A lot has been said about Elsa as a character. A rare Disney female character without a love interest. A rare Disney female character who is defined by her relationship with family, particularly the women. An even rarer Disney female queen who isn’t some kind of evil. Many people have taken Elsa to heart as a personal heroine and power media figure. Google “Elsa Frozen thinkpieces” and there will be a bazillion articles about her being a stand in for the LGBTQ experience. I understand and respect that take, although the original didn’t affect me in some profound way upon its release.
The 2019 sequel though? That hit me to the core of my very being.
The last time a film did that to me was the 2016 Pixar movie Finding Dory. Like Finding Dory, I spent the entirety of Frozen 2 with tears streaking my face. Like Finding Dory, it spoke to my experience as an autistic person. And like Finding Dory, I felt the immediate urge to write about the millions of feels I had about what this movie meant to me.
So like Elsa, let us journey “Into the Unknown” together. (And of course, spoilers here on out.)
If the first Frozen film is about giving up the fears of what makes someone different, Frozen 2 is about exploring the things that make someone different and truly understanding and embracing it in the process. Elsa is openly exercising her ice powers and is beloved by her family, friends, and kingdom yet she still feels uneasy, not completely confident in herself both as a ruler and with her powers. A mysterious voice calls out to her, and when she responds her kingdom is unexpectedly hit with natural destruction forcing everyone to evacuate. Convinced she’s awoken natural spirits from childhood tales and needing to face them to save the kingdom, she embarks on a quest to find and appease the source of her kingdom’s trouble with her sister Anna, sister’s boyfriend Kristoff and his pet reindeer Sven, and surprisingly not-annoying snowman Olaf in tow. And in the course of that journey, she learns her own unique powers and family could very well resolve that conflict between nature and man altogether.
Elsa’s journey of self-discovery and fully understanding and accepting her power within mirrors my own journey with my autism. Like Elsa and her powers, I was born autistic. Like Elsa, I grew up knowing but not understanding how not normal I was. Like Elsa, once I finally had a name for not being normal I felt shame for it and the constant need to hide it to prove I was a good person. Ironically the year Frozen came out in theaters, I started to openly embrace the autism label and share it to those beyond my inner circle. Like Elsa and her powers, I’ve been learning more about what autism means to me, to others, and the world to assert my place in it and owning it to empower and help myself and others. And like Elsa, I’m making my differences my life’s work.
It’s not an easy life nor an easy road. Any autistic person can tell you their lives aren’t a cakewalk. Having grown up and still mostly around non-autistic people, I am keenly aware of how different I am and shaming myself to “conceal, don’t feel”. Even now I struggle with radical acceptance of my autism and my own limitations versus the constant need to prove I’m worthy in spite of autism and pushing myself to fit in practically to breaking point. I’m constantly told people admire me both as a person and my work as a social worker and active disability advocate. I’m also constantly told I have unreasonably high expectations of myself and it isn’t weak to ask for help when I need it. I like to think I’m getting better in unapologetically owning who I am but I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get to that radical self-acceptance.
Tennis star Arthur Ashe once said, “success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” It seems hackneyed but it resonates for a reason. I don’t know if I’ll ever be fully unrepentant about my autism but I’m working on seeing its strengths in me and using it for both personal and the greater good. Frozen 2 is about Elsa learning the strengths in her magic and using her magic for personal and the greater good. That magic heals, empowers, and brings peace to everyone in the film. And maybe my autism can heal, empower, and bring peace to people. There is power in not being normal, and if channeled well it can make and set things right. It worked for Elsa, maybe it’ll work for me and more.
If we “let it go” and open ourselves to journeying “into the unknown” in accepting everyone’s differences, we can truly show ourselves and our power to make the world a better place.
