Where are all the men?

[shanethesaint88]

[QUOTE="bumbershoot, post: 55985515, member:

??? It hardly makes sense.[/QUOTE]
I think it makes plenty of sense. Many kids would go up to them and say mommy that doesnt look like finn. Because they know what finn looks like (Its not like any of these characters have masks or face paints to help hide it a bit) They dont know what cinderalla looks like in real life. They have no reference for that because she is a cartoon. And finding one person who looks like rey is great but you think disney can find 10 that want to work for what disney pays and the insane hours they would have to work

 

[mckennarose]

this reason Disney doesn't do this is because they will never be able to find someone who looks like the actors. Disney does it with princesses and princes because they are animated and it is easy for people to imagine that this it would the princesses would lok like it in real life. I cannot think of one live action character at the moment that is currently meeting in the parks that is a face character

Last year at Star Wars Weekends we saw Anakin, Luke, and Mace Windu. (I can't think of who else at the moment.) And there were lots of people lined up to meet them even though they didn't look much like the movie characters. Too bad SWW is a thing of the past. It would be great to see those characters again.

 

[mom2rtk]

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.

You're reporting your experience. I'm reporting mine. 2 boys, 1 girl in our family and the character hunting is split right down predictable gender lines, including the parents. It's also based on my observations while waiting in many character lines through the years.

Of course I'm not saying that no boys want to meet characters or that all girls do. I'm talking overall.

And it's not a self fulfilling prophecy. The truth is that most people can't even name the princes in the princess movies. Kids just want to meet the most recognizable character. Or the ones in the prettiest costumes.

 

[shanethesaint88]

Last year at Star Wars Weekends we saw Anakin, Luke, and Mace Windu. (I can't think of who else at the moment.) And there were lots of people lined up to meet them even though they didn't look much like the movie characters. Too bad SWW is a thing of the past. It would be great to see those characters again.

I know they were there, but something must be preventing Disney from having those characters at the park all the time. Especially considering the state of HS and the fact that their is no more SWW. So i dont know for a fact. But there has to be some reason. And yes they need to bring back SWW! Those were great. Working them last year...not great! Lol but it was fun to go to as a fan

 

[SureAsLiz]

I know they were there, but something must be preventing Disney from having those characters at the park all the time. Especially considering the state of HS and the fact that their is no more SWW. So i dont know for a fact. But there has to be some reason. And yes they need to bring back SWW! Those were great. Working them last year...not great! Lol but it was fun to go to as a fan

The something that is preventing them is budget. Over the past year, there have been very few net gains of characters at the parks. In fact, I believe DHS is the only park to actually have a gain. Staffing the SW face characters full time would be a massive drain on both human and monetary resources, and the only way to justify the cost would be by cutting a good number of characters elsewhere. Plus DHS simply doesn't have a location for full time SW characters outside of the Launch Bay.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Its been that way for a while but its going to get more and more lopsided as things are shifting towards being more female-centric. Males in today's society are unfortunately being pushed out of everything. Education, job opportunities, entertainment, etc.

1) You sound a bit bitter about that 2) You sound like it's a bad thing that women have started working in male dominated roles 3) Men are not being pushed out of everything

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

FWIW according to the U.S. Department of Labor's website women working full time only make about 79% of what men earn. Part time does have more variables that can lead to differences in income but point blank women do not earn 100% of what men earn 100% of the time. It's why we still have discrimination lawsuits due to inequality in pay because business still do have pay inequality at times when all things considered the persons have the same qualifications.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The Disney Channel characters, for years were geared towards boys with like Handy Manny, etc. The whole greet are- though not face characters- was almost exclusively male characters.

While FACE characters are geared towards princess, and I agree that there's a bit of focus on female characters, it seems to me most of the non face characters are male: Mickey, Donald, Baloo, Pluto, Beast, Tigger, Pooh, Genie, Dale, Rafiki, etc.

 

[mckennarose]

The something that is preventing them is budget. Over the past year, there have been very few net gains of characters at the parks. In fact, I believe DHS is the only park to actually have a gain. Staffing the SW face characters full time would be a massive drain on both human and monetary resources, and the only way to justify the cost would be by cutting a good number of characters elsewhere. Plus DHS simply doesn't have a location for full time SW characters outside of the Launch Bay.

That's too bad, there's a big fan base. (or maybe I'm biased!) We skipped HS on our trip last month.
Meanwhile with the budget issues here.... apparently people are cr*pping outside in Shanghai Disney.

 

[lborne]

All the men are at Hall of Presidents - although they may be adding a woman soon. I know that is not what you meant, but I could not resist.

 

[JJZMgailey]

Back from a visit to WDW, it dawned on me something about face characters... they're virtually all women!

Excluding animals, costumed characters and the like, I could only think of 4 characters who are men and available to meet: Peter Pan, Gaston, and Tarzan.

Meanwhile there's like a thousand princesses, queens, their sisters or relatives, godmothers and so on. Lots of female royalty or royal court. I realised when I saw there's a meet and greet for Anna & Elsa, and one for Olaf, and then the idea popped into my head after seeing the Singalong show: "where can i meet Kristoff? I really want to meet him and take pics."

