#but the fact that they - infamously risk-averse - didn’t see green lighting this movie as too much of a risk

[eggy-tea]

I know that Disney not promoting Strange World pretty much at all is really frustrating. That it’s galling to feel like you’re always celebrating the barest scraps of representation. The people who are asking for more, for better, are not the real problem.

But also, several of the local elementary schools in my small hometown went to see this movie as a school field trip before Christmas break. (I use that term intentionally; this place is conservative/Christian enough that it is still very much “Christmas break,” and not “winter holidays.”)

I can’t even begin to imagine that happening when I was a kid. A movie with an openly gay protagonist being treated like a normal kids’ movie? That you just take a bunch of six-year-olds to see, and your biggest worry is whether the “danger” scenes might be too scary for them? That elementary schools would be willing to sign up for it without fearing mobs of angry parents at their doorsteps?

We can’t let the fact that we still have so far to go blind us to the progress that we have made. Keep pushing, keep fighting, but celebrate the victories, however small. They all pile up into something bigger.

#it’s discouraging to always focus on the distance from the goal and never the distance traveled #but it’s not just that: #when you lose sight of the little victories you also lose sight of the starting point #so it’s easier to miss the work of the people who came before you #it divorces your current efforts from their place in the community of people struggling together #and it lets the opposition obscure their real goal: to go all the way back to the bad old days - and further if they can #if you don’t know where you started you don’t know how bad it can get #and you might start to think their demands aren’t unreasonable #of course disney doesn’t give a shit about you #but the fact that they - infamously risk-averse - didn’t see green lighting this movie as too much of a risk #that *is* a victory in itself #because it’s a sign of the bigger quieter victory behind it