frozen feminism essay

Frozen was our most important feminist film but the sequel won’t have the same impact

Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University

Disclosure statement

Darren Paul Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Bond University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

“Elsa, the past is not what it seems.” The opening line from the latest Frozen II trailer invites us to revisit not only the original world of the film but to re-think its meaning.

Of course, this is a well-worn technique with most sequels – a deeper dive into the mythology, sometimes deepening the experience (The Empire Strikes Back), sometimes complicating it to catastrophic effect (The Phantom Menace).

However, it’s also an important time to reflect on what the original Frozen meant to our world, a very different time in 2013, and to make a bold claim: I think that Frozen is perhaps the most important feminist film ever made.

It is still the most successful animated musical of all time, having made over $1.2 billion in the cinema alone, not including the merchandising that permeates children’s bedrooms all over the world.

To set the scene, in 2013 Obama was still president and Harvey Weinstein still respected, if not awed, as a film producer. No #metoo, little significant dialogue in the screen world on gender equality (although Geena Davis was making increasing impact with her Institute on Gender in Media , founded back in 2004), and even less on racial diversity and gender fluidity.

Frozen, a Disney animation about two princess sisters, one with the power to manipulate ice and snow, had been in development for decades, based on the Hans Christian Andersen Snow Queen story. Elsa was the villain. The film that audiences finally saw was somewhat of a happy accident: when one of the directors heard Let It Go for the first time (the now-forever-torch-song-of-self-acceptance), it inspired her to completely re-think the story and reshape it around sisterly love.

The overriding messages of the film are almost embarrassingly simple: suppressing your authentic self is hugely damaging; fear is negative; love is positive. But here’s the meta-level kicker: it’s a fairytale (and a Disney one, at that) that tells us that princesses-in-jeopardy do not need a male to save them, thank you very much.

The Nevermind of this screen generation?

The take-home is clear: Women no longer need to be defined by their relationships to men. Here even romantic love is presented as problematic for the female characters, instead of a solution (opposite to the tradition of female love being the complication to the male hero’s journey). When Anna rejects her “true” love Kristoff to sacrifice herself for her sister, it is a deliberately symbolic meta-gesture, that had a far bigger impact than the filmmakers could have genuinely expected.

It’s important to note here, that the problem (women always presented as objects-to-be-saved – especially princesses) was largely one created by Disney, although they should be given kudos for also being the one to eventually smash the trope. But it is also absurd that in 2013 the idea that women could have agency (and stories) independent of men should have been so culturally significant.

Still, the fact that a Disney blockbuster overturned this trope was key. The huge commercial success of Frozen proved that these stories make money, influencing the mainstream to generate similar tales. Just look at the current output of Marvel and DC. The idea of women not defined by men has become a given, part of the intellectual fabric of an entire generation of girls and boys, something a challenging indie or art-house film could never hope or expect to achieve.

And Frozen did something even more rare, it closed the door on those old damsel-in-distress characterisations, perhaps forever, in the same way that Dances with Wolves forever closed the door on the representation of American Indians as one-dimensional savages (noble or otherwise).

In fact, I think Frozen has become the Nevermind of this screen generation; just as the seminal Nirvana album instantly dated all rock that come before it, Frozen magically made all previous fairy tales hopelessly old-fashioned.

A different world

So what for Frozen II (which will open in Australian cinemas on November 28)? It’s arriving in a very different world from its predecessor. Story-wise, from the “autumnal” feel to the trailer, it’s clear that the film is going to be the second of four movies/seasons (no points for that one), and the “past is not what it seems” theme, combined with lots of Elsa in the sea does indicate (but I hope it doesn’t go there) that her dead parents might somehow be brought back to life.

But will it have the same cultural impact? Absolutely not. And nor should it. Frozen was a lightening-rod moment in the zeitgeist, but to try to make it to strike twice would be disastrous, both creatively and financially. I am keen to see what happens to Elsa and Anna, but would worry if the film attempts to up the thematic stakes to extend the cultural conversation.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love Disney and other studios to make films that better represented our ethnically, sexually and gender diverse populations (intersectional feminism, anyone?), but I think that might just be too much pressure on one narrative, even with all of Elsa’s magical powers.

• Disney Frozen
• Disney stories
• Children's films

Service Centre Senior Consultant

Director of STEM

Community member - Training Delivery and Development Committee (Volunteer part-time)

Chief Executive Officer

Head of Evidence to Action

• Vision/Mission

• Arts & Culture
• Entertainment
• College Feminisms
• Elementary Feminisms
• Feminists We Love
• Personal is Political.
• Submissions
• Comment Policy
• Media Inquiries
• The Feminist Wire Speakers Bureau

COLLEGE FEMINISMS: Slamming the Door: An Analysis of Elsa (Frozen)

By Shira Feder

The Disney Princess franchise presents misogynist and terrifying fairy tales for profit . These stories enforce patriarchal views towards women that instate an impossible standard of beauty in the young female characters who serve as role models for children. Disney has failed to represent women of color as princesses despite the recent inclusion of Tiana from The Princess and the Frog into Disney’s line of aggressively marketed iconography. Even with this inclusion, the racial representation is problematic because Disney princesses continue to be presented as stereotypically inadequate regardless of incorporating racial difference.

The Disney Princesses possess little agency. They sacrifice integral parts of themselves for men (for example, the loss of voice in The Little Mermaid ), are forced to work for ‘evil’ stepmothers for years ( Cinderella and Snow White ), and are featured in only seventeen minutes of the movie named after them ( Sleeping Beauty ). While there are exceptions to this rule, the majority of the princesses are presented as lacking any vision of themselves without a man to provide it for them.

Unlike most Disney Princess movies where the princess undergoes a transformation in the movie that positions her to be less than she was before—Ariel from a singing mermaid to a mute human, or Cinderella from a hopeful maid to a woman whose true love danced with her all evening yet cannot remember her face, or Sleeping Beauty and Snow White who are actual cadavers, literally lacking life force – Elsa transforms into an adult, ready to have an active role in her own life, in full control of her powers.  This transformation takes place in a self-preserved prison created by stigmatism and fear—a setting that prompts valuable questions for Disney.

The existence of the prison as an omnipresent metaphor and narrative trope is more telling of society’s flaws than Disney’s presentation of it. Elsa frees herself from her prison and defies another narrative trope – the princess in need of a prince to rescue her.  While this movie does not question the existence of the prison, it does take an unexpected leap away from male savior-hood.

Additionally, Elsa appears to be the first Disney Princess to acknowledge the issue of mental health as a reality for women. At Elsa’s coronation, her hands are shaking violently, prompted by the fight or flight’ response in the body in response to life threatening issues. Many people who suffer from anxiety disorders view innocuous occasions as life threatening and suffer from shaking limbs as a result. Also, when Anna and Elsa finally reunite, Elsa appears to be suffering from extreme guilt and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, haunted by the fact that she nearly killed her sister. This reaction is triggered by Anna herself, as is apparent from the Elsa’s flashback to this event and instinctual flight from the room. There are also symptoms of an uncontrolled panic attack present here. Elsa’s powers are beyond her control once she becomes agitated; her singing becomes more and more incoherent until it is nothing but a shout (“I can’t!”) despite Anna’s evident sympathy and logical pleas. There is a pervasive tendency in US culture to view people suffering from mental illness as weak, lazy, inadequate, or lacking control. Creating a Disney princess who happens to have an anxiety disorder is a progressive step towards creating characters that accurately represent our world. Elsa is not portrayed as selfish or “crazy,” but as someone who is doing the best she can in her situation.

Importantly, Elsa challenges the prevalent “ good girl complex ,” a term designated to describe the pressure girls are under to be perfect in all areas. In her song, “ Let It Go ,” Elsa sings “that perfect girl is gone.” She refers to the pressure of having to be the perfect daughter, sister, and princess. In this song, Elsa releases herself from these pressures and allows herself the freedom to make mistakes and live how she chooses. Elsa also challenges the virgin/whore dichotomy. When Elsa changes into a more overtly sexy outfit and looks directly at the camera with a raised eyebrow, it appears that she is a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality and she does not care what anyone thinks. She slams the door in the audience’s face, indicating that she needs privacy to understand herself or that the audience does not have to be present for her sexual awakening.  This defies the fetishizing of young women for audience consumption.

Elsa can be embraced as a symbol of sexual empowerment and challenging norms of sexuality. There is ample space for interpretation of Elsa’s sexuality in this film. The parallels between Elsa’s powers that challenge the people around her, her own understanding of herself, and the process of “coming out” are significant to see in a Disney film. Like many people coming to terms with themselves, Elsa must grapple with accepting her immense powers, which have been stigmatized by her society as negative. The movie gives us no reason to believe that anyone, except Elsa herself, ever doubted that she could easily remove the ice.  What Elsa feared about herself was what made her different, powerful, and special. The characters’ acceptance of Elsa’s powers reflects a growing acceptance of multiple sexual orientations and gender formations in the US.  There is increased visibility of  gender difference and sexuality in popular culture (in forms such as LGBTQIAP TV characters, pride parades, and gay rights movements) and Elsa’s character can further contribute to these shifts. The Disney Princess is no longer hiding in a castle.

What does the creation of a complex and contentious heroine mean for the future of Disney Princess films?

Elsa’s messy, complicated balancing act between selflessness and selfishness makes her a human being that the audience can understand and relate to—she is not just a fairytale. Elsa’s struggle to accept her tremendous powers is a feminist one because Elsa, like many young woman today, was raised to see her strengths as weaknesses. If a woman is authoritative, she is considered bossy. If a woman is strong, she is considered unfeminine. If a Disney Princess possesses unprecedented powers it was considered dangerous. Here Disney perhaps unintentionally challenges the invisible limits of what a woman can handle and suggests that there may be none.  Elsa presents Disney Princesses as fallible, accessible, and relatable, which is crucial for thinking about how the figure of a princess can be a feminist role model for children. This complex, nuanced character has raised the bar for the creation of all future princesses because Elsa teaches girls to embrace their strengths and differences in all varieties and forms. Although Disney’s version of feminism is still flawed, creating female characters that have agency and strong characteristics is a big step forward and away from the presentations of princesses as agentless young women.

The upcoming Disney film, Moana, gives us a glimpse into Disney’s continued progressive modus operandi.  In 2018, Disney is scheduled to release, Moana , which is about a native Hawaiian ocean explorer. The motivations for this may be simply fiscal, but maybe Disney will explicitly engage with histories of colonization.  The result of Disney’s progressive agenda on children is one that cannot be underestimated. Disney is redesigning their characters to present a more diverse, tolerant mirror of our current world. Multicultural inclusion, the validation of mental health issues, sexual freedoms, and the importance of personal agency for all are concepts that twenty years from now may be familiar to children who grow up with these third generation Disney films. There is continued potential for change.

************************************

You may also like...

All Content ©2016 The Feminist Wire All Rights Reserved

The Captable

Social Story

Enterprise Story

The Decrypting Story

Daily Newsletter

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Founder first

Announcement

Startup Sectors

Women in tech

Entertainment

Art & Culture

Travel & Leisure

Curtain Raiser

Wine and Food

Frozen magic unveiled: How Disney rewrote the princess rulebook

With a global box office collection of $1.2 billion, two academy awards, and a soundtrack with over a million album sales, frozen stands as one of the monumental films in disney's repertoire. what made it a cultural phenomenon let's find out..

Tuesday November 28, 2023 , 8 min Read

It’s been 10 years since a Disney princess first belted out Let It Go , embedding it into the collective consciousness of millions. 

With a global box office collection of $1.2 billion, two Academy Awards (BAFTA and Golden Globe), a soundtrack boasting over a million album sales and 7 million Spotify streams, and even the DVD catapulting as Amazon's top-selling children's film, Frozen stands as one of the monumental films in Disney's repertoire. Spawning an avalanche of merchandise, and Broadway and West End adaptations, the film became the fifth highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Apart from its commercial success, the wait time to meet Elsa at Disney World Florida in 2013, stretched to a staggering four hours. To add to that, even tennis icon Serena Williams proudly claimed to have watched it 3,000 times!

But what set Frozen apart as the definitive pop culture phenomenon of its decade?

Was it the infectious music? The twist on the villainy? The allure of magical powers? Or perhaps the subversion of the conventional notion of ‘true love’? 

It seems even Disney hasn't quite unravelled how Frozen became a cult favourite and a thriving franchise. Let’s delve deeper and find out why Frozen's allure never waned.

Anna & Elsa

Anna & Elsa

Two female protagonists vouching for each other

Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 book, The Snow Queen , Frozen 's genius lies in a deceptively simple choice—one missing from Disney's earlier movies and still not fully embraced by the studio: two female protagonists , Anna and Elsa.

While the Disney Princess image often exudes girl power, prior to Frozen , it rarely depicted the power of girls united. However, the backdrops never missed witches, wicked stepmothers, jealous sisters or women fighting over a man. 

But it turns out, audiences crave seeing women interact on-screen. Positively. Happily.

Amidst such established narratives, Elsa and Anna weren't just two female characters; they were protagonists whose relationship drove the narrative, each enjoying equal development even when not together on-screen. 

Sisterly love serves as a central theme, reinforcing the film's takeaway—that women need not be defined by their relationships with men. In a subversion of traditional narratives, romance with a stranger outweighed the profound bond shared between sisters, forged over years of shared experiences—a testament to sisterly devotion over typical romantic tropes. Anna's self-sacrifice for her sister marks a deliberate, symbolic gesture that resonated deeply.

The film truly marked Disney's theatrical release to prioritise female friendships. 

Feminism at its best

Frozen resonated universally, transcending age, gender, and backgrounds as it tapped into a unique brand of feminist narrative—a kind of isolationist feminism embodied by Elsa's empowerment through her ice kingdom, a notion that resonated long before the #MeToo movement. 

However, like always, this feminist narrative stirred controversy and debate. Jordan Peterson, a psychology professor, criticised the story as "deeply propagandistic" due to the prince's portrayal as a villain, claiming it signalled “the subjugation of art to propaganda”. Yet, Disney celebrated the dual idealism portrayed by Elsa and Anna—princesses who weren’t the damsels-in-distress yet were marketable as dolls, blending progressive ideals with commercial success.

Critics praised its strong feminist undertone, crediting the film's two assertive female protagonists, Anna and Elsa, who didn't rely on male saviours but drew strength from family bonds and each other. They are the women who repeatedly save the day through selfless sacrifices, diverging from the clichéd 'kiss of true love.' They are sharper, more astute, and less easily won over than their 1950s counterparts. 

Frozen also passed the “Bechdel Test” by portraying significant conversations between female leads on topics beyond men. The movie champions strong, relatable, and nuanced storytelling—touching upon the everyday experiences of children, transcending the screen into their realities.

The independent nature of these princesses captivated global audiences, prompting countless YouTube covers of Let It Go and inspiring young girls to emulate these self-reliant heroines.

Exploration of gender and sexuality through subversion of Elsa's character

The movie resonates on multiple levels, with its most poignant message lying in the unexpected: Elsa initially appears as a monstrous figure, yet a closer look reveals the true villain—the societal pressures confining her into a role she doesn't fit. 

The film not only challenges our notions of who embodies the real monster but also prompts a reevaluation of societal norms and traditional gender roles–akin to the impact Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had years ago. 

Elsa wasn't the typical princess or Disney character. Born with uncontrollable magical abilities, her good intentions led to inadvertent harm, causing personal (injuring her sister) and global (accursed kingdom) consequences. Her flaws, tangible and consequential, provided a platform for diverse interpretations. 

Some found parallels in emotional suppression, gender and identity struggles, broader societal acceptance, or even battles with depression. “Character identification is the driving force,” explains psychologist Erika Wells, focusing on film perception and visual appeal in her research. She notes the varied discussions among students from different backgrounds— LGBTQ+ representatives, artists, scientists—finding personal realism within the character's arcs.

