Editorial: Should Elsa Have a Girlfriend?

Now I'm just going to go ahead and spoil the end of this blog by saying that I'm not going to come out of it definitively answering the question yes or no. I think my leanings will be pretty apparent but I'm really here to explore the pros and cons rather than to lock my opinion into stone. So let's look at Elsa and see if it makes sense for her to start dating another woman.

In just a minute.

First I think it's important to acknowledge why we're even having this conversation about a cartoon character when there are surely more pressing issues for us to verbally assault each other about (please cancel the Gambit film). I mean, how important is this? Well in practicality, not very, but practicality only makes up part of our species' identity. Emotionally, this is life or death.

Avoiding a full review of Frozen until another blog, the movie clearly left an impact, and Elsa proved to be the standout character for quite a lot of the adult audience. In my experience, most of the negativity towards the film comes from people who felt it should have been Elsa's story instead of Anna's. Quite an interesting curiosity, considering throughout the film's ten year development process Elsa spent much of it as the villain. But then Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez had to go and write "Let it Go", and boom! There went the villain.

The song answered the question, what is it like to be Elsa? What does it feel like to have something in you that you're afraid of? And why didn't Elsa's parents just ask the damn trolls to remove Elsa's magic as well if it was making her that unhappy? Elsa became a metaphor. Perhaps an ambiguous one, but so many of us see an uncomfortable part of ourselves in Elsa. The case has been made quite fluently that Elsa represents depression, and while I can totally get behind that, it's probably unfair for depression to hold the monopoly on her character. I'm sure any number of people see their mental illnesses reflected in her.

So we're going to put her on hold and chip off a fragment of the #GiveElsaaGirlfriend movement; i.e. the part without Elsa. The LGBT and Sometimes a Few Other Letters community has spent the most recent decade quite publically finding a voice. I had the luxury of being part of the Disney Company during the early 2000's when the societal transformation regarding gay acceptance really seemed to take root.

Gay days. I don't know if they still happen anymore but they were freaking amazing! One weekend in June was partitioned as a gay pride weekend throughout the resort and it was the single most energized and appreciative audience I ever experienced on property. The attendees all wore red shirts to identify as part of the community, and it's very likely that many of them were able to express their sexuality without judgment for the first time. No, Disney didn't organize it like so many ultra-conservative families insist but Disney also never did anything to discourage it either. Case in point, the green-eyed devil himself Michael Eisner addressed the complaints by shrugging them off saying, "They're paying customers". Gay days brought out a heroic moment in him; if that's not a magic trick I don't know what is.

So what we have here is a community that has been very underrepresented in our folktales (of which Disney is a dominant catalyst). And we have Elsa, an embraced yet not-fully-realized character who has a canon sequel coming out next year. Which brings us back to the topic on the table: should Elsa have a girlfriend?

Let me answer this first: should a Disney animated film present an LGBT princess? I say absolutely hell yes. The vast majority of Disney fans would cheer. Yes, Disney would lose a few Kim Davis's in the process, and screw them. The parks don't need the toxicity.

But why Elsa? Why aren't people demanding a lesbian princess from scratch? There's a couple of fairy tales we haven't tackled yet. Or as long as Disney is so remake happy, why not make a radical change to a classic character? It would take virtually no effort to translate Snow-White and Rose-Red into a same sex couple. And everybody loved bisexual Mulan on Once Upon a Time (I stopped watching. Did that resolve satisfactorily?). Is it just a case of convenient timing, or is there something about Elsa's alleged sexuality that makes sense? And not that it means anything, but why not #GiveElsaaWife; can we not commit?

So in terms of Frozen 2, what's the best course of action? Jennifer Lee has cryptically stated that she's been listening to a lot of the fan demands and ultimately she's going to take the story in the direction that the characters tell her to take it. Many fans are taking this as a positive sign, but there's a subtext they may very well be missing. Elsa's sexuality isn't up to the fan base, it's up to Elsa. And that's honestly the way it should be. Lee is an artist. She thinks like an artist. And her statement is spoken like an artist. No amount of signatures on any petitions is going to make something happen that wasn't already likely to happen. Let's also try to think like an artist and see what the options for Frozen 2 really are.


Option #1: Elsa's sexuality is irrelevant

You know, it's quite possible that Elsa might have as much focus in Frozen 2 as she did in the first movie. Just because they're making a sequel doesn't mean it's going to highlight Elsa. It could be about Anna again, relegating Elsa into a supporting position. I don't think this is very likely, but it is a possibility (kind of a discouraging one).

