Podcast Summary — New Books Network
Episode: Sabrina Mittermeier, "Fan Phenomena: Disney" (Intellect Books, 2023)
Date: November 28, 2025
Host: Pete Kunze
Guest: Sabrina Mittermeier
Main Theme and Purpose
In this episode, Pete Kunze interviews Sabrina Mittermeier, editor of Fan Phenomena: Disney, about the evolving nature of Disney fandom and how fan studies complicate and enrich our understanding of Disney as a global cultural phenomenon. Mittermeier discusses methods for studying Disney fans, the intersections of fandom, inclusion, and corporate strategies, the Disney Adult phenomenon, and areas for future research.
1. Sabrina Mittermeier’s Background and Interest in Disney Fandom
[02:37 – 04:27]
- Mittermeier holds a PhD in American Cultural History from LMU Munich, with an interdisciplinary focus on American studies, cultural history, and popular culture.
- Her dissertation (now a monograph) centered on Disneyland and the challenge of studying visitors and audiences.
- Early Disney studies tended to view fans as passive dupes susceptible to corporate brainwashing, but Mittermeier champions fan studies as introducing new nuance, highlighting fans’ active engagement, creativity, and critique.
Quote:
“It was kind of surprising that there wasn’t more work on Disney fans yet ... it's such a big part of what makes Disney Disney.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [04:10]
2. The Evolution of Disney Studies and the Value of Fan Studies
[04:35 – 10:44]
- Early Disney scholarship (1980s-90s) focused on Disney as a cultural imperialist, missing the complexity of fan engagement.
- Fan studies show fans as critically engaged, not merely passive consumers.
- Mittermeier notes the influx of diverse Disney fans, especially queer fans and people of color, who maintain critical relationships with the company and its flaws.
- With social media, Disney must pay more attention to fan perspectives.
Quote:
“Fan studies ... brings more nuance to all of this because a lot of fans are very active in how they engage with texts.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [05:07]
3. Industry Change, Inclusion, and Corporate Tension
[10:47 – 16:27]
- Disney has added “inclusion” as a value in response to cultural shifts and movements (e.g., Black Lives Matter).
- There’s tension between genuine progressive change and strategic business practice for broader customer satisfaction.
- Shifts in leadership (Bob Iger vs. Bob Chapek) impact company approach to social justice, inclusion, and engagement with fans.
Quote:
“They always try to walk such a fine line between… not offending anyone and always being … appealing to everyone, which … is impossible.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [12:14]
Notable Moment:
Discussion of how change in CEO creates shifts in corporate culture and visibility of progressive or regressive stances, especially related to “Don’t Say Gay” in Florida.
4. The “Disney Adult” Phenomenon
[16:38 – 20:49]
- “Disney Adult” increasingly used as a term for passionate, often uncritical adult fans, sometimes perceived as obsessive or entitled, drawing cultural ire and media attention.
- The stereotype intensified during the pandemic, with criticism focused on adults returning to the parks amid layoffs and COVID.
- Mittermeier notes that while the “Disney Adult” can be privileged and exclusionary, the term also overlooks diversity within the community.
Quote:
“The Disney adult … is like the most extreme version of Disney fan. And there’s some people that should be rightfully criticized … usually with a lot of money, usually whites, who have a lot of spare money to spend on Disney merchandise…” – Sabrina Mittermeier [19:42]
5. Research Methods in Disney Fan Studies
[21:22 – 23:57]
- Online spaces (Tumblr, Archive of Our Own) and social media are central sites for studying fan art, fan fiction, and anti-fandom.
- There’s room for more historical and archival research, e.g., on early Disney fandom, since most current scholarship focuses on digital practices.
- Accessibility of online fandoms is a benefit for younger scholars and undergraduates.
Quote:
“So much of the fandom happens online … makes it also a cool thing for people who do undergrad thesis and so on … because they don’t need fancy archival access.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [23:46]
6. Diversity and the Disney Princess Franchise
[24:38 – 27:11]
- Disney princesses are the most examined aspect of Disney fandom, with focus on race, gender, and market strategies.
- The franchise out-earns Star Wars and Marvel, challenging gendered assumptions about fan communities.
