Evaluating the Implications of Queer Claims for Elsa in Frozen

If Elsa Is a Lesbian and If Her Power Is a Metaphor for Her Sexuality, then Even the LGBTQIA+ Members Don’t Want the Inevitable Implication

Few things can unite childless purple-haired liberals and busybody church ladies, but in 2013 Disney did just that with Frozen.  For little girls everywhere it was instantly rewatchable with an earworm showstopper that would go on to be sung at countless elementary school and summer camp talent shows.  Elsa’s journey resonated with many, including lesbians, who for years have said they were not sufficiently represented; from repression by parents who feared her nature, through cathartic acceptance of herself, and into the discovery that true love is broader than she was ever told.  Uptight church ladies were aghast to see that exact same thing being woven into a story designed to captivate their daughters.

“Let It Go”, in the tellings of both purple-hairs and busybodies, is Elsa’s coming-out song.  It’s a powerful statement that she’ll no longer live by anyone else’s rules and be the slave to her own fears that she may hurt someone or that her powers will be known.  Without that song and the inference that her magic is a proxy for homosexuality then Elsa is simply a character in a movie with no expressed sexual preference.  If, on the other hand, Disney explicitly makes Elsa a lesbian, then the metaphor has to be more closely examined and very few people are going to like the implications.

Part of the problem is that “Let It Go” is in every way a traditional Disney villain song.  It shares more with The Lion King’s “Be Prepared” than it does with the songs of other Disney heroes that came before.  Superficially it is similar to first act songs by Ariel and Belle, but “Part of Your World” and the reprise of “Belle” are naïve answers to the internal call of adulthood.  If there is another hero song like “Let It Go” then it’s “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”, and that’s the song of a selfish child who will learn some very nasty lessons.  The audience excuses the damage that Elsa does because she is unaware that she has devastated her kingdom, but she tells that same audience that she’s not going to look at her past anyway.  This only makes sense if either Elsa was the villain until well into production or the movie makers are unmoored from traditional values.  It could possibly be both.

Let’s take some steps back and look at that family dynamic which is so important to the thesis that Elsa is a lesbian.  Like a heroine from the Disney Renaissance she doesn’t fit into her parents’ world.  They make her hide an unacceptable part of herself.  They don’t just make her hide her power, they hide her.  In Dad’s conversation with the trolls we’re even told that she wasn’t cursed by these powers, she was born this way.  No wonder the LGBT community seems to want to claim Elsa as their own.  No wonder they want Disney to come out and say what they already know in their hearts.

But, why did Mom and Dad have to rush Anna to the trolls in the first place?

Before that happened Elsa didn’t seem to keep things a secret.  We have no indication her parents were ashamed of her.  Actually, it’s not until after the trolls that Mom and Dad decide to lock up the castle and hide her away from the world.  Just that morning Elsa and Anna were playing together… alone… when Elsa’s power got out of control and touched her sister.  That’s when Mom and Dad went for an outsider who tried to help Anna deal with what happened.  That’s when the castle staff was dismissed and Elsa wasn’t allowed to play with her sister anymore.

Years later, after Elsa’s coronation when she is expected to host and attend a ball, what is the triggering event that brings out her magic for all to see?

Anna insists she’s going to be married.  Elsa says, “No,” for reasons that are decidedly anachronistic and poor statecraft.  Anna pushes back and makes it clear she wasn’t asking.  That’s when Elsa’s magic can no longer be contained and the court sees her for what she really is.  All because she can’t handle that her little sister wants to be married to a handsome prince.

Wait, that can’t be right.  Disney is pushing a lot of things in the culture war, but they are not going to push THAT!

I don’t think they are intentionally doing it.  Frozen is a disaster of poor writing with characterization that makes no sense, plot points that go nowhere or come from nowhere, and artifacts of other stories that had been discarded for decades.  I think that up until the end they were making a Disney version of Wicked and wearing The Snow Queen as a mask, at nearly the last minute they changed directions and created all these problems for themselves.

I know that representation is important.  I know that Disney is dedicated to making stories for the marginalized.  I’m just begging them, don’t fight on this battlefield, there is no victory here.

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