Where are all the men?

[DebbieB]

Gaston in Fantasyland. Saw a hunky Tarzan at AK last month.

 

[lizabu]

Plus, the prince's appearance isn't going to move costumes in the shops the same way the princess's appearance will.

You're probably right. It could change at anytime though. I remember reading an article about how at one time Disney didn't sell princess dresses and they started noticing kids showing up dressed as princesses (like Halloween costumes or whatever) and they figured out they could be making money off of this. So they looked at their princesses and figured they better use Auroras pink dress to differentiate her from Cinderella more clearly and the rest is history. I know when my boys were little I would've been pretty tickled to see my boys dressed as Prince Charming or another Prince. I think you can buy such costumes on the internet so you never know. If enough boys start showing up dressed as princes Disney might want a piece of the action and the meet and greets will follow.

 

[tinkerbell1112]

I agree, though we have been lucky to meet a number of face men characters - I think it's good for both my kids to be able to interact with them. In fact when we met Rapunzel & Flynn together, Flynn talked more than Rapunzel!

Captain America, Flynn, Thor, Aladdin, Burt(Disneyland) - and obviously almost half of this is from Marvel, not originally Disney.
Naveen, Peter Pan, hhm....It does seem Disneyworld isn't quite as inclusive. LOL. I can't think of any more at DW
and on the Disney cruiseline, Captain America, Jack Sparrow, and Peter Pan are all I can think of

 

[anneboleyn]

I never cared about the princesses when I was younger, but I loved meeting fur characters. I still do. I'm also a big Tangled and Frozen fan now, so I do want to meet Rapunzel and Anna and Elsa one day. Some good points were brought up earlier in the thread, so I won't reiterate those, but also, by only having select characters like Flynn Ryder and Jack Sparrow at the hard-ticket events, Disney gives themselves the opportunity to earn more money on the chance that people will attend the party to meet those characters. By having them out on a regular basis, they're less likely to attract people to the hard-ticket events because there's less 'unique character meet and greet' opportunities.

I agree with you about rather meeting the animal characters My favorite Disney movies are the ones with animals in them, not the Princess ones. I would rather hug Tigger than a princess any day lol

 

[Jonas_Swe]

I think too many smitten girls, (young) women, and gay men swooning over Flynn and others. Maybe the men cannot handle the awkward silences and giggling.
On the other hand, I think male characters have less of the harassment and lewd comments characters like Ariel and Jasmine have to go through from male guests.

Well said.

But actually, to be quite frank here. If a CM playing a male face-character can't handle swooning girls and the very occasionally gay man winking or hugging him, then that role might not be the right one for that particular CM?

You should be able to confront any guest in interaction. And that said, of course within what's appropriate behavior!

I've seen quite a few straight men getting very up and personal with the female character Cm's too... And that's never acceptable.

 

[BrokeMack]

Yeah I agree. I am actually surprised they don't have a Star Wars character meal at WDW...I think that would be a huge money maker for them!

They discontinued the Jedi Mickey meal because they no longer want to mix the fab five with Star Wars. I wouldn't be surprised if a character meal like the Galactic Drive-in at the Sci-Fi Drive-in from SWW starts up again when the park expansion is complete. That was strictly Star Wars villains and it was awesome.

 

[anneboleyn]

They discontinued the Jedi Mickey meal because they no longer want to mix the fab five with Star Wars. I wouldn't be surprised if a character meal like the Galactic Drive-in at the Sci-Fi Drive-in from SWW starts up again when the park expansion is complete. That was strictly Star Wars villains and it was awesome.

Oh wow that does sound awesome! Hopefully they come to their senses and bring that back!

 

[Karin1984]

Well said.

But actually, to be quite frank here. If a CM playing a male face-character can't handle swooning girls and the very occasionally gay man winking or hugging him, then that role might not be the right one for that particular CM?

You should be able to confront any guest in interaction. And that said, of course within what's appropriate behavior!

I've seen quite a few straight men getting very up and personal with the female character Cm's too... And that's never acceptable.

Or... it's a Disney's hidden agenda to make sure that everyone in the world finds his/her significant other. If men are surrounded by swooning giggling girls/guys all the time, that will spoil them for any future relationship! When these male CMs are old and fat they will be all alone

I do hope that Disney sees the light that there is a market for the princes/heroes, but it might take time. It took a while before they saw the potential that villains have.

Or, what makes more sense, it's harder to find young men to play these characters than young women to play the princesses. And they cannot find enough to uphold an operating schedule, including back ups.

 

[BrokeMack]

Oh wow that does sound awesome! Hopefully they come to their senses and bring that back!

Yeah it was great. You had a photo-op with Darth Vader and Boba Fett as you entered, then they showed Star Wars clips instead of the usual Sci-Fi loop (including the original trailer for Return of the Jedi, where Luke had a blue lightsaber) and stormtroopers, Greedo and Jawas roamed the tables. As always, you could trade stuff with the Jawas and the stormtroopers are hilarious.

