Talk about throwing down the animated gauntlet. Some vocal Twitter users have started a campaign for Disney to give Elsa of Frozen a girlfriend. Citing the desire to have positive role models, they’re asking the colossal studio in charge of childhood fantasies to write in a same-sex partner for the Snow Queen in the eagerly awaited sequel, Frozen 2. And it all started with just one tweet.
Twitter users are calling for Disney to give its Frozen heroine Elsa a girlfriend in the blockbuster’s keenly anticipated sequel.
The record-breaking and critically acclaimed 2013 animated film tells of Princess Elsa’s struggle to master her magical powers to reconnect with her sister Anna.
It was widely construed as the studio’s first foray into feminism because it eschewed a traditional happy-ever-after with a prince in favour of sisterly devotion.
Now Twitter users have called upon Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend in Frozen 2, which is currently in production.
Alexis Isabel was the first to use the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend on Sunday, tagging the studio in her tweet. It has since been retweeted more than 1,500 times.
The hashtag later trended thanks to messages of support for wider representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in popular culture.
Reimagining – or “remixing” – Disney characters, particularly princesses, to reflect different genders, races, sexualities, even bodies is a staple of internet culture.
If the studio gives in to demand – and we’re not likely to know, one way or another, until Frozen 2 is released – Elsa would be its first openly gay heroine.
But some read same-sex attraction into the character the first time round, anyway.
At the time of its release Frozen was construed by some conservative as to be a vehicle for the “gay agenda”, with a pastor denouncing it as “very evil” on a Christian radio show in Colorado.
This was prompted because of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cutaway to a father and children in a sauna – but the Frozen’s takeaway message of self-acceptance were read by some as an analogy for coming out.
Its Academy Award-winning theme song, Let It Go – tattooed on both the popular consciousness and that of any parents of young children in 2013 – was adopted as a LGBT anthem.
Newsweek has a great opinion piece on this, you can read it here. I hope Disney is listening, this twitter campaign came prior to Disney failing the Vito-Russo Test, which measures LGBT representation in films. Disney and Disney-owned Pixar studios have made some steps towards answering the call for diversity in film. The first Frozen film was seen as a progressive film for women, departing from the boy-saves-girl narrative. Zootopia showed that Disney is learning from Pixar about the importance of their movie’s message. It is not inconceivable that Disney will respond in some way. Disney Parks have been very supportive of the LGBT community. JJ Abrams said the Star Wars Universe, owned by Disney, is all encompassing and that fact will be represented in film.
Frozen 2 is already in production and due in theaters in 2018. While it’s doubtful that Elsa will get a girlfriend, hopefully Disney will work to be more inclusive of LGBT characters.
Dear @Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend
— Alexis Isabel (@lexi4prez) May 1, 2016
Photo credit Fame/Flynet Photos and Getty Images
But how?
this doesn’t make any sense.
Exactly…it is a cartoon movie for kids. Children nowadays have enough to stress about to add more complex themes to their minds. When they are of age to decide their identity then they will choose. Just let a kid movie be a kid movie without added agendas. If this was a movie geared toward teenagers and adults then yes, bring on the variety requests. Let kids be kids and have a simple fun cliche movie to watch. They have years to come full of exposure to other topics like sexuality choices.
On the other hand why not start a petition for lead free water in Flint? Children are being seriously affected and dying yet nobody seems to care. We are too worried about sexuality choices when american children are drinking poisoned water and nobody is being brought to justice. We need to rethink our priorities.
But isn’t imposing a heterosexual narrative also exposing children to “sexuality choices”? Which is incorrect to begin with, because sexuality isn’t a choice 🙂
Question, why are hetero romances and themes like parental death (Bambi, The Lion King), kidnapping, murder, imprisonment (Beauty and the Beast), colonialism (Pocahontas) and cultural persecution (Hunchback of Notre Dame) okay for kids, but a gay couple is “too much”? Petitioning for lead-free water in Flint and calling for better LGBTQIA+ representation in films aren’t mutually exclusive.
Shows like Steven Universe have gay couples, and my friend’s kids enjoy the show and like it and don’t feel “stressed” at all.
Oh, and one’s sexuality isn’t “a choice”.
