The TDE's Frozen Rant

I have a problem with Elsa.

Actually, Elsa herself isn't too bad. I have a problem with how young girls currently idolize Elsa.

In the grand scheme of things, we are making progress. Elsa is leaps and bounds better than Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. Again, my problem isn't really Elsa herself. My problem is that we presented young girls with 2 female characters and they all latched on to the wrong one. How did this happen?

A few weeks ago I finally saw Frozen. I had heard some of the hype and I knew that young girls were coveting Elsa costumes while the Anna costumes sat on the store racks. So, while I did enjoy the movie overall, I couldn't shake the feeling that we failed our girls somehow. The movie ended and I actually said to the ITH "I'm confused. Elsa isn't even the main character." And, as if to prove me right, the credits rolled and the first voice actor credit was for ANNA, not Elsa. I think Elsa was third or fourth. So, the people that made the movie agree that Anna is the main character, NOT Elsa.

Lets think about the two characters. Elsa has magic powers that make snow and ice. That is the one thing she has that might make her "better" then Anna. To protect Anna, they lock Elsa away and try to teach her to stop her powers. She is unable to stop her power so she stays locked away. In a way, this is admirable. She keeps herself locked up to protect her little sister. This is what a loving big sister would do. The problem is that both girls are actually miserable due to the separation. Anna is the one who tries and tries and tries to re-connect with her sister. Elsa just gives up.

Then, of course, their parents die. It IS a Disney movie after all. The girls grow into young women and the whole time Elsa keeps herself locked away, and the whole time Anna never gives up on her sister. Then, for whatever reason, there is this special day where they have to open up the palace and meet their people. Apparently it's time for Elsa to take over as Queen. Who knows who was ruling the people in the years while the girls were growing up. We just time lapsed over that part, so no worries.

When Elsa still can't control her powers and everyone finds out, she runs away and builds herself an ice castle. While the message behind "Let it Go" in the movie is a decent one (stop hiding who you really are) they contradict their own message by having Elsa literally hide herself from the world while singing the song. She is still being the protective older sister, keeping her dangerous powers from hurting anyone. Yet at the same time she's being weak and short sited and self-deprecating. We never see her push back against her exile even though she's miserable and knows that her sister is also miserable. No one, including Elsa, ever considers "hey, she can't stop this, so lets figure out how she can use her power responsibly." Elsa just sees herself as broken and unfixable.

Anna, on the other hand, learns of her sister's powers and immediately decides that they can find a way to live with it. She chases after her sister. She fights back. She risks her life. She saves her sister. Yes, she does some dumb things like agreeing to marry a guy she just met. However, that is behavior you might expect from someone who was locked in a palace her whole life, lost her parents at a young age, and was not even allowed to interact with her the one other child and family member in the building. Additionally, Anna's character grows and learns throughout the film. Elsa just miserably accepts her fate until Anna forces her to see things differently.

So, Disney presented two female characters and both are far better than many previous options we've presented to our girls. The movie actually passes the Bechdel Test. I'll even ignore the annoying fact that we still feel the need to make both girls princesses.... apparently we think young girls won't to relate to female college students so instead we present them with idols from a social culture that is at least 100 years out of date. However, the way I see it, comparatively we have a the weak sister and the strong sister. Thankfully our main character is the strong sister. Good job Disney. Yet somehow, all the little girls want to be Elsa and not Anna. I'm not even sure who or what to blame, but we are still failing our girls. We have a long way to go.