For the past two weeks, social media has been taken over by the #GiveElsaAGirlfriend campaign, which as it states in the trend, are fans requesting that in “Frozen 2”, Disney producers give Elsa a love interest—a female interest. The campaign has been a hot topic on every media platform, even getting the boost from Elsa herself, Idina Menzel, who thinks the idea of Elsa having a girlfriend would be great. And it would be, a Disney princess (or queen) falling in love with a fellow princess is something that needs to be done. However, in terms of giving Elsa a girlfriend, in my opinion, it is something that should be saved for another character. Why should Elsa not have a girlfriend? The answer, in this case, is that she doesn’t need one, nor does she need a boyfriend.
Now at first glance, this article would probably be assumed to be one with the opinion that by giving Elsa a girlfriend, our morals would become corrupt and faith in humanity would be lost. That is not the case here, because we need characters that provide representation, such as characters that represent the LGBTQ+ community. It is important for people to see themselves properly represented in the media and know that they can be happy being who they are.
But we also need characters like Elsa, characters who don’t have a romantic partner by their side. One of the iconic things about Elsa is that she does not live happily ever with the prince, but with herself and her family. She shows audiences that they do not need a “prince” by their side to be the amazing person that they are. Elsa does not need a prince for her to realize her power and she does not need a princess either. Characters that remain single are ones that carry a very important message—we don’t need someone else to complete us, we can be amazing by ourselves.
Why does someone need a partner? Why are we so determined and hopeful that someone will find their significant other? Love is wonderful, but love can be found in other places. We see it in Frozen with Elsa and Anna, who rely on each other rather than a love interest to get the job done. In Frozen, we have Anna and Kristoff contrasted with Elsa by herself. We get the romance, but we also get the independence of a character who is standing there with no love interest by her side and being perfectly fine all on her own.
There has also been a campaign for Captain America to be given a boyfriend, and while that is a much better character rewrite than *Spoiler Alert* making him a member of HYDRA, he doesn’t need a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or any type of romantic interest either. Although he has a few romances that do not hold out in the long run, it is complexly okay for the Captain to remain the lone solider he is. Steve Rodgers does not need a partner by his side, one to last through thick and thin. Elsa does not need a partner to hold her hand through the battles she will face. Not only is she the first princess to be crowned queen, but she does so with the lack of a partner, something that is amazing on its own.
There is often this idea that we need someone to complete ourselves, that we need a partner to know who we are and that there is something wrong with being single and not having a romantic interest in our lives. Characters like Elsa and Captain America are ones that we need, ones that show you can find yourself and be on your own and it will all be okay in the end. Whatever is in store for Elsa in the Frozen sequel, let's keep in mind that she does not need a partner to continue in telling her story.