Frozen already had very strong overarching LGBTQIA symbolism in the first film. This would merely be a natural progression. A good analysis of it is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CyOscehxWQ
😀 I’m deeply puzzled by your comment, SNAP. What exactly is stressful and complex about adding a new female character to a sequel and making her the main character’s love interest? Over and over again children’s shows have been able to give women and girls male characters as boyfriends, crushes, or spouses without ‘exposing them to sexual choices’ or forcing them to ‘stressfully decide about their identities’. So why can’t Disney do the same with a female love interest? Just because a same sex couple appears in a children’s movie or show doesn’t mean that has to be a sexualized thing that’s inappropriate for 6-year-old eyes. Just do what cartoons do with the straight couples: show the loving romantic side of the relationship without going into any details about what happens in the bedroom. I don’t remember Anna’s relationship with Kristoff being hypersexualized or made inappropriate for children who saw Frozen, so why assume that Elsa with a woman would be different?
By the way, who says people can’t care about equality and life and death issues like food and water at the same time?
I have to admit the fan art picture with Elsa and another Queen of Indian descent holding hands with a small Indian princess hit me right in the feels.
I feel bad for companies sometimes. This is all freaking common sense. We’re all human and deserve representation and support, we can’t keep making minority and struggling groups invisible to the public eye, but bigots can be the loudest and most filled with vitriol.
The backlash against Old Navy and Target makes it hard for a company to be able to make these public steps without having to admit their company could really suffer as a result and I hate that.
I’d love it if Disney did include their own princess who doesn’t want a Prince, maybe not with Elsa, but hopefully soon.
And now about a princess who is fine being single / on her own too, like the Mary Tyler Moore of Disney princesses?
They did that with Brave. Merida stays single in the end of that (though it’s suggested she will get married, but later and to somebody of her choosing). But she is single at the end.
I agree. How about a movie for kids that’s NOT about finding a romantic partner at all. I feel like I was brainwashed into thinking that finding a romantic partner was all that mattered when I was a kiddo.
Link?
I’m fine with Elsa being that princess, because this is literally the first time in a Disney movie that we get a heroine whose big moments are all about self-acceptance and love of her family and don’t involve a guy.
I think it’s a good message to have out there – you can run a country and come to terms with your true self even without the fairytale of ‘true love’ in the romantic sense mixed in anywhere.
I’m confused, so because the movie was about self acceptance and had a blink and you’ll miss it moment of an adult and child in a sauna, the movie had a gay agenda? Say what now? I saw frozen but I didn’t catch any hidden agendas or motives. But I also wasn’t looking. I mean am I having a blonde moment? 😉 *shrugs*
No I don’t understand that whole sauna thing either.
me neither, isn’t that more about portraying (stereotypical) Norse culture than a gay-agenda?
It was more fun when Prince Eric had a brief erection in the original cut of The Little Mermaid.
Remember the ridiculous “backlash” against the Teletubbies and Tinky Winky?
Meh, I grew up with Pocahontas, Mulan, Jane from Tarzan, all of these were better than Frozen.
I get the reasoning behind the “demand” but I really hope this is just activism (targeting big names for the press attention is smart) and not done out of some naïve belief it will actually happen! It won’t.
There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars to be made (and which given film budgets at this level, must be made) in countries where this would just not be accepted and in other cases, outright banned. Not to mention more than a few dollars lost closer to home. No I don’t think that’s right, but acting like these multinational corporations are going to put social activism over shareholder profits is foolish. They’re friendly to causes when it suits them and it costs nothing to pay lip service. Maybe this will lead to some smaller instances but I feel like some young people are in for some harsh reality checks. I’m genuinely sad about that.
Eventually Disney will do it but not with Frozen…Frozen is the mother of all cash cows there is no way they jeopardize that with any controversy.
@Mia4
You’re exactly right. People are forgetting these are businesses, not engines of social change.
It’s the way she was built that hit an off note for me. It’s all tit*s and narrow waist and hips and whatnot.
You forgot eyes as big as her hands. LOL I look at her and see Precious Moments.
Personally, my favorite message from the first movie was not needing a romantic interest to be fulfilled as a person (plus the family/friendship = true love). So my vote is to continue to have Elsa not have any romantic interest in the films.
