Disney allowing beards and goatees next month. Ugh!

[annafab]

Let us not forget that Walt's original vision never included a lot of the technological achievements we've come up with since he passed. (Just because his original Lincoln animatronic was awesome for it's time doesn't mean we should not improve on it - which we have.) Walt's the one that said that Disneyland would never be finished and that it would keep changing. I think he'd include the cast members in that. The show the cast members put on in the 50s represented a 50s mindset. Beards weren't that popular in the 50s (according to the internets) because they represented either old people, Central Europeans (Cold War FEAR), members of a religious sect, or academics. (Wikipedia) Or worst of all...they were BEATNIKS. It wasn't until the 70s and 80s that business people started having beards again.

Now, clean-cut, short beards are seen as perfectly normal. The cast members are no longer putting on a show from the 50s. They're putting on a show from the 21st century. That doesn't mean letting everything go to pot and have them dress and look however they want (note that "unnatural" hair colors - including unnatural looking blonde locks - are still not allowed even though that's relatively normal now).

As for the "as come beards, so come tattoos" scenario, that is unlikely to happen since there are still huge portions of society that frown upon tattoos. It's not just Americans that are being exposed to cast members anymore either. Certain other cultures view tattoos even worse than some Americans. When I went to Uganda, some of the folks I was with had to cover up their tattoos because some groups would relate them to witchcraft.

[subsonic]

I believe the decision was made to make working at the parks more appealing to applicants. To reduce turnaround.

On Facebook there's a group I'm in for ex-Disneyland Tomorrowland employees, most of them worked there in the 70's and 80's, and most of them agree with this exactly. Again, as I said in my post, Disney should pay more respect to the CMs through pay and being supportive of their actions, not by being less strict about grooming standards. I know when I worked at Disneyland I took pride in my job and was happy to meet the grooming standards.

[Wyntuck]

I was not only happy to meet the grooming standards, I was PROUD to. Something worth having( a job at Disney) is worth making a small sacrifice for.

[subsonic]

I was not only happy to meet the grooming standards, I was PROUD to. Something worth having( a job at Disney) is worth making a small sacrifice for.

I completely agree!