Elsa’s character is portrayed without any romantic affiliations. Her character isn't explicitly labelled as heterosexual, asexual, or aromantic, leaving her sexuality undefined within the movie's canonical scope.

Angel Daniel Matos, a professor at San Diego State University focusing on queer narratives in children's literature, delves into Elsa's upbringing. His perspective  echoes narratives tied to LGBTQ+ experiences and the complexities of identity concealment–

“Although the movie implies that her parents desperately try to conceal Elsa’s powers because of the danger that they impose on herself and others, this does not justify the degree to which they prevent Elsa from having any human contact whatsoever. Furthermore, the fact that Elsa’s parents view suppression and isolation as solutions further emphasises notions of the infamous queer closet.”

Alternatively, Elsa's isolation can be viewed as an analogy for autism, with her gloves symbolising the concealment of socially unacceptable traits. Her journey becomes a guiding light, offering solace and empathy to those navigating feelings of alienation and the quest for belonging.

“Elsa is the first time we’ve really had a main character deal with and overcome some serious fears of the outside world and self-hate,” observed an animation student at BYU.

Punches really hard at societal expectations

With the official YouTube video of Let It Go amassing a staggering 3.2 billion views and counting, the song ranges from being a symbol of resistance in a Ukrainian bomb shelter to a theme song for the LGBTQ+ community.

Jennifer Lee, one of the film’s directors, has documented various interpretations of the song that touch on themes like autism, cancer, and divorce, showcasing its wide-ranging emotional resonance. Even individuals who haven’t watched the film acknowledge its pervasive influence. “I haven’t seen it but I know all the songs,” expressed Molly Webster, a producer at Radiolab, highlighting the song's omnipresence in popular culture.

Regarding its empowering essence, experts like Pragya Agarwal, whose work delves into gendered emotions, perceive the song as more than just a feminist ballad. She sees it as an anthem celebrating self-empowerment, rejecting societal moulds, and embracing individual strength. 

“It’s about owning your power.” 

Agarwal points out its relevance beyond childhood, emphasising its message of giving oneself permission to express suppressed emotions and thoughts. “We spend so much of our lives suppressing so many of our feelings, the things we want to say to people. It’s almost like that song gives us permission,” she notes.

Merchandise being the Icing on the Frozen cake

After the massive success of the film, Frozen became an inescapable part of culture, transcending mere cinema to become a multi-billion-dollar global industry. From dresses, lunchboxes, dolls, and plush toys, to virtually anything that could bear the faces of Elsa, Anna, and Olaf the Snowman, the merchandising frenzy knew no bounds!

Much like Star Wars, Frozen isn’t just a movie; it's intricately woven into the cultural fabric. With about 40 Frozen dolls sold every minute, it's a sprawling empire that extends to Frozen-themed Lego sets, Monopoly games, lip balms,  bath bombs, waffle makers, pyjamas, and beyond. The film acts as a gateway, not just to Disney’s theme parks and TV channels but also to the very notion of princesshood.

The global #TheColdNeverBotheredMeAnyway hashtag on Twitter unites fans of all ages, fostering a community that spans adolescents, adults, and everyone in between.

Not completely bereft of stereotypes

Although Frozen was one of the most unique Disney films ever, it boasts familiar story elements seen in other Disney films—bereaved parents, an abundance of royalty, reinforcement of conventional standards of white beauty , and the quintessential comic relief character in Olaf the Snowman. 

It wasn’t until later productions like the sporty Moana in 2016 or bespectacled Mirabel Madrigal in 2021 that more realistic body shapes are presented, offering young girls a broader representation of beauty and character.

However, Frozen isn’t just another run-of-the-mill Disney tale. Despite drawing comparisons to strong female leads like Mulan and Brave, Frozen seems to possess multiple layers of depth.

The powerful takeaway will always be the fact that girls are heroes, emotions are valid, and self-acceptance matters. And we are never letting that go. 

• Disney + Hotstar
• The Walt Disney Company
• Feminism and sexuality
• creative ways of explaining feminism
• Understanding feminism

MOST VIEWED STORIES

29 quotes from Plato, the Father of Western philosophy

‘Transactions are for a time; relationships are for a lifetime’ – 15 quotes on motivation and change

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Anil Kapoor among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in AI

Meet Bengaluru's Shahid Haq who aims to give Ferrari a run for its money

(Post)feminist paradoxes: the sensibilities of gender representation in Disney's Frozen

Citation metadata, document controls, main content.

Disney's 2013 animated movie Frozen has been hugely popular with critics due to its perceived promotion of feminist ideals. In this article, I investigate this claim of the feminist ideals portrayed in Frozen, from the perspective of visual and cultural representation, situating my analysis within the context of feminist and postfeminist media studies. Focusing on the signs and cultural codes used to create meanings associated with the movie's main female and male characters, the article is structured around four themes: signs of gender difference, heteronormative romance and female agency, empowerment and sexualisation, and disparities in male/female representations and role models. Emphasising the conflicts and interactions between feminist and postfeminist messages, the analyses reveal that on the surface Frozen promotes a narrative of feminist ideals of equality, empowerment and female agency, but conflates them with postfeminist ideals of appearance, self-discipline and strongly gender stereotyped depictions with regard to how the characters look and act. Far from being 'truly feminist', it is concluded that despite popular sentiment to the contrary, Disney still has a long way to go towards promoting egalitarian and diverse representations of gender.

Introduction

It doesn't matter whether it comes by cable, telephone lines, computer or satellite. Everyone's going to have to deal with Disney. (Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner, cited in Wasco 2001, 222)

Pictures, photographs, films, etc. are addressed to us as their viewers and work upon us by means of winning our identification with those versions of masculinity and femininity which are represented to us. It is a process of constantly binding us into a particular--but always unstable--regime of sexual difference. (Pollock 1988, 35)

Fulfilling the prophecy of former Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner (1984-2005), Disney products have become an influential, if not unavoidable part of most western children's lives. Frozen, the most recent addition to Disney's hugely popular and profitable line of princess feature films, is one of its biggest successes. Ranked as the highest-grossing animated film to date, Frozen has won several prizes and been heralded for its beautiful animation, audio-visual effects and catchy song lyrics (IMDb 2016). The movie and its characters are among the most beloved in Disney princess movies but are also, from the perspective of gender, the least criticised.

When Disney relaunched its princess features with such movies as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992)--and thus returned to its trademark visualisations of European fairy tales in feature-length animations, such as Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959)--the company initially claimed that, in these new features, it sought to break away from age-old stereotypes of passive, submissive female characters and to reflect more modern, contemporary, agentic and realistic role models for young viewers (Culhane 1992, 10; Thomas 1997, 182). However, these 'updated' movies have received significant criticism for their archetypal, conservative, patriarchal, sexist and even racist representations of gender and ethnicity, featuring love-hungry princesses with no real control over their destinies (Bell, Haas and Sells 1995; Cummins 1995; England, Descartes and Collier-Meek 2011; Stover 2013; Towbin et al. 2004; Trites 1991).

Frozen, in contrast, seems to have avoided such harsh criticism. The film tells the story of the young Princess Anna, whose engagement to Prince Hans sets off a series of events that leads her on a quest with the ice-carver Kristoff to find her estranged sister, Queen Elsa, who has inadvertently used her supernatural powers to trap the kingdom of Arendelle in an eternal winter (Solomon 2013). The movie has received mostly positive reviews from audiences and popular critics for its display of powerful, agentic female characters and its privileging of sisterhood over a romantic male-female love narrative. Lauded for its breaking away from stereotypical gender portrayals and storyline, Frozen has been labelled the "first feminist fairy-tale" and "the most progressive Disney movie ever" (Luttrell 2014). Arguing for the movie's potential to set new role models for young girls, one critic proclaimed that "Elsa is not like other Disney princesses.... Instead she is the female equivalent of a superhero like Batman or Spider-Man" (Merrick 2015), while another critic declared that, "Because Frozen differentiates itself from past princess films and slams the door on the concepts of 'perfect princess,' superficial romance, needing a prince, and the morally perfect hero, we are able to rethink female role models within popular culture" (Feder 2014).

In this article, I investigate (and challenge) this promise of change. I analyse the feminist potential of Frozen and its main characters from the perspective of visual and cultural representation, situating my analysis within the body of feminist and postfeminist media studies. Media representations of men and women have long been recognised to be a primary element in the construction of dominant social and cultural conceptions of femininity and masculinity (Berger 1972; Beynon 2002; Hall 1997; Hirdman 2004; Pollock 1988). As the introductory quotation from British art historian Griselda Pollock suggests, visual media produce norms, ideas and expectations about what constitutes (or should constitute) 'female' and 'male' and how the two should be understood in relation to each other. Treating images and movies as symbolic sign systems of representation, Pollock (1988, 31) argues that "film has to be understood as a signifying practice, i.e. an organization of elements which produce meanings, construct images of the world, and strive to fix certain meanings, to effect particular ideological representations of the world". In this view, representation is understood as a process through which meaning is constructed, rather than a mere reflection or representation of a reality which exists outside the media. Ultimately, "We give things meaning by how we represent them--the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them, the images of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the ways we classify and conceptualize them, the values we place on them" (Hall 1997, 3).

Since the 1960s, feminists have analysed representations of gender in the film and television industry and argued that they produce and reproduce patterns of oppression and inequality. What have made representations of gender different in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been that "feminist discourses are expressed within the media rather than simply being external, independent, critical voices" (Gill 2007, 268). As British media scholar Rosalind Gill (2007, 2009) contends, contemporary mass-media representations of women rarely are straightforwardly sexist in the sense of objectification documented by, for example, media scholars of the male gaze, such as Laura Mulvey (1975) and John Berger (1972). This shift has been viewed as indicating that feminism has been "taken into account" (McRobbie 2004) and somehow become a thing of the past; however, the media have not necessarily become feminist or unproblematically adopted feminist perspectives (Gill 2007). Instead, contemporary audio-visual media can be "profoundly contradictory in the way they mix up oppressive and emancipatory messages of sex and gender" (Gill 2007, 36). What the postfeminist media culture then offers is a (seemingly) new set of visual imagery which invokes and/or restates (often conventional, heteronormative and racialized, white, upper-middle class) ideas of femininity and masculinity in new, pernicious ways.

In the influential book Gender and the media, Gill (2007) delineates a range of persistent and recurring themes which have come to characterise what she and other feminist media scholars (McRobbie 2004; Richardson and Wearing 2014) have identified as shared traits of contemporary postfeminist media discourses: the conflation of feminist and antifeminist ideas; the achievement of gender equality (and thus the obviation of the need for a sustained feminist critique); natural sexual differences between genders; femininity (often sexualised) as a bodily property; sexual subjectification (as opposed to objectification) of the young, white, female body; an emphasis on self-surveillance, monitoring and discipline (exemplified by the makeover trope); and a neoliberalist focus on individualism, choice and empowerment (Gill 2007, 255; McRobbie 2004; Richardson and Wearing 2014). As postfeminism itself has been understood and defined in such contradictory terms as entirely hostile to or an extension of the achievements of second-wave feminism, Gill (2007, 254) does not propose a breach with conventional feminist media theory or methodology but, rather, advocates an analytical strategy which "emphasizes the contradictory nature of postfeminist discourses and the entanglement of both feminist and anti-feminist themes within them."

Following this line of thought to address a range of questions raised by postfeminism within film and media scholarship, I argue that Frozen functions as a site for both the maintenance and the disruption of gender ideology, although primarily the former, despite popular views to the contrary. Whereas popular debate on Frozen has been extensive, less has been written in scholarly formats. Frozen was recently analysed as a postfeminist cultural production in the light of its popular reception and discourse via online media and social networks (Macaluso 2016), while a 2014 study examined the gender roles presented in its marketing material (Wilde 2014). In the present study, I focus on the gendered messages produced in and by the visual and textual aspects of the movie itself.

In animation, the process of 'gender coding' is closely connected with how the characters are drawn, dressed, look and behave--that is, their visual characteristics. Disney characters are fabricated through a range of processes and discourses, and princess movies, in particular, are developed from a combination of backgrounds, filters, computer animations and new and reused drawings inspired by other images and life models (Hahn 1996; Thomas 1997). Representations then cannot be viewed simply as innocent reflections of reality but is an active process of selection and presentation which creates meaning (Hall 1997). As feminist theorist Teresa de Lauretis (1987, 5) argues, "The construction of gender is both the product and the process of its representation." Therefore, the focus of my inquiry is not solely on what the film shows but also on how it produces and constructs the meanings of gender.

This study is aimed at examining the gender ideology--and the seemingly contradictory gendered messages--that this highly popular Disney feature presents to its young viewers and their families. To emphasise the conflicts and interactions between feminist and postfeminist messages, I pay particular attention to the signs and cultural codes used to create meaning, to the differences in the portrayals and behaviours of the female characters and their male counterparts and to male and female characters' functions in the interplay between text and image. Inspired by the idea of a postfeminist 'sensibility', I examine both the continuities and the changes in Frozen's representations of gender with reference to previous Disney princess features. Following a textual analytical approach, this paper is structured around four themes: signs of gender difference, heteronormative romance and female agency, empowerment and sexualisation and disparities in male/female representations and role models. In the first three sections, I focus mainly on the visual representations of and relations between the movie's four main characters, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Hans, while in the fourth section, I take a broader perspective on gender misrepresentation and the lack of gender diversity.

Gendered signs of difference in Frozen

Recent decades have seen a re-emergence of the focus on the body as a signifier for certain meanings about gender, not the least gender differences (Hirdman 2004). As Gill (2007, 265) notes, "A key feature of the postfeminist sensibility has been the resurgence of ideas of natural sexual difference [between genders] across all media." The young white female body, in particular, has been the focus of this mass media attention (Gill 2007, 2009; Hirdman 2004; McRobbie 2004).

As the female body has been a locus for interpretation in feminist and postfeminist writings--its mediated representations seen as either backlash against feminism or as agentic, self-determined forms of expressions--the bodies and appearances of animated princesses have been the centre of attention in some of the most critical writings on Disney. Arguing that Disney presents harmful body ideals for young girls, several studies have stressed the unrealistic looks, extreme thinness and sensual features of the princesses (Bell, Haas and Sells 1995; Wiersma 1999; Trites 1991), and while some studies (Do Rozario 2004; England, Descartes and Collier-Meek 2011) have noted an (albeit inconsistent) improvement in the behavioural traits of the newer princess characters from the 1990s and 2000s in that they "often involve women who differ from their earlier counterparts in ingenuity, activity, and independence" (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz 2003, 722) the same studies, along with a significant number of others (Stover 2013; Towbin et al. 2004), have also unanimously concluded that these slight changes in personality over time have not affected the princesses' feminine appearance and "physical attractiveness" (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz 2003, 722).

The portrayal of body stereotypes and gender difference in Frozen indicates no attempt to counter this criticism of earlier movies. Like all other white Disney princesses, Elsa and Anna wear long dresses and adorn themselves with jewellery, while the male characters wear suits and pants. The sisters' tight dresses reveal unusually petite, slender frames, tiny waists, round, firm bosoms and slim wrists, legs and arms. In particular, the princesses' doe eyes are exceptionally big, even larger than those of earlier Disney heroines. They resemble the childlike, female characters of Japanese manga (many of whom are highly erotised). Anna and Elsa's exact ages are never revealed as they shift from childhood to adolescence, but their bodily and facial features indicate youth.

A comparison of the physical appearance of the female and male protagonists shows how Disney enlarge features which traditionally connote femininity versus masculinity, thereby constituting these gendered looks as inherently different. Although Hans and Kristoff also have highly idealised appearances, Elsa and Anna's faces more strongly emphasise signs conventionally associated with femininity: their lips are painted red, their eyes are greatly exaggerated, and they have long hair and eyelashes. Conversely, both Hans and Kristoff's lips have a colour close to that of their skin, their eyes are significantly smaller than Anna and Elsa's, and they have no eyelashes at all. The differences in Disney's animation of male and female characters have gained some attention.