+1
I agree! The main focus of Frozen was the relationship between the sisters and how they developed as people. Personally, it was sort of refreshing to see a film where there isn’t a strong drive towards “find her a man/partner” in general. That was always part of my beef with many of the older Disney films – they had to be romance driven. That’s why my personal favorite remains Mulan – while its hinted that a relationship starts after the movie ends, its not part of the movie itself. I thought adding in the romance angle ruined Pocahontas for me, as well as a few others. I think Frozen was made better by the fact that Elsa didn’t have a partner, at least not at that time.
I’ve actually never seen it, but reading the description of it breaking the Prince Charming pattern, I’m in agreement that there are other stories to focus on. I doubt Disney would ever back away from it completely, but it’s nice for young girls (and boys) to see stories about things other than fairytale romance.
Yep, just like Brave was about Merida not needing a husband and actual refusal to be used just to unite clans, and her relationship and mutual bond/understanding with her mother and family.
See, I’m with you on that! I thought it was great that Anna was kinda being roasted throughout the film for falling for Hans in mere seconds while Elsa was learning to love herself. I don’t want that message to change.
I totally agree. Christoph making fun of Anna for getting engaged to someone she just met (like all the princesses do) is one of the best parts of the movie.
I love that the movie is about their family bond and would be disappointed if the sequel is about Elsa finding a partner, male or female.
I agree. Not everyone needs someone to “complete” them. You can be happy and single. There is nothing wrong with that.
+1000 for happy and single Elsa too!
If it’s already in production and slated for a 2018 release, this is too huge a change to even hope to incorporate for the story. Animation is literally drawn or created frame by frame, tightly storyboarded and a franchise as huge as Frozen probably has distribution and licensing schedules with it’s release.. It’s a futile campaign for Frozen 2, changes would have had to have happened during story development.
But if there’s a Frozen 3, it could happen.
So I have a young daughter, which means of course I’ve seen this movie. That being said, I think this is a lousy idea. My impression of the film was that the central relationship was always between the sisters and that was the theme of the movie – the relationships with the secondary ones, including the men, were not the primary focus. And in one instance, the presumed romantic partner turns on the protagonist and becomes a villain. Would these people accept it if they did give Elsa a female partner but then had her betray her? Somehow, I don’t think that’s what they want.
I agree that it would be great to have more LGBT representation in kids’ movies, but at the same time, I wonder how that came be done in an age-appropriate way. Most parents, and I include myself, aren’t really hot on sexuality themes in kids’ movies. I could see them introducing same-sex parents, certainly (like how there have been families with single parents, extended families, etc.) That makes sense. But how do you handle a romantic relationship of a main character? Disney is notorious for not letting their main characters be sexual in any real sense, and I can’t see them stopping now.
I personally prefer these Disney movies to be non-sexual. Why should they be about sexual relationships? Why not just about friendship and family love. I hate kid movie with any type of political agenda, be it liberal or conservative.
That’s bias.
Most Disney films are celebrating and depicting heteornormative relationships – every time when the princess is looking for her prince, this (whether you accept it or not) is showing that opposite sex attraction and love is normal and expected.
The worst reaction I’ve seen to this is just blatant homophobia – “Why do my kids need to know about sex so early?!?! Why are you pushing weird ideas on them?!?”
Disney movies aren’t about sex, they’re about love and friendship. Apparently seeing Jasmin and Aladdin or Snow White (and seven dwarfs!!) and her prince isn’t sexual or inappropriate (BECAUSE IT’S STRAIGHT!!!) but the very thought of Elsa with a lady love is inappropriate, overly sexual, sexualising children, ‘gross’?!?!
I haven’t seen Frozen and don’t really care about the story but depicting all love is always a step forward and can only lead to acceptance and understanding.
Lex, you miss the point.
