Is Elsa Gay?: Considering The Sexuality of Disney Characters

Disney has been the number one brand name for family entertainment since the studio's earliest successes in classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and in their animated feature films beginning with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS in 1937.  Here in the good ol' U.S. of A., we absolutely refuse even to acknowledge the notion of sex when we're dealing with families, which is, obviously, ironic.  But even in spite of all our denials, the irrefutable fact is that art is expression, and movies are art, and even the filmmakers (artists) making films aimed at children and families tend to be sexual beings like almost every other healthily functioning adult (some of them are unhealthy too; for more read just about any serious nonfiction book about the early days of Walt Disney Animation Studios).  There are two factors more integral to the human experience than anything else, and those are mortality and sexuality, and a human story, even if told in paint and pixels, must have some degree of sexuality.  It's not perverted, it's not corrupt, but it's humanity, and the ultimate longing for connection that contrasts with our fears of separation in death.  So, the point being, every story has its own sexual nature.
It's easy enough to point out sexual elements of something, especially something that others would like to consider "pure," but now we get into tricky areas of what importance we should apply to the elements of an artwork that the creator may not have intended, at least, not consciously.  Analysis of artwork is a sticky business, because what the meaning of art actually comes down to is both in the hands of the artist and of the audience, because both assign their own meanings to the art they invest in.  Sometimes they agree, and other times they do not.
All of this I would like to be clear before we get down to brass tacks; searching for meaning in art is not an exact science, not by far, and there are no proven theories, just theories.  That said, my theory is that Elsa, the character from Disney's recent animated blockbuster, FROZEN, is a statement on the current environment of gay politics.

That's right, his being a prat is only one of her reasons for disinterest.

If you have not seen Disney's FROZEN, first off, you should, and second, here I will be writing about specific events from that film, including so-called "spoilers" and revelations from the films end and so on, so you've been warned.
The main plot revolves around the character of Elsa, the elder of two princesses and heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Arendelle.  As a child, she has the power to create and manipulate snow and ice with mere gestures, a power which she uses to the delight of her younger sister Anna.  One night, while playing in the palace on snowdrifts and ice of Elsa's own creation, Elsa accidentally strikes Anna with her powers.  Her parents, the King and Queen, rush Elsa and her injured sister to the nearby realm of trolls, and the troll chief is able to heal Anna, but he advises that Elsa's powers be controlled and hidden from everyone, including Anna.  As such, Elsa grows up in a life of isolation, locked away in her chambers from all but her parents.  As she gets older, her powers become stronger, and living in fear, she fights to control her emotions, lest they lend themselves to her unstable powers.  With her hands almost perpetually sheathed in gloves, Elsa lives within her room under a motto of, "Conceal, don't feel.  Don't let it show."  The kingdom misunderstands her nature, unaware of the purpose behind her secretive nature and the locked gates to the palace grounds.  But when the day of Elsa's coronation arrives, the gates are opened, and it is at the Coronation Ball that night that Anna inadvertently, and as much to her surprise as everyone else, reveals her sister's powers in a frightening display that brings to mind Stephen King's Carrie, as she sprays shards of ice from her fingertips and flees from her kingdom leaving behind her a trail of solid ice where the fjord upon which the kingdom relies for trade had been.
The real antagonist of the story is fear itself, which is the force tearing apart the sisters and the kingdom.  Elsa feels forced to live in concealment.  Her nature is unacceptable and "dangerous" to the world, so she is trained to "control" it.  It's practically impossible not to draw the parallels between a motto like "Conceal, don't feel.  Don't let it show," and the infamous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy upheld in our United States Armed Forces until recently.  That's an easy starting point to pick up on the allegory.  There's also moments like when the Troll Chief inquires of the King and Queen about Elsa's powers, "Born with the powers, or cursed?" to which the King readily replies "born."  This was not something that anyone had such control over, and it's not a "curse," by the reckoning of the film.
Furthermore, there's a line that appears in the trolls' song late into the film, "Fixer Upper" in which a character directly states to another, "We're not saying that you can change him, because people don't really change," which is actually a bit startling to hear in an animated Disney movie, let alone a mainstream family cartoon.  Admittedly, I'm not making a lot of room for context here, as that line is being directly applied to a different area of the plot, but it is delivered as a direct moral in the film, so it makes up part of the film's philosophy in its entirety.  This, again contributes to the themes of a person's nature, applicable in multiple ways, including sexual nature, and although people can make bad choices (but being born with snow powers is not a curse or choice; she was born with it, we covered that), that is choice, not nature.
We shouldn't really have to dig for these things though, should we?  After all, this is a character who we watch grown up locked away in a closet that doesn't let people in, and she doesn't come out.  Unfortunately, her sister "outs" her, doesn't she?  And the result is devastating, while also setting a course for what will ultimately make everything right that wasn't before.  Elsa, now disowned by society, flees into the mountains, where she blossoms into everything that she is, but could not be.  This is far and away my favorite scene in the movie, the "Let It Go" musical sequence, in which Elsa casts away all the trappings of her concealment and becomes the woman she is.  Let's take a look at a few of the lyrics for the song:

Letting It Go

"Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried..."

"Don't let them in, Don't let them see/ Be the good girl you always have to be/ Conceal, don't feel, don't let the know/ Well, now they know!/ Let it go, let it go..."

