Last night, the phrase "Disney Adults" was trending on Twitter, and, since it is Twitter, as we're sure you can imagine, it wasn't for a very kind reason.

Whole swaths of people were coming out of the woodwork to throw shade - or just blatant insults and death threats - at Adults who are still into Disney, be it their movies, parks, or shows.

Now look. We've all met that obnoxious Disney person - the one who will defend the company at every turn, believes they can do no wrong, and takes it super personally whenever somebody offhandedly mentions they're not a huge fan of the mouse.


But the thing is, the post that started all this was not a post like that. No, the post in quesiton was actually a simple one: Just an adult woman who is excited to finally get to hug Goofy again for the first time since the pandemic.

Now, it's worth noting that even if there were no other context, this would be a mean thing to make fun of someone for. Is this a childish reason to get excited? Sure. But we all have those childhood interests that we've never been able to shake - or is the whole world not obsessing over Batman and Spider-man right now?

But what's even worse is all these nasty comments are actually being made on a post that was really about how much this young woman wanted to hug Goofy because he was her late grandfather's favorite character, and seeing him reminded her of him.

It was actually a really sweet and innocent post about the heart of why Disney is so popular - its stories and characters can connect generations of families, and they can mean so much more than just entertainment. But when it comes right down to it, it's always wrong to make fun of someone for something they like when it isn't hurting anyone.

Yes, Disney is a corporation with some harmful practices, but as The Good Place handily demonstrated, it's kinda impossible to detach yourself from a company that big in the world we live in anyway - and as the whole Don't Say Gay rift demonstrated to us, it's possible to feel one way about the creators and their stories, and feel entirely differently about the company itself.

It's also worth noting that when you make fun of an adult for being really really into Disney, what you really may be doing is hating on a neurodivergent person with a hyperfixation - which, as a practice, is probably far crueler than you think it is.


Neurodivergent people - people on the autism spectrum, people with ADHD (hi there), bipolar people, people with BPD, et cetera - are people whose minds work differently than the "average" person, in a number of different ways. But one of the common threads between many neurodivergent people are hyperfixations and special interests - these are things that the person becomes singularly and passionately devoted to, for long periods, or possibly over their whole life. (Sorta like having a comfort show you serially re-watch, but to an extreme.)

If you've ever met someone who's been obsessed with Disney in That Disney Adult way, there's a good chance they're neurodivergent - and making fun of them for their hyperfixation is incredibly cruel, because neurodivergent people usually get made fun of for their hyperfixations constantly, often from early, early childhood.

They're not hurting anyone - they just express passion in a way you can't understand because their brain is literally built different than yours. (And you're the latest in a long line of people who, instead of making an effort to understand them, chose to laugh at them and say you wish they didn't exist.)

But even when the people you're making fun of AREN'T neurodivergent, it's still mean - we all did just go through two of the most depressing years in recorded history, which has a lot of people returning to things they loved in happier times - like childhood - to try to remember how to be happy again.

Long story short here: The way Twitter rabidly jumped on Disney Adults for existing was weirder than most things I've seen Disney Adults do.

I could make fun of things you like that are cringe too. But I won't. You know why? Disney taught me better.