theme-park-food-fandom

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Interview #1 with Alize Raptou

Image: The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom

Lonnae: Favorite Thing to Do in Theme parks?

Alize: My favorite thing to do is watch the show, which obviously isn't happening right now because of COVID. Festival of the lion king is my favorite show but I have many that I love to watch. Growing up, I would always watch the performances like the castle shows, or even Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood Studios. I guess I’ve always loved entertainment in the parks. And then rides, I love the rides! 

Lonnae: What is your relationship to theme park food?

Alize: I actually loved Mickey ear ice cream bars while growing up going to the parks. It actually wasn't until going into the Disney College Program that I started to realize that there were many more staple foods in the park. I also realized there were even fan accounts for them (for food). Mine was more basic growing up. Also now that I think about it,  there were more places that my family would always eat at. Like there were always traditional restaurants we would dine at while visiting the parks. 

Lonnae: What are some of your favorite theme park staples?

Alize: Definitely Dole whip, Mickey pretzels, things like that!............

Click on the link to read more : Interview with Alize Raptou 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11zArx3dGnjBVwUApDWi-dF5TZgbOKoGuQITIcIarmZE/edit 

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The term “Disney Adult”

The term “Disney Adults” is often negative, but why? Disney is seen as childish, childlike, vague, feminine, emotional, soft, imaginative, and creative. Yet why do we cast these important aspects of humane life to ridicule? Why is a Disney adult, who is not hurting anyone, a target of ridicule when sports fans do exactly the same thing? There are toxic and problematic groups/people in any fandom, but why are Disney adults such an easy target? I argue against this notion of anti-fandom and misogyny. I think fandoms are essential in connecting with the world around you as long as one is both critical and realistic. Fans can both resist and lean into whatever they choose in a fandom, and they have the power to control an institution...which is pretty powerful but not as easy as it sounds. Let’s take a further look into this with the start of it all: Coney Island

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When it opened in May 1904, Dreamland Park was among the most costly amusement parks in the United States. A small group of powerful New York politicians raised $3.5 million and made some under-the-table deals in order to have Dreamland up and running at Coney Island exactly one year after Luna Park opened. These men, led by the former state senator William H. Reynolds, sought to capitalize on the immediate financial success of Luna Park. In order to outdo Luna, located directly across Surf Avenue, they made everything bigger and brighter at Dreamland. The 375-foot-high Beacon Tower was much taller than Luna’s Kaleidoscope Tower and the one million electric lights quadrupled those at Luna. In addition, as seen in this photograph by Eugene Wemlinger, a thirty-five-foot-high statue of a voluptuous nude angel, framed by a golden arch and crowned with an electric sign, towered over visitors.

This statue served multiple purposes. It was a startling contrast to the red-and-white pinwheels across the street at Luna and it positioned the park as a virtuous counterpoint to the zany Steeplechase, with its devilish Funny Face. The statue’s immense presence immediately signaled that Dreamland was different from these earlier parks. Many of the buildings at Dreamland housed biblically or morally inspired attractions, including Hell Gate and The End of the World. However, the use of an angel to frame the entrance to Dreamland was also cleverly subversive in that the religious connotations allowed for excessive female nudity to be on display.  

Posted by Connie H. Choi

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So Why Coney Island?

Points made that are important in understanding why Coney Island became popular:

At Coney Island, which is very similar to the ideology of Disney Parks, you are not expected to do anything including social norms or having high brow thoughts. All you had to do was let go, have fun, and spend your money. Specifically younger people could go to Coney Island and break gender norms. In the same way, theme parks now are for younger generations who refuse to “grown up”.  

At Cony Island you had to embrace the dirty, the ugly, the strange, the fun, the grotesque of American-ness. Coney Island became almost ritualistic as here you could directly participate in the nature of life which was scary, fun, sexual, satisfying, sad, unfair, and unwinding. Amusement parks were a place for people to resist respectability of American Society.

The aspect of play was also a very important. To the working class “play is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity” as work days could be intense and cruel. 

(Do we still play at modern day theme parks? Where else do we embrace the aspect of play? Can we embrace play in how we see theme park food? Can food be play? Does play also mean reverting back to childhood?)

Make no mistake, many of the things at Coney Island also showcased American’s ideology of white supremacy, Christianity, imperialism, and capitalism. 

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A photo by Harold Feinstein, Coney Island, New York, 1949. This was a ride called the Gyro. You sat on a bench on the inside perimeter and got whirled around and upside down. This was either exciting or made you ill, depending. It was a big hit. Closed 60 years ago.

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Yippeeeeeeee!!! 

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Hangin’ at Coney Island, 1973

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Coney Island Through the Decades

Coney Island, New York City. From 1912 to 1955 (hi Grace Kelly), 1961 and 1968, 1975 (tag yourself), late 1970s (hi Debbie Harry, hi Lester Bangs, oh hey Warriors), and 1985.

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Let’s move onto marketing food and their influence: Why is this important? And how did Coney Island/Amusement Parks establish the quintessential idea of staple food fandoms?

One food noticeable as a staple in Theme Parks/Carnivals/Amusement Parks are hot dogs! 

Well, Hot Dogs are not only seen as an “all-American” snack but they were a cony island staple. Yet what allowed them to rise in extreme popularity was their food ads. These ads reached a more accessible audience. How does this relate to theme parks? It’s important to understand how we advertise food and advertise theme park food. 