"No right, no wrong, no rules for me/ I'm free..."

"That perfect girl is gone/ Here I stand in the light of day..."

"I know I left a life behind, but I'm too relieved to grieve..." [Demi Lovato cover version; Note: Lovato is also an outspoken gay rights advocate.]

It isn't a "bad girl" song though (although it's clear that her difference makes not considered a "good girl"); it's a rousing anthem of independence where an insecure and troubled character rebuilds herself, shedding the expectations of her society of fear.  She casts off the gloves, the symbols of her concealment, she looses her hair and creates a whole new wardrobe for herself (no fairy godmothers here).  It's her grand showcase of everything that she can be when she has accepted herself.  Plus, your precious little heaven knows how hard she tried, so get off your high horse.  Several critics have considered the "Let It Go" scene as an allegorical "coming out" moment, a bold acceptance of herself and the jubilation of that freeing experience.  I can't say that I saw it as much else myself upon my first viewing of FROZEN.
It's not at all as simple as everyone else coming to understand her though; it goes both ways.  Elsa lives in the fear that she isn't loved, so she's forced to be alone with at least the freedom of loving herself as she is.  She's come out to herself, and she's been forced out to others, but everything is still frozen, and there's still fear, evidenced by the mishap that occurs during Anna's attempt to persuade her to unfreeze the land, which she doesn't know how to do.  Even in her acceptance of herself, the real world awaits just outside, and Elsa is weighed down by the guilt and fear of what she is.  Elsa doesn't really understand Anna, or what love they share as sisters.  FROZEN isn't terribly concerned with sexualized romance in the way most Disney Princess films are; we've covered that enough, now what's important here is familial love, and that's the risk for many gay youth coming to terms with their reality.  This story of a sisterly bond is so much more powerful when we consider the allegorical possibility that Anna is the family on a quest to prove to Elsa that she is loved and accepted.  True love, and not necessarily the romantic kind, proves to be the prescription that heals the frozen heart.

Don't let homophobia make you homophobiaphobe.

Obviously there's no specification made about the potential real-world applications of Elsa story, but there's no direct (or indirect, for that matter) point to oppose the gay allegory, with Elsa having no romantic interest of any sort, not that any female character without a male counterpart is lesbian, which was a sexist speculation made about Merida in Pixar's BRAVE (2012).  However, the setting up of such a possibility without making any effort to deny it makes one wonder.  The argument that such things are unintentional and being "read into" are moot especially in the case of a film like this, because of the intensive process behind animation that leaves little room for doubt.
There have been plenty of Disney characters whose intended sexual orientation has been question before, including Gaston from BEAUTY & THE BEAST, Scar from THE LION KING, and a surprising number of people got riled up over ALADDIN when the Genie said, "I'm getting pretty fond of you kid...not that I want to pick out curtains or anything."  Gaston and Scar are pretty easily explained; the key animator on both characters was openly gay Disney Animation mainstay Andreas Deja, whose effeminate gesturing have occasionally appeared in his character drawings.  Things like the Genie though are just because people are sometimes silly.  Sexuality is definitely a presence in these films though, even from the early days of Disney, such as in BAMBI, when Flower is kissed by the girl skunk, turning him bright pinks and stiff as a board, or basically a full-body erection (hey, it's been pointed it out in a book about animation published by Disney).  For a more direct sexual presence in an animated Disney film, there's also THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, where one of the primary motivations of the villain, Frollo, is lust.  There are also cartoon bare breasts in FANTASIA.

Naturally, even as they've gradually been evolving into on of the most liberal of the major film studios, Disney has no intentions of making real specifics about these sorts of things.  Why infuriate potential ticket/merchandise buyers?  Anyway, even if it is the definite intention of the filmmakers behind FROZEN that she be read as a gay character, it doesn't have to be read that way.  Years from now, when the Disney company is still making big bucks on sales of the movie, once gays have become more assimilated into mainstream culture, the story is still perfectly applicable to other contexts.  But I think it's important to note that this movie has been made now; not fifty years ago, and not fifty years ahead; it's been made now, when this is an important issue.  
Interestingly, Elsa, inspired by the titular character of Hans Christian Andersen's  The Snow Queen, which the film was initially based on before the story was heavily altered beyond most recognition, was originally the film's villain.  She was not related to Anna; she was a cold and icy force of nature.  But even the best writers at Walt Disney Animation could not figure out what it was that made her tick, and for years, the project languished in "development hell," as one team after another was defeated in their best efforts to form a cinematic story.
It was when someone suggested the notion that Elsa and Anna could be sisters, when the pieces of the story began to mesh together.  This new enlightening was the major turning point it took to get the story on its feet.  Elsa wasn't a villain, but others thought she was.  Isn't that kind of similar to our own story, as we've come to recognize gay people as our own family?
Still not convinced?  Well, now you have a new excuse to go see FROZEN again.


Editors Note: Movies&Musings isn't alone in this reading of the film.  To prove the accessibility of these interpretations, we've taken the liberty of also providing you with links to other publications that have identified similar gay themes in Disney's FROZEN.

• http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/18/frozen-movie-review-a-new-classic-disney-animated-musical/
• http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/frozen-2013
• http://www.rotoscopers.com/2013/11/30/princess-profiles-elsa/