Disney is pretty devoid of sexuality, period. The absolute most two characters have ever done in a Disney film is kiss, and they kiss pretty chastely at that (though Pocahontas and John Smith did kiss for a pretty long damn time). And in reality, most of those relationships aren’t tangential to the plot. The “old Disney” stuff was extremely romance-focused, but if you pay attention, they’ve been getting away from that for a while. Mulan contained almost no romantic material (its’ only implied at the end). Brave contained none at all, beyond the lead’s resistance to it. Tangled had no romantic content. They’ve actually been moving AWAY from it in the films, largely because it’s 1.) become cliché to have it and 2.) a lot of parents don’t really want romantic/sexual content in movies promoted to small children, period. It’s not about not showing an LGBT romance, it’s about a move away from romance in small kids’ movies, period. And frankly, I see it as a good thing.
It’s really not hard to have a couple (or just two people who are interested in each other but not yet in a relationship) in a kid’s movie without showing the sexual side of the relationship. Cartoons and TV shows do it all the time. If they did with Anna and Kristoff as a couple, they can do it with Elsa and a woman.
If this is already in Production then the script has already been written and greenlit.
I support everyone.. but everything doesn’t have to have a gay alternative. They could create another new story and that would be interesting and different.
I’m sorry but I’m against fanbases deciding that popular fanfiction should become canon storylines. That’s not how the industry works.
Let them create new stories that are centered around LGBT themes, not bend an existing one because the fans demand it. When fanfiction becomes entertainment you get 50 shades of Grey. No thanks.
Also I don’t like it when characters are turned/recast into minorities halfway through a franchise to appease a crowd and have favorable statistics, because they cannot be bothered to actually write new fully developed minority characters and have interesting stories written that are relevant or important to the movies.
They need to write more original diverse characters and stories instead (like Asian-American Russell who’s parent’s are divorced in Up, gosh I love that movie).
I wish people would stop comparing race/ethnicity to sexuality. Having a non white character is not the same as having a lgbt love interest. What you are doing is othering and it is something brown skinned people have to deal with regularly. Lgbt issues can stand on its own feet and would be just as legit and valid. Also not mutually exclusive, obviously. It just furthers the notion that white is normative and default human being.
I always thought Frozen’s creators were making subtle commentaries about the need for compassion and support when facing mental illness. Maybe I was simply self projecting (seeing that I’ve had a struggled relationship with my sister due to some unchecked mental health issues), but the final shot for the “do you want to build a snowman” song when Elsa is sitting in her bedroom mid snow storm…it brings me to tears every time. I guess the beauty of the film is that it can be applied to so many personal situations the require self acceptance.
I was at my god son’s school yesterday. They had a visiting Orchestra and they played “Do you want to build a Snowman”. .and the sweetest moment was the children singing in chorus to the music.. They were so excited the minute they heard the tunes.. Knew it was coming..
I just want people to make stories that children will enjoy and that give a positive message. Messages that will appeal to kids. And the Boys in the audience Kindergarten to Second grade were loving it too. Knew all the words.
Good films made sure that the themes they have can speak to a whole host of people. I’ve seen a lot about how many LGBT people identify with Elsa, and I think that’s great. It’s also been used as a metaphor for acceptance and compassion towards a lot of other people, including the mentally ill, the intellectually challenged, people with disabilities, etc. I’m sure it was written in a way to allow the audience to get from it what they want.
What a wierd timing, the script has already been written. This sounds like some people looking for an excuse to get angry when the plot is revealed.
I agree. With a release date set for 2018, changing the story at this point is akin to changing your mind about what you are serving for Christmas dinner – at 11pm Christmas eve. Anyone who gets upset about this is a clear indication to me that they have never worked in animation, nor have any clue how the production process of such a tightly controlled medium works, much less script development.
If Disney, or any other media company with a massive juggernaut that appeals to kids, decides to have an LGBT friendly character, that is wonderful — I think the idea of gay characters taking root as a normal part of society with kids is absolutely fine and very much necessary to defeat homophobia. However, this is like anything that is well executed in life: Lead by planning it out and do it with purpose, not cobbling something together as a hastily assembled accommodation. I definitely feel it would do more honor and dignity to the LGBT community, their families and supporters and the population as a whole to work with intention for such a message, and not with a reactionary reflex.
If the writers had to listen to the internet about Elsa’s love life, they’d also have to make the girlfriend Anna.
Ewwwwww!
It probably won’t happen with Frozen, not only because of the outraged homophobic conservatives on this planet, but because this would have to be something that they had planned in advance. But I do think it’s a great idea.