Disney has trademarked the names of a bunch of Norse gods.
This is not okay.
These gods do not belong to Disney. They do not belong to Marvel. They belong to themselves and themselves alone, along with all those who worship them as the deities they are.
Thor, Loki, Odin, etc., these gods were not thought up by anyone at Disney or Marvel.
Stan Lee knew how sacred these gods are to those who follow many different Pagan traditions, how sacred they are to Scandinavian cultures to whom they are so important.
My best friend follows the Norse gods. She will be so bloody offended when she finds out about this. These are her gods, this is her religion. These are the deities she worships, the gods she prays to, the traditions she follows. She enjoys the Marvel portrayals of these characters, but they are separate from the gods she believes in.
Disney is stepping on her religion in an effort to gain more and more money.
Stan Lee did not trademark these names. He understood their importance and their sacred meaning. He was respectful enough not to do this.
These names are not the intellectual property of anyone. Neither the original names in runes nor the anglicised names that are used in Marvel’s works.
They were around well before us (a whole ass millennium before us), and they will be around well after the greedy bastards who have decided to trademark religious symbols are dust.
It should be common sense and common courtesy not to trademark the names of religious figures, which all of these gods and goddesses are, even if you do not believe in them.
mod is not christian but you would never see me trademark jesus ffs it crosses a Line
If you agree, please sign and share the petition. If you can, please chip in to get this petition everywhere it can possibly go.
It is f**king disgusting that Disney is doing this.
It needs to stop.
Oh, and one more thing.
FUCK DISNEY.
i want to throw up ive included a bunch of tags trying to get the norse pagans attention bc im sure they’ll want in on this if u have an in with the norse paganism community on tumblr pls do tag everyone u can
im wondering now if they’ve done this to the greek gods too ughh that would show even more of a disregard for other people’s religious views and past people’s religious views ughhhh ok imma go look at the toilet bowl for a bit 😅pls sign it’d mean the world to me
I have no fucking words
I’ve signed the petition. Please do the same and stop this from happening. I’m just… I can’t believe this.
Yeah this is dumb.
If they did this with figures from Christian belief, there would be an outrage and Disney would cave into it. This is fucking stupid.
I also want to add that even though there are technicalities with trademarking that don’t seem they’re related to the practice of Norse paganism, this shouldn’t be used as a loophole to interfere with other businesses owners who create Loki related products, whether marvel or mythic, and a Norse pagan’s right to express their religious views in the form of content or product. These cease and desist orders aren’t targeting Norse paganism itself in the technical sense, BUT are inadvertently interfering with businesses related to the belief along with actual worshippers. The least Disney could do is specify the trademark over “Marvel Loki”, but even then that’s disrespectful as OP stated. If Stan Lee had some decency to respect that, why won’t Disney? If a content creator, for example, wanted to discuss the differences/similarities between mythic and marvel Loki for entertainment and educational purposes, it’s unfair for Disney to swoop in and take whatever funds the creator earns from that. It’s a slippery slope whether you think it’s a big deal or not. I personally don’t think this is just a “tumblr reactionary post”. It’s simply disrespectful.
I don’t know how much effect the petition will make, but we should take note of this whole situation. I’ll admit I don’t know all the technicalities of trademarking that Disney’s copyrighting team probably lives and breathes on a daily basis. However, this is crossing boundaries in religious terms; not in the sense that people can’t worship Nordic deities, but that any content or product related to Nordic deities is Disney’s jurisdiction is, I’ll say it again, a very slippery slope. Bootlickers for Disney can fuck off, honestly. If you’re dismissing this lack of respect, it’s simply because you don’t care and you think the rationale of business operations somehow supersedes respecting other beliefs.
This bothers me because not too long ago, Disney refused to respect one of their Muslim employees, Imane Boudlal, by saying she couldn’t wear her hijab at Disney World because it was against their policy for employees. Although she tried to sue them for discrimination, she and Disney eventually settled out of court, but this is another example of how Disney has used “business policy” to disrespect religious beliefs. They had the audacity to “offer her options” such as working behind the scenes, in other words, be out of sight while she does her job. This was in 2010.
Please don’t be so quick to think that Disney won’t find the most technical way to say, “We don’t give a fuck about your religious preferences, especially if it’s a minor religion. We do things our way.”
