My disdain for Disney Adults comes entirely from my blistering unbridled hatred for Disney, tyvm

model trains are an adult hobby I have never once met a child who liked them the target demographic is 60+ year old English men

that being said there is no shame in an adult liking things from their childhood the term refers to the people who are rabid consumers if you given the option would not rent a full time apartment in disneyland you aren’t a disney adullt

There is nothing wrong with liking ‘childish’ things. However, if you still like and cling to the exact same things that you did as a child, the exact same way as you did as a child, you risk being something worse than ‘childish’, you are ‘boring’.

Like, I have a friend who is really into Superman. When I say this, I mean the motherfucker is into every version, iteration and era of Superman and can tell you storylines that I have never even heard of that actually make me want to read Superman comics, which are usually my least favorite. It is very unlikely that his favorite Superman is the same now as it was when he was 10 or 15 or even 20. Most importantly, he even knows about writers and ownership disputes and why things changed over time. He loves the concept and history of the product, as a consumer product.

Now, I’m not saying that you have to have that level of dedicated nerdom to any specific topic for it to be ‘legit’, but that is, to me, what distinguishes it as an adult passion from a childish hobby. The meta level of understanding and conscious consumption.

Disney adults are weird because they rarely know that much about Disney outside of the products. Like they don’t want to acknowledge the absolutely shitty things that Disney does to their employees, or how Disney completely guts the IP’s they buy, and their obsession with the ‘Disney magic’. That is ‘childish’ and ultimately, boring! Because they view it literally as a child would. That being said, portraying Mickey as a bloodthirsty vampire is also getting cliche, but at least it’s an accurate cliche.

No. This is coming from someone with ADHD and anxiety and a myriad of sleep disorders. At least, “disney adult.” The other two maybe, since it’s also used by reactionary sources. But regarding disney adults, it’s usually referring to bougie adults whose entire lives revolve around loyalty to disney products. I’ve never seen “nintendo adult” before, but if it’s the same thing it’s no different than “sony ponies” or “xbots” or “nintendrones”. Just blind loyalty and obsession over a product to the point of anger if criticized because they’ve made it their identity.

In my experience, disney adults are always richer than the average person. I mean, that makes sense, why else would they be able to go to disneyworld every week and make their whole lives disney? Game fanboys tend to be more diverse since games are relatively cheap compared to planet tickets, hotel fees, and disney tickets

Doing childish things is fine. I have plenty of stuff animals. I even share pics of them with some people. But if you’d be uncomfortable walking into a house where every inch is covered with funko pops, then you’d probably be uncomfortable with someone who can’t shut the fuck up about disney and toys after they stop being 13

They’re just jealous because they lost the ability to see the world other than black and white. Their world is dull and colorless.

Color, music, imagination leads to empathy. Empathy is the profit killer and discouraged.

I’m getting into Ghibli films and anime and crying out of beautiy and slice of life stuff. I love getting immersed in art.

Video games, ANIMATED! With colors, music, and atmospheres typical movies don’t touch because it isn’t bland enough for the majority of audiences for maximum profit squeezing.

Don’t be bothered by the squares Owl. Enjoy the rainbow 🌈 😊

It’s more a criticism of identity-through-consumption

A bit, yes. I wrote a long post and kinda grappled with my own internal stuff and then deleted it. I think it’s a bit weird to identify with brands in the same way people make “maths” their special interest, kind of like a victim of our society and marketing. Like whales (many of whom are likely neurodivergent and are harmed financially by their identification with games). I think that’s different to a Washington DC wonk telling you to vote for Hermione, even though throwing a single line insult might catch both in the spread and superficially both are “special interests”. Probably something to hash out at some stage.

it’s ok to enjoy things, including childish things. I play video games and watch anime. I always got the impression a Disney adult isn’t someone who simply enjoys Disney things, but rather, their personality is consumption and they can’t decide who they are without attaching brands to themselves

it would work with any brand. Imagine someone who follows all the news about Colgate toothpaste, wears a Colgate logo shirt, cuddles with Toothy the Toothbuddy™ Colgate® Official Stuffed animal and that’s their entire personality. And they’re not even a dentist, they just love the brand

The “childish” things with less corporate worship are better.

All the Disney adults I know are complete reactionaries

disney adult and nintendo adult seem way more specific than manchild, like i’m pretty sure a bunch of the disney freaks are perfectly neurotypical.

manchildren are probably a mix of people who didn’t get care (and deserve some accommodation if we’re not definitionally excluding non-harmful behavior) and “weaponized incompetence” types who could simply make better choices.

Absolutely nothing wrong with having hobbies or being into childish things but to me “manchild” shit starts to arise when you start doing shit like gatekeeping your hobbies from women and poc or attack anyone trying to make it inclusive. Disney, Nintendo, Marvel et all are billion dollar industries after all thanks to adults flush with excess cash.

It’s interesting that you mention your ADHD, because I’ve always attributed mine to the fact that I can’t stay interested in anything for super long.

I know extremely smart and good people who are still obsessed with Harry Potter and Star Wars and I don’t think any less of them but personally I have moved on from 50 things since then and it’s basically impossible with all this baggage to have any non-superficial discussion about media with these people. I’m not going to turn that into a fucking superiority complex like some dumbass teenager though.

Same goes with music etc. Some of us get stimulated by novel ideas, some of us prefer to deeply engage with something they love and it really just boils down to personality. Most people are somewhere in between.

I like to make fun of disney adults because the one’s I’ve known were really annoying libs, but I can see where you’re coming from. One thing I do really hate is when people rip on disney adults in the context of trying to pat themselves on the back for having “adult/ mature” tastes because they like some lurid dogshit “prestige TV” with terrible writing and unlikable shit-assed characters, but there’s lots of awkward violence and sex scenes so therefore it’s better.

To me it’s less a matter of what you consume media wise and how you consume it. Being super into something like Disney movies as an adult is fine but to me a Disney Adult is one who still approaches it like a child with no analytical outlook whatsoever and it being the ONLY sort of media they interact with. I know plenty of people who I work with who are adults who pretty much only ever watch kids movies. That’s the childish part to me.