The “Frozen” franchise is the most twisted of all Disney feature animation productions, but The New York Times brings another twist: Boys love “Frozen” and want to be like Elsa—and this is a good thing.
Times reporter Abigail Covington is a cultural reporter who also writes for Esquire and other publications. The woman made the case that “Frozen” and dressing up like Queen Elsa are cool for boys, too, in her article: “The Broad Appeal of the Elsa Dress: Wearing a costume from ‘Frozen’ in daily life has become a pastime for many children who identify with the character, regardless of gender.”
I am hoping “Broad Appeal” is a pun.
Covington wrote:
Dressing up as Elsa, the blond queen with magical powers from Disney’s animated film “Frozen,” wasn’t necessarily Jeff Hemmig’s idea of a good time.
“It was well outside of my comfort zone,” Mr. Hemmig, 43, said.
But he knew it would make his son, Jace, happy. So Mr. Hemmig, who lives in Killingly, Conn., squeezed his shoulders into a dress his mom made for him, which matched an Elsa costume she had made for her grandson. Mr. Hemmig then performed a rendition of “Let It Go,” choreography and all, as Jace watched.
“He loved it,” Mr. Hemmig said. “He was filled with joy.”
Mr. Hemmig wasn’t thrilled about wearing the dress: He said it was tight in the armpits and it made him feel vulnerable. But he loved how it delighted his son, then 3. “Seeing Dad do it, too, felt like a big moment,” Mr. Hemmig said.
In addition to the Broadway show and short films, the two films “Frozen,” 2013, and “Frozen II,” 2019, garnered $3 billion in box office and other sales.
The films tell the story of a witch, Elsa, and her younger sister, Anna, whose royal parents were lost at sea.
In the first film, a dystopian homage to sibling rivalry, winter, and despotism, the older sister Elsa is crowned Queen of Arendelle and flies into a rage at her coronation ball when Prince Hans of the Southern Islands proposes to Anna.
Queen Elsa gets so upset that she exiles herself to an ice palace in the mountains, which triggers a permafrost that lasts years over the kingdom.
Somehow, all this gets resolved. There is Kristoff, the iceman; Sven, his reindeer; and “Marshmallow,” an evil snowman who is Elsa’s bodyguard.
When all the loose ends are tied up, Elsa sings that barnburner hit, “Let It Go.” This is itself a piece of madness since Elsa sings that she is going to stop trying to be perfect when, by all accounts, she is a monster. Then, of course, she dismisses chilly weather as no big deal after condemning her subjects to years and years of endless winter.
Let it go, let it go
And I’ll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone
Here I stand in the light of day
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
This is not the only time The Times has touted “Frozen” cosplay as a positive experience for young boys. The paper of record published: “My Son Loves Elsa From ‘Frozen.’ I Had to Learn to Love Her, Too, in 2018.
The author, Christopher Swetala, who describes himself as a 41-year-old public radio fact-checker, shared episodes like this gem:
And I certainly didn’t know a morning would soon come when my son, wrapped up in a bath towel — his “princess dress,” he told me — would ask if I wanted lipstick to be beautiful like Elsa … and like him.
It turns out my wife (an editor at The New York Times) has no problem coating his lips with a neutral pink, or letting him stumble around her in heels, or buying him a proper Elsa dress, with lace flecked in snowy glitter.
Swetala and his Times editor wife bought their son the Elsa dress, but it did not arrive in time for their family night out to see “Frozen,” the Broadway show.
Quel dommage.
Forget what all this gender-bending is doing to this country; consider how we are seen by the rest of the world. When America exported its culture, it was baseball, blue jeans, and Coca-Cola.
Today, it is deviancy, not just pushed by our State Department but also by our corporations, so that when Americans get off the plane, the locals are afraid we are going to put their boys in dresses.
Here at home, The New York Times told us to relax: Dads are into it, too.
