Frigid Lesbians?

I bet I got your attention with that title, huh? Well it’s probably not as exciting as you think. Or maybe it is. Guess you’ll have to read on to find out…

I watched “Frozen”for the first time a few days ago. Around the same time, I had a Facebook friend share an article that was speculating about the hidden meaning of the movie, specifically debating whether or not Elsa was a lesbian. I read the article and thought “this has to be just some whack job; people don’t really care about this.” But a simple google search reveals that they do.

The most outrageous statements I found came from a BBC article on the subject (linked at the end of the entry). In the article, a Christian radio show host is quoted as saying that the movie is “evil” and it indoctrinates women into become lesbians and promotes “bestiality.” Bestiality? What? Did I watch the right movie? There was a reindeer in it but I didn’t get that kind of vibe from Chirstof.

Come on, this is clearly just a really good friendship…
image from filmofilia.com

The article goes on to quote a Mormon blogger Kathryn Skaggs who claims that the song “Let it Go”is careless and promotes “anti-obedience.” Ummm…I thought it was about a character accepting and embracing her uniqueness, or maybe winter, but whatever. What do I know? After all, I didn’t create an LDS grandparent page like she did.

I find it hard to believe that a movie with a character with a detachable head has great commentary on outdated social norms

This whole line of thought really irritates me. Why do we care so much about the sexual identity of cartoon characters? They don’t even have genitalia, let alone a sexual preference (if you are watching cartoons with genitals, I don’t want to hear about it. EVER.).

I think the part that really gets to me is that people only seem to be outraged when the main character is a girl who isn’t conforming to societal norms. No one got up in arms about Aladdin undermining traditional marriage because he didn’t want to accept his role in life. No one cared Nemo didn’t listen to his dad. Why do we care about Elsa?

Jasmine married a thieving hobo and no one complains about that
image from fanpop.com

Because she is a girl. That is really the only reason. There were the same accusations thrown around when “Brave” was released. Merida was characterized by some extremists as being gay because she didn’t want an arranged marriage at 16. I am pretty sure most 16 year old girls don’t want their dad to pick their sexual partners, gay or not.

We need to accept that most of the time, these characters are just fun characters. The creators aren’t trying to undermine traditional values. And even if they are, maybe those values could use a little undermining.

Maybe I see it…