 

[GPC0321]

The one guy who played Jack Sparrow was a dead-ringer for Johnny Depp. It was crazy!

The one doing the Pirate Tutorial when I was there was pretty darn close to him too. I had to stop myself from pushing kids aside and standing on the front row batting my eyelashes at him. LOL!

I don't particularly like meeting "face" characters at all, male or female. Except Mary Poppins. I am making a point to meet her next trip. She's my idol.

 

[Jonas_Swe]

Or... it's a Disney's hidden agenda to make sure that everyone in the world finds his/her significant other. If men are surrounded by swooning giggling girls/guys all the time, that will spoil them for any future relationship! When these male CMs are old and fat they will be all alone

I do hope that Disney sees the light that there is a market for the princes/heroes, but it might take time. It took a while before they saw the potential that villains have.

Or, what makes more sense, it's harder to find young men to play these characters than young women to play the princesses. And they cannot find enough to uphold an operating schedule, including back ups.

I'd be happy to be a Disney Prince any day... The question is who I'd be fit to play.

 

[AJA]

Where do you live that men in their 20s can make more money than women in their 20s? 1950?

For Part-time work, which is what most of these young people are looking for, young guys that can do a physically demanding job can make MUCH more than young women. We own a small construction business and know young men making $15+ an hour part-time summer work. Young women for the most part cannot physically do the job.

 

[BrokeMack]

For Part-time work, which is what most of these young people are looking for, young guys that can do a physically demanding job can make MUCH more than young women. We own a small construction business and know young men making $15+ an hour part-time summer work. Young women for the most part cannot physically do the job.

That's about what a face character makes from what I've heard.

 

[Doug M]

Oh wow that does sound awesome! Hopefully they come to their senses and bring that back!

It wasn't awesome, it was very expensive to get a quick photo op with a few dark side characters or jawas, most not even the big names. On top of that, it wasnt a buffet so even if you wanted to eat your money's worth you couldn't.

 

[anneboleyn]

It wasn't awesome, it was very expensive to get a quick photo op with a few dark side characters or jawas, most not even the big names. On top of that, it wasnt a buffet so even if you wanted to eat your money's worth you couldn't.

I still think it sounds pretty cool

 

[FirstTimeDisneyVisit]

Good call !! i really never though about this ,,i met Aladdin at Epcot and flyn rider but that was during MNSSHP

 

[BrokeMack]

I still think it sounds pretty cool

It was very expensive, but there were also seven characters. I can't think of another meal with that many.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think they would get fewer people lining up to see them when they are not with their princesses.

I really disagree with this. I bet you'd get quite a few wanting to see the characters.

I think in general girls are just more interested in meeting characters than boys are, so selection is going to skew toward females more.

Gotta disagree with this, too. In my family it's the guys who will waste an hour waiting for a character. The female in the family is, and always has been, character-phobic. But the ONE character I do enjoy watching (not meeting) was Jack Sparrow. A guy.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, to assume that only girls want to meet, and girls want to meet girls (how does THAT even make sense???), so they'll only put girl characters out. It WILL skew towards girls, if you make it more attractive to girls.

I think too many smitten girls, (young) women, and gay men swooning over Flynn and others. Maybe the men cannot handle the awkward silences and giggling.

Oh poor guys, poor things. Having people swoon over the character they are playing...

My son really wants to meet captain jack!! I've had to tell him you can't meet him at Disney, which is a bummer!

Disney Cruise's Castaway Cay has him (and generally one or two meets on the ship).

I don't think he ever formally met outside of Hard Tickets....

DCL and Disneyland. I miss him wandering Disneyland; it was fabulous. He was SO wonderful with my son the two times he met him at DL.

this reason Disney doesn't do this is because they will never be able to find someone who looks like the actors.

??? It hardly makes sense.

And FWIW we met a woman who was a dead ringer for Daisy Ridley at the SW Light Side 5k. To the point that I still look on gossip sites to see if she finally admitted that it was in fact her. If it wasn't (and this woman was also an actress who told us she auditioned for the role but didn't get it because "they wanted a Brit", she said in a British accent that sounded just like Daisy's real accent vs her character's different British accent) then she should be working as that face character NOW.

But actually, to be quite frank here. If a CM playing a male face-character can't handle swooning girls and the very occasionally gay man winking or hugging him, then that role might not be the right one for that particular CM?

You should be able to confront any guest in interaction. And that said, of course within what's appropriate behavior!

I've seen quite a few straight men getting very up and personal with the female character Cm's too... And that's never acceptable.

I agree with all of that.

"Friends" of characters have to put up with alllll sorts of nonsense. I would think it would be a lot easier for a man to deal with a woman swooning vs what men must do around princesses...

 

[HatboxHaint]

Maybe the could do a "Men Unleashed" night at Hollywood Studios and see how that goes..

 

[Jonas_Swe]

Maybe the could do a "Men Unleashed" night at Hollywood Studios and see how that goes..

I'd be in the first row!