If they weren't going to focus on Elsa, I don't know why they'd bother doing the sequel. Well, money; duh-doi. But that's the kind of corporate decision we would have seen under Eisner's tenure, and the Bob Iger era has really worked its mouse-ears off to regain the dignity it lost. Anna's story honestly ran its course. Elsa is almost guaranteed to be the reason we're coming back to Arendelle.


Option #2: Elsa gets a female love interest

Elsa comes out as either gay or bisexual, the film neglects to mention the difference between the two, the adult fandom rejoices, and the company avoids 9 GB's of incoming e-mail correspondence whining about James Gunn, Song of the South, and family values of the 1950's.

This has a pretty good chance of happening, as Elsa's sexuality has not even been hinted at. She's shown no romantic interest in anybody, which makes her kind of a blank slate. The danger here is catering to the fan base, which I don't think Disney is going to do. Obviously there would be a story around the relationship that the studio believed in.


Option #3: Elsa gets a male love interest

Wow, I can actually feel the seething coming back through time from the film's premier. A few years ago I would have thought this would have been a guarantee. But the zeitgeist evolves. People like the fact that Disney has been getting away from the "Some day my Prince will come" mentality. They've been very vocal about it. If Disney were to go the conservative route I think they know they'd only stand to lose.

I obviously don't know how the high-ups of Disney feel about the current climate of social issues, but the board under Iger have at least demonstrated an understanding of their own company in a way the Eisner period did not. Disney currently dominates Hollywood, and even a blemish like Solo's performance isn't likely to overturn their throne, but they also know that they aren't invincible. Frozen 2 is probably a guaranteed hit but they know better than to get sloppy about it. I don't anticipate Elsa finding a man.


Option #4: Elsa's sexuality is left ambiguous

If I were betting on commission with someone else's money, this is what I'd put it on. I think there will be a new villainess. She'll be closer to the Ice Queen of the original story, and more reminiscent of the earlier drafts of Elsa. She and Elsa will feel a connection, and there will be a 'come to the dark side' lure but Elsa will ultimately resist. Whether or not the new character is redeemable is a coin toss right now.

It won't literally be a relationship. It will serve as a metaphor for one, inspiring countless M-rated fanart, but perhaps you've noticed by now that Disney doesn't really like addressing sexuality in their characters. Disney loves the deadly sins of pride and wrath. And greed is fairly safe for family entertainment. Lust? Not so much. I think Frollo was the only villain to ever demonstrate lust as a motivator, and even for him it was his B-arc. Disney favors the euphemism 'lovesick' over arousal. Based on that floor of eggshells, can you say for certain that ANY Disney character's sexuality has been confirmed?


Option #5: Elsa is asexual

I have a personal bias in favor of this approach because I'm asexual. It's amazing that this is my 232nd blog post and the topic hasn't come up one single time; you'd almost get the impression that I'm uncomfortable discussing it. I can tell you from personal experience that being asexual and aromantic are two very different things, but Disney really isn't the animation studio to explain the distinction. Thus, if Elsa were asexual it would be conveyed through her also being aromantic.

Why does Elsa have to have any sort of romantic attachment? She obviously made it through puberty without ever wanting to connect with anyone. I know she's not the most infallible example of asexuality as she was clearly dealing with her own demons for 21 years, but why didn't Merida get these petitions?

One of the things that made Elsa so special in the Princess lineup was that she didn't need a man to complete her (a common criticism for princesses of yore which isn't always fair but is worth discussing). Wouldn't we be undoing some of her character by insisting that she needs a woman to complete her instead?

Like I said, I have a bias, and a few loose emotional nerves. We absolutely need LBGT characters; LGBT superheroes, LGBT Timelords, LGBT princesses, and we need them until we're finally to the point that the acronym prefix is superfluous. But at the same time I can't help feeling that the wave of wokeness sometimes pushes for people to be something they aren't (Bert and Ernie would have been the worst example of a married couple as they were literally created to have nothing in common).

I guess what I'm saying in so many words is, leave Elsa alone. Let her figure out who she is, let her tell Jennifer Lee, let Jennifer Lee tell you what Elsa said, and learn to accept whatever that is. If Elsa's sexuality happens to be what you wanted it to be, then please know that it had nothing to do with you or your tweets or petitions. But statistically, she's probably not going to be what you want her to be. It's not going to detract away from her character or make her any less of who she is. Whatever is revealed about her just makes her more Elsa. So don't get attached to your own expectation unless you're prepared to #LetitGo.