My morning of March 3rd was unintentionally grimed by my colleague and friend when he told me that Disney and the writers are thinking to give Elsa a princess girlfriend for Frozen 2. My mind was blown away in a negative sense. It feels like a real bad surprise that Disney seems to be heading to ruin such a beloved movie for children. And even though I’m not a father yet, I don’t see it reasonable to show my children this movie, and the reasons are unfolded on this post, along with commentary on what people from Disney have said about it.
So, immediately after my friend told me about it, I went on to search news about it, and found a bunch of articles, from serious sources to just propaganda websites for LGBT, but here I will be referring to a post from Huffington Post, which was also quoted in LifeSiteNews. The main source behind all the talks about Elsa presumed girlfriend come from an interview of the writer and co-director Jennifer Lee, interview which was just before the release of her other movie, A Wrinkle in Time. To my ears, the answer of Lee seems quite general and not at all specific as bringing Elsa out of the closet. Those could also be just the words of an enthusiastic director/writer, and not the official words or statements of Disney. I am sure every director loves it when there are talks about their movies, or fan theories about their characters, and if “there are a lot of talks about it” then is good for them, but if it was me insted of the interviewer, I would definitely ask for clearer words from Lee. Saying “Accept yourself and just get going” is perfectly acceptable and this can go with many other themes or subjects, not just with homosexuality. And if the director would have said “we’ll see where it goes” then I would definitely have asked the director “Exactly where are you going?”
I’m glad that Disney has been pretty much “coy” (as Huff Post describes it) about including gay themes or motives in it’s movies, but most importantly, I hope that Disney keeps it that way. I might sound conservative (which I am) but children in my country and most of children in the world grew up with princesses that were looking for a Prince Charming, like Cinderella, Snow-white, Jasmine, Ariel, and more. All of these girls which are part of the every day life for a kid less than 4 years old, are always coupled with a prince, with a man, just like their parents. When they see their parents, a man and a woman, they model the world that they are exploring, a model that brings a man besides a woman, that brings a prince besides a princess. And the same should happen with Elsa.
-Is this a conservative thought?
-Sure you can see it that way, but I am sure that you as well, dear reader, when you were 3 or 4 years old, you were playing with cars if you are male and you were combing the hair of your Barby doll, if you are a female. Sure, any child can experiment with any toy, just like I did with dolls, as there were only girls with whom I could play for some time so my only option was to play with dolls as well, but the prevalent games for me were for boys. But this post, cannot be defined just as a conservative thought, or opinion, but a true and social one.
Furthermore I am going to go a little bit into personal details.
I am getting engaged in a few weeks (following some of the Albanian traditions) but luckily, I know quite well a part of the family of my fiancée, and a very dear part of that family, is the daughter of the aunt of my wife-to-be. Whenever we go for a visit at their place, she takes my hand and brings me in front of the huge box with her toys and she also has a bunch of princesses, and one of them is Elsa. Her other dolls and princesses (the ones that are not famous also have names) have their husbands or princes and is always very cute when she introduces each one of them to me. Currently, Elsa is still single, but I am quite sure that her baby cousin will be very confused when she goes to the shop after a couple of years, and sees Elsa in a box with another princess, and not with a prince, like the other princesses are. Her image for Elsa will be shattered and she will start to question if couples should continue to be the way she has seen them until now. Now here a gay rights defender would come and say “This is a perfect moment for the girl to see that she can be whatever she wants and to see that she can choose”. Well, this is not that moment, and this is not how she can see it.
Seeing that Elsa has a girlfriend, would just confuse a young girl or boy. If kids would know a thing or two about sexuality and sexual preferences, then that little girl would not bring out the dolls to play with me, but would go to my fiancée to play with dolls with her and would bring out the cars for me. But for little children, sexuality is still a grey area that is not defined. Sure they know that pink color is for girls and blue is for boys, and most probably they know this because of their parents or of the environment around them, but besides this, they are completely ignorant. They don’t care much. They care only about playing and enjoying. After all, they are kids and don’t know and don’t need to know about sexual orientation. By this I don’t mean that we should keep our children in the dark or oppress them. I wouldn’t do that to my children. But what I would do about this to my children, would be in the right time and giving them the right environment to grow up properly and be free to ask me, their parent, the central guidance figure of their life for something trivial (for a youngster) like homosexuality.
I am really keeping my hopes high about Frozen 2 not to have in it’s center a lesbian couple. If it would have, I would cross that movie out of my list even before being released for the cinemas. Frozen, the first movie, was not something for adults to entertain, even thought it serves that purpose as well, but it was another fairy tale story from Disney for children, and it was great! It was not just luck, but it was actually a pretty good movie for kids, with a short and nice origin story and with the message that people are could be different but not necessarily hide themselves, and it also gave a powerful message about bravery, self sacrifice, true love and every girl could be as strong as Elsa (just not with the magical powers) and as loving as Anna. Might not seem realistic or might even seem childish, but it’s supposed to be such. It’s a kids movie, remember? Not a movie for adults. And being homosexual, lesbian, or part of any of the LGBT community, is not something for kids, but is for adults, so, personally, it does not make any sense to make Frozen 2 about Elsa finding her girlfriend.
The lyrics of the song, Elsa’s condition, what her parents say or whatever other arguments people can throw to make Elsa lesbian, can be used for a bunch of contexts. Not everything is a reference to homosexuality and the context or point of view is very very important. So, please, don’t misuse something as innocent as a song for children that the main character sings to let go of her constrains and use her superpowers to build castles or to melt ice and bring spring to Arendelle or whatever. For sake of interpretation, many people have even suggested that Jesus is/was gay, but as Einstein said, he was uncertain about the limits of human stupidity. Frozen was not a giant metaphor for the closet, we don’t need to complicate it, but rather the adventurous tale of Elsa and her sister, as a nice and simple story.
And I’m quite happy that concerned parents and citizens are taking an action (as simple as it may be) to send a message to Disney not to turn Elsa lesbian with the petition on CitizenGo where my favorite part in the letter to Disney is this:
To turn Queen Elsa’s character into a lesbian stems from a political movement intended to feed the young audience with a divisive political mess
Can’t say anything about the political intentions, but Disney, please, don’t ruin Elsa by making it a tool for sending to kids a message that is not for them. Don’t influence the hearts of kids with something that could bring negative consequences in their life in the future. Regarding the “hidden messages” in Frozen, I would say that they are not propaganda for homosexuality and would support neither side, because like a child, I’m trying to think of Frozen and Elsa from the point of view of a child, not with the mindset of a responsible adult that can make a choice on his own.
To conclude, I will not summarize what I wrote above. This post is already much longer than I initially intended to and my frustration with the idea of a lesbian Elsa is not gone yet. I would like to finish by saying that I am a follower of the Unification Principle ideology, which does not accept homosexuality but it does not condemn homosexuals to Hell for that, but instead, promotes the values of the traditional family in the center of which are the parents, a husband and a wife, a man and a female. And at the same time I have gay friends. Might seem like two things in contradiction but I don’t see it as such. I can’t judge people for being homosexuals or for promoting LGBT and what comes with it. But I can surely share my thoughts why promoting homosexuality is wrong. I can’t force people to choose what I say, but I can stand up for something that I feel is wrong, and making Elsa lesbian is wrong.
Disney, please reconsider and take the right path with this, not thinking how much toys will you sell (even though I think you will sell much more with a prince rather than with a princess) but for the mindset with which the future children will grow up and the role models they will have.