Then I thought of Hercules, another one I'd like to meet and talk to. What about John Smith, Phoebus and Prince Hans? what about ANY prince charming? I want to meet the men too, and I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this.

So come on Disney - why are you hiding the men?

What a fun thread! We liked it so much that we picked it to be featured on today's DIS Daily Fix!

 

[katt789]

Some of the time it comes down to budget. One of my friends always says "I just don't understand why they can't throw ONE mystery prince in with her prince in Fairytale hall" Well, not only does once the word get out, the line JUMPS to extreme lengths (more-so when it's someone like Flynn) but they have to pay upwards of 9 people a day, and that's a lot of money.
Like, @mom2rtk why pay for 2 characters when you can just pay for 1. and more people do line up for the princesses then they would a prince.
Yes, Flynn does hold a lot of popularity, but having say, Rapunzel out for a pop up set in Epcot vs having Phillip up in a pop up, one of them is going to have a heck more of a line. That's the second reason that on those pop up sets, when it's a princess, you just see her, when they're training a friend of a prince, he gets his princess too.

I do really wish they had more out regularly, especially now with Naveen gone, it kills me to see all the characters they've got going on overseas on a daily basis.

HOWEVER, it makes me pay more money to go to multiple MVCMP's to see all those rare characters, which make sense!

 

[mort1331]

I guess the green army men at HS doesnt count as face characters? We always have fun with them.

 

[cigar95]

. . . . . . Saw a hunky Tarzan at AK last month.

Nothing but a loincloth, ladies.

My wife had a heck of a time figuring out what to do with her hands when they posed together.

 

[Bluegrrl]

Two other ideas:

Lots of girls "want" to be princesses. So they may have more girls and costumes, and a Mickey load to pick from to audition for.
How many guys want to grow up and be Naveen or Prince Charming or Christopher Robin? Maybe that reflects the lack of boys to M&g with?

Who knows? Plus, the boys have to be taller than girls, so it's hard to find a, say, 5'3/5'6 Belle and an Adam (Beast's name) who is 6 or above who looks good standing next to her, looks like him and wants to work at Disney than any other high paying job. There is usually only one Tarzan because they can only find one who is so jacked and wants to work Disney.

That's my guess. Either that or Disney's cheap.

 

[SureAsLiz]

Two other ideas:

Lots of girls "want" to be princesses. So they may have more girls and costumes, and a Mickey load to pick from to audition for.
How many guys want to grow up and be Naveen or Prince Charming or Christopher Robin? Maybe that reflects the lack of boys to M&g with?

Who knows? Plus, the boys have to be taller than girls, so it's hard to find a, say, 5'3/5'6 Belle and an Adam (Beast's name) who is 6 or above who looks good standing next to her, looks like him and wants to work at Disney than any other high paying job. There is usually only one Tarzan because they can only find one who is so jacked and wants to work Disney.

That's my guess. Either that or Disney's cheap.

It's not like there's a shortage of decently attractive men in theater, and there's definitely not a surplus of high paying theater jobs that would be keeping these guys from working for Disney.

Disney actually has the perfect situation where they have a decent sized pool of potential applicants, the brand recognition to draw people in, and the ability to offer a stable contract that could provide access to equity eligible and equity roles.

The fact that they choose not to use those benefits to their gain is a management decision that says 'Princesses sell, so lets staff princesses'

 

[DVCcurious]

FWIW according to the U.S. Department of Labor's website women working full time only make about 79% of what men earn.

Wow! I didn't think anyone still believed that made up stat! That has been proven false by numerous studies. Just do a quick google search!

Washington Post (hardly a right-wing publication) gave the "79 cents"'stat 2 pinnochios (aka a bold-faced lie)

 

[Mom2Stitch]

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need


(Sorry as soon as I read the thread title, this song popped into my head.)

I have to agree with others who say that it's harder to make the men look like the characters in the film. Most of the time with the male characters I find myself distracted with the wigs, exceptions being Gaston, Captain Jack, Aladdin, and Peter Pan-they are usually pretty good. With the girls it's easier I think because it seems more natural on them, especially with the longer hair.

 

[bashuck]

You can meet Prince Charming at Park Fare.
Sometimes at the Halloween party you can meet Rapunzel and Aurora's boyfriends.

The coolest character is Dinsey's movies isn't "Rapunzel's boyfriend". Flynn Rider to you. Eugene to me and my wife (she digs him).

 

[Karin1984]

Nothing but a loincloth, ladies.

My wife had a heck of a time figuring out what to do with her hands when they posed together.

Yeah, Tarzan was the one meet where I didn't get a picture myself. It was just a weird situation, it was as if he didn't understand English and he didn't say one word. Which is in character of course, but as I saw my friend struggle through this M&G, I decided, I'm not going to put myself through that. The body was gorgeous and there is a definitely a time and place where it pays off for men to be gorgeous and quiet, but a M&G in a Disney park is not one of them.

I do agree about the hair, when you look at the rare pictures of John Smith or Hercules, it's always the hair that looks off.

 

[BrokeMack]

Incidentally, when I first read the routing of this thread I assume it was about men not giving up their seats on buses.