing a bit peculiar )

Wouldn't be my cup of tea but then I am sure they wouldn't like my type of holiday either.

In my mind, Disney (especially anything relating to wanting to be a princess) is for kids. I am however currently swigging tea out of a Pusheen mug so I'm probably not the best point of reference.

I would and do go on holiday without my husband and the children. However I wouldn't go to Disney and dress up. Someone I know is really excited to have hugs with Disney characters which i think is odd and I've told her, but it's her choice and she wouldn't enjoy Greek isle hops so we'll never go on holiday together. Thankfully

I love your posts Lying.

Don't worry Maisy no one expects you to admit that you're being a bit unpleasant and unkind. You don't have to keep on and on justifying your sneery stance.

Maisy is always sneery, it's nothing new.

MaisiePops what I'm reading from your posts is that you have a bit of a thing about adults behaving in a child-like manner. That can be said in a way that doesn't name-call said adults and I've seen many posts on this thread were posters have taken no small delight in ridiculing and reducing adults such as this.

There's absolutely no good reason for that. None.

I could go on wine-o-clock threads and do the wide-eyed "But WHY do you all do this? thing". But that would be disingenuous and whatever my views are, it's not an activity I enjoy or understand so it would be pointless and possibly hurtful to the posters who enjoy this. So I don't go on those threads. Because I don't want to be a dick.

Somebody's hobby/activity really shouldn't be a target for denigration. The posters who see fit to do that - without exception - are lacking.

Your posts seem very much about the 'squealing' when adults do this. It might be annoying but, if the squealing doesn't bother you when it emanates from a child then your eardrums are fine and dandy and it's just your own personal hang-up about child-like adults. Respectfully, that is for you to deal with. It doesn't warrant personal assessment of adults being over-joyed about something.

I count 'sleeps' sometimes - not always in a joyful or good way, just in a counting-down way. Other times I can barely conceal my (non-squealing) excitement. I very much believe in 'live and let live', I wouldn't want to be any other way because that would be exhausting for me and tiresome for everybody else. I think we (general) spend too much time and energy judging people and we (and our targets) would be happier if we stopped. It's not a human condition and it doesn't deserve excusing - it's an undesirable behaviour and rather than accepting it and normalising it, we should be eradicating it.

We could start with hurtful judgements about nonsensical scenarios like this one.

Ahh, I see you've started on adult gamers now. You do realise that many of the most popular games are an 18+ age rating? Made for... adults? Again, why look down on people for doing something they enjoy?

Do you drink alcohol?

thank you

I've been thinking about what would make me squeal and be child-like... and that would be these:

1. If Donald Sutherland swept me into his arms for a Tango,
2. If Wotsits suddenly became calorie-free,
3. If Jonathan Creek writers would ever manage a Verity Lambert-quality production again,
4. Ditto if Caroline Quentin would join up with Alan Davies in said drama,

and this...this is the BIG one!

1. If VW would ever, EVER produce a Scirocco Storm based on the original design, not the rounded-off monstrosity that they've palmed off on us.

If any one of those things came to pass, I would surely be squealing the house down, dancing in the street in my Mini Mouse knickers and nightie - and I would have Ears too!

Pusheen Accidentally! Can I come to your house?

C'mon over @LadyRochfordsHoickedGusset if you are lucky I shall pop on my pusheen PJ's as well 😜

I never said I thought it was weird, pathetic or creepy. I said I didn’t understand it. But I maintIn people are entitled to think it’s pathetic. And I don’t think moral superiority is the right phrase in this context.

I doubt anyone saying they think it’s childish actually go around saying it to those concerned irl. They’re saying it on here because we were asked what they think which as Tuxon says they are entitled to do.

Its not something I get at all but it’s harmless and if it makes you happy then go ahead. It shouldn’t matter that someone doesn’t understand or thinks it’s strange but I guess you have to accept that they might.

I said I didn’t understand it

If you can’t understand different people liking different things you’re in trouble to be honest. How hard is it

It shouldn’t matter that someone doesn’t understand or thinks it’s strange but I guess you have to accept that they might.

Absolutely. People aren't responding to a difference of opinion, they're responding to the labels of "weird" "pathetic" "odd" and all the other nasty descriptors on here and the implication that those who aren't into it are somehow better and more intelligent than those who are. The conflation by some posters, with liking Disney means behaving as though you have SN didn't help either. I doubt there'd have been any conflict at all if people had just said they weren't into it but each to their own.

ProfessorMoody
I haven't started in adult gamers.
I've said that I don't have any feelings about gaming. Live and let live.
But I do think that gaming for 17 hours at a time is a bit odd for an adult.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe
People will have opinions. That's life.
It's only on MN where you get the 'people have opinion = must be jealous' / 'people have an opinion = omg you made a judgement. I'd never judge' replies.
You see it all the time and it came up on one of the 'only on MN threads'. E.g. Someone outlines a situation that a decent chunk of people will probably think is a bit unusual/odd/wouldn't let their child do etc. Then a few people turn up saying 'is rather let my child do X than be like you' and act they would never have an opinion on anything anyone else does.

People are free to have whatever interest they like. I've repeatedly said I have no issue with Disney, just the excessive infantalised behaviour that sometimes goes with it (like going on as if meeting someone in fancy dress is meeting your hero).
Its not something I get at all but it’s harmless and if it makes you happy then go ahead. It shouldn’t matter that someone doesn’t understand or thinks it’s strange but I guess you have to accept that they might.
I agree.

Remind me exactly how many times the word ‘pathetic’ is used in anything other than a judgemental, derisive tone Tuxon?

Everybody’s entitled to an opinion. They’re not entitled to judge others with it.

And this:

I doubt anyone saying they think it’s childish actually go around saying it to those concerned irl.

I suspect this is true, and that makes it particular judgemental and nasty - it’s because they think it’s okay to say these things with anonymity.

CarolDanvers - you hit the nail on the head with a summary that I agree is spot on there. Cool username by the way.