Disney has recently been the target of petitions and movements online and to make Princess Elsa in the sequel to Disney’s "Frozen," have a girlfriend. A romantic relationship between two women has never been done in a princess movie, and LGBT lobbyists are now demanding "Purity of a Queer Relationship" to be shown to a young audience. Members of the LBGT community do have an argument for this, not just princess movies, but Disney has never shown any gay relationships in kind of children’s movies and it can be a very frustrating situation for members who identify or support LGBT, and other equal rights groups. This can all be the attributed to the reason why it is no surprise a hashtag “#GiveElsaAGirlfriend” went viral recently. As supportive as I am for equal rights, free love, and supporting women, I am more supportive of keeping Elsa single being the best thing to do for young girls and a young audience as a whole. The argument by members of the community fighting for this story line are saying things that all are about the same, they never saw a princess fall in love with another princess, while my question is, why did I never see a princess fall in love with herself?
The first time I watched "Frozen," I loved it because it was well made, and the songs were catchy. Disney is so much different than I remember it being when I was younger watching Princesses in reverse when rewinding my VHS tapes. Now it has beautiful graphics, clear singing and instrumentals sounding a million times better than before, the talking animals are as realistic as they can be, and the colors are great looking to the eyes. I realized a difference in "Frozen" however, something I never did in any other princess movies, the Princess ends up single at the end. Elsa changed the Disney princess game with this plot line, showing young girls that they don’t need to be in love with anyone but themselves for a happy ending. Elsa at the end of "Frozen" was different than any princess story before her in that regard. The story is the same in every movie, the princess goes through a hard fate, and at the end, finds love and lives happily ever after. So why change the best and most empowering message of this movie? Why change a movie that shows young girls independence to themselves, and makes it the same as every story before it saying you need someone to find your true happiness? Although I have no children of my own, and do not plan on it for a while, I believe we can all agree with teaching young girls that they do not need to fall in love with anyone but themselves first, is a trend that needed to be changed.
Why should we continue to instill the idea of dependency on all young girls? Can we not all just agree that girls should all be taught that you can be a powerful, beautiful princess without having to be with someone? Elsa is the first and only real princess to do this and we should not change that in the "Frozen" sequel. She should continue to love life with an open door and an open heart. We should instead of teaching young children that they need a man or women to be happy, teach them to find happiness and strength alone.
Sending a message to every community that you can fall in love with yourself is more empowering and including than anything. No, not everyone is heterosexual, not everyone is homosexual, not everyone supports equal rights (even though they should), and not everyone finds someone besides themselves to fall in love with. One thing we all can agree with though is that if 'love is an open door' than the door we all need to be reminded to walk through, is loving ourselves. Disney, what you need to do is continue to instill that, and continue to use Frozen to show that you can overcome obstacles and drawbacks by finding your own strength. Elsa, you do you, and remind everyone that you do not have to be in a relationship to be strong and magical.
It's time say let it go to #GiveElsaAGirlfriend
and start a new self-love trend... #KeepElsaSingle