Lino DiSalvo, Frozen's head of animation, was quoted (and heavily criticised for) saying in an interview that:

Historically speaking, female characters are really, really difficult [to animate], 'cause they have to go through these range of emotions... You have to keep them pretty, and they're very sensitive... So having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the [same] scene and look very different if they're echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry (DiSalvo cited in Lee 2013).

Disney later released a statement claiming that DiSalvo's comments were taken out of context, but the view of gender they express is consistent with England, Descartes and Collier-Meek's (2011, 560) findings that Disney princesses generally display a larger variety of emotions than their prince counterparts. Moreover, this statement reflects a general cultural stereotype that women are more emotional than men (Beynon 2002, 56; Davis 1997). If the media's construction and representation of femininity and masculinity can be seen as a process of naturalisation, or an "essentializing of 'difference' through stereotyping" (Hall 1997, 8), Frozen demonstrates that animation's potential for exaggeration enables an even higher degree of idealisation, gender differentiation and portrayal of archetypes than other media types.

Pollock (1988, 33) has argued that "sexual divisions are the result of the construction of 'sexual difference' as a socially significant axis of meaning." Along this axis, the female body has often served as a metaphor for beauty, emotion and unruliness in contrast to the masculine body of power, strength and rationality (Davis 1997, 5). Anna's and Elsa's appearance not only indicates the bodily ideals and expectations that the film sets for women but also indirectly constructs a particular conception of masculinity. The male protagonists, Prince Hans and Kristoff, enact very specific male stereotypes. When Anna realises her inability to pursue Elsa in the harsh, snow-covered wilderness by herself (her highly impractical 19th-century-style gown and high-heeled boots do not help), she seeks help from Kristoff, a strong, young workingman who carves and sells blocks of ice for a living. While Hans "fulfills the trope of the dashing prince" (Macaluso 2016, 81), Kristoff is "a wonderful example of what a masculine, 21st century man looks like" (Luttrell 2014). He possesses a "male body [which] is connotative of power and strength, celebrated as a manly spectacle in opposition to womanly gentleness and beauty" (Beynon 2002, 65). Both of Anna's suitors are almost a head taller and significantly more muscular than she. Muscularity indicates physical strength women usually do not possess and is, in film and media researcher Richard Dyer's (1982, 66ff) words, a "sign of power" often used to intimidate and dominate both women and other men. At their first meeting, Kristoff towers over Anna and brusquely asks her to "back up," and he continues to be rude and condescending, belittling her and suggesting she has made bad life choices. When they are attacked by wolves, he tells her not fall off the sleigh or get eaten, and he refuses her offer to help as he "doesn't trust her." After losing his sleigh, he agrees to continue to help her only because she offers to buy him a new sleigh, and he is convinced that she will die otherwise--despite her acts of bravery: She sets out after Elsa in a snowstorm and she saves Kristoff twice, first by setting a blanket on fire and throwing him a hatchet to escape the wolves and later from the snow monster sent after them by Elsa. However, Anna's male companion does not recognise these masculine-connoted displays of assertiveness, courage and autonomy, and ultimately, the characters revert to the classic roles of damsel in distress and male saviour. Although it is Anna's heroic act of sacrifice and love that eventually saves them all, she first seeks Kristoff to rescue her, and he, on the back of his reindeer friend, defies an icy blizzard to take on the archetypal role of a (male) hero.

Whereas Kristoff shows that "a male body is praised in terms of what [it] can do," Anna demonstrates that "the female body has always been judged in terms of how it looks" (Richardson and Wearing 2014, 85). In Frozen, both Anna and Elsa undergo significant bodily transformations in their quests to womanhood, while Hans and Kristoff stay the same. Postfeminist discourse frequently links determination, achievement and success to beauty, looks and self-care (Gill 2007, 2009; McRobbie 2004). Anna's character gives an example of this mechanism at work. Her body is a signifier of the status and the progress of her emotional life and a measure of her ability to control it. On Elsa's coronation day, Anna sleeps, even snores as a servant calls from outside her room to wake her. She sits up, with drool and strands of clearly messy hair sticking to her cheek. She says awkward things and lacks bodily self-control; she breaks objects and accidently slaps Hans in the face while recounting a story. She stuffs chocolate in her mouth while singing about how she cannot decide whether she feels elated or gassy that the gates will be opened for her sister's upcoming coronation. While these initial displays of 'unruliness' render her significantly more 'human' and less the embodiment of the demure, picture-perfect, hyper-feminine Disney princess, this feminist promise (or threat) to disrupt the long-established mould of 'proper' princess behaviour is soon contradicted as Anna "internalize[s] a notion central to postfeminist discourse: the illusion of the power of being looked at" (Stover 2013, 7). Anna imagines how she will look in the eyes of a potential suitor she might meet at her sister's coronation ball. Posing while draping herself in a curtain, she sings:

Tonight imagine me, gown and all, fetchingly draped against the wall, the picture of sophisticated grace.... I suddenly see him standing there: a beautiful stranger tall and fair.... Then we laugh and talk all evening.... Nothing like the life I've lead so far. For the first time in forever, there'll be magic, there'll be fun. For the first time in forever, I could be noticed by someone.

Later, seeking Kristoff's approval, she poses for him and asks him how she looks. Both Hans and Kristoff are unconcerned with how they look, whereas Anna envisages how she will appear to the men in her life. Frozen does not portray Anna, an active, desiring subject, as an object characterised by her desirability and physicality, such as Snow White, Cinderella and Belle (Wilde 2014, 144). Instead, Anna internalises the self-monitoring gaze which several authors have argued has become so prevalent in contemporary media representations of femininity (Gill 2007; Richardson and Wearing 2014). Anna's achievement of bodily control and discipline becomes a sign of her romantic interests; the adjustments made to her outward appearance parallel the remodelling of her internal life. Her initial displays of inappropriate behaviour, her quirky outbursts and her other spirited character traits conventionally coded as unfeminine do not continue and are not integrated into her personality as she matures and seeks to be found desirable by the opposite sex. Rather, they vanish as the movie progresses, and she grows fond of Kristoff.

The heteronormative love trajectory and female agency

The strongly gendered messages in Frozen's visual and bodily coding of the female and male characters reinforce the traditional gender conformity displayed in other aspects of the characters' lives. A content analysis of gender behavioural characteristics and climactic outcomes in nine Disney princess movies from Snow White (1937) to The Princess and the Frog (2009) found that all these films culminated with the princess winning the love of her prince, a "portrayal of romance [which] provides a strongly gendered message" (England, Descartes and Collier-Meek 2011, 565). The conventions of romance in western-style fairy tales, such as those which serve as models for Disney's princess movies, have been heavily criticised for dividing men and women into a binary sex-gender system: "it encourages young viewers to believe that true happiness for women exists only in the arms of a prince and that their most important quest is finding that prince" (Cummins 1995, 22). Frozen sends the same message. Although the original Snow Queen was never a romantic love story but, as are most of Hans Christian Andersen's tales, a story that offers valuable moral lessons about humanity and benevolence, Frozen rewrites, visualises and, for the younger generation, ultimately "canonises" (Zipes 1995) the story to follow the same traditional script as its princess movie predecessors. Reviewers have praised Frozen for taking up the theme of love between sisters (Rustad 2014, 154; Luttrell 2014), but though Anna's unconditional and unselfish love for her sister eventually saves Arendelle, it is the conventional heterosexual love narrative which drives the movie forward.

What Anna wishes for becomes quite clear on Elsa's coronation day. When the castle gates are opened to the outside world for the first time since the sisters were young girls, Anna gazes at the ships approaching the shores of Arendelle. As she excitedly bursts into song, one might expect her to announce her desire to travel and explore the world--but no. Instead, she sings about her eagerness to meet "the one," to "find romance" and to have "a chance to find true love". After having only seen the inside of the castle walls since early childhood, Anna dreams of the opportunity to meet Prince Charming and settle into matrimony. The heteronormative love scenario for which she hopes is visually and very graphically underscored in the castle's gallery of paintings displaying heterosexual couples. Anna physically positions herself in the place of the female characters in these paintings and clearly bases her expectations of how the world works on these stationary simulacra of reality.

This scene, which gives a glimpse into Anna's hopes and wishes and can be read as her anticipations for her own future, also stresses how deeply the structure of the romance plot penetrates the movie. Prince Hans turns out to not be Anna's true love after all, but he is quickly replaced by Kristoff as the movie passes her from the arms of one man to another. Her quest to save Arendelle is more a personal quest to find the right man than a journey on which she learns that forming other types of human relationships (e.g. friendships) is equally important in life. This is evident when Anna convinces herself that, to save her life, she must return to receive "true love's kiss" from Hans, even though, as Rustad (2014) observes, one might have expected her to realise during her adventures that what she has with Hans is not true love. For the first time, she has had the opportunity to form emotional connections with other persons than her parents and sister (Rustad 2014, 165). Critics have praised Anna's displays of bravery and agency, but her quest to find Elsa is not part of her plan or her own desires. Despite having been locked up in a castle for most of her life she expresses no wish to travel and explore the world. Instead, she dreams about finding "the one" and, within hours of meeting Prince Hans, plans to marry him. These desires reinforce conventional gendered notions of heteronormativity and their embedded understandings of femininity and masculinity: While Anna embodies the classical stereotype of an emotional, love-hungry, romance-seeking princess, Hans represents the archetype of male strategic thinking, ambition, cunning and aspiration to power. His plan all along was to gain power to seize a throne and rule a country of his own. He was never emotionally invested in romance for romance's sake. Anna's childlike naivete and lack of knowledge about life outside the castle walls made her an easy target.

Anna and Hans' musical, 'fall-in-love-at-first-sight' scene seems so cliched that it can be argued that Disney manages to offer an ironic, self-referential critique of its earlier princess love stories (irony and self-mockery are prevalent in postfeminist media), but the subsequent events do not sustain this critique. Although Kristoff belittles Anna for getting engaged to Prince Hans shortly after first meeting him, the same can be said of their relationship after only a brief acquaintance. During the quest to save Arendelle from Elsa's ice spell, Kristoff takes Anna to his "love expert friends", a pack of trolls who perform an almost five-minute-long matchmaking song which culminates in a staged marriage scene between Anna and Kristoff. Although they don't get married, as the scene is cut off by Anna getting weaker, and she realises that saving Arendelle depends on her receiving a "true love's kiss" from Hans, it demonstrates the film's reinforcement of conventional sensibilities of gender, love and desire.

Both Angela McRobbie (2004) and Gill (2007) have advanced the argument that postfeminist consumer culture has reinvented these traditional heterosexual codes of romance, highlighting the coexistence of contradictory cultural discourses which promote the concepts of individualism, choice and empowerment but, at the same time, require women to adhere to strict--and restrictive--cultural norms. In this context, Anna, a liberated, agentic, empowered young woman, freely and actively choses a love relationship for herself. Society's dogmatic rules do not force her to marry (as they do Aladdin's Princess Jasmine, whose country's laws declare that she must marry by the time she turns 16 years old). To the contrary, Anna's wish to marry Prince Hans is the catalyst that sets off the rage of her sister, the queen, and causes her to cover Arendelle in snow. We, in other words, are led to understand that Anna choses the love trajectory from her own free desire. This narrative aligns with the "modernized, neoliberal version of femininity" which holds that "it is absolutely imperative that one's sexual and dating practices (however traditional, old-fashioned or inegalitarian they may be...) be presented as freely chosen" (Gill 2007, 261). McRobbie (2004, 255f) describes this paradox as a "double entanglement" that permits "the coexistence of neo-conservative values in relation to gender, sexuality and family life... with processes of liberalization in regard to choice and diversity in domestic, sexual and kinship relations." This discourse of choice and self-determination presents the old and the traditional as new so that women may "choose" what is deemed to be natural.

Instead of presenting a true alternative to the standard depiction of romance, Frozen sends the message that women should aspire to a conventional lifestyle that result from falling in love with Mr. Right. The signs of postfeminist autonomy in Anna's ability to choose a man for herself are merely what Stover (2013, 4) has termed a rhetorical shift "from any prince to the right prince" instead of real progress or change. Still operating within a profoundly heteronormative framework, Frozen, with its emphasis on a male-female love relationship, is deeply imbued with the romance plot and the gender binary that such a plot encourages.

Royal makeover: From oppressed queen to sexy starlet

The transformation scene in which Elsa discovers her true self as the snow queen is perhaps the movie's most significant statement of (post)femininity. Several authors explain that a makeover paradigm has become the epitome of postfeminist media productions (Gill 2007, 263; McRobbie 2004; Richardson and Wearing 2014). Central to this paradigm is "its obsessional preoccupation with the body.... [The] possession of a 'sexy body'... presented as women's key (if not sole) source of identity" (Gill 2007, 255). In this paradigm, the subject, most often female, is reminded to self-police, manage and develop her disobedient body so that her outer appearance aligns with her newfound inner sense of liberation, power and control. As Gill (2007, 255) contends, "The body is presented simultaneously as women's source of power and as always already unruly and requiring constant monitoring, surveillance, discipline and remodelling."

This paradigm can be seen at work in Elsa's transformation from bad to good. Early in the movie, we learn that Elsa is dangerous and that her out-of-control supernatural powers are so potentially catastrophic that she needs to be locked up and hidden from the outside world. Indeed, Elsa's brief rule before she retires to her ice castle produces the movie's most horrifying, chaotic scenes (and idyllic calm and benevolence reign again only once her power--her body--is under control). In these opening scenes, Elsa is "repressed, stoic and distant. Her tight, dark clothes (a black corset buttoned to her neck) mirror her personality" (Macaluso 2016, 76). Her flight to the North Mountain sets off not only a psychological process of inner liberation but also the transformation of her outer appearance.

Indeed, throughout the movie, Elsa's sense of control and self-esteem is expressed by how she looks. As she sings in celebration of not having to "conceal" herself anymore and exclaims, "Let it go, let it go! Can't hold it back any more," her embrace of her own powers is visually represented by a dramatic makeover of dress, makeup and hair. Elsa literally lets down her long, loose voluptuous hair, a "suggestive sign of allowed disorder, conventionally a sign of female sexuality" (Pollock 1988, 133), and she physically transforms herself into what can best be described as an exotic dancer or pin-up model. Wearing heavy purple makeup, stiletto heels and a low-cut, skin-tight, sequined dress with a high, leg-exposing slit, she walks sensually, hips swaying, posing and alluringly gazing directly at the audience, and--to the tune of her own liberation song--finally finds her own 'natural' self. Elsa's visual transformation, which springs from her stated wish to "be who she is" (and hence not oppressed by societal expectations), conflates the feminist call for liberation and empowerment with the postfeminist notion of the right to look good.

Postfeminist theoretical debates have centred on the paradox of the increasing sexualisation of (especially young, white) women alongside the apparent self-empowerment of young females in popular culture (Hirdman 2004; McRobbie 2004, 255f). Gill (2009) observes that, "on the one hand, then, we are confronted by a popular culture increasingly saturated by representations of women's bodies as objects, and on the other, a mantra-like repetition and celebration of 'women's success' and 'Girl Power.'" Elsa is truly such a young female: she is utterly attractive and takes matters into her own hands as she decides to "let it go." Her transformation and the ambiguous messages it sends constitute what Gill (2007) has called a true postfeminist moment: whereas earlier eras would contrive her sexualised demeanour as "to-be-looked-at-ness" for an external and internalized "male gaze" (Berger 1972; Mulvey 1975), it is here clearly framed as what she does for herself, for her own pleasure. Elsa's transformation comes from a place inside her. Her objectification is done by herself to herself. She chooses to be the sexy, tall, blond, full-figured starlet that she is as she finally lets her inner self come out. However, as Gill (2007, 111) argues:

The fact that the model speaks a language of empowerment in no way detracts from the impact of this shift.... Subjectification, it might be argued, is just how we do objectification today.... Women are still located in their bodies, indeed as bodies, albeit voraciously heterosexually desiring ones, as in conventional pornography.

