I watched Disney’s Frozen on a plane today – it was on one
of those shared teleprompter-like screens that, nowadays, you’ll only find on
domestic flights. This lack of individual screen permitted me to watch the
gaggle of college girls sing along to the movie in front of me. They knew every
word, which should have felt to me no different from the nights my own college
roommates would put on the sing-along version of “Mamma Mia” and bop around the
dorm room to find some cheer during finals week. But with Frozen, I kept in
mind their enthusiasm for this movie as a backdrop to the fact that, while
watching, I couldn’t make up my mind about whether or not this movie had a
feminist stance.
I’ll give you the rundown of the story, fittingly based on
dour fairy-teller Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” so that we can
make sense of it together. Sisters Elsa and Anna are princesses, and when they
are kids Elsa is cursed with a variation of the Midas touch – what she touches
turns to ice. As a child Elsa has trouble controlling her power and
accidentally strikes Anna with ice, injuring her. As a result, their parents
decide it is best to keep Elsa’s power a secret, encasing her hands in gloves,
shutting her away in the castle, and isolating her from her sister. Not
surprisingly, this turns her into a closed-off, protective, literally frigid
older sister.
As young adults on Elsa’s coronation day, Anna—the
compulsive, spontaneous, evidently modern one—meets Prince Hans and gets
engaged to him (on the same day, omg what?). Elsa finds out, and in her anger,
accidentally freezes the ballroom and the rest of the town, which the
townspeople interpret to mean that she’s dangerous. She runs away in exile to
her own icy castle, where she sings a song about being free. Anna hunts after
her with the help of loner mountain man Kristoff. A series of things happen as
various parties try to lure Elsa back to the castle to end the eternal winter,
during the last of which Elsa again strikes Anna with ice, freezing her heart.
In keeping with fairy tale lore, only “an act of true love can thaw a frozen
heart,” so Anna races to kiss Hans to break the spell, only to find that Hans
is just using her to get to the throne. When he tries to kill Elsa, Anna jumps
in front of the sword, though, which is the actual act of true love that
revives her back to her full warmth. Yay, and they all live happily ever after.
So, what’s complicated about that? The thing is, many of the
story elements could be subversively feminist, or not. So, let’s make a list:
Wait, I think this is feminist:
-
The Prince and Princess theme feels like a
comment on exhausted tropes; for example, when Hans turns out to be a bad guy,
we’re relieved and turn to root even more for the imperfect, clumsy,
good-hearted Kristoff. We’re equally excited to see Anna, who’s not the
helpless princess type, take matters into her own hands. She leads the effort
to find Elsa, and Kristoff is an often self-interested, begrudged helper. Yay
strong female characters!
-
Elsa’s self-imposed exile in her icy castle
could be seen as a liberating break from patriarchal/feudal oppression
-
When Prince Hans reveals himself to be evil, the
story is counteracting the countless romantic comedies and Disney movies that
place a female character’s worth and self-worth entirely in the male lead’s heroism
-
There’s a song about both Anna and Kristoff being “fixer-uppers,” which proclaims that we all have flaws that can align in
true love. No more having to be perfect
for a man!
-
“True love” turns out to be familial and not
romantic, with romantic happiness a serendipitous side effect
Or is it?
-
Elsa can only feel free in isolation, because
being at ease in society and/or having connections with people while also cherishing
her gift is impossible, because that gift is damaging to the patriarchal status
quo
-
For every time Anna saves Kristoff, there’s a
time he saves her as well (or at least tries to). But this could also be
advocating reciprocity, equal respect and contribution to a relationship,
regardless of gender. Ahhh I don’t know!
-
When Hans reveals himself to be evil, Anna is
made to seem weak and a fool for falling so quickly, and can only redeem
herself by kissing another dude. Oh no, bye strong female character!
- Kristoff is the more obvious fixer-upper,
according to his family’s song, but the part about Anna that needs fixing is
that she compulsively decided to marry another man after one day. So she needs
to change for a man anyway?
-
The fact that Hollywood still feels the need to
write female protagonists into the world of princes and princesses frustrates
me to no end! What is it about this ideal, this fascination with princesses?
-
There’s still a need to include Anna and Kristoff’s love at the end, as if we wouldn’t be satisfied with just the
sisterly love story.
So I’m stuck; each point for feminism has a problematic
(maybe postfeminist?) counterpoint. Maybe all this doesn’t matter and we should
just be happy that Frozen passes the Bechdel test. But I’d like to think that
a higher standard for our movies, especially our kids’ movies, is warranted. I
also can’t help wondering if the girls in front of me loved the movie just for
its music, or if they perhaps appreciated its complexity. Sound off in the
comments if you think this film is progressive, transgressive, regressive, or
if you don’t care!
