Disney character bias girls/boys

[alandisney]

It doesn't seem fair to the boys that Disney continues to bring new character greeting for girls ex:Fairies along with several Princess character meals. They rarely do anything for the boys that come to Disney. Aladdin and Peter Pan are the only "hero" Disney characters out for pictures. On a very rare occasion do you see another male Disney prince. Does anyone else feel Disney needs to have a character meal for the boys? Besides Mickey, Toon Town is now for little girls to visit the characters.

[Tinksalot]

I would have to agree! My poor grandson is sooooo....tired of all the "Princess" meals and character meets. (He has 3 sisters) We started our trip with a meal at T-Rex Cafe for him.

[DisneyGlutton]

Totally agree. Boys are getting forgotten! I would add there's no equivalent of the BB Boutique for boys either. On the plus side, you could argue that at least boys at Disney don't have as many unrealistic expectations placed on them...

[kakn7294]

My 16 yo cousin would disagree - the only pics he's in from their recent trip are with the Princesses.

[OleDoleDoffin]

My boys only want to see the Fab Five, and particularly Donald... but I work at a preschool, and I can tell you there are three characters in the Disney Stable that rock the little boys' worlds:

• Buzz Lightyear
• Lightning McQueen
• Mr Incredible

So why not a character meal with the big Pixar guys? Okay, Lightning would be pretty hard to have moving around the restaurant, but that still leaves enough characters for a "boys'" character meal. Maybe Disney doesn't think it would be popular (in which case I strongly disagree!)? Maybe they feel that those are Pixar, not really Disney? Maybe they're worried that people would complain that there's too much Pixar already?

At Disneyland Paris, we saw several of the Robin Hood characters out, I think it was Robin, Friar Tuck, and Prince John. They were mobbed by little boys! But I think the movie is more popular in Europe these days than in the US, particularly in Britain - lots of Britons at Disneyland Paris.

[DANAM]

Totally agree. Boys are getting forgotten! I would add there's no equivalent of the BB Boutique for boys either. On the plus side, you could argue that at least boys at Disney don't have as many unrealistic expectations placed on them...

We do now!!! The Pirate's League will be openning near POTC in June. I am so excited!!!! My DS has always done the cool dude package at BBB but now my DD will have to do the Pirate Package at PL. Soooo Excited.

As far as everything else goes. Yes, boys don't have that many extra options but sometimes it is in the eye of the beholder. I have never felt like my son has missed out on something because he was a boy. I agree that it would be nice to have a boy themed restaurant but I definatley don't think that there isn't any character dining for boys now, either.

[DisneyNut2005]

I would have to agree! My poor grandson is sooooo....tired of all the "Princess" meals and character meets.

As I've said before, make your voice heard. Go to guest relations while you're in the parks and be sure to write letters when you get home.

After all, a little feedback does go a long way.

[JPL]

It's all marketing related unfortunately. Girls want to dress up like the Princesses and Fairies so they can sell costumes and accessories. Girls want a Princess makeover so we have the BBB. So they can sell more merchandise and market it to the girls much easier. Afterall every little girl is someone's princess and people will spend big bucks to make them happy.

[DisneyGlutton]

Afterall every little girl is someone's princess and people will spend big bucks to make them happy.

I get all the marketing towards little girls, I just don't get why there isn't a corollary campaign aimed at little boys. Do parents spoil and spend more on their daughters? Idk, I don't have kids, but I keep thinking that if WDW had a Pirates meal or something back in the day (yes I know there were no PotC movies back in the day, its a for instance), I would've begged my parents to take me, and they would've no matter how much it cost!! Spend on your little princes too, lol

[buzznwoodysmom]