Quote:
“There’s so many female Star Wars and Marvel fans, but there’s also a bunch of boys who like Disney princesses. And I think Frozen has shown that quite clearly as well.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [27:08]
7. Queer Representation, Censorship, and Fan Interpretation
[27:34 – 35:07]
- Discusses complexities of “first gay” representation in Disney (e.g., LeFou in Beauty and the Beast), queer coding, and the gap between fan perceptions and corporate intentions.
- Acknowledgement of queer creators behind the scenes and their impact (e.g., Howard Ashman), as well as issues of queerbaiting and explicit representation.
- Disney’s corporate caution, such as cutting queer content in international releases, points to ongoing tensions.
Quote:
“They have sold the first gay character about ten times now without ever actually … doing anything meaningful with it necessarily.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [33:41]
8. Theme Parks: Sites of Fandom and Exclusion
[35:12 – 41:14]
- Disney theme parks are active fan spaces, uniquely able to generate immediate customer feedback (e.g., unpopular shows being quickly replaced).
- Theme parks embody both inclusion and exclusion: pricing strategies shape who can access the parks, with increasing focus on VIP and affluent customers.
- International parks vary, but overall, attending Disney remains a privilege.
- Practices like DisneyBounding (subtle park-friendly cosplay) and the impact on fan identities discussed.
Quote:
“The people who go all the time, they have money … they’re still trying to sell it as an everyman experience. Although … they don’t even care that much anymore.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [40:04]
9. Fan Labor and Corporate Monetization
[42:20 – 46:05]
- Explains fan labor as all creative fan production: art, fiction, costumes, videos.
- Disney increasingly monetizes fan practices, creating products and experiences (e.g., official princess dresses, Galaxy's Edge costumes) in response to fan initiatives.
- Tension as Disney sometimes fails to produce items that true fans want—suggests that “hiring more adamant fans” would help corporate product development.
- Social media turns fans into unpaid promoters.
Quote:
“Fans do something, they produce their own stuff … then Disney’s like, why are we not doing this? … Sometimes they’re quite good at it. And sometimes they suck.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [45:38]
10. Including Interviews with Fan Practitioners
[46:14 – 48:29]
- Volume includes interviews with diverse Disney influencers to reflect multiplicity of experiences, particularly those not fitting dominant white, cisgender, heterosexual narratives.
- These voices highlight issues like systemic racism in Disney fandom from a non-academic perspective.
11. The Future of Disney Fan Studies
[48:50 – 51:41]
- Opportunities: increased engagement with queer fandom, more work on Disney parks, and a call for more historical research (archival, oral history) into earlier fan cultures.
- Next steps include studying the evolution of Disney merchandising and earlier phenomena like the Davy Crockett craze.
- Oral history is urgent, with opportunities to interview fans from the 1950s-70s before valuable firsthand accounts are lost.
12. Mittermeier’s Current and Future Work
[51:52 – 54:10]
- While Disney studies will remain part of her work, Mittermeier is focusing on unmade queer television in the US and Germany, exploring issues of censorship, archiving, and representation.
- She is also involved in an upcoming volume on the musical history of New York City.
Memorable Quotes
- "Fan studies can just break [open] ... myopic [Disney studies]." – [16:24]
- “I run the Disney studies area at PCA every year. So that won’t stop, hopefully, for a bit, because we only started it last year.” – Sabrina Mittermeier [52:24]
Useful Timestamps for Segments
- [02:37] Sabrina’s academic background and entry into Disney fandom studies
- [04:35] Value of fan studies in complicating early Disney scholarship
- [10:47] Disney, inclusion, and business strategies
- [16:38] The “Disney Adult” phenomenon
- [21:22] Methods for studying Disney fans
- [24:38] Diversity in Disney princess fandom
- [27:34] Queer representation, censorship, and Disney+
- [35:12] Studying Disney theme parks as fan spaces
- [42:20] Fan labor and corporate monetization
- [48:50] The future of Disney fan studies
- [51:52] Mittermeier’s next projects
Tone and Style
The conversation is thoughtful, accessible, academic but personable. Mittermeier is critical yet appreciative of both fans and Disney; the podcast maintains a balance between fandom celebration and rigorous cultural critique.
Summary
Fan Phenomena: Disney demonstrates that understanding Disney and its fans is more nuanced than ever, involving complex interplay between cultural forces, corporate agendas, and diverse fan communities. Mittermeier and contributors move beyond simplistic binaries to surface the creativity, critique, resistance, and labor embedded in Disney fandom—in the parks, online, and across identities and generations.