Walt Disney’s critical and commercial success, Frozen, is coming under fire from right-wing Christianist Kevin Swanson who claims the two-time Academy Award-winning picture is nothing more than agitprop to lure unsuspecting young females into a life of lesbian degeneracy. “Friends, this is evil, just evil,” Swanson said. “I wonder if people are thinking, ‘You know I think this cute little movie is going to indoctrinate my 5-year-old to be a lesbian or treat homosexuality or bestiality in a light sort of way.’ I wonder if the average parent going to see Frozen is thinking that way. I wonder if they are just walking in and saying, ‘Yeah, let’s get my five-year-old and seven-year-old indoctrinated early.” Frozen won two Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards: One for “Best Animated Picture” and the other for “Best Song” (Let It Go).
This isn’t the first time, however, that Disney has found itself at the center of a controversy – imagined or otherwise. In 1995, the company released Powder, the story of young man with enormous intellectual, telepathic , and paranormal abilities. It was directed by Victor Salva who was charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy and may have contributed to the film’s middling success.
But this current flap relies less on factual circumstances than on the conspiratorially-driven beliefs of a man that many, even among the religious community, find out of sync with reality. Swanson, who is incensed that Disney has pulled its funding from the Boy Scouts of America over its decision not to allow men over eighteen to participate in the organization if they come out, has managed, however incoherently to tie the two issues together. “The Boy Scouts are the fault line, you got six percent leaving, you got Disney pulling funding,” he said. “This is fracturing our society and I can see how it might, I can see how some parents might be very strong, they don’t want their children indoctrinated in any way into the lifestyle of sodomy.”