Elsa’s journey of self-discovery and fully understanding and accepting her power within mirrors my own journey with my autism. Like Elsa and her powers, I was born autistic. Like Elsa, I grew up knowing but not understanding how not normal I was. Like Elsa, once I finally had a name for not being normal I felt shame for it and the constant need to hide it to prove I was a good person. Ironically the year Frozen came out in theaters, I started to openly embrace the autism label and share it to those beyond my inner circle. Like Elsa and her powers, I’ve been learning more about what autism means to me, to others, and the world to assert my place in it and owning it to empower and help myself and others. And like Elsa, I’m making my differences my life’s work.
It’s not an easy life nor an easy road. Any autistic person can tell you their lives aren’t a cakewalk. Having grown up and still mostly around non-autistic people, I am keenly aware of how different I am and shaming myself to “conceal, don’t feel”. Even now I struggle with radical acceptance of my autism and my own limitations versus the constant need to prove I’m worthy in spite of autism and pushing myself to fit in practically to breaking point. I’m constantly told people admire me both as a person and my work as a social worker and active disability advocate. I’m also constantly told I have unreasonably high expectations of myself and it isn’t weak to ask for help when I need it. I like to think I’m getting better in unapologetically owning who I am but I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get to that radical self-acceptance.
Tennis star Arthur Ashe once said, “success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” It seems hackneyed but it resonates for a reason. I don’t know if I’ll ever be fully unrepentant about my autism but I’m working on seeing its strengths in me and using it for both personal and the greater good. Frozen 2 is about Elsa learning the strengths in her magic and using her magic for personal and the greater good. That magic heals, empowers, and brings peace to everyone in the film. And maybe my autism can heal, empower, and bring peace to people. There is power in not being normal, and if channeled well it can make and set things right. It worked for Elsa, maybe it’ll work for me and more.
If we “let it go” and open ourselves to journeying “into the unknown” in accepting everyone’s differences, we can truly show ourselves and our power to make the world a better place.
I was very much in the same boat. Right before Frozen came out a 3 year friendship of mine fell apart because she was afraid of my autism. She thought covering my ears and rocking was violent (she couldn't explain the logic). At the time, I didn't mention I was autistic much. I know I told her but she could have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI reached the lowest point in my life because of it. I won't give all the details since it can be triggering. So I saw myself in Elsa. I was in a car accident about a year and half later and received a scar on the inside of my left elbow. Just recently I got that tattooed over with a snowflake in honor of Frozen because of how it helped me during such a hard time in my life.
Actors with two Jewish parents: Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Logan Lerman, Paul Rudd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bar Refaeli, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adam Brody, Kat Dennings, Gabriel Macht, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Erin Heatherton, Lisa Kudrow, Lizzy Caplan, Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Gregg Sulkin, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Esti Ginzburg, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Margarita Levieva, James Wolk, Elizabeth Berkley, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Corey Stoll, Michael Vartan, Mia Kirshner, Alden Ehrenreich, Julian Morris, Asher Angel, Debra Winger, Eric Balfour, Dan Hedaya, Emory Cohen, Corey Haim, Scott Mechlowicz, Harvey Keitel, Odeya Rush, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy.
ReplyDeleteAaron Taylor-Johnson is Jewish, too (though I don’t know if both of his parents are).
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers: Timothée Chalamet, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, James Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Emmy Rossum, Ryan Potter, Rashida Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Sofia Black D’Elia, Nora Arnezeder, Goldie Hawn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Judah Lewis, Brandon Flynn, Amanda Peet, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman, Ben Barnes, Patricia Arquette, Kyra Sedgwick, Dave Annable, and Harrison Ford (whose maternal grandparents were both Jewish, despite those Hanukkah Song lyrics).
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jewish and/or identify as Jewish: Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zac Efron, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, Nicola Peltz, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Andrew Garfield, Winona Ryder, Michael Douglas, Ben Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nikki Reed, Jonathan Keltz, Paul Newman, David Corenswet.
Oh, and Ansel Elgort’s father is Jewish, though I don’t know how Ansel was raised. Robert Downey, Jr., Sean Penn, and Ed Skrein were also born to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers. Armie Hammer, Chris Pine, Emily Ratajkowski, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Finn Wolfhard are part Jewish.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism: Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.