I have two boys, no girls, and I agree it can be frustrating. However, we've managed to find lots of stuff for our boys. I'd hardly say that there aren't many character meets for boys. My boys have met tons of characters that were mainly boy related. They've met The Incredibles, Mr. and Mrs. as well as frozone, Peter Pan, Mr. Smee, Hook, Capt. Jack Sparrow, Kim Possilbe and Ron Stoppable, Sully, Mike, several Star Wars characters during star wars weekends, all of the power rangers, Buzz, Woody, Stitch, Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale, some of the jungle book characters, some of the lion king characters, and these are just off the top of my head without looking through their autograph books. We don't even really go hunting for characters, we only get them if we are at a character meal or if we happen upon them and there isn't a long line. Plus there are at least 3 or 4 pirate cruise adventures at several of the resorts that are a dream come true for little boys and in my opinion very comparable to BBB. The new Kim Possible adventure at Epcot is a great addition for kids as well. I am sure many girls love it, but having two boys I can tell you this is something very appealing to young boys. Probably more so than for most girls. The new addition of T-Rex at DTD is a great dining option for boys. What little boy didn't love dinosaurs at one point in his life. There is also the design your own lightsaber thingy at Once upon a Toy. Over at Fort Wilderness there is a petting zoo, pony rides and horse back riding. AKL has an adventure called Bush Camp which is something my boys would love to do. My kids have dressed up like Buzz and Woody, Peter Pan and Capt. Hook, Jack sparrow, power rangers, and my youngest as Anakin Skywalker once. They got tons of attention from CMs and characters. There are a good number of costumes and accessories for boys and the pirate adventure room at DTD is a fun place for boys to shop. These are all things most little boys would love. Sure you may have to look harder for fun things for boys, whereas the girl stuff is definitely in your face, but there's lots of stuff out there to please boys. To me the only thing really missing for boys is a character meal. Which really is ashamed since there are tons of options. They could have a toy story character meal at DHS, a star wars character meal, a jungle type meal at AK or AKL with characters from the Jungle book, tarzan and the lion king, a pirate meal with hook, smee, peter pan and various pirates, a pixar meal with some of the guys from pixar films. I do agree that WDW does cater to girls more so than boys, but other than the character meals I don't think the girls have that much more going on for them than the boys as far as activities and character meets go. I've been sending emails after just about every trip recommending a character meal for boys ever since our first trip with our kids. They were two years old and 9 months old at the time. They are now 7 and 9 and nothing's come of my emails thus far, but I'll continue sending them in hopes that one day WDW will have a "boy" character meal.

[TheVBs]

I definitely think they could do more for the boys. We have girls, but they would LOVE a pirate character meal! You can't go wrong with pirates, even if Capt. Jack isn't there. They could do one with The Incredibles, Buzz and Woody. And even though Lightning McQueen and Mater couldn't roam around a restaurant, they could have a greeting area before hand, like at Cinderella Castle. Then the boys could get Cars themed goodies with the meal. They could also do a Heros meal with Hercules, etc.

[Mickey'sGirl]

It's all marketing related unfortunately. Girls want to dress up like the Princesses and Fairies so they can sell costumes and accessories. Girls want a Princess makeover so we have the BBB. So they can sell more merchandise and market it to the girls much easier. Afterall every little girl is someone's princess and people will spend big bucks to make them happy.

I so agree...and they do it with just cause. My boys are 5 and almost 11, and they just don't care about that kind of stuff in the same way, or for as long as girls do. Boys are so much more involved with the "real" world (stereotype I know). They don't get as caught up in the "celebrity" of the characters. Disney cleverly sets up cool stores that sell LEGO, electronics, Star Wars stuff. That's where they'll make their money with boys ... not with costumes, beauty boutiques or magic meals.

[Blue Genie]

This is the same way over at Disneyland. The only male characters we get out are Peter,Aladdin,Mad Hatter,Woody and Buzz plus Skulley. We use ti have Hercules out alot to but I haven't seen him in a very long time. Ones in a wild Prince Phillip pops out but not that often. So yes I agree there needs to be more male characters out. Hook was also a big run around character to but he dosen't show up to much anymore as well as Beast.