Dori S. Koehler draws upon Mircea Eliade’s discussion of the conscious construction of sacred space through ritual practice (The Sacred and the Profane) in her examination of patron-engaged sacred practice at Disneyland. Eliade notes that the lines between sacred and mundane spaces are malleable. Disney fan practice is a mythic tradition imbued with such intention, from the earliest examples of in-home Mickey Mouse clubs in the 1930s to the newest phenomenon in Disney fan-based community building, the live streamers, colloquially called DisTok, that is, the TikTok community devoted to Disney. This essay turns an analytical eye toward DisTok—analyzing its history, and its current state, and projecting some possibilities about its future. It calls out both strengths and limitations of the way we build sacred community through social media spaces based on shared values and interests, suggesting that community organizing based on shared narratives is integral to human mythic identity and that community building around shared sacred locations is by its very nature the psychological, theatrical process of mythopoetic expression.

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Bulldozing the Fourth Wall: DisTok and the Construction of Community

  • Dori S. Koehler

摘要

Dori S. Koehler draws upon Mircea Eliade’s discussion of the conscious construction of sacred space through ritual practice (The Sacred and the Profane) in her examination of patron-engaged sacred practice at Disneyland. Eliade notes that the lines between sacred and mundane spaces are malleable. Disney fan practice is a mythic tradition imbued with such intention, from the earliest examples of in-home Mickey Mouse clubs in the 1930s to the newest phenomenon in Disney fan-based community building, the live streamers, colloquially called DisTok, that is, the TikTok community devoted to Disney. This essay turns an analytical eye toward DisTok—analyzing its history, and its current state, and projecting some possibilities about its future. It calls out both strengths and limitations of the way we build sacred community through social media spaces based on shared values and interests, suggesting that community organizing based on shared narratives is integral to human mythic identity and that community building around shared sacred locations is by its very nature the psychological, theatrical process of mythopoetic expression.