The sexual preference of Frozen’s Elsa—a fictional character who lives in a land that is not real—has never struck me as a pressing issue, but apparently it has for many others.
Many Disney fans have signed a petition to “Make Queen Elsa a Lesbian,” and now, it might actually become a reality. Jennifer Lee, writer and director of Frozen, threw the Huffington Post the barest of bones regarding this potential development.
“I love everything people are saying [and] people are thinking about with our film ― that it’s creating dialogue, that Elsa is this wonderful character that speaks to so many people,” Lee said. “It means the world to us that we’re part of these conversations.”
“Where we’re going with it, we have tons of conversations about it, and we’re really conscientious about these things,” Lee added. “For me ... Elsa’s every day telling me where she needs to go, and she’ll continue to tell us. I always write from character-out, and where Elsa is and what Elsa’s doing in her life, she’s telling me every day. We’ll see where we go.”
This conversation is less a full-throated confirmation that Elsa will have a girlfriend and more a cautious acknowledgement of the fans. It’s not that I don’t think that Elsa should have a girlfriend—all I want is her happiness, even if she is not real—it just doesn’t seem like Disney would go all in on a lesbian couple holing up in an ice castle and entertaining visits with the family while singing breathless duets.
Consider the “exclusively gay moment” hyped by Bill Condon in his live-action retelling of the love story between a woman and a big dog, Beauty and the Beast: LeFou, Gaston’s little helper, dances with a man who was previously attacked by an enchanted wardrobe, shoved into a dress, and liked it. It’s...not that gay. Elsa living in domestic bliss with a princess from another hygge-adjacent castle might be!
DISCUSSION
After watching the first Frozen my son told me he wished I’d die like Elsa’s parents, so he and his brother could have an ice rink in the front yard.
Definitely would prefer it if he wished I were a lesbian the next time around.