Macaluso's (2016) analysis of the popular reception and debate on Frozen strongly criticises this confusion of feminist ideals with postfeminist notions of appearance and sexiness that Elsa illustrates. Popular discourse identifies in Elsa a role model because she breaks free from societal constraints and follows her own life path, but the extremely conventional connotations that cling to her newfound visual appearance makes it difficult to agree with the critic who proclaimed that "Little girls dressing up like Elsa from Frozen are the future of feminism" (Merrick 2015).

Gender disparities in Arendelle

Frozen's emphasis on romance, which it accomplishes by altering the basic plot and main characters of the original Snow Queen story, results in dramatic changes not only to the storyline but also to the film's overall representation of gender. In Andersen's story, all the central characters are women, and most of them are wise, caring and nurturing as they help the little girl Gerda on her quest to find and save her childhood friend Kay. Indeed, Andersen's story is almost devoid of males, except for the evil hobgoblin, who is the true villain of the tale, and the little boy Kay, whose heart freezes when a grain of the demon's magic mirror hits his eyes. In Disney's heavily revised version of the Snow Queen, all the central characters surrounding Anna and Elsa are male--from their father, Prince Hans and Kristoff to the reindeer Sven, the snowman Olaf, the mountain store vendor (Oaken), the love trolls and the castle advisors. Disney's Arendelle is a land inhabited and ruled predominantly by old, white men, while women are reduced to two adolescent princesses, a young, nearly mute queen (when holding Anna who has been struck in the head by Elsa's magic, the queen's only statement is "She is ice cold!", after which the king does all the acting and talking), a female love-obsessed troll and a few non-speaking castle servants and villagers. The only two female characters with more than two speaking lines, Elsa and Anna, resemble more a rare species than representatives of half the population of Arendelle. Although Elsa is formally the heir to the throne and is crowned as queen, power lies in the hands of the all-male, older advisors throughout most of the movie. Even among the hundreds of love trolls, only a few seem to be female--and the only female troll who speaks is preoccupied with romance.

Although Frozen arguably passes the Bechdel (1986) test (two women talk to each other about something other than a man), that measurement does not seem to accurately evaluate the movie's display of diversity in gendered role models. Since the 1960s, a critique of feminist media studies has been the lack of balance in who the movie industry and mainstream popular culture represents and how they are represented in terms of gender, race, age, social and occupational status (Richardson and Wearing 2014; Tuchman 1978). Contrary to what might be expected--and contrary to the postfeminist sentiment that feminism is no longer needed as equality has been reached (McRobbie 2004, 255)--female mis- and underrepresentation in the media have not improved in recent decades. Detailed reports on the roles of women in the film and television industries show that, between 2002 and 2011, lead female protagonists declined by 5%, leaving women with only 11% of lead roles in the 100 highest-grossing United States films in 2011 (Lauzen 2008, 2012, cited in Richardson and Wearing 2014, 20). These statistics are consistent with the findings of Smith et al. (2012, 2014) that only 28.3% of the speaking characters in family films are female and that female actresses are generally younger and less likely to be shown in leadership roles than men.

Disney movies are no exception to this tendency. They have been criticised consistently for their omission or marginalisation of certain social groups and lack of variety in gender roles (Bell, Haas and Sells 1995; Hoerrner 1996; Towbin et al. 2004; Wiersma 1999). When Disney adapted The Little Mermaid, another of Andersen's tales, to fit the screen, film scholar Roberta Trites (1991, 152) argued that "Disney invariably erases positive figures of women from its feature-length fairy tales; women are either reduced to the status of servants (e.g., the servant who is the only human woman in The Little Mermaid) or else they are elevated to an unattainable position above humanity by their possession of magical powers (e.g., Cinderella's fairy-godmother)." A content analysis by Hoerrner (1996) comparing gender representation and sex-typed character behaviours in 34 full-length animated Disney features revealed that 77 characters (57%) were male, 28 characters (21%) were female, and 29 characters of non-discernible gender (22%) were placed in the category of other species.

In Frozen, the number of female characters depicted is even lower and the difference in gender representation is striking. Analysing the movie's promotional materials, Wilde (2014, 146) found that the movie's poster and trailer pay little attention to so-called power-queen Elsa and, instead, feature the male protagonists Kristoff and Hans and their relationship with Anna. This emphasis contradicts Disney's assertion that Elsa is the "complete antagonist" of the story (Solomon 2013, 14) and, reinforces the ideology of male dominance in both cinema and society (Wilde 2014).

This point returns to the initial argument of this article: representations in mainstream media not only reflect the inequalities and lack of balance in society but also define what groups and individuals may do and be in life. As a world-leading media producer, Disney is responsible for many of the images, including those of gender, projected daily into the world. Disney products, which have strong associations with childhood and innocence, play central roles in the lives of many western children, and its animated features are among their most favoured media genre (Towbin et al. 2004, 20; Wasco 2001, 183ff). Therefore, it is highly pertinent to scrutinise the messages Disney projects. When the range of gender images popular culture makes available are increasingly non-diverse and one-dimensional depictions of what femininity and masculinity can mean, it limits the range of possibilities of identification for girls and boys drastically. On the surface, Frozen might feature two active, agentic princesses, but they stand as the only female models of identification in a land almost devoid of women. In its representation of gender Frozen promotes what Zipes (1995, 40) has labelled the "eternal return of the same."

While the widespread popular celebration of the perceived feminist qualities of Frozen marks an important shift in thinking and talking about Disney's princess movies (Macaluso 2016), it also contributes to a mainstream perception of Disney's cultural status as a provider of innocent, wholesome family entertainment (Bell, Haas and Sells 1995; Wasco 2001; Zipes 1995). In this article, I have discussed and challenged the extent to which Frozen can be interpreted as (post)feminist. Visual and representational analyses reveal several paradoxes in how Frozen represents gender. On the surface the film promotes a narrative of feminist ideals of equality, empowerment and female agency but reduce them to postfeminist ideals of looks, self-discipline and strongly gendered notions in how the characters look and act. The movie arrays masculinity and femininity along an axis of difference which determines not only the highly idealised and stereotypical appearances of the male and female characters but also their aspirations and concerns in life. Although agentic, determined and heroic, Anna is also presented as naive, impressionable and emotional--and concerned with how she appears as she expresses her desire to find Mr. Right. In Elsa, the feminist ideals of empowerment, self-realisation and liberation are confused with her outward appearance and sexualisation, which equates her inner sense of self with a femininity that is located in her body. The character construction of both Anna and Elsa exemplifies one of the strongest features of postfeminism: a contradictory articulation of progressive and regressive elements of gendered identities and identifications. The sisters are initially presented as persons with real problems, desires and ability for self-assertion. Elsa exhibits rebellion when she leaves Arendelle to embrace her true self, and Anna displays courage when she sets out after her sister. These traits, however, receive no special reward at the close of the film. We do not learn if the sisters' quests and experiences have brought them any new aspirations or hopes for the future. Instead, we find them in much the same position as their princess predecessors: back in their castle and, in Anna's case, by the side of her 'prince'. Although Frozen might seem more 'feminist' than previous princess movies at first glance, I argue that Disney still has a long way to go to promote egalitarian and diverse representations of all genders.

Bibliography

Baker-Sperry, Lori and Liz Grauerholz. 2003. "The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales." Gender and Society 17(5): 711-726.

Bechdel, Allison. 1986. Dykes to Watch Out For. New York: Firebrand Books.

Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas and Laura Sells (eds.). 1995. From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: BBC and Penguin.

Beynon, John. 2002. Masculinities and Culture. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Culhane, John. 1992. Disney's Aladdin--The Making of an Animated Film. New York: Hyperion.

Cummins, June. 1995. "Romancing the Plot: The Real Beast of Disney's Beauty and the Beast." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 20(1): 22-28.

Davis, Kathy. 1997. "Embody-ing Theory. Beyond Modernist and Postmodernist Readings of the Body." In Embodies Practices. Feminist Perspectives on the Body, edited by Kathy Davis, 1-23. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

De Lauretis, Teresa. 1987. "The Technology of Gender." In Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film and Fiction, edited by Teresa de Lauretis, 1-30. Bloomington: Indiana University.

Do Rozario, Rebecca-Anne C. 2004. "The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, the Function of the Disney Princess." Women's Studies in Communication 27(1): 34-59.

Dyer, Richard. 1982. "Don't Look Now--the Male Pin-Up." Screen 23(3-4): 61-73.

England, Dawn E., Lara Descartes and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. 2011. "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64: 555-567.

Feder, Shira. 2014. "Slamming the Door: An Analysis of Elsa (Frozen)." The Feminist Wire, October 16. Accessed October 19, 2016. http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/slamming-door-analysis-elsa-frozen/.

Gill, Rosalind. 2009. "From Sexual Objectification to Sexual Subjectification: The Resexualization of Women's Bodies in the Media." MRzine, May 23. Accessed August 1, 2016. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/gill230509.html.

Gill, Rosalind. 2007. Gender and the Media. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Hahn, Don. 1996. Animation Magic: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How an Animated Film Is Made. New York: Disney Press.

Hall, Stuart. 1997. "Introduction." In Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, edited by Stuart Hall, 1-11. London, UK: Sage Publications.

Hirdman, Anja. 2004. "Mirrored Masculinity?" NIKK Magasin 3: 8-11. Norway: Nordic Institute for Gender Research.

Hoerrner, Keisha L. 1996. "Gender Roles in Disney Films: Analyzing Behaviors from Snow White to Simba." Women's Studies in Communication 19(2): 213-228.

IMDb 2016. "Frozen Awards." Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/awards.

Lee, Michael. 2013. "50 Things You May Not Know About Disney's 'Frozen'." Movieviral, October 7. Accessed August 10, 2016. http://www.movieviral.com/2013/10/07/50-things-you-may-not-know-about-disneys-frozen/.

Luttrell, Gina. 2014. "7 Moments That Made 'Frozen' the Most Progressive Disney Movie Ever." Arts.Mic, January 20. Accessed August 10, 2016. https://mic.com/articles/79455/7-moments-that-made-frozen-the-most-progressive-disney-movie-ever#.fyWjffs0B.

Macaluso, Michael. 2016. "The Postfeminist Princess: Public Discourse and Disney's Curricular Guide to Feminism." In Disney, Culture, and Curriculum, edited by Jennifer A. Sandlin and Julie C. Garlen, 73-86. New York: Routledge.

McRobbie, Angela. 2004. "Post-feminism and Popular Culture." Feminist Media Studies 4(3): 255-264.

Merrick, Jane. 2015. "Little Girls Dressing Up Like Elsa from Frozen Are the Future of Feminism." Independent. February 3. Accessed October 13, 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/little-girls-dressing-up-like-elsa-from-frozen-are-the-future-of-feminism-10021540.html.

Mulvey, Laura. 1975. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16(3): 6-18.

Pollock, Griselda. 1988. Vision and Difference. Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art. London and New York: Routledge.

Richardson, Niall and Sadie Wearing. 2014. Gender in the Media. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rustad, Robert. 2014. True Love's Kiss. New York: New Element Publishing.

Smith, Stacy L., Marc Choueiti and Katherine Pieper. 2014. "Gender Bias Without Borders. An Investigation of Female Characters in Popular Films Across 11 Countries." Report published by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media. Accessed August 1, 2016. http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/gender-bias-without-borders-executive-summary.pdf.

Smith, Stacy L., Marc Choueiti, Ashley Prescott and Katherine Pieper. 2012. "Gender Roles and Occupations--A Look at Character Attributes and Job-related Aspirations in Film and Television." Report published by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media. Accessed August 1, 2016. http://seejane.org/wpcontent/uploads/key-findings-gender-roles-2013.pdf.

Solomon, Charles. 2013. The Art of Frozen. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Stover, Cassandra. 2013. "Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Postfeminist Disney Princess." LUX 2(1): Article 29.

Thomas, Bob. 1997. Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules. New York: Hyperion.

Towbin, Mia Adessa, Shelley A. Haddock, Toni Schindler Zimmerman, Lori K. Lund and Litsa Renee Tanner. 2004. "Images of Gender, Race, Age, and Sexual Orientation in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films." Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 15(4): 19-44.

Trites, Roberta. 1991. "Disney's Sub/Version of Andersen's The Little Mermaid." Journal of Popular Film and Television 18(4): 145-152.

Tuchman. Gaye. 1978. Making News. New York: The Free Press.

Wasco, Janet. 2001. Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy. Cambridge, England: Polity.

Wiersma, Beth. 1999. "The Not So Wonderful World of Disney: An Exploratory Content Analysis of Gender Themes in Disney Full Length Animated Feature Films." Great Plains Sociologist 11(2): 44-70.

Wilde, Sarah. 2014. "Advertising in Repackaging the Disney Princess: A Post-feminist Reading of Modern Day Fairy Tales." Journal of Promotional Communications 2(1): 132-153.

Zipes, Jack. 1995. "Breaking the Disney Spell." In From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender and Culture, edited by Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas and Laura Sells, 21-42. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Author biography

Maja Rudloff holds a PhD in Media Studies and an MA in Art History. She currently works at the Department of Communication and Arts at Roskilde University, Denmark, where she teaches and researches. She has a particular interest in visual, discursive and political dimensions of gender representation in the media.

Email: [email protected]

Corresponding author:

Maja Rudloff, Roskilde University

Source Citation

Gale Document Number: GALE|A485808814

Related Subjects

• Frozen (Motion picture)
•   Google Drive™
•  OneDrive™

Email Document

Required fields marked with *

Separate each e-mail address with a semicolon

• Subject Line:

Report an Issue

Submitted diagnostic report.

Timestamp: September 6, 2024 at 7:58:31 PM EDT

Ticket Number:

Reporter's Email:

Reporter's Name:

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Critical Analysis of Frozen

This critical analysis will principally focus on one of the two main characters, Anna, to problematize the contradiction of feminism and patriarchy in this movie. First, from the view of dominant reading position, I will analyze how Frozen advocates “girl power” by portraying a heroine and changing the traditional storyline of princess movies. Then, from another point of view, I will pay more attention to male characters around Anna, investigating the implicit ideology of patriarchy underlying different images and roles of genders. And finally the contradiction between them will be pointed out. To focus, I will choose two segments, “Meet Hans” and “Ask for Kristoff’s Help” to analyze in terms of narrative, language features and multimodal features. Some examples from other parts of the movie may be included as well for reinforcement.

Related Papers

Arielle Warner

April Rose Bronda

Dikaia Gavala, 'Let it Go; Revising 'The Princess Story' in Disney's Frozen,' Gramarye 15, 67-79

Dikaia Gavala

Children’s stories—and by extension, children’s films—should aim at endowing children’s lives with meaning, as Bruno Bettelheim points out, and to speak about inner pressures in a way that the child unconsciously understands, offering examples of solutions to pressing difficulties. Disney’s Frozen revises the canonical princess story to meet the psychological needs of children/teenagers that feel sexually repressed, abandoned, or alienated, by providing the model of a dynamic, powerful, loving female character who incorporates both masculine attributes by doubling with Kristoff’s natural masculinity, and feminine ones by bonding with the impulsive Ann(im)a, and redeems them from their stereotypical representations. The character of Elsa negotiates the Jungian archetypes that figure women’s individuation through men and manages to customize the journey to maturity and individuation from the normalized, heterosexual narratives to a story of sisterly love and female bonding.

