MovieChat Forums > Frozen (2013) Discussion > Elsa as a LGBT role model?

Elsa as a LGBT role model?

posted 6 years ago by MAGolding (1096)
14 replies | jump to latest

Some people are in favor of making Elsa a LGBT person, deeming her ice powers to be a metaphor for beng LGBT. Other people don't like Frozen because they think that Elsa's song "Let it Go" promotes accepting one's weirdness including being LGBT if her ice powers are considered a metaphor for being LGBT.

And I think that both groups might want to rethink their views. Because Elsa might have a relatively brief moment of embracing her ice powers while singling "Let it go" but is not a very strong example of "ice power pride" or "gay pride" for most of the movie or most of her life so far.

Elsa seems more like someone who is very shy, timid, or a hermit might look up to as an example or role model.

She has been brought up for most of her life as the heir presumptive to the throne. She would rule after her father unless her parents had a son. Then her parents died in a shipwreck and she became the queen under a regency until her 21st birthday when she would be crowned and begin to rule.

And all her life her greatest fear seems to have been that her ice powers would be discovered.

But apparently she never took advantage of her position as princess and queen to find out if there were other people with strange powers in her kingdom and to get the people to accept them and stop fearing them. If there were other people with strange powers like her she could have helped them be more accepted, which would be good, and which would help her people to accept her own powers if they were ever found out.

But Elsa didn't do anything like that.

When her powers were discovered, Elsa didn't have any plan B prepared for if something like that happened. She didn't claim that her dynasty originally became monarchs of Arendel because of their supernatural powers, so her being a throwback to her ancestors was actually a good thing. She didn't demonstrate her power to freeze objects and say that as long as she was queen, any foreign invading army would be frozen by her powers, so Arendel would be unconquerable as long as she was queen. She didn't accuse them of breaking their oaths of loyalty to her dynasty and to herself by being horrified to discover her powers and remind them it was their duty to obey and accept her whether she was normal or supernatural.

But instead Elsa abandoned all the perks and prestige and responsibility of being queen and fled into the mountains to die alone or else survive alone using her ice powers if they could keep her alive.

Alone in the wilderness, Elsa sang about accepting and embracing her weird ice powers, now that she was alone and didn't have to struggle to convince anyone else to accept her the way she was.

So people who think that Elsa's ice powers are a metaphor for being LGBT may hope or fear that she is a role model for LGBT kids to accept themselves. But it seems to me that Elsa is not exactly a role model for LGBT kids to be confident, out of the closet, and socially active that some people hope or fear that she may be.

To me Elsa instead seems more like a role model for the super shy and socially timid, telling them they don't have to struggle to remake themselves and be sociable and form a network of friends, that is is alright for them to be hermits and accept themselves the way they are.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

A lot of LGBT people had incredibly strong responses to "Let It Go", rather than to a film as a whole. Which is not something an adult can strongly respond to as a whole, face it.

But yeah, the "Let It Go" song was not only put to a really fabulous piece of filmmaking with Elsa becoming a new person before our eyes, it really hit a lot of grownups where they live. Not just every LGBT person who'd ever come out of the closet and let go of a ton of fears and lies and piling into the process of living as your true self, but anyone who's ever let go of ANY kind of fear! Have you ever decided you're just not going to worry about something any more? Your looks, what other people think, what your mother thinks, life goals that haven't gone as planned, anything? If you've ever had the joy of letting go of a great big worry, you'll know there's not only a moment of joy, but a feeling of blossoming, of changing for the better, becoming the person you were meant to be all along.

So really, you've overthought this a bit. There's no extended metaphor, just a strong emotional response, and it happens to all sorts of people.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

Never seen the movie, haven't heard the song -- but I feel like I have. Everyone else knows the song, I see Frozen merchandise everywhere, especially the re-sale stores. Something about "Let It Go" really says things to people. My straight female cousin says that's her anthem. An ex-coworker said his young nephew would strike a pose and sing it. (It seemed to call into question his sexuality, but we didn't talk about it. He's just a little kid.) I wish I were in a position to watch the movie with someone.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Well it does come on TV often enough, if you have the Disney channel. FYI it's not a great movie by any means, but the "Let it Go" number really is awesome. And is all over youtube, if you want to see the song without bothering with the whole movie.

