Sally, Post class 9/25

No longer do we have to travel to DisneyWorld to frolic with this mega-industry's favorite characters.....the Mouse has come to our house! Recently, I read an advertising blurb in the local newspaper about a developer who is offering a hook - literally, a pirate's hook as in Pirates of the Caribbean. The article reads, as follows:

KB Homes sells Disney-Inspired Homes
Posted at September 28th, 2007 4:28 pm by Eric Hochberger
Filed under: Home Builders
KB Homes, the fifth largest U.S. home builder, announced that it would offer homes customized with Disney characters.

Starting next year, buyers will be able to specify flooring, window coverings, and light inspired by Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and characters from Pirates of the Caribbean.

“Almost 60% of KB Home home buyers are families with children,” said Wendy Marlett, senior vice president of sales and marketing at KB Home, in a statement.

Our class discussion illuminated Disney as having become a metanarrative for our society, in a sense. “Fiction reinforces in a circular fashion” (Dorfman, 128) resulting in stagnation in our lives because it is a closed system. So, now we have a home builder (5th largest in the U.S.) who is incorporating Disney in its product - a house. I can understand that some parents choose to (mis)decorate with Disney characters, but to incorporate Disney in the foundational aspects of your home (flooring) raises a big issue for me. On the surface, it seems harmless....but, what happens when the kiddies grow up? I would think(hope) that the flooring will have to be replaced. So, right from the start, new home buyers are making poor judgments and are wasting their money. I say "buy an area rug" if you have a need to walk on Goofy! What's more disturbing is the possibility the kiddies, grown into their teens, may resist changing the flooring from a Disney theme to something more aesthetically pleasing. Their interior design sense/appreciation/progress may have been stymied by the all-American Disney machine. Some "adult" was responsible for choosing the flooring.... but, maybe that "adult" will pass it off as succumbing to the "child" within him/her. Is the intent to keep us all in a state of childhood and make-believe?

We each have our own preferences in decorating as it should be. Some folks choose concrete as their flooring, so why is a Disney character so appalling to me? Maybe because Disney is make-believe; concrete is real. To literally make Disney part of your home is making Disney real. Now, that's a scary thought! I want to know that El Ratone is safe inside the Kingdom and the minds of us all….I don’t want Disney characters to invade my living space in a permanent, or semi-permanent, manner; for that matter, I don’t want my neighbors to be such Disney fanatics that the foundation of their home is Donald Duck….and now, thanks to KB Homes, they have that choice. I can hear it now: "Mommy, Daddy, the Jones’ have the BEST floor ever – it’s MICKEY!! Why can’t WE get one!!! Well, Johnny, we already have a floor." "Wahhhhhhhh!" Absurdity to the highest degree...