Since Frozen came out in 2013 fan art has been long imagining the Ice Queen as queer. This is the same Ice Queen who is forced to conceal her true identity, branded a “freak” and a “monster” and feels that she must hide away from the world. This is also the same Ice Queen that in an epic ballad (which I think every person on earth knows the words to) yells into a blizzard “COULDN’T KEEP IT IN, HEAVEN KNOWS I TRIED.”
A feminist icon and singer of one of the most memorable ballads, with over 700 million hits on Youtube, it’s hard not to want to want Elsa to also be the most progressive Princess of them all and get a girlfriend.
Last week a young teen activist launched a twitter campaign (#GiveElsaAGirlfriend) which called for Disney to allow Elsa to come out of the closet in the upcoming Frozen sequel. The activist’s initial tweet – “I hope Disney makes Elsa a lesbian princess imagine how iconic that would be” – has exploded all over Twitter, with the the hashtag also going viral. Fans are now encouraging Disney to include a LGBTQ+-inclusive plotline to speak for a generation yearning to not just have to infer from subtle themes that a character speaks to their community.
(Phot Credit: www.christiantoday.com)
Imagine it…a Disney Princess who is gay AND happy, all at the same time. It would be radical indeed to watch Elsa and her would-be-love, living in their ice castle together, singing cute ballads to each other (can you tell I’ve been giving this a lot of thought?) The sad fact is that we’ve barely seen anything like this from Disney, which stays well in its comfortable heteronormative land.
We’ve had an Indian princess, an African-American princess and even a red-haired princess, who is more interested in her archery than ever getting married. But absolutely zilch for the LGBT community. With over 8 million adults in the US identifying as gay, it’s a gaping whole in Disney’s repertoire.
It’s important to know that this isn’t reinforcing gay stereotypes. Elsa isn’t the perfect candidate because she’s an Ice Queen that hates men and therefore MUST be gay. No. Elsa is perfect because it’s important to say what is implied is not necessarily fiction. Women can love women! And they bl***y deserve their love stories too. What is important about Frozen is that is conveys the message to thine own self be true and all that. It’s important for children and adults alike to know that love is universal.
(Photo Credit: www.queerty.com)
While Disney has given us characters such as Mulan – who could be considered an emblem of gender-fluidity, giving the middle finger to societal expectations and choosing instead to dress as a man and fight; these disney princesses all end up in happy, heterosexual relationships.
There are Disney characters that have become queer icons. It’s common knowledge that Ursula, from the Little Mermaid, was based upon the drag queen, Divine. But figures like Ursula are branded as frightening, leaving little kids cowering behind the sofa. But characters like Ursula, Scar and Hades (all of whom are “coded as gay”) are depicted as villains, branded as immoral, no doubt an extension of the once prevalent idea that children should stay away from effeminate gay men, who are either perverts or out to “change” you.
(Photo Credit: www.queerty.com)
Disney history is ripe with intimate male-male relationships that could be analyzed as on the sly homosexual, but each condemned with homophobic humor any time that relationship might overtly present itself. Take Pumba and Timon’s accidental kiss for instance which is met with revulsion and an immediate wiping of mouths and spitting.
Wouldn’t it be nice for a change to not have an undercurrent of shame?
In a franchise that has given us girls falling in love with beasts, ogres who fall for humans, and even grown women who develop a crush on a bee, is it so hard to have a queer relationship and not just assume one?
Anyway it’s high time Pumba and Timon make honest men of each other already.