Frazer Heritage

This study explores how the Disney princesses in Snow White (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Frozen (2013), use gendered language and portray gender roles. It draws on notions from Robin Lakoff (1975) and uses ratios and quantified lexical features to examine diachronic developments in gender representations, relationships, and the language used by the princesses. This investigation tentatively suggests methods of applying the findings to second language pedagogy, particularly in composition exercises.

Hiroko Miyashita

Hayao Miyazaki and Walt Disney are the two best-known and world-famous directors in the history of animated film. Despite Miyazaki and Disney’s differences in style, themes, and approach when making animated films, both are extremely popular both in the United States and in Japan. As Napier mentions that anime fantasy is a kind of mirror to reflect modern society (The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature 12). Walt Disney Studios manifest an American style and tone of animated films while Miyazaki's films display a new way of looking Japanese culture and identity. Therefore, in comparing Miyazaki and Disney, this paper will attempt to clarify similarities and differences between Japanese and American culture, in order to understand the relationship between popular culture and identity in each society.

Najwa Salsabila Azmi

Olubunmi T A Y O Agboola

In modern society, most of a child's knowledge and understanding of the physical environment is "dependent on words and images" (Marriott, 2002). Children's literature is used in schools and at home for character education. Children model the behaviors that they learn through narrative stories and pictures. Little research has examined the ecofeminist principles present in children literature. For this paper, I employ the theory of ecofeminist studies to analyze my primary text (film), Frozen (2016) by Disney which was randomly selected based on it cinema reviews and because it depicts environmental principles that can be utilized as a teaching model for children, girl-child and the society at large. My ecofeminist critique of the work examines how the text re-imagines the female gender by breaking the shackles of stereotypes and disrupting problematic hierarchies between men and women, as well as human and non-human.

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Frozen in time: how disney gender-stereotypes its most powerful princess.

1. Introduction

2. basic plot, 3. elsa as the unanticipated star, 4. postfeminist struggles with power and romance, 5. beware the frozen heart, 5.1. opening scene, 5.2. the frozen heart song, 6. the origin of elsa’s inaccessibility to male suitors, 7. frost counteracts sexual interests, 8. how elsa maintains obedience to her father and keeps male suitors at bay.

“As thirteenth in line in my own kingdom, I didn’t stand a chance. I knew I would have to marry into the throne somewhere…As heir, Elsa was preferable, of course. But no one was getting anywhere with her ” (emphasis added) ( Frozen 1:15:57–1:16:11).

9. Let It Go : Power Versus Romance

10. external validation as feminine trait, 11. reinforcing gender roles.

“It is not until her power is exposed and she runs away that she finds beauty in herself and her power. Her journey to self-acceptance, and then acceptance by her sister and her people, is a powerful and much-needed narrative for today’s young people” ( Luttrell 2014 ).

12. Conclusions

Author contributions, conflicts of interest.

• Beckmann, Klaus Martin. 2014. Vicarious Learning for Children to be Thoughtful, an Opportunity Not to Be Missed—‘Frozen’. Australasian Psychiatry 22: 304. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Blackledge, Catherine. 2009. The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Byron, Ellen, and Paul Ziobro. 2014. Elsa Dominates Anna in ‘Frozen’ Merchandise Sales. Wall Street Journal . November 4. Available online: http://www.wsj.com/articles/elsa-dominates-anna-in-frozen-merchandise-sales-1415131605 (accessed on 6 September 2016).
• Cooley, Charles Horton. 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order . New York: Scribner’s. [ Google Scholar ]
• Coyne, Sarah M., Jennifer Ruh Linder, Eric E. Rasmussen, David A. Nelson, and Victoria Birkbeck. 2016. Pretty as a Princess: Longitudinal Effects of Engagement with Disney Princesses on Gender Stereotypes, Body Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Children. Child Development 87: 1909–25. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Creed, Barbara. 2003. The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis . London: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Crosby, Sarah Chase. 2016. Letting Gendered Spaces Go: Striving toward Gender and Nature Balance through Bonding in Disney’s Frozen and Maleficent . Ames: Iowa State University. [ Google Scholar ]
• Do Rozario, Rebecca Anne C. 2004. The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, the Function of a Disney Princess. Women’s Studies in Communication 27: 34–59. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dundes, Lauren. 2001. Disney’s Modern Heroine Pocahontas: Revealing Age-Old Gender Stereotypes and Role Discontinuity under a Façade of Liberation. The Social Science Journal 38: 353–65. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dundes, Lauren, and Alan Dundes. 2000. The Trident and the Fork: Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ as a Male Construction of an Electral Fantasy. Psychoanalytic Studies 2: 117–30. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dundes, Lauren, and Alan Dundes. 2006. Young Hero Simba Defeats Old Villain Scar: Oedipus Wrecks the Lyin’ King. The Social Science Journal 43: 479–85. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dundes, Lauren, and Madeline Streiff. 2016. Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney’s Mulan and Princess and the Frog. Societies 6: 35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. 2011. Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses. Sex Roles 64: 555–67. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Faulkner, Larissa J. 1997. Shades of Discipline: Princess Diana, the US Media, and Whiteness. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 16: 16–31. [ Google Scholar ]
• Feder, Shira. 2014. College Feminisms: Slamming the Door: An Analysis of Elsa (Frozen). The Feminist Wire . October 16. Available online: http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/slamming-door-analysis-elsa-frozen/ (accessed on 8 September 2016).
• Foundas, Scott. 2013. Film Review: ‘Frozen’. Variety . November 3. Available online: http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/frozen-review-1200782020/ (accessed on 8 September 2016).
• Freud, Sigmund. 1920. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis . New York: Boni and Liveright. [ Google Scholar ]
• Fritz, Ben. 2015. ‘Frozen’ Still Keeps Disney Hot as Earnings Rise. The Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition , May 6, B1. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gohr, Michelle Ashley. 2013. Do I Have Something in my Teeth? Vagina Dentata and its Manifestation in Popular Culture. In The Moral Panics of Sexuality . Edited by Breanne Fahs, Mary L. Dudy and Sarah Stage. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27–43. [ Google Scholar ]
• Henke, Jill Birnie, Diane Zimmerman Umble, and Nancy J. Smith. 1996. Construction of the Female Self: Feminist Readings of the Disney Heroine. Women’s Studies in Communication 19: 229–49. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kelly, Casey Ryan. 2016. Camp Horror and the Gendered Politics of Screen Violence: Subverting the Monstrous-Feminine in Teeth (2007). Women’s Studies in Communication 39: 86–106. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Law, Michelle. 2014. Sisters Doin’ it for themselves: Frozen and the Evolution of the Disney Heroine. Screen Education 74: 16–25. Available online: https://issuu.com/atompublications/docs/law_frozen (accessed on 14 February 2017).
• Luttrell, Gina. 2014. How Disney Nearly Ruined Frozen. Thoughts on Liberty . January 15. Available online: http://thoughtsonliberty.com/how-disney-nearly-ruined-frozen (accessed on 8 September 2016).
• Macaluso, Michael. 2016. The Postfeminist Princess: Public Discourse and Disney’s Curricular Guide to Feminism. Disney, Culture, and Curriculum. In Studies in Curriculum Theory Series . Edited by Jennifer A. Sandlin and Julie C. Garlen. New York: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• McRobbie, Angela. 2004. Post-Feminism and Popular Culture. Feminist Media Studies 4: 255–64. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Munford, Rebecca, and Melanie Waters. 2014. Feminism and Popular Culture: Investigating the Postfeminist Mystique . London: I.B. Tauris. [ Google Scholar ]
• Nikolas, Akash. 2014. It’s Not Just Frozen : Most Disney Movies Are Pro-Gay. The Atlantic . April 23. Available online: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/its-not-just-frozen-disney-has-always-been-subtly-pro-gay/361060/ (accessed on 1 September 2016).
• Plant, E. Ashby, Janet S. Hyde, Dacher Keltner, and Patricia G. Devine. 2000. The Gender Stereotyping of Emotions. Psychology of Women Quarterly 24: 81–92. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rogers, Robert. 1978. Metaphor: A Psychoanalytic View . Berkeley: University of California Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rowe, Karen E. 1979. Feminism and Fairy Tales. Women’s Studies 6: 237–57. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rudloff, Maja. 2016. (Post)feminist paradoxes: The sensibilities of gender representation in Disney’s Frozen. Outskirts: Feminisms along the Edge 35: 1–20. [ Google Scholar ]
• Schneider, Monica C., and Angela L. Bos. 2014. Measuring Stereotypes of Female Politicians. Political Psychology 35: 245–66. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Stewart, Andrew. 2014. ‘Frozen’ Reaches $ 1.219 Bil to Become Fifth-Highest Grossing Film Globally. Variety . May 25. Available online: http://variety.com/2014/film/box-office/frozen-reaches-1-219-bil-to-become-fifth-highest-grossing-film-globally-1201192156/ (accessed on 1 September 2016).
• Tasker, Yvonne, and Diane Negra. 2007. Feminist Politics and Postfeminist Culture. In Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture . Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 1–25. [ Google Scholar ]
• Frozen . 2013. Chris Buck, and Jennifer Lee, directors. produced by Peter Del Vecho; screenplay by Jennifer Lee; story by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Shane Morris. Burbank, California: Walt Disney Pictures.
• Wolfenstein, Martha. 1978. Children’s Humor: A Psychological Analysis . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [ Google Scholar ]

Share and Cite

Streiff, M.; Dundes, L. Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess. Soc. Sci. 2017 , 6 , 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020038

Streiff M, Dundes L. Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess. Social Sciences . 2017; 6(2):38. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020038

Streiff, Madeline, and Lauren Dundes. 2017. "Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess" Social Sciences 6, no. 2: 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020038

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

Is Frozen Really A Feminist Film?

Frozen has been released to near-universal critical acclaim praising it as a long-awaited return to greatness for the Burbank studio of the Disney Company. Some reviews and analyses have touched on the film’s greater themes of feminism in light of the twin female protagonists and a dearth of traditional, patriarchal themes. While that may be true, there are other aspects that potentially undermine the Frozen feminist claim.

Spoiler Warning: Needless to say, this post contains a discussion of the entire film and thus, will spoil the story. If you’re looking for my thoughts on the film overall, you can read my review for Animation Scoop.

The Case For a Feminist Frozen

Female protagonists have been prominent in Disney features since the very beginning and have long been a trademark of Disney storytelling. The most common complaint is that they always embodied stereotypical views of women and while the story was centred on them, it rarely placed them in a position of real control over it. Case in point are so-called princess stories, where a beautiful princess either needs to be rescued or is searching for prince charming.

Tangled was maligned for this when it came out as it featured a spunky heroine who’s goal of escaping from her tower was contrived over the course of the film to a love story with the dashing Flynn Ryder .

Frozen is immediately noteworthy for featuring not one, but two female characters as the focus of the story. It also deserves credit for exploring their relationship with each other rather than with someone else. The story itself delves into many areas of that relationship as we see Elsa secluding herself from her sister Anna, and the struggles that the latter has in dealing with that.

As the film progresses, we see that it is the love between the sisters that drives the story, and ultimately, it is Elsa’s love for her sister that saves her from death. Love in the romantic sense is refreshingly absent, or at least muted for much of the story. The twist is that true love comes in many forms and does not necessarily need to be romantic.

In terms of the characters, Elsa and Anna exemplify strong female characters from the standpoint that they make their own decisions once the story ball gets rolling. Elsa strikes out on her own once her powers are discovered, and the song Let It Go serves to underline her new-found independence from societal influence and pressure.

Anna on the other hand. while apparently very ready for marriage at the beginning of the film, gradually matures over the course of the story as she attempts to reach her sister. While she learns less about herself than Elsa does, she does gain an understanding of others thanks to Hans’ deception.

The Case Against A Feminist Frozen

So the case for clearly relies upon the characters and their relationship, but what about the case against? Unfortunately this side of the argument is no nearly so cut and dried.

Let’s start with the princess aspect. Yes, this is yet again a Disney princess film and while it’s easy to laud the empowering position that puts female characters in, it’s important to also remember that they are placed there to begin with. They are granted power rather than having to earn it like everyone else. Such a message cannot be ignored.

As strong a character as Anna is, she finds a prospective husband within the first 15 minutes of the film. Furthermore, it is heavily implied that she has romantic feelings for Kristoff . Romance may not be the focus of the film but it remains a key component of the story.

Moving into more complex territory, the character design fails to support the fact that both characters are independent. Despite being sisters, they share the same overall look, that, despite statements to the contrary when originally leaked, are lifted wholesale from Tangled . To top it off, we haven’t even discussed the actual design itself. Anna Smith at the Guardian did however, and she had this to say :

The snag is, both Elsa and Anna have the kind of proportions that would make Barbie look chunky: tiny nipped-in waists, no hips, long legs, skinny arms, pert breasts, small feet and eyes three times the size of the male characters’.

What Smith didn’t mention, was that Elsa also undergoes a transformation during the Let It Go sequence that sees her change from a formal princess to a lively individualist. However, in shedding her over-garments, we see her wearing high heels and a dress that has a bit of a habit of revealing her leg. In other words, Elsa’s transformation, while empowering, also takes the sexual temperature of the character up a few notches. Feminist goals include empowerment but using sex as a way to get there is not.

Do the cons overpower the pros? In my opinion they do, simply because they occur on a more fundamental level. Creating strong characters and giving them a decent story is relatively easy. Heck making them look normal is easy too. However, it’s on the deeper levels that Frozen fails as a feminist film. It maintains the illusion of princesshood, uses romance as a crutch (even though it isn’t the focus), and treats is heroic female protagonists as blatant pawns on the chessboard of commercial filmmaking. Ultimately, there isn’t much of a positive, feminist message to take away because deciphering the true feminist messages from the ones created by the corporation is too difficult.

Lastly, shouldn’t a truly feminist movie evoke such goals off-screen as well as on? Frozen is very much a by-the-numbers film across the board, and the merchandising is no different. While characters do inhabit a story, outside, they are subject to the whims of the marketing department. Right now, that means Elsa and Anna are getting the full-on Disney Princess treatment and all that entails both good and bad. Just another thing to consider.

• share  
• wallabag it  
• email  

14 thoughts on “Is Frozen Really A Feminist Film?”

I think there are some interesting cons and pros you might not have considered.

On the cons side, you have the fourth movie in a row that gives us another white princess, and this time not one but two simultaneous white girls who’ll push the few princesses of color even more into the background. Poc also appear as faces in the crowd scenes but don’t have any lines or move the plot.

And then there’s the fact the animators in the film had or felt they had to keep the girls pretty at all times regardless of their emotional state, which is some serious bullshit right there.

On the pros, many fans are reading a queer struggle in elsa’s story, you can see the details for that here: http://fandomsandfeminism.tumblr.com/post/68687586103/be-the-good-girl-you-always-have-to-be-is

I did consider the racial makeup of the film, but decided to leave it out. While Frozen is obviously very homogeneous when it comes to the racial origins of its characters, I couldn’t see how that fact coincided with the feminist topic of the post. Naturally, it would be nice if the film included a variety of female characters, but since it really only has two, and sisters at that, I felt it wasn’t enough to warrant inclusion in the post.

The infamous quote was another thing I thought about discussing, but decided to leave that out too because it’s already been discussed plenty already. But yes, the opinion that female characters must look ‘pretty’ at all times is absolutely something that should have been addressed better by all involved and puts something of a black mark on how the female characters are portrayed.

I read a different post on the same topic (although that one was quite good too), but couldn’t (personally) come to the same conclusion. Elsa may embody the notion, but does so in a far too general and ambiguous manner to form a firm conclusion.

Well, it’s like the saying goes: my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit. Regardless of how well done the white female stars are, that does nothing for the representation of girls of color. We can’t have a feminism that only stands up for the girls that are already the most privileged among them.