Another way in which hot dog popularity rose was in it’s ads, according to the book Hot Dog: A Global History by Bruce Kraig “Oscar Mayer after WW2 was dedicated to marketing to children, spent 8 billion on marketing to children’s shows” p.68-69

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So how did the hot dog become a classic American favorite and a theme park staple?

A hot dog according to Hot Dog: A Global History is “usually a processed meat, in a sausage, of a certain seize --- originally it was exclusively red meat but poultry was later included in 1996 by the US department of agriculture...it’s a very finely chopped or ground meat product, precooked and is meant to be eaten out of the hand encased in a bun. Yet i also depend on textures, such as a soft style hot dog for children and then the harder encased adult style dogs - pg.12

There has always been conspiracies about the meat in hot dogs, but it’s mostly just a fun folktale (and a way to make economic/class diverges)

Sausages also hailed from Germany and the UK, in which American immigrants brought with them as sold as street food (p.20). 

Selling hot dogs (vendors) was known as the last American individualist

There are many myths about the creation of the hot dog, but the most plausibly untrue is Charles Feltman, a German immigrant who began selling pies from a wagon at Coney Island’s beach resort. It perpetuates this underdog myth of American labor and the American immigrant dream p 34-35

The fact that hot dogs were both transportable, tasty, easy to cook, and cheap to buy made them rise in popularity in the country. (Hot dogs were also one of Walt Disney’s favorite foods)

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Most popular snacks at Disney World: The hot dog, dole whip, pretzel, churro, and popcorn with popcorn buckets:

FINALLY, LET’S MOVE ONTO THEME PARKS AND THEIR FOOD!

“When the fandom involves gathering at a physical location, food becomes involved in the fandom given its necessity. Theme parks are replete with fandom-related foods, such as the Be Our Guest Restaurant at Walt Disney World for Beauty and the Beast fans. Food at conventions may not be fandom-related, such as the giant soft pretzel, but can become staples for a fandom given their ubiquity. Similar associations between a fandom and a food can occur at a sporting event; usually such food is unhealthy, fast food, lead-ing some fans to wish for healthier offerings to imbibe as part of their pastime (Ireland and Watkins 686)”. -9

Citation: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, et al. Eating Fandom : Intersections Between Fans and Food Cultures. Routledge, 2021

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Let’s look at how fans take photos of theme parks foods and the visual  connotations of the appeal of pretty foods and their childlike nature. This about how these foods look? What cultural context and capitol they hold? And if their fans care about such things. 

 This photo is from an international theme park (Tokyo Disneyland).

Some of the snacks I had at Tokyo Disneyland! ☆ﾟ. * ･ ｡ﾟ

Milk Chocolate Popcorn | Green Alien Mochi (with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry filling) Mickey shaped chicken nuggets | Mickey Mouse bread with caramel, strawberry, and chocolate filling and Mike Wasowski Melon Bread (my favourite of them all!)

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steaming teapot vending machines @ tokyo disneyland ☁️

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Tokyo Disneyland has the cutest treats!!

Photographs by S. Bricker

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Black History Month and how Theme parks can showcase Black food

When talking about food fandoms and theme parks, I think it’s still important to highlight the ways in which marginalized and black voices are often forgotten. Recently, this year, Disney has finally decided to celebrate Black History Month. I think it’s about time, yet it’s important to understand that blackness should never and can never be commodified. You cannot buy things in order to be more black, nor will celebrating a capitalistic blackness in food end black racism and oppression. Yet, it’s important to enjoy and highlight black heritage in any way, and in uplifting Black creatives that are already out in the world! There are many Black theme park fans who also desire to be represented, like myself. Not to mention, this project is lead and organized by Black women. 

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2021/02/celebrate-soulfully-at-disney-springs-interview-with-executive-chef-deaundra-dee-rolle-from-the-edison/ 

10 Ways Disney Springs Is Celebrating Black History Month! | Celebrating Soulfully! (Vlog) @The Tim Tracker

We should note:

“Immersion motivates many material fan practices. Fans gain a sense of being in, or at least in contact with, story worlds. Foods and beverages, like prop replicas, customized action figures, and other forms of mimetic fandom “convey a sense of boundary crossing, of moving from textuality to reality”; these and other material objects and fan practices, “[u]nlike fan fiction and vidding,” exemplify “an ontological bridging of the branded story world [...] and the fan’s everyday life” (Hills, “Dalek” 3.3). While “focused on the creation of highly screen-accurate” material, these fan works also “can be customized, personalized, and stylized” (1.2, 3.3); they can become transformative practices” - 136

Citation: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, et al. Eating Fandom : Intersections Between Fans and Food Cultures. Routledge, 2021.

What makes food authentic? Can it be authentic at a Theme Park? What is authenticity?

Do/Can fans connect with this food?

Is this a wide range of Black food and Black identities for food fans?

What even does cooking “black food mean’?

Who is the audience, or who is this geared toward?

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Theme Park Food and Social Media Fandom

How do fans connect with one another when away and at the parks? Well, though social media. Most food theme park fans connect through Insta because it allows one to visually post pleasing and curated pictures of food.

@Disneyworldfoodies Fiesta Margarita at Epcot, Mexico Pavillion

@Disneyworldfoodies Orange Swirl at Sunshine Tree Terrace, Magic Kingdom

@Disneyworldfoodies Popcorn

@Disneyworldfoodies Chocolate and Vanilla double scoop on a waffle cone at L’ Artisan des Glaces, Epcot

@Disneyworldfoodies Crab and Cheese Wontons with Boba Drink at EPCOT’s China Pavillion

@Disneyworldfoodies: Tater Tot Nachos (Totchos) at Hollywood Studios