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Just when it seems that everything interesting and relevant that can be said about Disney's Frozen has been said (most recently in Sunday’s NY Times), I have a few social psychological cents to throw in the mix.
[Disclaimer: I do not have children. I have seen my friends’ adorable videos of their kids singing their hearts out to every lyric. I myself have hummed "Let it go" for days on end. It IS catchy and vaguely satisfying. However…]
While some of the messages in the movie have been appropriately touted as refreshing twists on old standards: a diabolical handsome prince, the triumph of sisterly love above romantic love, a lesson in using icy, architectural power in non-lethal doses, ultimately the appearance prescriptions have remained relatively frozen (sorry, last one) in time. Take a 1950s Cinderella, add a dash of Angelina and/or a Bratz doll for sexualized allure, and bibbity-bobbity-boo: Elsa’s transformation is complete.
Instead of seizing her powers by the broom-handle and ferociously “Defying Gravity,” as Idina Menzel did in Wicked’s similar-themed showstopper, Elsa’s empowering moment appears skin deep at best. Indeed, it takes her until the bitter (cold) end to appreciate that love conquers all. Cursed with the seemingly uncontrollable ability to turn everything she touches into ice and chased from her own inherited Queendom on her coronation day, Elsa defiantly renounces social life (“the cold never bothered me anyway”). Her new physical appearance thus seems to be some kind of essential or natural outgrowth of her inner state, out of the realm (literally) of social norms. The fact that it happens to coincide perfectly with an incredibly narrow definition of traditional female beauty is just…coincidence.
Okay, the skeptic will say, so she looks like a Cinderella/Angelina/Bratz Doll, so what? Let it go (sorry), she is still a role model in other ways, as is her equally adorable, tenacious, and literally self-sacrificing sister. Perhaps young children can embrace the power and leave the traditional, sexy packaging behind, as Dana Stevens, who noticed “The Sexy Frozen Moment No One is Talking About” back in February, hopes for her own daughter:
"I love thrilling to Elsa’s race up the ice bridge with my daughter, in large part because I love to imagine her feeling that way one day herself: in control of her own ever-growing powers, able to create vast structures she never imagined, at “one with the wind and sky.” But every time that last verse rolls around—the shimmy into the ice dress, the sassy flip of the braid over the shoulder—I hope that when she grows up she remembers the magic, not the makeover" (emphasis mine).
I hope so too, but there are a few reasons to believe that, at best, both the magic and the makeover will be remembered.
Research suggests that it may be hard for children, and indeed, adults, to disentangle physical appearance from other positive qualities, particularly if they are female. Take, for example, Cynthia Hoffner’s (1996) survey of young children about their favorite TV characters. Whereas young boys’ desire to be like and be friends with a favorite male character was predicted by the character’s perceived intelligence, strength, and attractiveness, young girls’ desire to be like and be friends with a favorite female character was predicted by attractiveness alone. The picture is only somewhat more comforting in the adult sample Hoffner and her colleague surveyed a decade later; young women’s desire to be like a favorite female character is predicted by how smart, successful, admired, AND attractive they perceive her to be. Young men’s “wishful identification” is, in turn, predicted by how smart, successful, and violent they perceive favorite male characters to be. (Yeah.)
Further, Anne Becker’s groundbreaking work on Fijian women and body image tells a complex tale of how appearance ideals may become conflated with other kinds of ideals. When someone is a role model, achieving their look may be part and parcel of achieving their role. Rates of disordered eating and body concerns substantially increased just three years after the introduction of Western television programs such as Melrose Place (a soap opera from the 1990s featuring folk like Heather Locklear as ruthless but independent and successful business women). The study could not isolate television as the only variable of relevance but anecdotal data suggested that young Fijian women viewed the American characters as role models for how to become more economically and socially independent, and their appearance became an inextricable part of that image (e.g., “they are the same ages but they are working, they are slim and they are very tall and they are cute, nice; so from there we want ourselves or we want our bodies to become like that” emphasis mine).
Finally, work by myself and others has shown that young women who aspire to be like and look like a favorite TV character also experience heightened eating disorder symptoms and body image concerns (e.g., “I think about the way I look many times during the day”). Once a young girl's mind is focused on her appearance (and how others perceive her), fewer resources that might be allocated for joy, friendship, homework, sports, and “flow”—experiences of being optimally absorbed in an activity—are available. I was disheartened but not surprised to read that a mother featured in the Times article laments the dark side of the Frozen obsession: her daughter has the “‘constant neurotic habit’ of sweeping her hair to one side in an effort to look like Elsa.”
The problem is not that girls and women might want to feel alluring and attractive (this is human!), but that girls’ and women’s agency is so constantly confounded with beauty ideals that an idealized appearance becomes a minimum requirement for feeling whole and valued. Further, the images offered up by the mass media depict a particularly narrow definition of both sexual allure and empowerment (sorry Miley, Beyonce). Finally, this kind of “power” is not without its own complications and contradictions (i.e., focusing on a woman’s appearance can eclipse focusing on and hence appreciating her competence; Rudman and Borgida, 1995; Heflick et al., 2011).
So what to do? How about this: I challenge all feminist-minded animators and story-tellers to help shake the traditional mold up. Help dismantle the (white, slim, blonde, doe-eyed) beauty myth of Disney heroines assembled over half a century ago. Kickstart it if you have to. We can, and should, do better for our children and ourselves.
Relevant Articles:
Becker, A. E., Burwell, R. A., Herzog, D. B., Hamburg, P., & Gilman, S. E. (2002). Eating behavioursand attitudes following prolonged exposure to television among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 509-514.
Greenwood, D. N. (2009). Idealized TV friends and young women’s body concerns. Body Image, 6, 97-104.
Heflick, N. A., Goldenberg, J. L., Cooper, D. P., & Puvia, E. (2011). From women to objects: Appearance focus, target gender, and perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 572–581.
Hoffner, C. (1996). Children's wishful identification and parasocial interaction with favorite television characters. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 40, 389-402.
Hoffner, C., & Buchanan, M. (2005). Young adults' wishful identification with television characters: The role of perceived similarity and character attributes. Media Psychology,7, 325-351
Rudman, L. A., & Borgida, E. (1995). The afterglow of construct accessibility: The behavioral consequences of priming men to view women as sexual objects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 493–517.