Indeed the thing with elsa is just a reading, a headcanon, we definitely are still waiting for our queer princess, feministdisney.tumblr assumes another forty years until that one happens though. :/

I have to agree with Ana here, intersectionality is an important part of feminism that a great many of us simply cannot leave out at whim. It seems strange to discuss gender roles and body image in Frozen but stop at race. Seems weird as well since including race would have supported your argument!

For my part, I consider Frozen as a feminist animated feature a step in the right direction, but Disney still has a way to go, and race and sexuality HAVE to be included in the discussion. It is simply not a case of “this but not that.” You should check out the Feminist Disney Tumblr!

I think there’s more feminism behind the film than in it per se, isn’t it the first disney movie to be directed by a woman?

Pingback: The Animation Anomaly Podcast Episode 6 | The Animation Anomaly The Animation Anomaly

I would just like to point out that: 1) Elsa is a Queen not a princess, something that I haven’t seen mentioned here. In fact unless I am forgetting someone she is the first unequivocally good Queen in a Disney movie who does more than die. A female character with power (both political and magical) who isn’t a villain. I would chalk that up as a point in the pro feminism column.

2) Anna finding a prospective husband is a setup for the ultimate subversion of the “love at first sight” trope. Also just because a story includes an element of romance doesn’t, in my eyes, make it less feminist. Especially if many of Disney’s backwards romantic tropes aren’t included.

3) While using a more “sexed up” costume to show that Elsa is freeing herself from her long-term oppression could be considered troubling, I don’t think it is inherently wrong. Elsa isn’t changing her outfit to impress anybody, the song is all about how she is going to isolate herself from society (a sentiment that the movie ultimately shows is a little misguided). Elsa’s costume change isn’t meant for anybody but herself.

4) Yeah Disney needs more Princesses of Color, then again there are actually 4 of them already. Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan & Tiana. True 4/12 (13 only if you count Elsa who, as mentioned above, is in fact a queen) in’t a very impressive number. But I would say that 1/3 isn’t truly abysmal, especially seeing as since the Disney Renaissance (starting with Little Mermaid 1989) the number is 4/9. I also remember hearing somewhere that the next Disney Princess movie is going to be based on a Pacific Islander folktale, so we will probably see PoC in that.

5) Is being a princess inherently bad? I don’t think so, there are plenty of great stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses & nobility of all stripes. Just because these stories are about people who are advantaged doesn’t make them inherently bad.

4) 4 of them already makes it look like it’s a good number, but it really isn’t. Especially because people make an innocent mistake when talking about diversity in disney. You see, equal representation is not “50% white, 50% non-white”, white is as much a specific race as black or native american. See this chart: http://josemmonteiro.tumblr.com/post/68990215762/contrary-to-popular-belief By starting the discussion with “white vs non-white”, we’re actually thinking equality is when “white” gets the space of five races.

It’s not 4/12 then, but 1 native american against 12 white, 1 black against 12 white, 1 chinese against 12 white, 1 middle eastern against 12 white. Then we need to add how these movies were somewhat problematic in terms of race, Aladdin made the good guys look more weastern and the bad guys more stereotypical, Pocahontas continued to perpetuate the lies Smith made about her and went with the “no side was worse than the other, both just needed to sort it out”, Mulan’s movie was filled with things from the rest of Asia, as if disney wanted to generally represent all of it in one movie and be done with it, and finally Tiana doesn’t get to be human for more than 10% of her movie.

5) Being a princess is a-okay. But, as an audience, we care about characters either because of what they do, or because of what they are. And disproportionately girls are made important to the audience for what they are, their importance comes from something outside of their character: a royal title, a curse… Something that is not a consequence of a choice or informs us about their personality, they’re kind of important because the story says so.

4) A good point and one that when I think about it I agree with (aside from you’re math being wrong it would be a 1 to 8 ratio). I don’t agree with some of the other things you’re saying.

I like Tiana’s character a lot, pretty much the whole movie through,

Aladdin himself has a very middle eastern facial structure, I know a few guys who would look something like Aladdin if drawn as cartoons. Original movie Jasmine is similarly fairly middle eastern in features (though admittedly less so). The use of stereotypes is common in Disney’s background characters it’s just that they are less offensive to our sensibilities when they are white people (all of Beauty and the Beasts Renaissance villagers for instance).

This isn’t so say that it these shortcomings are excusable, far from it. I’m really just nitpicking. I agree with you’re premise, Disney needs to do better in their representation of PoC.

5) A character can be liked both for what they do and who they are. Harry Potter just fell into being the chosen one, however it is what he does that interests us as readers. Luke Skywalker was born the son of Anikin and powerfull with the force, but it was his choice not to give into his rage that made him a hero.

Similarly Anna might be a princess but it was her bravery, compassion and personal strength that drove the plot and ultimately saved Elsa, not the fact that she was born a princess.

Elsa’s “Curse” (one of the main themes of the movie being that her powers aren’t a curse) does define her character and her choices, but that is what the story is about. Changing the way that she interacts with that facet of her identity, helping her grow beyond the fear of a core part of her being she cannot change.

P.S. which things from Mulan were Pan-Asian, I haven’t watched that movie before and haven’t heard that claim before.

4)Tiana is very much a great character, but she was the third poc lead protagonist to be turned into an animal for much of her movie (Brother Bear, The emperor’s new groove being the other two).

To see more easily the problem with stereotyping in alladin, you should watch the making of, they actually talk about looking at pictures of exotic women for jasmine without any self awareness.

5)Although I agree with the gist of what you’re saying here, we grow sympathetic to Harry and Luke before we know of their fated greatness.

P.S: I think it’s pretty evident if you watch the movie, which you should because it’s a great movie anyway. 🙂 http://moviesonlinewithoutdownloadfree.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/watch-mulan-1998-movie-online-for-free.html Have fun!

Good point on number 4, I hadn’t thought of that. I will also definitely re-watch Mulan now.

5) Except we don’t really, neither character does anything particularly grand or memorable before we discover their back-story (at least Luke is outed as a potential Jedi, we don’t know about Vader yet of course). What I’m really saying is that most every story has a plot convenience to get the protagonist to the story’s starting line. Disney just happens to have built a brand using the princess trope. I still see nothing wrong with this.

I don’t see anything wrong with it either, it’s just not feminist.

I’m arguing it shouldn’t be a black mark in the feminist scorecard.

I think that’s fair.

Comments are closed.

• DOI: 10.3390/SOCSCI6020038
• Corpus ID: 18360539

Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess

• Madeline Streiff , L. Dundes
• Published 26 March 2017
• The Social Sciences

42 Citations

Balancing gender and power: how disney’s hercules fails to go the distance, elsa as horse whisperer in disney’s frozen 2: opportunity “nokk”s to quash gender stereotypes.

• Highly Influenced

From Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana

Bad witches: gender and the downfall of elizabeth holmes of theranos and disney’s maleficent, are disney characters ‘frozen' in stereotypes an intersectional analysis of frozen, the snow queer female characterization in walt disney’s frozen, language, gender, and patriarchy in mulan: a diachronic analysis of a disney princess movie, "when will my reflection show who i am inside": queering disney fantasy, the upshot on princess merida in disney/pixar’s brave: why the tomboy trajectory is off target, 36 references, letting gendered spaces go: striving toward gender and nature balance through bonding in disney's frozen and maleficent, (post)feminist paradoxes: the sensibilities of gender representation in disney's frozen.

• Highly Influential

Disney’s modern heroine Pocahontas: revealing age-old gender stereotypes and role discontinuity under a façade of liberation

Feminism and fairy tales, camp horror and the gendered politics of screen violence: subverting the monstrous-feminine in teeth (2007), post‐feminism and popular culture, reel royal diversity the glass ceiling in disney’s mulan and princess and the frog, feminism and popular culture: investigating the postfeminist mystique, do i have something in my teeth vagina dentata and its manifestations within popular culture, shades of discipline: princess diana, the u.s. media, and whiteness, related papers.

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers

Frozen: Letting Go of Gender Stereotypes?

In a world where racism, gender inequity, and injustice run rampant, people have looked to the media to see how these issues are dealt with onscreen. Animated films are particularly interesting to examine, as the entire world is built from scratch: the trees, the representation, and even the prejudices characters exhibit.

Disney princess films not only provide role models and a means of escape for children, but they also inform children about various viewpoints they are meant to hold, especially the way people of a certain gender should act (Hine et al., 2018). These ideas can be easily internalized. Although there have been definite strides made over the last few years to improve representation, Disney princess films continue to present a stereotypical gender narrative and ideals focused on appearance. This article will examine Frozen and Frozen II to determine if princesses are still represented with stereotypical female characteristics or if representation has improved to include more androgynous characteristics.

Romantic Involvement

Romantic involvement with male characters is, stereotypically, an important part of female narratives. Both Frozen movies are a departure from this stereotype and unlike the majority of Disney princess films, there is no major romantic narrative. Although Anna and Kristoff’s relationship gets a brighter spotlight in Frozen II , the main storyline follows Elsa’s journey to find the Fifth Elemental Spirit and save Arendelle. Stereotypical assumptions about love are also disputed in these movies: Frozen spends a good portion of the plot mocking Anna for believing she fell in love with the visiting dignitary, Prince Hans, at first sight. Kristoff supplies most of this criticism. For example, as they notice wolves pursuing them, Anna says she wants to help fight them off. Kristoff says no. “Why not?” Anna asks. “Because I don’t trust your judgement. Who marries a man she’s just met?” he replies incredulously. Anna and Hans’ love at first sight romance is juxtaposed with the slower budding romance between Anna and Kristoff. They fall in love while working together to find Elsa and to save Anna’s frozen heart.

Frozen II also features a romantic narrative. Kristoff spends most of the movie unsuccessfully trying to propose to Anna. This heteronormative subplot is both innovative and damaging. It is innovative in that it dismantles the notion that men can’t be sensitive, express their feelings about love, and still be in a successful relationship. Kristoff’s power ballad “Lost in the Woods” expresses his deep feelings for Anna and the love he feels for her. He admits to being afraid that she is pulling away from him and feels that life without her is too awful to contemplate. Since he spends a good portion of the movie pining after Anna, a behaviour almost always attributed to female characters, he flips the gender stereotyping on its head and breaks traditional gender representation barriers. This flipping of gender characteristics shows that an effort is being made to oppose stereotypes in Frozen II .

However, this subplot is also damaging because it subtracts from the journey Anna and Elsa undergo to save their kingdom: the moment Kristoff successfully proposes to Anna is right after Elsa discovers that she is the Fifth Elemental Spirit and finally understands her purpose. His proposal undermines Elsa’s growth and self-discovery and impresses that a happy ending is not complete unless there is some sort of romantic conclusion. At the end of the movie, after Elsa has undergone her transformation to become the Fifth Spirit, Kristoff comments to her, “You look different—did you cut your hair or something?” further trivializing her journey of acceptance and discovery by equating it to an inconsequential change in physical appearance.

For Elsa, her magical powers take the place of a romantic partner. This is best emphasized through the opening scene of Frozen II : Anna and Elsa play with miniature snow figurines of Elsa’s making, and Anna asks her sister to “make a prince—a fancy one!” to save the princess from an evil spell. Anna makes the figurines kiss, saying “Who cares about danger when there’s love?” But Elsa responds with disgust, “Kissing won’t save the forest,” and she makes a fairy queen to “[break] the spell and [save] everyone.” She replaces the prince and romantic heterosexual norms with a powerful queen who is independent, and evidently more powerful than the love between the prince and princess.

It is important to note that Frozen II does not end with a wedding. It ends with Anna being crowned queen of Arendelle while her fiancé supports her from the crowd. Her sister Elsa is finally at peace with herself and has found purpose as the Fifth Spirit in the Enchanted Forest. The romantic narrative is not the final image that viewers get of Frozen II ; the successes of the two women are championed instead .

Rescue Behaviour

Rescues are an important part of the Disney narrative. The inevitable tug-of-war between good and evil, or even between good and the unfamiliar, means that main characters are constantly thrust into perilous situations.

Although male and female characters both perform about the same number of rescues in Frozen , their reactions to the rescues are very different. When Kristoff is thrown from the sled and attacked by wolves, Anna yells “Christopher!” after him in concern. With the wolves snapping at his heels, he hotly retorts, “It’s Kristoff!” After Anna manages to pull him into the sled, his first remark to her is “You almost set me on fire,” rather than “Thank you for saving my life.” In comparison, after Kristoff saves Anna from the wolves and his sled is destroyed, she apologizes: “I’ll replace your sled and everything. And I understand if you don’t want to help me anymore.” Her meek attitude is the opposite of his condescending and ungrateful tone, even if his comments were meant to be humorous. These exchanges give the impression that it is acceptable for a male character to scoff at help and criticize rescue tactics, but that a female character should thank her rescuer and ask for nothing more.

In Frozen II , Kristoff is more supportive of Anna’s rescue behaviour. Although he is still anxious about her being in danger, this is because he is in love with her, not because he believes that women should not do any rescuing. One instance where conflict could have arisen is when Anna leaves Kristoff behind at the camp without a word. But Kristoff doesn’t use this against her. He reassures her saying, “It’s okay. My love is not fragile.”

Climactic Rescues

Female characters in the two Frozen movies complete climactic rescues personally, although this is traditionally done by male characters in Disney movies (Hine et al., 2018). They are also no longer passive recipients of help.

In Frozen , Anna is the one to save her sister from Hans’ sword and thaw her own heart in the same act. She performs the act of true love herself, a platonic sisterly love rather than Disney’s usual romantic narrative. Giving the climactic final rescue to a female character, while her traditional love interest was mere meters away, was an empowering and decisive choice.

In Frozen II , Elsa is the character who primarily does the rescuing: most danger occurs when the Elemental Spirits are introduced and Elsa’s powerful magic is the only thing that stands a chance against the mystical spirits. But the critical rescue in Frozen II goes to Anna. Although she is overcome by immense grief (both her sister and Olaf are considered dead) Anna wakes the Earth Spirits and manipulates them into throwing boulders at the dam built by Arendelle in the Enchanted Forest. By breaking the dam, Anna frees Elsa from the icy magic of Ahtohallen and lifts the mist that had isolated the Enchanted Forest. As she is running from the Earth Spirits, it is Kristoff who saves her from being trampled. However, as Kristen Bell noted on The Tonight Show , the first thing Kristoff says to Anna after he rescues her is “I’m here. What do you need?” not “Stand back—I’ve got this.” This is a considerable departure from traditional Disney male hero behaviour, and refreshing to see.

Stereotyping Female Characters

Female characters in Frozen and Frozen II exhibit more androgynous characteristics, but that does not mean that they are free from stereotypical representations. Frozen begins with men cutting through the ice with brute force. They sing in low baritone harmonies and both their song and actions imply that the strength of men is required in the winter, and that men have dominion over the harsh season (Streiff & Dundes, 2017). The fact that Elsa has more power than any of them over the element they consider themselves experts of, is perceived negatively. Her power is framed as a thing to be feared and distrusted instead of a remarkable and empowering characteristic.

Another female stereotype is the fact that Elsa does not learn how to wield her powers as a child. She is instructed to conceal, not feel, and is given gloves to contain her power. She is coached to prevent using her power rather than being taught how to wield it with more precision (Streiff & Dundes, 2017). A male character in a similar position would almost certainly have learned how to wield his power and gain control over it instead of learning how to avoid it. An example of this is Aquaman. In one version of his origin story, Aquaman is trained by Vulko, the Chief Advisor to the King of Atlantis, so he can unlock the full potential of his powers. Elsa on the other hand is locked in the palace with a reduced staff and permanently locked gates. Her mantra is: “be the good girl you always have to be.” Misbehaving, or even being herself, is not considered appropriate. It is better for her to conceal her true identity than to assume a position of power.

