IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v7y2018i6p86-d149974.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Storm Power, an Icy Tower and Elsa’s Bower: The Winds of Change in Disney’s Frozen

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren Dundes

    (Department of Sociology, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD 21157, USA)

  • Madeline Streiff

    (Hastings College of the Law, University of California, 200 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA)

  • Zachary Streiff

    (Member of the State Bar of California, Monterey, CA 93940, USA)

Abstract

In Disney’s box office sensation Frozen (2013), Elsa conjures powers rivaling those of Zeus, which is an echo of the shifting gender dynamics at the time of the film’s release. By independently creating offspring Olaf and Marshmallow through whirlwinds, Elsa’s parthenogenesis (virgin birth) evokes wind-driven pollination, allowing her to circumvent any male role in creation. However, Elsa’s autonomy clashes with the traditional gender hierarchy, which is reinforced by a cultural context replete with latent symbolic meanings. Examples include both carrots and carats as phallic symbols, eggs as representations of the procreative potential that is appropriated by men and devalued in women, gender bias in perceptions of magic and enchantment, and the value of the nubile nymph over the tempestuous termagant. The normalcy of male dominance likely drives the resolution of the plot, in which Elsa learns to wield power in a non-threatening manner. In addition to having implications for gender roles, Frozen also portrays a mélange of gender symbolism through Elsa’s snowmen creations, which function as an expression of the storm of controversy surrounding the subversion of binary conceptions of gender. In the end, Frozen serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers inherent in an unattached female as the ultimate potentate. This content analysis suggests that the film reflects fears surrounding the maelstrom of societal changes including expanding fertility options and the re-conceptualization of gender identity--pressing issues likely to sustain Frozen ’s relevance.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren Dundes & Madeline Streiff & Zachary Streiff, 2018. "Storm Power, an Icy Tower and Elsa’s Bower: The Winds of Change in Disney’s Frozen," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-29, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:6:p:86-:d:149974
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/6/86/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/6/86/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Judah Cohen & Karl Pfeiffer & Jennifer A. Francis, 2018. "Warm Arctic episodes linked with increased frequency of extreme winter weather in the United States," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Jessica D. Zurcher & Sarah M. Webb & Tom Robinson, 2018. "The Portrayal of Families across Generations in Disney Animated Films," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren Dundes & Madeline Streiff Buitelaar & Zachary Streiff, 2019. "Bad Witches: Gender and the Downfall of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Disney’s Maleficent," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Benjamin Hine & Dawn England & Katie Lopreore & Elizabeth Skora Horgan & Lisa Hartwell, 2018. "The Rise of the Androgynous Princess: Examining Representations of Gender in Prince and Princess Characters of Disney Movies Released 2009–2016," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-23, November.
    3. Lauren Dundes, 2020. "Elsa as Horse Whisperer in Disney’s Frozen 2 : Opportunity “Nokk”s to Quash Gender Stereotypes," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-11, May.
    4. Cassandra Primo, 2018. "Balancing Gender and Power: How Disney’s Hercules Fails to Go the Distance," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Benjamin Hine & Katarina Ivanovic & Dawn England, 2018. "From the Sleeping Princess to the World-Saving Daughter of the Chief: Examining Young Children’s Perceptions of ‘Old’ versus ‘New’ Disney Princess Characters," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-15, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lisa Reyes Mason & Bonita B. Sharma & Jayme E. Walters & Christine C. Ekenga, 2020. "Mental Health and Weather Extremes in a Southeastern U.S. City: Exploring Group Differences by Race," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Jill F. Lundell & Brennan Bean & Jürgen Symanzik, 2023. "Let’s talk about the weather: a cluster-based approach to weather forecast accuracy," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 1135-1155, September.
    3. Xiaofei Yang & Haopeng Yu & Susan Duncan & Yueying Zhang & Jitender Cheema & Haifeng Liu & J. Benjamin Miller & Jie Zhang & Chun Kit Kwok & Huakun Zhang & Yiliang Ding, 2022. "RNA G-quadruplex structure contributes to cold adaptation in plants," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Hua Liao & Chen Zhang & Paul J. Burke & Ru Li & Yi‐Ming Wei, 2023. "Extreme temperatures, mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from the county level in China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 953-969, April.
    5. Yu Yueyue & Yang Wenwen & Zhang Lingli & Guan Zhaoyong & Yang Qinlan & Hu Muxin & Qiu Wentian & Wang Jingyi, 2023. "Region-dependent meteorological conditions for the winter cold hazards with and without precipitation in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 115(3), pages 2673-2698, February.
    6. Xiaoting Sun & Qinghua Ding & Shih-Yu Simon Wang & Dániel Topál & Qingquan Li & Christopher Castro & Haiyan Teng & Rui Luo & Yihui Ding, 2022. "Enhanced jet stream waviness induced by suppressed tropical Pacific convection during boreal summer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Botao Zhou & Ziyi Song & Zhicong Yin & Xinping Xu & Bo Sun & Pangchi Hsu & Haishan Chen, 2024. "Recent autumn sea ice loss in the eastern Arctic enhanced by summer Asian-Pacific Oscillation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Colin D. Butler, 2018. "Climate Change, Health and Existential Risks to Civilization: A Comprehensive Review (1989–2013)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, October.
    9. Zhen Li & Erik Spangenberg & Judith M. Schicks & Thomas Kempka, 2022. "Numerical Simulation of Coastal Sub-Permafrost Gas Hydrate Formation in the Mackenzie Delta, Canadian Arctic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-25, July.
    10. Yongyang Cai & William Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas & Kenneth Judd, 2018. "Climate Policy under Cooperation and Competition between Regions with Spatial Heat Transport," DEOS Working Papers 1806, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    11. Lin, Jianing & Bao, Minglei & Liang, Ziyang & Sang, Maosheng & Ding, Yi, 2022. "Spatio-temporal evaluation of electricity price risk considering multiple uncertainties under extreme cold weather," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    12. Indrė Gečaitė & Egidijus Rimkus, 2023. "Wintertime cold and warm spells in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea region," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 115(3), pages 2435-2456, February.
    13. Ramandeep Kaur Bagri & Yihsu Chen, 2022. "Wildfire Modeling: Designing a Market to Restore Assets," Papers 2205.13773, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    14. Erik T. Smith & Scott C. Sheridan, 2021. "Projections of cold air outbreaks in CMIP6 earth system models," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-16, November.
    15. Cook, Nikolai & Heyes, Anthony, 2020. "Brain freeze: outdoor cold and indoor cognitive performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    16. Yongyang Cai & William Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas & Kenneth Judd, 2019. "Climate Policy under Spatial Heat Transport: Cooperative and Noncooperative Regional Outcomes," Papers 1909.04009, arXiv.org.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:6:p:86-:d:149974. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.