Just saying because nearly every person I know who has ADHD and/or Autism (including myself) seems to care less about people knowing they’re into “childish” things.
Also the idea that this is a new phenomenon because Millenials and older gen Z are “soft” or stunted in some way.
I mean, boomers have model trains and and cars. So did their parents. My grandma used to knit herself plushies. This isn’t new. You don’t suddenly stop having your old likes because you reach a certain age.
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
Yeah, sounds like I got the wrong idea about what the term means, because fuck Disneyland lol.
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 🌈 😊
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
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.
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
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.
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.
in the same way people make “maths” their special interest
I feel personally attacked.
This but zoology :kitty-cri-screm:
All the Disney adults I know are complete reactionaries
Every Disney adult I know was very sheltered as a child, including homeschooling. They weren’t allowed to watch anything outside of Disney, they had strict curfews, made straight As in school, and they always have a big smile. I’m not saying that being happy and well adjusted makes you creepy or stupid, no no no. But every Disney adult I’ve met has a creepy level of positivity and a strong aversion towards thinking about anything negative. They can’t watch anything scary, can’t speak negatively about anything, won’t swear.
And yes, they’re complete reactionaries, of the golden era past variety. The mainstreet USA, straw boater hat, women with petticoats, Norman Rockwell. That’s the kind of vibe I get from them.
The ones I’ve met are libs and either had that kind of strict background or were latch key kids with parental locks on the TV etc. I was a latch key kid who’d go rent my own movies unsupervised. Even as a kid I saw the future Disney adults in the making and they all just seemed to occupy this fantasy mindset that usually ends around age 10.
The “childish” things with less corporate worship are better.
yeah it’s been said a couple of times here but making your consumption of a product your entire identity is worthy of ridicule. people shouldn’t brand themselves with their favorite products
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.
approaches it like a child with no analytical outlook whatsoever
This is the perfect way I’ve been struggling to say it. I know several Marvel adults and tried finding common ground with them, because they’re my coworkers and I’m trapped in a room with them all day anyway. I really like the X-men and have since I was a kid, so I tried talking about the social justice allegories, how Professor X is a kind of representation of MLK Jr, how the 2000s movies are clearly an allegory for being a gay runaway in America. They all looked at me like I just ate a live cockroach. None of them had any clue what I was talking about and said I was reading too deeply into it, or that I was just making shit up. It was frustrating, because I like analyzing stuff.
You don’t even need to be like, someone who actively analyzes stuff cause I get that’s a hobby almost but if you’re gonna be surface level then as you get older you should still want a meatier surface level at some point.
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.
Who is the prototypical manchild, it’s like an older unhygienic dude in a fedora who’s an asshole and sore loser (and a even sorer winner) that hogs tables at your friendly local gamestores pokemom tcg event who also manages to turn away any non older unhygienic dudes with hateful rhetoric and antiquated attitudes. Or I guess there’s the weird right wing youtube commentators with a cartoon as an avatar gatekeeping TV aimed at children (that was not made with them in mind, like the modern She-Ra or whatever and that they have no personal childhood connection to).
I guess Disney Adult isn’t like that, the prototypical Disney Adult is probably a mid 30s lady making 6 figures with an email job who spends tens of thousands of dollars on Disney stuff and vacations and probably talks about Disney a lot. It probably doesn’t help that they have theater kid vibes as well. But at least they aren’t harmful or hateful like “manchildren.” Nintendo Adult is a new thing to me, I don’t know which way they swing between God awful manchild or inoffensive Disney Adult.
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.
Probably
Along with most extremely inoffensive things considered “cringe”