When Elsa finally comes to terms with her power in the song “Let it Go,” she erases the ideals impressed upon her by her father and becomes only accountable to herself. However, this independence is not championed by her kingdom and she is only perceived favourably again once she resumes her position as queen and becomes accountable to her people. It is also interesting to consider that in order to successfully wield her power, Elsa has to use love, a feminine stereotypical characteristic. She can only rule when her powers are sufficiently under control, or in other words, when she is “emotionally stable” and exhibiting stereotypical characteristics consistent with her sex.

In Frozen II , Anna and Elsa are awarded more independence than in the first movie. They don’t rely on male characters to show them the way or help them out of tricky situations. Instead, Anna and Elsa lean on each other for help.

But Elsa is still in conflict with the responsibilities she holds and conceals her true self and feelings from everyone, like she did in Frozen . Although she has come into her own as a monarch, her powers are treated with suspicion outside of her kingdom. Upon her arrival to the Enchanted Forest, both the Northuldran and Arendelle guards are frightened when she uses her magic to disarm them. Instead of using her skills and authority as a monarch, Elsa allows Olaf to intervene, and he diffuses the tension with comic relief.

Male characters also don’t completely trust Elsa when it comes to her powers. This is seen especially in the scene where Anna and Elsa speak to Grand Pabbie in Frozen II . He says: “I hope you’re prepared for what you’ve done, Elsa. Angry magical spirits are not for the faint of heart.” This chastising, condescending tone implies that Elsa can’t understand her own actions and that she isn’t strong enough to face the magical spirits. Later, Grand Pabbie tells Anna that he always feared Elsa was too powerful, but now, since the magical spirits are awake, he can only hope that Elsa’s powers will be enough to save the kingdom. He expresses both fear of Elsa and doubt about her capabilities in the same sentence. A male hero would likely not create the same reaction.

Female stereotypes are also reinforced through clothing. Brittney Lee, an animator for Frozen II , notes that “every bead, every sequin… reinforce[s] who [the character] is” making clothing an important aspect to consider (Bryant, 2019).

In Frozen , Elsa’s dress starts out as very restricting: initially, she is pictured with a high, tight collar buttoned at the neck, and a heavy maroon cape, demonstrating that she is “repressed, stoic and distant. Her tight, dark clothes… mirror her personality” (Macaluso, 2016, 76, as quoted by Ruddlof, 2016). Her clothing, especially the gloves, show that she is afraid of losing control and revealing her true personality. Her hair is also tightly bound in a bun, a very formal style. As she learns to accept herself and her power later in the movie, she sheds her restrictive costume for a floor-length gown with a sheer cape, just as she sheds her previous ideals of being a “good girl” and embraces a more mature, sexualized , appearance. She dramatically lets down her hair, and transforms her dark, heavy dress into a skin-tight, sequin encrusted gown with a thigh-high slit. As she struts across the ice castle she built, her hips sway sensuously and her makeup is more obvious. Although it is clear that she is making these visual changes for herself and not for any male characters (Ruddlof, 2016) her makeover maintains the conventional belief that power is situated in physical appearance rather than from within—especially for female characters. However, through this transformation, the film gives Elsa assertive, brave, and independent characteristics typically attributed to male characters.

In Frozen II , less emphasis is placed on appearance. Anna and Elsa are represented more androgynously, both in the clothing they wear (pants!) and through their dialogue and actions. But appearance still does play a role, especially in Elsa’s dramatic makeover at the end of Frozen II.

At the end of the movie, she lets down her hair and is dressed in a white off-the-shoulder dress with the symbols of the four Elemental Spirits embroidered on the bodice. This final dress she wears has an even greater significance regarding gender stereotypes. The dress is white, representing her status as the Snow Queen, but since white is a colour traditionally associated with marriage, it also symbolizes that her power replaces a romantic partner in her life. She is “married” to her power. While this is meant to be a positive thing, after all, she truly understands who she is and is at one with herself, it cements the assumption that a fictional woman with great power usually cannot engage in romantic relationships.

On the surface, Frozen and Frozen II empower their female characters and present them in a new way than previously seen in Disney movies. Anna and Elsa are the main characters of the story and play a pivotal role in progressing the plot. The movie champions their sisterly bond over any romantic involvement. Anna and Elsa have progressed positively throughout the first and second movie to display traditional male characteristics along with feminine ones. They are athletic, assertive, curious, and brave, while also displaying emotion and affection. They lead rescues and are leaders of their kingdom.

However, gendered ways of acting and dressing still play a major role in their identity. Fear and doubt about Elsa’s magical abilities are prevalent, emphasis on outward appearance is championed over personal growth, and heteronormative romance often undermines Elsa’s most meaningful moments.

Frozen and Frozen II challenge gender stereotypes, but there is more emphasis placed on maintaining rather than disrupting gender narratives.

Works Cited

Bryant, T. (2019). Costume design for animated movies is ridiculously difficult. The team behind Frozen 2 explains why. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/11/18/20970465/frozen-2-costumes-design-animate-anna-elsa

Frozen 2 – Breaking down the costumes. (2019). https://www.nightmarishconjurings.com/2019/11/05/article-frozen-2-breaking-down-the-costumes/

Gill, I. (2016). Feminist figures or damsels in distress? The media’s gendered misrepresentation of Disney princesses. Young Scholars in Writing, 13. https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/230

Hine, B., England, D., Lopreore, K., Horgan, E., & Hartwell, L. (2018). The rise of the androgynous princess: Examining representations of gender in prince and princess characters of Disney movies released 2009-2016. Social Sciences, 7 (12), 245. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7120245

Hine, B., Ivanovik, K., & England, D. (2018). From the sleeping princess to the world-saving daughter of the chief: Examining young children’s perceptions of ‘old’ versus ‘new’ Disney princess characters. Social Sciences, 7 (9), 161. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7090161

Leader, C. F. (2017). Magical manes and untameable tresses: (En)coding computer-animated hair for the post-feminist Disney princess. Feminist Media Studies, 18 (6), 1086-1101. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1390688

Rudloff, M. (2016). (Post)feminist paradoxes: the sensibilities of gender representation in Disney’s Frozen. Outskirts: feminisms along the edge, 35 , 1-20. https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA485808814&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=04450445&p=AONE&sw=w

Streiff, M., & Dundes, L. (2017). Frozen in time: How Disney gender-stereotypes its most powerful princesses. Social Sciences, 6 (38), doi:10.3390/socsci6020038

A big thank you to Lina Lombo, Jasrita Singh, and Austin Mardon for editing/helping with this article.

What do you think? Leave a comment .

Want to write about Animation or other art forms?

Receive our weekly newsletter:

46 Comments

I loved this movie and thought both Anna and Elsa are strong and positive role models.

It’s great to see animated flicks finally giving ladies their time to shine in the spotlight and show what they can bring to a story. However, what works so well for this movie isn’t just the feminist-approach, it’s more that it’s a perfect watch for anybody who bothers with this. Boy, girl, dad, mom, anybody! Good article.

Yes! Good point. It’s accessible while still trying to curb stereotypes

I have yet to meet or talk to someone who did not enjoy it, gender and age.

Frozen didn’t exactly have a quest to follow, more of something to win over, and Anna was repeatedly rescued over and over again by Kristoff. This, was probably why I felt Tangled was a better movie than it when considering a feminist perpective.

Yes, there were so many times when Anna was rescued (and unnecessarily rescued too)

As a real Disney fan since infancy, I confess that apart from the bedazzling first experience seeing it in the theater with my family, Frozen never truly wowed me like it has the rest of the world.

I didn’t grow up watching Disney, and so I really haven’t seen many Disney films at all. For impressionable children though, I could not agree more that the entertainment they consume should be inclusive and empowering. It is good to see that films like Frozen are at least stepping in the right direction. Great article! 🙂

Yes, it’s an encouraging step. Thanks!

“Since he spends a good portion of the movie pining after Anna, a behaviour almost always attributed to female characters, he flips the gender stereotyping on its head and breaks traditional gender representation barriers.”

A number of popular music songs from the 1950s and 1960s are precisely men pining after women. I would venture that that was the main musical output of that time.

I don’t think the romantic subplot is damaging to Frozen II, or that it distracts from Elsa’s quest. While Elsa is more of the main focus (as opposed to Anna in Frozen), Frozen II is ultimately about how BOTH sisters mature. There are two stories here, not just Elsa’s. And the proposal at the end is a very satisfying ending to Anna’s story, especially since her sister chooses to abdicate and remain in the Forest. And I preferred Frozen II to Frozen anyway.

Good point. I think Frozen II did a better job of just letting the stories speak for themselves and relying far less on stereotypes.

I thought this argument was really well articulated! I would add that Elsa being subdued as a child, and forced to conceal her true emotions also serves the role that is traditional for women – servitude and submission. I think a big part of her arc (in Frozen) was learning independence and power. Also interesting to note that all of her attackers were men when they kidnap her from the ice castle.

I think people like Frozen because of it’s “sisterhood” aspect, and having two female characters is kind of like Disney is turning away from the idea that being awesome/badass AND a girl makes you different. It also focuses on a “relationship” that isn’t with a romantic interest, where in other stories princesses ignore their families. It’s almost like an apology for all the times a girl has been cured from something with a kiss from “Prince Charming.” Also, it’s easy for people to imagine Elsa being the antagonist, evil-step mother type and they appreciate Disney not going for that easy, simple portrayal.

I’ve heard similar sentiments about Frozen being the ultimate feminist Disney movie because of the focus on the sisterhood aspect. HOWEVER those sentiments usually fail to acknowledge the isolation/sequestration of Elsa because of her power (much like the oppression of women and the stifling of women’s voices and abilities), and the fact that the plot of the movie is very much centered around Anna’s journey to get to a prince. Personally, I think Frozen is an epic feminist fail. Yay sisterhood, but the movie misses the feminist mark for me personally. I think Mulan was a way better model of feminism as far as Disney is concerned, but ppl just go straight to Frozen lately, likely due to it’s newness.

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I’m gonna actually bookmark this because it contains a lot of good questions and info and analysis that can be applied to any movie.

Kristoff is absolutely a badass. He’s like an action hero without the self-confidence, and he only lacks that because of his unbelievably tragic backstory. How many other characters could refer to almost starving to death as a child as “It was touch and go there for a while.”? He saves her life at least 3 times and is on his way to try to do it a fourth when she turns away from him. Hell he’s one of the most effective people in the movie. Almost everything he tries to do that isn’t Anna’s idea he succeeds in, the only exception being his horrible haggling with the sauna guy (heroic orphan, social skills not included).

Well, for me, it’s all well that you can he is badass. But for me, there has to be receipts. In the Frozen movie, he really had no true purpose, no matter how cool his character.

So what if he has a tragic backstory? Of what purpose was it to the story? Elsa and Anna had a tragic past as well, but played a bigger role in driving the plot. A tragic backstory doesn’t make a character important, interesting maybe, but not important. And that tragic background is all speculation because they never really mentioned anything about his parents or background in the actual MOVIE.

Kristoff saves Anna? All he did was provide the sleigh. She was able to keep the wolves at bay and she pulled him to safety when he was falling off a cliff. Please name the other instances, and provide the minute and second it occurred. Well, he did carry all the way to the castle when her heart was freezing over, so I suppose that made him important. If he hadn’t been there, she probably would’ve passed out in the troll village and the trolls would’ve either just let her die there or they would’ve had to be the ones to take her back to the castle.

I think the popularity of Frozen is primarily down to the feminist undertones of the film, and it has moved a lot of people due to Elsa’s loneliness but her independent power to make something out of that where she can be happy.

I love the fact that it is sisterly love, rather than romantic love, that saves her. Never once did Elsa need a man to save her. She ultilised her own power to create her own happy ending, and I think that suggests a huge shift in Disney into a very modern way of thinking, and Elsa acts as a role model for a lot of people, and I’d say adults as well as children, and boys as well as girls.

I do think that Elsa’s loneliness and isolation she feels makes her more relate-able as many people will identify with her insecurities.

As an adult with no children, I feel no shame at all in declaring my love for Frozen! Loved it at the cinema when it first came out before Frozen-mania really took off. For me the reason it works so well is basically Let it Go. That song is just a perfect power ballad with a message that speaks to me and so many others. Never mind what people say or how downtrodden you feel, be yourself, be strong and don’t be held back. The animation of that sequence is gorgeous too. I must have listened to the song 30 times and still love it!

As the parent of a four year old girl, I’ve seen Frozen innumerable times. I’ve taken her to the singalong show. We’ve got the dolls, the costumes etc etc. It’s brilliant.

I prefer Tangled though.

I don’t follow your logic.

I will never forgive my friend who spoiled the Prince Hans twist halfway through the film (ok – I have forgiven her but I still resent it!)

It’s a crap twist though. He just goes from nice to evil somewhere behind the scenes. A good twist should be signposted a little bit so that when you see the film a second time you can see where it came from. Hans just changes because the plot requires him to be handing out blankets in one scene and to be evil in the next. It’s a bit half-assed.

His plan also doesn’t make any sense. If our queen died, Prince Philip wouldn’t become king, her nearest living relative would. Maybe the laws of succession work differently there, but this isn’t stated. 🙂

There are a lot of negative narratives that can be taken from Disney princess movies, but we should focus on the positive ones. Don’t diminish any of them, but also don’t dwell on, or have singularity of focus on them. Stereotypes shouldn’t be removed from society, they should become irrelevant through meaningful growth…not social engineering. It’s not even a fine line. I am aware this probably isn’t the popular opinion.

You described these movies perfectly. Thank you!

I really like the way that Disney has become more feminist, especially with frozen, as well as maleficent, where true love is not necessarily only based on romantic love but based family.

My son watched it a lot a couple of years ago but has now decided he hates it. Presumably because he considers it a girls film. Some of the girls in his class also say they hate it – probably because they’re sick of all the princess shit.

I thought it was fine the first few times. Unspectacular but passable. Now it’s been on so much I hope to god I never have to see it again.

The aspect of Frozen that always irked me was the presentation of a binary set of stereotypes. Although traditional Disney-esque stereotypes are subverted, the subversion fails to consider many perspectives aside from the opposite. If Anna is not adhering to traditional stereotypes of the ‘princess’ type, then she’s presented as dramatically subverting such stereotype. Same with Elsa; the feminine is subverted by (masculine?) qualities that suggest a strong back-and-forth between identities without presenting much of a middle ground. It almost seems like Disney is trying too hard to appear progressive and empowering–Disney portrays the extremes of the feminine/masculine spectrum without portraying the multifaceted realities of the spectrum.

I am starting to feel as if I am the only person who didn’t like this film, could barely watch it (only stayed because I was with my daughter) and promptly forgot about it – except a feeling of annoyance that, even after reading this article, I’m in the dark as to why it was so popular.

It wasn’t objectionable. But I think it was overhyped. Ah well, as long as it has/had a faithful audience I can see it becoming a singalonga classic to go with Rocky Horror and The Sound of Music. Sometimes these phenomena just happen, and there’s no explaining them.

Just watched this the other day when I ran across it on cable. One thing I’ve always liked about the movie is the look of it — the colors, the ice, the snow, the great details and patterns. Visually it’s quite beautiful.

I love Frozen. I truly appreciate you being so analytical about this and giving SO MUCH proper info to back up your claims instead of just ranting your opinion like other writers and commentators do.

A step forward for feminism in film!

I look forward to seeing more of Disney’s feminist films in the future.

I agree with how the Frozen movies both challenge and adhere to gender stereotypes, but at the same time, I am interested in how the idea of what a Disney princess is and how she should act has changed over time. What comes to mind as I type this is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty in contrast to Anna and Elsa.

I dearly loved the sisterly relationship between Elsa and Anna.

It was very satisfying for Hans to be punched off the boat by Anna.