And in general terms, I'm going to give you a piece of friendly and easily ignored advice: Do NOT hold off on doing stuff because there's nobody to do it with. Of course there are exceptions, you shouldn't cave dive alone because of safety concerns, but watching movies doesn't fall into that category. Your life will be happier if you just do the stuff you want to do, instead of feeling sorry for yourself or telling yourself that you mustn't do that until you have "someone".

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

I appreciate the advice. Frankly, I have other issues to be concerned other than watching an animated film alone. I don't think I get the Disney channel currently. I just said it that way because that's about the only motivation I'd have to watch it. But thanks for the thought.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Generalized best wishes to you, and yeah. If you have four minutes to waste on youtube, look up the song.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

Thanks for your Generalized best wishes. Glad people like you are so large hearted.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12253) 5 years ago

I'm glad someone was smart enough to see the reasons why she wouldn't qualify. I really hate it when the Velvet Mafia gloms onto any possible movie or tv character that shows even the tiniest bit of something in common with them and turns them into an icon, even if they aren't gay. Elsa never showed any hint that she was gay, and easily has personality traits that a straight person would have. She just never got a chance at men due to fear, and all of them going after her sister instead.

It should be noted that if they give her a girlfriend in the sequel, Disney is gonna lose a TON of money and fans. There will be parents everywhere dropping the brand because of such a stupid decision, and Elsa will become a hated name in households everywhere. Frozen toys will be in huge piles at garbage dumps, and Disney will suffer in the long run because of this.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

Funny you mention piles of Frozen merch at garbage dumps. I worked at a donation center, which is a step away from being a garbage dump, and I DID see a ton of Frozen stuff. I think Disney just saturates the market with cheap trash, and eventually it all gets thrown away. However, we were told to save the Frozen things for the store to sell, so it did some good.

[–] Threadkiller (2952) 5 years ago

I've noticed this myself. There is this constant cult like agenda of latching onto characters on popular tv shows, movies, video games, novels etc & pressuring the content providers to put their character(s) of choice in a homosexual relationship. This happens oftentimes even with characters that are blatantly straight because apparently as far as they are concerned in every heterosexual there is "a little gay" waiting to come out & every platonic same sex friendship between heterosexuals is a potential homosexual relationship (just look up "supercorp" for just one example of how these obsessive freaks go about things) but don't you ever dare do the reverse of that to a gay character though.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12253) 5 years ago

That's what caused that disgusting same-sex kiss of true love on "Once Upon A Time" between Red Riding Hood (who had never shown any sign she was gay) and Dorothy Gale in Season 5. That alone made me stop watching the show, never mind how the entire series had bad writing and went downhill after Season 4.

They do it with real people too. There's this trend I started seeing around the millennium at school that I privately called, the "Gay Jump," where people would jump to conclusions about someone's sexual orientation based on very few facts, out-of-context observations, and what THEY privately wanted the situation to really be about.

- he doesn't like sports --> oh he's totally gay
- she gets into fights with boys ---> lesbo
- he turned a girl down who wanted to sleep with him ---> is he gay or what?
- he can sew and designs his own clothes --> automatic faggot
- young kids get grossed out by couples kissing --> what, are they gay already?

I really hate that trend, and it's still popular for idiots, even today.

[–] GlenEllyn (21068) 5 years ago

🙄 She's a cartoon. I'll never understand why people project "messages" on to fictional characters.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12253) 5 years ago

Me neither.

[–] LordBAElish (2015) 5 years ago

Why do we need to project shit onto cartoon characters. She's a cartoon character in a kids movie.

[–] MAGolding (1096) 5 years ago

I don't care about any messages people see in Elsa,a Disney cartoon character.

But I commented on the way that people often describe Elsa as sort of a role model for LGBT people. I noted that Elsa is terrified of people learning the secret of her ice powers, and thous some people might not consider her that a rol e odel character.