A Dose of Disney Kidney-ness

-
I recently came across this heartwarming Disney World story. Examining Disney through a critical lens is obviously very important, as its audience is unbelievably massive. However, it is also worth noting that this large audience is a group of people that some fans view as their community – a belief that is clear through the story I read.


A man named Rob Leibowitz had been on dialysis for years, awaiting a kidney transplant. Due to his need for a kidney from someone with O blood type, he was having additional trouble finding a donor. Knowing that his body was declining during the wait for the kidney, Leibowitz decided to try and advertise his need during a trip to Disney with his children. Leibowitz had a shirt made that “In Need of Kidney O Positive” with his phone number below. While at the park, people snapped pictures, and one man’s Facebook post with the picture garnered 90,000 shares by the end of the week! Long story short, a complete stranger ended up matching with Leibowitz and donating his kidney. The surgery was successful and Leibowitz is doing well. Oh, the power of social media and the Disney community!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Impact of Increasing Prices of Entry to Walt Disney World and Disneyland

-
Image
During the second week of February 2018, Walt Disney World and Disneyland increased their entry prices. The price of each entry option was heightened anywhere from a couple dollars to over ten dollars more. The price for a family of four to attend Magic Kingdom park in Orlando, FL for one day now amounts to $526. Personally, I am not super surprised that Disney is raising its prices; I imagine that, from a business perspective, this is the ideal change. Disney is so enormously popular; people plan out entire trips just to visit the parks. For this reason, I doubt that the amount of people who attend the Disney parks will actually change all that much. Most people will probably be willing to pay the higher prices, increasing Disney’s revenue pretty extensively over time. However, I think that the socioeconomic class diversity at Disney (to the extent that it exists...) may end up decreasing. While people obviously have to have a certain amount of wealth in order to ...
Read more

Reflection: The Sleeping Beauty

-
Image
The Sleeping Beauty  was my second favorite Disney princess movie as a child (after  The Little Mermaid  - I somehow managed to pick two of the most problematic films as my favorites... yikes). My love for the film was definitely partly inspired by the fact that it was not a Disney princess movie that my family owned, so watching it at a friend’s house (or elsewhere) was always a special treat. Prior to watching the movie again for this class, I would have probably summarized it as follows: Maleficent crashes a party with Aurora as a baby and sets the curse on her because she was not invited, Aurora goes to live with the three fairies in the woods, she has a run-in with the Prince she is supposed to marry, she gets tricked into touching the spindle, Phillip goes after Maleficent in anger and defeats her while she is in dragon form, he goes to kiss and wake Aurora, and they lived happily ever after. I also would have made the claim that her dress was pink ...
Read more

Release of Black Panther: Implications for Disney and the Audience

-
Image
On Friday, February 16th, 2018, Black Panther was released in theaters. The movie was released by Marvel, which has the Walt Disney Corporation as its parent company. Disney had provided a $200 million budget for the film, which, for the first time, starred a black actor playing a superpower, and was directed by a black man. In just the first weekend, the movie has generated over $360 million across the world. The release of this movie was highly anticipated, especially because of its messages about race - both in stories and in Hollywood. Many believe that it will set a powerful example of black leadership - especially for younger audiences, who will finally be able to see themselves reflected in power positions in films of this genre. I believe this proves that movies are not simply a couple hours of our lives that, otherwise, have no impact on our lives or development. Rather, the messages depicted through the entertainment industry can both empower and destro...
Read more