Just when you think Disney is beginning to embrace the counter-culture (it recently decided to allow gay marriages to be held at its theme parks), I heard about a decision so asinine and utterly hypocritical that it made me cringe. At their theme parks in California and Florida, Disney controls two concert venues of the popular House of Blues chain. Two weeks ago, Disney suddenly decided that it no longer wanted Metal shows in its concert venues and pressured its House of Blues venues to cancel all of its extreme rock-related shows. They cited the bands' subversive and violent lyrics and their "questionable fans" as reason for the cancellations.

A quick look at Disney's actions past and present will reveal the hypocrisy in this decision. First, in the immediate vicinity of each of these venues, Disney hosts Pleasure Island, an adult dance hall, which clearly belies the fact that it has no qualms about offering adult content and features. Alcohol is copiously consumed and the club's very name emphasizes the joy of momentary hedonism. The traditional top-40 music usually played at these clubs is often far more offensive and degrading to women than most Metal. For instance, the currently number two-ranked song, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" by the artist Soulja Boy, contains the lyrics "Soulja boy off in this hoe. Watch me lean and watch me rock. Super man dat hoe. Then watch me crank dat Robocop." Clearly, this is not the type of song that family-oriented venues should be playing.

Additionally, while some of the cancelled bands, such as Cannibal Corpse, do rely on shocking and violent lyrics as one of their main forms of appeal, others, such as Machine Head, are socially active and intense bands that ask critical questions about the political climate and world reality. Machine Head, for instance, sings in its song "Clenching the Fists of Dissent": "They say that freedom isn't free. It's paid with the lives. Of sons and families. Cause blood is their new currency. And oil pumps the heart of money."

As our incompetent elected officials manipulate our nation into unnecessary wars and encourage harmful policies, it seems to me that this type of critical thinking is exactly what Disney should be encouraging.

Disney's statement about questionable fans is also odd. Aren't Disney films all about the unique and unusual outsider finding his proverbial place in society? One of the protagonists of a Disney feature-length film was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, for Walt's sake! Disney should not shut its venues to fans who may be considered a little outlandish or strange by mainstream society.

Maybe the truth is that Disney just likes to still view things in black and white. Metal is all about seeing that there is evil resting in the light of the good and some good in the darkest forces of death and decay. It's really about vanquishing stereotypes. Disney, since the second World War, has played a strong role in promoting establishment views of the world that lack nuance. The production company came out with anti-Nazi propaganda during that war, which featured, among other things, Donald Duck throwing tomatoes at a giant, swastika-eyed Hitler. Comparing real- life dictators with Disney's black-and-white evil film villains such as the Wicked Witch, takes away our ability to fully understand and think introspectively about the Holocaust and the war. Likewise, in films such as Pocahantas, Disney has whitewashed Anglo-American atrocities and promoted a strongly pro-Western ethnocentric view.

Disney is hypocritical in singling out Metal for its violent or subversive lyrics and in attempting to ignore its own emphasis on hedonistic pleasure. However, perhaps it does have something to fear when its own record of obscuring reality is held against the piercing rays of intense music.