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In fact, if we look at Frozen as a classical Broadway musical (the form it resembles even more than a Disney princess movie - indeed it would eventually be adapted basically as is for the stage), then a secondary romance is all but required. He turns out to be the first movie’s villain, a twist that is cool the first time you see it, and then makes less and less sense the more you think about it.Īnna’s big arc in that first movie involves learning about the nature of true love and that it’s the result of time and effort, that a relationship between two sisters who’ve known each other for years and years is more likely to qualify as true love than anything having to do with some guy you’ve just met.Ī lot of Disney movies might have given Elsa a guy to fall for, too. Which also means she isn’t (yet) canonically straight.Įlsa’s characterization stands in direct opposition to that of her younger sister, Anna, who is so hungry for love and affection (after essentially growing up without either in a big, empty palace) that she throws herself at the first guy who glances at her, the small-time prince Hans. Canonically, she’s nothing when it comes to her sexuality. And lest you wonder if that description means Elsa is asexual or aromantic, neither of those qualities is canon either. Canonically, she is not romantically interested in anybody. If you’re (ahem) “cool” with spoilers, let’s proceed.Ĭanonically, Elsa of Arendelle, who sits upon the tiny northern kingdom’s throne at the end of Frozen, is not queer. Disneyīefore we go much further, I should warn you that there are a bunch of spoilers below for both Frozen (the 2013 Disney film that dominated the box office, won two Oscars, and unleashed “Let It Go” upon an unsuspecting nation of parents) and Frozen 2 - so if spoilers concern you, bookmark this story for after you’ve seen the movies and retreat to your ice palace until then. Good enough! Elsa meets a lil salamander who seems rife with merchandising potential, just like all of her friends are. Mostly she’s just not explicitly straight. Based on Frozen, a bunch of people decided Elsa was a queer character. The works themselves chicken out of doing anything meaningful, in favor of winking at you and nudging you in the ribs, daring you to read queerness into properties where none exists.Īnyway, Elsa from Frozen is queer, and I can prove it. They reflect onscreen representation where the fine print contains “some assembly required,” because it merely nods to queer subtext and asks you to go digging around for it. That’s how we end up with headlines like the “first openly gay character” ones, or the ones that confirmed Lefou was gay in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast - technically, what these headlines say is true, and the milestones they celebrate seem like a big deal. The company dominates the entertainment press because the 2010s have proved especially fruitful for two specific types of stories in the entertainment press: stories that tease major developments in new projects based on major pieces of intellectual property (Marvel, Star Wars, Disney animation, etc.), and stories that suggest important progress has been made in terms of representation both in front of and behind the camera. This is often the way these things go when it comes to Disney and its many subsidiaries.
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“First openly gay character” doesn’t imply “random peripheral character.” It implies someone who at least has a name. If you’re going to use a random peripheral character to illustrate how the world is struggling to get past this traumatic event, why not a gay guy? But the triumphalism around the “first openly gay character” headlines irked me and plenty of others. The entirety of Grieving Man’s character is: He lost someone in the Thanos snap that eliminated half of all life in the universe, and after working his way through the ensuing grief, he’s started dating again. He just didn’t have a name or a personality, and he appeared in one scene.ĭubbed the “Grieving Man” and played by director Joe Russo, the character turns up early in the film, at a support group attended by Captain America. But reading the details revealed that, sure, Endgame featured the MCU’s first openly gay character. I didn’t remember a scene where Captain Marvel kissed a girl (and liked it) or a scene where Groot declared that he only liked boy trees or a scene where Captain America turned his chair around to remind kids that gender isn’t binary. When these headlines first appeared, I was confused. In the spring of 2019, a flurry of headlines sprang up around the blockbuster hit Avengers: Endgame, insisting that the film featured the first openly gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.