The Frozen movie franchise fails to give the female characters their own sense of control over their own fate and feel stuck within the stories have told

The article is very well written and focuses well on the problematic nature of Frozen. The fact that the movie tries so hard to combat stereotypes but falls back into the same tired old plots is very telling of women roles in children’s movies and how they are failing to become more inclusive (lesbian couple cameo in Finding Dory).

very interesting

Great article! I didn’t enjoy Frozen II that much, but Kristoff’s characterization was a definite highlight for me. Great to see a male character not bound by toxic masculinity and in a support role while the women can have the spotlight. (I still didn’t like the romance subplot though, hah.)

Sisterly, familial love of the first Frozen as well as the twist with Hans were pleasant surprises. The memes as well have survived longer than the original movie’s popularity. As far as Hans is concerned, the betrayal is sudden but subverted my expectations pleasantly. While the circumstances of actually carrying out the plan were destroyed, marrying into a successful woman’s station and taking credit for it by sidelining her falls in line with the evil male persona Disney begins to vilify.

The article speaks of breaking stereotypes. Why not bring up Moana and Princess and the Frog? The former isn’t even based on a Western fairytale and stars a strong independent juvenile girl, the latter featuring a self-starter would-be entrepreneur who realizes that business without love or soul is dead.

I suppose an overriding question is still going to be “Will Disney ever move on from their safe target demographic?” The traditional family friendly market can only tolerate so much progressive content before the bottom line is threatened even more than it is with other brands Disney has its grubby little paws on.

I love this article. Frozen is clearly the beginning of a new era of Disney movies (though it could be argued that Tangled laid the foundation for Frozen’s success.) I believe Frozen was immensely popular due to the challenges it presented to the conventional Disney model. It focuses on familial love, which takes precedent over romantic love. However, Moana is probably my favorite of the last decade. It uses Frozen as a foundation to allow a strong, female character to take the role of the hero, and to find her own purpose beyond others’ expectations. Then, Frozen II takes what Moana has done and builds upon it. Frozen II in some ways “has its cake and eats it too” as Elsa remains the independent female lead, and while Anna also fits into this role, she is still able to have a “Disney princess” ending. All in all, I’m very interested in the modern era of Disney animation.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Prove you are human, type c a t s in singular form below:

ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: Is ‘Frozen’ really a feminist victory?

Essay details and download:.

• Subject area(s): Sociology essays
• Reading time: 5 minutes
• Price: Free download
• Published: 21 December 2019*
• Last Modified: 22 July 2024
• File format: Text
• Words: 1,426 (approx)
• Number of pages: 6 (approx)
• Tags: Feminism essays

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 1,426 words.

The Disney movie “Frozen” instantly took over the hearts of little girls across the nation. The very popular Disney movie depicts two sisters, Anna and Elsa, who must work together to save their kingdom of Arendelle. They face many challenges through journey but thanks to the help of several male supporting characters, the two sisters are able to protect the people of the kingdom. The movie is adored by young girls as it depicts two beautiful, strong female characters in what one may call leadership roles yet, many moviegoers seem to ignore the fact without the help of male characters, the kingdom would not be saved. The aspect of hegemonic masculinity continues to be on full display despite Disney’s attempt to present an illusion of female independence. While the movie “Frozen” is seen as a feminist victory, the lack of traditional patriarchy, depiction of the character Elsa as disabled and the glorification of the stereotypical housewife goal demonstrates the movie’s inability to defeat women as a male’s minority make them incapable of obtaining a position of power. Disney created the illusion of a female obtaining power during the coronation of a sole female leader, causing many feminists to rejoice in response to the illusion. The citizens of Arendelle were not surprised that a woman will look over the country. During the ceremony, Elsa conforms to the stereotype that a woman cannot be trusted due to the takeover of her “hormones.” Allan Johnson’s researches that patriarchy needs a, “‘real man’ who knows how to ‘take charge of things,’” (Johnson, 95). Johnson’s research represents the stereotypical view that a man should be in charge of a country because, “females can’t be trusted, especially when they’re menstruating,” (Johnson, 95). Elsa becomes frustrated with her sister, Anna, who was asking for approval of her engagement to Hans, an evil conman whom she met in the last 24 hours. In her frustration, Elsa’s “hormones” cause her to freeze the kingdom. To further support the notion that women are too “hormonal” to be in a position of power, Elsa flees the kingdom instead of dealing with the severe problem she caused. Elsa’s escape from her kingdom and her problems is rooted in Disney’s theory that a man is needed to “save” a woman in her distress which leads to Hans, a man, taking his rightful position in the traditional patriarchy required to lead a kingdom. Additionally, Elsa’s actions teaches girls that if they create a problem, they can just avoid fixing it. She teaches girls to be irresponsible by relying on others to fix problems. When Elsa runs away, Anna follows her and places the rule of the kingdom to her new fiancee, Hans who now must fix Elsa’s problems. The responsibility thrust at Hans represents traditional patriarchy as he is now the leader of the kingdom. The plot presented by the movie demonstrates that a man ends up fixing a woman’s problems. While Elsa was the woman in power, her gender caused her to become “hormonal” thus losing control. “Frozen” may celebrate the lack of traditional patriarchy by appointing a woman as leader however, the decision backfires on Disney due to their emphasis of the ideology that a man is always left with the responsibility of fixing the problems caused by a woman when Hans needs to save the kingdom after Elsa deserts her kingdom. Furthermore, Disney presents a male with superpowers as dominantly strong while a woman is disabled when possessing any form of power. This notion is presented by Princess Elsa’s inability to control her ice superpowers. When she was a child, she accidently froze her younger sister, Princess Anna, leading to Elsa isolating herself from society due to fear of harming her sister again. Elsa’s power struggle alludes to a mental illness as the interrupt of her powers threatens her ability to lead a regular life Her isolation is characterized in Eli Clare’s research as, “a sign of moral weakness,” (Clare, 360). Elsa distances herself from society as her powers make her feel unable to contribute to it positively. Disney presents female “superheroes” to feel ashamed of their powers whereas a male with superpowers is viewed as a high being as his powers enriched his life. In the infamous song, “Let It Go,” Elsa explicitly preaches, “conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know,” (0:50-0:56). Through the character of Elsa, Disney teaches that disabilities should be hidden from public eye because it is a shame to appear different. By presenting Elsa’s powers as a disability, Disney further displays the domination of male characters in media. The company implies that women do not possess the ability to control powers which is why powers become a burden to a female but strengthen the already superior male. Additionally, despite Anna and Elsa being superior on the social ladder due to their royal status, both girls glorify the role of the stereotypical housewife in their venture for freedom. Anna’s goal in life is to discover true love. She becomes engaged with the first man, Hans, she encounters. Although Anna is a princess, she still falls victim to the stereotypes presented by media. These stereotypes are supported by Jean Kilbourne’s research in which she finds that media teaches girls to, “value romantic relationships with boys above all else,” (Kilbourne, 179). Disney emphasizes the research by Kilbourne in presenting Anna as a “boy crazy” girl ready to give up her whole life to please a man she does not even know. The character of Anna symbolizes that the meaning of life is to find a man and, hypothetically, become his servant. Even after seeing how ridiculous her engagement to a complete stranger was, Disney capitalizes on Anna’s vulnerability by having her fall in love with Kristoff, a man she met only a few hours after Hans. Anna’s “lovestruck” persona does not educate girls to strive to be a free individual rather Disney teaches girls that their “freedom” shall be confined within their male partners desires. On the other hand, while Anna finds her freedom in the form of a man, Elsa discovers hers through a wardrobe change. Elsa’s form of freedom communicates that girls must “dress to impress.” Jean Kilbourne reflects that, “girls are told by advertisers that what is most important about them is their perfume, their clothing, their bodies, their beauty,” (Kilbourne, 180). To express her freedom, Elsa adorns a very tight blue dress with a slit deep enough that in reality, she would flash anyone standing nearby. She also puts on spike heels to run through snow and ice in. Her shoe selection would make it uncomfortable to flee from her problems and most likely give her frostbite. Elsa sends the message that in order to appeal to the male gender, she must aim to be beautiful by dressing provocatively even if she is uncomfortable. Additionally, Elsa expresses her freedom through her brand new ice palace which completes another female desire of decorating their own home. Elsa embellishes her new home with new ice furniture. She then proudly strides through the home in her sensible spike heels. Elsa’s pride in her home decorating style relates back to the glorification of the housewife role in order to please the hegemonic male. Elsa symbolizes freedom as a manner to aesthetically please whether it is a sexy outfit or interior design. Despite both princesses being blessed with their royal positions, Disney is still unable to capitalize on an opportunity to create a vision of a dominant female rather they belittle the female characters to make them subordinate to the males. The movie “Frozen” continues to be a massively followed and a sequel to the successful film is already in the works. While parents encourage their daughters to use the princesses as examples of how even they can be leaders in society, they overlook the aspects in how they achieved such positions. Despite Elsa being the queen of the kingdom, the movie showcases that she lacks control over her kingdom and a man is needed to fix her problems. Additionally, despite Elsa possessing superpowers, her character is weakened by them as she is unable to use them to her benefit. Moreover, both Anna and Elsa define freedom as falling in love or dressing in a sexually appealing manner in order to appeal to a male audience.. While the movie appears to be a feminist victory, the plot continues to present its female characters as unequal to males.

Discover more:

• Feminism essays

Recommended for you

• The issue of class within the feminist movement
• Birth of feminism in Western Civilisation
• Western feminism and its problematic application in the Third World

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, Is ‘Frozen’ really a feminist victory? . Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/sociology-essays/is-frozen-really-a-feminist-victory/> [Accessed 06-09-24].

These Sociology essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on EssaySauce.com and/or Essay.uk.com at an earlier date than indicated.

Essay Categories:

• Accounting essays
• Architecture essays
• Business essays
• Computer science essays
• Criminology essays
• Economics essays
• Education essays
• Engineering essays
• English language essays
• Environmental studies essays
• Essay examples
• Finance essays
• Geography essays
• Health essays
• History essays
• Hospitality and tourism essays
• Human rights essays
• Information technology essays
• International relations
• Leadership essays
• Linguistics essays
• Literature essays
• Management essays
• Marketing essays
• Mathematics essays
• Media essays
• Medicine essays
• Military essays
• Miscellaneous essays
• Music Essays
• Nursing essays
• Philosophy essays
• Photography and arts essays
• Politics essays
• Project management essays
• Psychology essays
• Religious studies and theology essays
• Sample essays
• Science essays
• Social work essays
• Sociology essays
• Sports essays
• Types of essay
• Uncategorised
• Zoology essays

“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Female leading characters of frozen, examples from the animation, works cited.

2013 3D animated fantasy movie Frozen is one of the latest productions by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is often regarded as Disney’s most successful and influential piece amongst animated films that were produced over the last decade. With an alternative approach to writing leading characters, Disney has made a great effort to improve and rethink its female protagonists. While most of the older leads depicted gentle and dreamy girls who were in need of help from strong male characters, the new generation of Disney’s “Princesses” makes their path. Frozen’s main characters – Anna and Elsa represent this new generation denying any help from male protagonists except few cases, therefore affecting the production.

From 20th to the 21st century, Disney’s contribution to the animation was of utmost influence. As stated by Morrison, while following a seemingly similar plot, the princess series that Disney created remained hugely influential across the decades from 1937 ( Snow White ) to 2013 ( Frozen ) (2). In fact, when the titles of famous fairy tales emerge in the dialog, most of the participants would recall the shots from Disney’s animations. Therefore, it becomes apparent that the statement about Disney’s influence is not an exaggeration.

Furthermore, Disney’s influence has grown to the point where it has become a necessity. The meaning of that is that Disney’s products must now cope with the trends of modern society and, therefore, adjust its productions. Disney took notice of the growing feminist movement and adapted their characters to be more appealing to this part of the society. Disney’s main characters are overwhelmingly feminine, and they have always reflected certain traits that women of different times and cultures had. In order to stay relevant, character’s design always had to undergo certain adjustments. These adjustments led female characters created in this decade to become stronger and more independent (Streiff and Dundes 49). This point is further supported by Garabedian when she observes the gender roles that Disney characters had earlier and the roles that they have now; it is Frozen that breaks all stereotypes regarding gender roles including not one but two strong female leading characters in its plot (24).

To summarize, while growing feministic trends may not be the sole reason for Disney’s characters’ changes, it is obviously one of the main grounds of the alterations. Female leading characters have developed to be more powerful, strong, and independent from male characters to the point when they consciously deny their help or even their presence.

Over the course of the animated film, the abovementioned influence takes form. Both main characters (Anna and Elsa) have a background of growing together and relying solely on each other (“Frozen | 2013 | Opening Scene,” 2016). They had to develop strong character and willpower which is especially evident for Elsa as she demonstrates that she can stand on her own even against great dangers (“Elsa Battles the Guards- Frozen 1080p HD,” 2014). However, what is most important is Anna and Elsa’s dedication towards each other. With Anna serving as an example, one can see that the modern leading characters of Disney are not only capable physically but are strong in their hearts as well. For example, when Elsa shows selflessness and dedication to her sister (“Frozen-Anna save Elsa,” 2014). Both sisters are in contrast, and they represent both power and compassion towards each other and their loved ones.

Creation of Disney’s Frozen was greatly inspired by the modern topics of interest. These topics are then conveyed through the characters of the animated movie. Furthermore, characters are presented from the new perspective that corresponds with current trends. Had it not been for Anna and Elsa’s dominant personalities, the plot of the movie would have been entirely different focusing on the older models of lead female protagonists.

“Elsa Battles the Guards- Frozen 1080p HD.” YouTube , uploaded by DrDman2000, Web.

“Frozen | 2013 | Opening Scene.” YouTube , uploaded by Tons of Cartoons, 2016, Web.

“Frozen-Anna save Elsa.” YouTube , uploaded by Wolfine Clarisa, 2014, Web.

Garabedian, Juliana. “Animating Gender Roles: How Disney is Redefining the Modern Princess.” James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal , vol. 2, no. 1, 2015, pp. 21-25.

Morrison, Danielle. “Brave: A Feminist Perspective on the Disney Princess Movie.” Semantic Scholar , 2014, Web.

Streiff, Madeline, and Lauren Dundes. “Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess.” Social Sciences , vol. 6, no. 2, 2017, Web.

• Gladiator (2000): An Epic Historical Drama
• “Mulholland Drive” by David Lynch: Symbolism of Color
• Walt Disney Company: Management Review
• Early Disney and a Feature Length Animation
• Educating Through Animation: Disney's Pedagogy
• “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in Burton’s View
• Film "Nightcrawler" Directed by Dan Gilroy
• “Modern Times” Historical Comedian Movie
• "No Country for Old Men" Film by Coen Brothers
• Comparison of Origami and 3D Movies
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, January 27). “Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios. https://ivypanda.com/essays/frozen-by-walt-disney-animation-studios/

"“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios." IvyPanda , 27 Jan. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/frozen-by-walt-disney-animation-studios/.

IvyPanda . (2022) '“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios'. 27 January.

IvyPanda . 2022. "“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/frozen-by-walt-disney-animation-studios/.

1. IvyPanda . "“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/frozen-by-walt-disney-animation-studios/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“Frozen” by Walt Disney Animation Studios." January 27, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/frozen-by-walt-disney-animation-studios/.

Get the Reddit app

/r/Frozen is the subreddit for Disney's Frozen, its sequel Frozen 2, the short film Frozen Fever, the holiday featurette Olaf's Frozen Adventure and all other associated sequels and spinoffs.

Frozen and its false sense of feminism

https://medium.com/disney-and-animation/7c0bbc7252ef

Ok a word of caution there there are parts where the writer bash pretty harshly on the movie. This link might get quite a hate too if read wrongly.

I'm also not sure which fan actually called the sisters "perfect role models to follow(since its a story about their flaws and difference)" and trigger her anger But there are some legit points. Pretty interesting read and worth something of discussion.

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue