Frozen wasn’t just your average mega-hit, earworm producing, toy-selling Disney blockbuster. Many cultural commentators praised the film — which was loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” — for its deviation from the standard princess narrative. At its center is the relationship between sisters Elsa and Anna, two heroines who don’t wait around for a white knight or a charming prince to save them. And although Anna totally sparks with mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), the film ends with Elsa (Idina Menzel) ruling her kingdom autonomously, suggesting that “Happily Every After” doesn’t have to include a romantic relationship. Cue “All The Single Ladies.”
But with Disney currently developing a sequel to the 2013 animated hit, there’s a growing campaign to have Elsa settle down with a nice lady.
Teen activist Alexis Isabel Moncada, founder of the blog Feminist Culture, sparked the movement last month with the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend. Her original tweet has received nearly 3,500 likes and has been retweeted over 2,100 times.
Dear @Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend
— Alexis Isabel (@lexi4prez) May 1, 2016
Moncada makes a great point, as she explained to MTV.com recently: “The entertainment industry has given us girls who have fallen in love with beasts, ogres who fall for humans, and even grown women who love bees. But we’ve never been able to see the purity in a queer relationship.” And Frozen’s signature — and often unavoidable — song “Let It Go” has been recast by drag queens and other queers the world over as a coming out anthem, with Elsa’s struggle to accept and embrace her wintry powers seen as an unmistakable metaphor for LGBTQ teens’ struggle to accept themselves in the face of homophobia.
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The #GiveElsaAGirlfriend hashtag isn’t the first time fans have put the pressure on the House of Mouse to have an existing character come out. If Finn and Poe aren’t a thing in future Star Wars episodes, the backlash could be so severe the films’ producers may wish they lived in a galaxy far, far away. But it’s slightly more complicated with Elsa. She’s already a potent example of a woman who doesn’t need a man or potentially any sort of romantic partner in her life. That’s an important lesson for anyone: being single doesn’t mean being lonely; career, friends, a sense of purpose can all be as fulfilling as a relationship — maybe even more so.
Still, you can’t argue with Moncada about the difference a lesbian Disney princess could make to young girls: “Giving young girls the chance to understand that a princess can love another … is vital to their development. No one deserves to feel isolated and confused about who they are. All we need is someone to show us that there are other options, other kinds of princesses, and other ways to have the happy ending that you deserve.”
Kieru
While I understand the argument for asking for these things… the very act of demanding them potentially destroys the impact that such a story could offer. Consider the following scenarios:
1.) Disney releases Frozen 2 and there is an LGBTQ+ love interest for Elsa
Proponents will applaud Disney for listening to the voice of the LGBTQ+ community. Opponents with lambaste Disney for kowtowing to the Gay Agenda. In either case the focus is no longer LGBTQ+ representation, but the ability of the community to have their demands met.
2.) Disney releases Frozen 2 and there is no LGBTQ+ love interest for Elsa
The community will raise their voice and decry Disney for failing to include diversity in their films. We will accuse Disney of being homophobic. We will criticize the film from a feminist viewpoint and nitpick every angle at which a female love interest could have been introduced. Some of us will demand that a boycott be placed on all things Disney.
The film will stop being weighed on its own merits, and instead be weighed against the head-cannon that social media demanded.
Captain Obvious
I get a little weirded out when people make these suggestions for kids shows. I don’t think we’re at the point yet where it wouldn’t raise more issues than it fixed.
stranded
@Captain Obvious: I was creeped out at first, but you have to think about it, i have no problem with any other Disney or child movie that has a heterosexual relationship. i grew up watching The little mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and hell even Lion King, all of which have heterosexual love story, so if we don’t think homosexuality is wrong, what is the real difference? Just because it’ll be a homosexual romance, it doesn’t mean it’ll be explicit in any way. Just kisses like we’ve seen in all the other movies. Though i wouldn’t categorize it as a little kid’s show, Nickalodean’s Legend of Korra (sequel to Last Airbender) ended with the main character Korra and her friend Asami beginning a relationship together. It was sweet and and surprising and made a lot of sense.
Brian
How about a male homosexual relationship? What is Disney afraid of?
Has Disney ever inserted a male homosexual relationship in one of its movies? I doubt it.
F@ck Disney.
ingyaom
@Captain Obvious: I get a little wierded out by Disney movies in general. They almost all involve stories of romantic relationships (beginning with “Snow White”). Why? Are these movies intended for adults? What do kids care if Ariel hooks up with what’s-his-name?
Xzamilio
Feminist Culture… ah, yes, a product of the third wave feminist movement that still touts the false gender wage gap mess and the “1 in 4 women will be raped in their lifetime” garbage. Yeah… no. The way I see it, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Create your own Elsa, your own Frozen, and give her all the lesbian love your little hearts can fathom. Trying to change the narrative of existing characters to appease a fringe within what was a positive movement is just catering to madness.
Disney ain’t gonna mess with a model that has worked for them for decades. It’s about damn time some people stopped trying to get everybody to get their message across and just do it themselves.
Xzamilio
And granted, that “model” Disney had consisted of some r@cist ass characters and the infamous “Song of the South” (Zip-a-dee-do-da ring a bell?), but society saw away with racially tone deaf crap like that and Disney improved it. Not saying they should do LGBT stories, but it should come fluidly, and not through usurping a popular character and molding them into some political statement. Whatever, no one’s taking this seriously… how’s that gay character in a Marvel movie coming along?
Violent Rainbow
How ridiculous, it’s never going to happen.
Caleb in SC
@Brian: What about Wondering Oaken in Frozen? Yes, Disney has had a gay male character. Bye, Felicia!
KYX
Though I support accepting and respecting both straight and non-straight people, I am against having Disney allow Elsa to have a girlfriend. Do you understand the concept of not forcing you’re own sexuality ideology on millions of young children who view Elsa as their influential figure, that children have a tendency to role play their actions based off of Disney figures as their model (in this case being lesbian), and realize that many children lack much of a sense of judgement in terms of determining sexuality and understanding the concept fully? Do you realize that this is a violation of their rights by mentally influencing them through such a powerful force of the media?
leaderofpeaceandwar
What about forcing heterosexuality on young homosexuals? There’s a reason it takes so long for someone to figure out their sexuality. Because constantly they’re hearing about straight couples and seeing them on the television. People are just trying to create a movement to make society view homosexuals as “normal” just like it took a while for blacks to be viewed as “normal”. Just because someone is a minority and YOU don’t agree with it doesn’t mean YOU should take their rights away. If you want to raise your child in a strictly homophobic/heterosexual household that’s YOUR choice, not everyone else’s. Just don’t have her watch Frozen 2. And no one is “forcing their sexuality” on others they’re just sick and tired of being glared at for loving another “human being” and they want to get the message across with Disney’s help that they’re normal and “equal”.
KYX
I see what you are saying, but in my opinion your argument of supporters of a non-lesbian Elsa of taking non-straight people’s rights away invalidates your own argument. The act of imposing your own views of sexuality on the media despite many people’s protests, is sacrificing the protesters’ rights of having what they would like to see on a shared media source of Disney (which should mutually serve both supporters and non-supporters, rather than only supporters of a lesbian Elsa) for your personal beliefs (that not everyone agrees with).
You say that it is my choice to raise my child in a strictly heterosexual household, but do you realize that with the media, the posters, the advertisements on TV, the video games, the toys, the books, the lyrics of the music, the stickers, ect. advocating a non-straight relationship message will most likely reach my child’s ears and mind no matter how hard I try to shield them from such things? My child does not live in a box.
Finally, I would like you to know that I personally befriend non-straight people and respect/accept them. However, there is a clear difference between respecting/accepting non-straight people, and trying to impose a sexual ideology on people who do not agree with your perspective on a mutually cherished movie.
Thank you for your time.
KYX
One more thing I had forgotten to mention…
When many children see their admired role model, Elsa, being lesbian…so many straight children who have not fully understood their sexuality and/or the concept of sexuality will be confused in determining their own sexuality. In fact, this will affect much more children than confused non-straight children, because the population of straight children is much larger than non-straight children. Imagine an entire generation of straight children growing up to become more confused about their sexuality due to the influential messages conveyed to them through the media.
ListenLad
This article focuses only on the homosexual side of the argument. By that logic the asexuals also have a case where Elsa should be asexual and it is discrimination against them not to make Elsa so.
Making Elsa lesbian now, thanks to this push, would be an example of kowtowing to the Gay Agenda. There were far fewer (if any calls) for Meridia to be made lesbian, and she was a Disney princess who actively turned down male suitors and did not have Elsa’s social isolation issues so there’s more reason to assume she is lesbian than Elsa is. The reason that there are calls for it to happen to Elsa are because she is more well-known than Meridia, proving this to be a publicity stunt.
It’s hypocritical to say heterosexuality should not be pushed on children only to push homosexuality onto them. Children are children and should not be exposed to sex as they are not supposed to have any involvement in it, so why introduce them to it at an age where they should not be partaking?
Before all this started, Frozen’s directors joked she and Wreck-It-Ralph would be a good couple, which was given a nod in a Disney-inspired video game (Kingdom of Hearts, if I recall correctly). That points more towards heterosexuality or bisexuality for Elsa.
The problem is the production of these movies has fans trying to drag it into the much of the issue of sexuality. You can’t please everyone. A lesbian, bisexual or asexual princess would be fine, just let it be an original concept rather than something shoehorned in to pander to a vocal group.