~Spoiler-free~
This
winter, people fell in love with Frozen,
Disney’s latest installment in their long-running series of princess movies.
This is a list which generally is seen as an exhausted sequence of recycled
themes and plots – a flat, lifeless franchise, which only survives by successively
re-skinning the same tired narrative. One of the main criticisms of these
movies is that characters are often so limited by their gender; many times decaying
into rigid personality models which viewers simply feel they’ve seen before. However,
Frozen showed the whole world that an
old animation studio really can learn new tricks. Disney majorly departed from
their classical mold, updating the movie for a savvy modern audience. It does
this with groundbreaking visual effects, a masterful soundtrack, and characters
that shatter longstanding clichés. Yet, Frozen
also appeals to society’s changing perceptions about gender and sexuality. Though
the big screen, Disney has created a piece of art which represents contemporary
viewpoints concerning the roles of men and women.
One
of the most tired clichés in princess movies is the main female protagonist. In
Disney’s early days, she was an idealistic feminine paragon, like Snow White or
Sleeping Beauty, a petite young woman who falls into trouble and has to be rescued
by her prince charming. As time passed, the feminist movement gained momentum and
Disney altered their model to fit the ideas of the time. Newer Disney
princesses like Bell and Pocahontas are independent, determined, and strong-willed.
That way, they fit changing perceptions about womanly behavior. However, this
is still an idealistic view of the way women ought to act, which is why
audiences quickly tired of this model as well. Frozen is different in that it does not force its female
protagonists, Ana and Elsa, to conform to any one model. These two characters
are simply people, which means they have unique personalities all their own.
For example, Ana is independent, strong-willed, and gregarious, but she is also
romantic to a fault and at times can be incredibly awkward. Likewise, Elsa is a
respectable, intelligent leader, yet she still struggles with her inner emotions.
In a sense, Disney snatched-up its own mold, and then turned it on its head. And
the results are fantastic. Both of the main protagonists fundamentally feel
like real people, not despite their flaws, but because of them. Disney has
shrewdly demonstrated how society is conquering long-held beliefs about woman by
opting to treat them like people instead of portraits.
Frozen is
also likely the first Disney movie that would definitely pass the Bechdel Test.
This test was devised by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985 in order to gauge gender
bias in movies. To pass the test, a movie must meet three simple criteria: one–it
has more than one woman in it, two–those women talk, and three–at least one of
their conversations is about something besides a man. Obviously, it’s not a
very difficult test, but it is surprising how many movies fail it. However, Frozen definitely passes. Ana and Elsa
talk throughout movie, and although some of their conversations are about men,
many are not. Mostly, they talk about their relationship with each other. So, instead
of placing emphasis on a woman’s ability to marry and have children, Disney
highlights how women can care about others, including their sisters.
In
addition to responding to changing expectations of women, Frozen also includes characters that do not fit with traditional
manly stereotypes. A great example is Olaf, the snowman who joins Ana on her
adventure. Although Olaf is male, he is never afraid to show his emotions. He
loves to shower affection onto the people he cares about, and is very sensitive
to others’ feelings. Not only that, he also likes to talk about his own
physical appearance, much like one would expect a teenage girl to do while
shopping – admiring his new nose or looking forward to being tan. Most likely,
if Olaf were a human character instead of an anthropomorphized snowman, many
people would think he is gay. And who knows, maybe Olaf is cinema’s first LGBT
snowman. But that isn’t the point. By making Olaf a snowman, Disney ingeniously
legitimized his behavior, making it seem okay or even normal. In this way,
Disney’s new movie is in-line with changing present-day perceptions about sexual
orientation.
Yet,
Frozen does more than break
stereotypes with its characters’ personalities. Using their behavior, it also addresses
changing gender roles. One example is the idea that men should be the
breadwinner of the household and women should be the caretaker. In modern
times, this perception has greatly shifted, and Frozen demonstrates this. When Ana leaves on her adventure, her fiancé
Hans asks if he should go with, because he doesn’t want her to get hurt. But
Ana does not need a man to “protect” her, so she asks Hans to stay home and
take care of the kingdom. Although Disney has made this purposefully subtle, it’s
still noticeable.
And
of course, Frozen is not the first
piece of media to tackle gender roles. However, most seem to do it with a classic
role reversal, wherein the woman takes on traditional manly traits – like going
to work at an office, and the man takes on traditional womanly traits – like staying
home to clean. In some ways, this approach does more harm than good, because the
challenge to traditional gender roles is seen as humorous or ironic, not
serious and acceptable. Therefore, Frozen
does it better by resisting this shallow method. It is true that Ana takes on traditional
manly traits by embarking on an adventure, by Hans does not suddenly morph into
a housewife. Instead, he takes on the role of a leader, managing a government
and organizing its people. In a lot of ways, this represents an ideal modern
household, where both participants have important fulfilling jobs, and they work
together to get by.
There
are other times where Frozen challenges
gender roles and traditional views about ideal men and women; for example: no
one in Arendelle questions the legitimacy of a female head of state. However,
the movie does not get it perfect. It still utilizes character models with
idealized physiques, giving female characters humongous eyes and slim waists,
and giving male characters large builds and huge muscles. However, the thing that makes Frozen refreshing is the fact that the
creators never tried to profit from the movie’s modern social values. It was
advertised and targeted the same way as any other Disney movie, towards kids,
not social reformers. This is great because kids who watch the movie will start
to think of these things as normal. And isn’t that the kind of world modern
children need to grow-up in, one where overturning gender roles is no longer a
struggle, but a given? By the time these children reach adulthood, rigid gender
roles could be a thing of the past.
For
those of us who want to see gender equality, Frozen can offer a great deal of hope. Culture and movies are
intimately connected so that one can hugely influence the other. The fact that Frozen is so popular means that it can
start to change opinions, but the popularity also indicates a societal shift. In
modern times, we have a new definition of gender, one where men, women, and
others can act, think, and love any way they want. Therefore, Frozen is not so much a cause of change;
rather, it is a symptom.
It
is fun to think that one day Frozen will
be viewed by cultural historians studying our time. They’ll talk about how
media represents culture. They’ll say this was the time when people were
beginning to widely accept other sexual orientations, a time when both men and
women could start to hold any occupation they wanted, without having to feel
out of place. Probably, some of those scientists will be men, and some women, and
some gay, and some strait. And they’ll all work as a team, learning from each
other’s strengths and weaknesses, thankful to have grown up in a world where
gender perceptions do not get in the way.
