Featured Image Credit: Disney
Topics: Disney, TV And Film, LGBTQ, Social Media
Rhiannon Ingle
Any die-hard Disney fan will no doubt know all about the viral 'Disney's first openly gay character' meme.
The viral social media trend, which crops up every now and then, usually around the same time as new movie releases and casting updates, refers to the recurring joke that Disney frequently announces a new character as its 'first gay character', despite having made the same claim multiple times before.
Such a practice is seen as a way to generate positive reception while often limiting the actual representation to minor characters, easily cuttable moments, or heavily implied elements.
Critics online have time and time again used the meme to point out the repetitive nature of such announcements, suggesting a pattern of performative allyship rather than genuine, robust representation for the LGBTQ+ community.
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Now, the latest update in the saga revolves around a specific post pertaining to a certain 'lesbian beaver' which has since taken the internet by storm.
This week, Disney revealed their official cast portraits for the sequel to Zootopia, aptly titled Zootopia 2, which is set to hit cinemas later this month (28 November).
The upcoming family-comedy boasts quite the star-studded cast, seeing the likes of Shakira and Jason Bateman return to our screens while Ke Huy Quan, Macaulay Culkin, Quinta Brunson and Robert Irwin will be joining the ensemble.
Oh yeah, and comedian Fortune Feimster will also be joining the cast, starring as Nibbles Maplestick the Beaver.
For anyone not in the know, Feimster is a lesbian.
She publicly came out in 2005 at the age of 25 and has been in a loving marriage with her wife, Jacquelyn Smith, since 2020.
It didn't take long for Disney fans to put two and two together and reignite the 'Disney’s first openly gay character' trend while sharing speculation over Nibbles' alleged sexuality.
"Disney’s first openly gay character, a beaver played by a lesbian," penned one X user.
They later added the disclaimer: "This is just a joke about a beaver being played by a famed lesbian Fortune Feimster, btw I have no idea if the beaver is actually gay."
"Beaver? A lesbian who is also a beaver?" wrote a second while a third chimed in: "Couldn't be more on the nose if they tried."
A fourth joked: "Omg another first openly gay character, how exciting!"
"We're at Disney's fifth first openly gay character," quipped a fifth while a sixth echoed: "Haven't there been like 5 first Disney lesbians?"
Another commented: "They’ve had like 50 first openly gay characters."
And a final X user echoed: "Oh Disney's first openly gay character, you will never not be funny."