Ben Shapiro Predicts That Gay ‘Frozen’ Sequel Will Spark Disney’s Downfall

Monday’s episode of The Daily Wire’s The Ben Shapiro Show saw the titular host make a bizarre prediction, concerning the future of Disney’s Frozen franchise.

Ben Shapiro voiced concern that “in Frozen 4, they’ll make Elsa a lesbian. If they – by the way, if they do that, it is the end of Disney as a company. Predict it. You can write it down. It is April 17. If they do that, it will destroy Disney. Like, thoroughly destroy it.”

The video clip quickly went viral with more than 9.5 million views, as Twitter users mocked the current right-wing obsession over kid’s movies, particularly Disney animations.

Others pointed out that Disney hasn’t even released Frozen 3, so concern over a potential fourth installment seems a tad premature.

In response, Shapiro tweeted a correction, but doubled down on his point.

We’ve reached a sad, strange stage in the culture war, where grown men willingly post videos of themselves furiously reacting to movies made for 8-year-olds; this used to be the exclusive domain of middle-aged YouTubers who sleep on Toy Story bed sheets, surrounded by Funko Pops and My Little Pony posters.

It still is – even a fun, vapid kid’s movie like Super Mario Bros. was analyzed on YouTube through an imagined “woke/anti-woke” binary, with some content creators offended at the sight of Princess Peach wearing pants.

Now, these talking points have trickled into mainstream conservative outlets like The Daily Wire, with Shapiro making feverish speculations about the sexuality of a Disney Princess, fantasizing about the company’s demise.

What Is Ben Shapiro Talking About?

Shapiro isn’t the first to interpret Elsa as gay; ever since Frozen was released, Elsa has been heralded as a queer icon, as her story is that of repressed identity (her ice powers), which finally emerge during her iconic “Let It Go” scene.

The film sees Elsa taught to deny her true nature, to “conceal, don’t feel” by her well-meaning parents, and she spends her life suffering in silence, until she embraces her identity and achieves self-actualization. Notably, Elsa is one of the few Disney Princesses who has never been depicted with a love interest.

San Diego State University professor Angel Daniel Matos, who studies the intersection of queer narratives and children’s literature, wrote an article back in 2014 which made a case for interpreting Elsa’s story as a “coming out” metaphor.

Matos wrote: “Elsa’s treatment is also eerily reminiscent of practices that take place during the process of gay conversion therapy, in which subjects are conditioned through meditative and repetitive processes to suppress certain urges and desires that occur naturally.”

Disney has a long history of queer-coded villains (Ursula of The Little Mermaid, for example, was based on the drag queen Divine), and has recently made attempts to better depict LGBTQ characters, though these brief, subtle hints of representation have been jokingly labeled as “passive-progressive.”

Hence, queer Disney fans often call for stronger LGBTQ representation, much to the horror of right-wing culture warriors, who tend to frame same-sex romance as inherently hypersexual.

Simultaneously, right-wing culture warriors often complain about the desexualization of cartoon characters perceived to be straight; Tucker Carlson famously went viral after lamenting that the Green M&M’s knee-high boots had been replaced with “less sexy” sneakers, stating:

“M&Ms will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous. Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal.”

Shapiro’s fear of an imagined gay Frozen sequel came in the midst of his rant about Bud Light, which recently ignited a lengthy, deranged backlash after partnering with TikTok star and trans activist Dylan Mulvaney to promote the beer on social media.

Shapiro cited a vague statement released by Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, which alluded to the Bud Light backlash, as an example of “why it’s important to actually pressure companies that do this.”

I’m not sure “important” is the correct word to describe incandescent rage sparked by sponsored TikTok posts, M&M’s and Disney movies, but the phrase “let it go” certainly comes to mind.