When I first heard the song it was catchy but some of the bits sounded kind of sociopathic. No right no wrong no rules for me. Some of the bits even sounded like running away. But what ruined it for me was how the character’s actions didn’t match the lyrics of the song. She was literally doing the opposite of everything the song was saying. You can make the case for Anna being accepting since she didn’t care about her powers. But Elsa doesn’t learn until the end and it takes her sister being frozen to do that. Even when Anna goes to the castle for the first time and breaks the news Elsa goes to pieces and realizes that no matter were she goes no one is safe and she can’t be free.
I’m really have a hard time seeing how the song is an anthem for acceptance.
First let’s note that “Let It Go” was originally a villain song - it was basically the Snow Queen saying “screw society, I’m gonna do whatever I want up to and including freezing anybody who says ‘boo’ to me”. The lyrics the songwriter came up with inspired the other moviemakers to wonder more about what inspired her to get to the point of throwing society aside, and they quite literally rewrote the entire movie around those ideas.
Secondly, “Let it go” isn’t about Elsa accepting her powers as a good thing. It’s about her saying “screw it, I’m just going go stand over here where nobody is so that I don’t have to worry about freezing anybody who says ‘boo’ to me - because there’s nobody to say it.” It’s not really about Elsa accepting her powers; it’s about Elsa throwing away her emotional restraint and letting her powers blow out of control (since she doesn’t realize she has the power to harm the country from so far away). She’s happy and free only because there’s nobody around - the second Anna turns up she tries desperately to get her to leave so that her evil powers can be allowed to run rampant safely. And when she finds out she’s still hurting people despite her distance she freaks out - she realizes that she can’t let her emotions/powers go and can’t handle returning to her previously repressed state, and yet sees no other choice.
So “Let It Go” is empowering - literally. It’s her letting her powers run rampant. How that translates to anybody who isn’t harboring barely-controlled magical powers, I’m not sure.
Well there was an article equating her ice powers with a disability. Or how marginalized groups use it as an anthem to be yourself. LGBT groups do, but I’m gay and I don’t see it that way. It reads more like a psychopath not caring about “being good” anymore. They try to cop out by saying the song is a metaphor, but even then it isn’t about acceptance. You would have to throw out a lot of context to get to that.
In short their view of the song feels like reaching to me, A LOT.
I haven’t read whatever article you’re talking about, but it wouldn’t surprise me if people were stretching things to try to be able to apply the song and the character of Elsa to themselves. After all Elsa does accept herself (later), and the song is catchy.
Jesus, it’s like you guys don’t interact with teen girls at ALL.
Ahem. I have two. When ‘Frozen’ came out they were 13 and 9, respectively.
The empowerment behind ‘Let it Go’, in my opinion - and that of my girls - is that it’s about throwing off the artificial restraints placed on girls to be perfect. Boys can be messy, screw up and be dicks. Girls are expected to be perfect angels and never cause trouble. Girls are expected to live for others without concern for their own wants and needs.
It’s the same lesson as imparted by Meredith Brooks’ ‘Bitch’. It’s allowing for the fact that she’s not going to be some specific sort of person that society and the people around her want to see…for once - and going forward - she’s going to be herself and not be ashamed of that.
Remember, Elsa’s been in a horribly abusive family situation where she’s been told for YEARS that she’s a danger to others and that what she is, her intrinsic self, is so terrible she must deny it, even to herself. “Conceal don’t feel”. That’s a horrible thing to tell a child. Her parents are, arguably, the worst Disney parents ever seen in a movie (and that’s not a small trophy to win).
Let it Go struck a chord with the smaller female set - and I’d bet the larger set, too - by indicating how much more a girl could be when the expectations she’s fulfilling are her own and not someone else’s or society’s. It could just as easily be about a girl deciding she doesn’t WANT to get married and have babies. Or that she WILL learn to be a firefighter or some other non-stereotypical woman’s role.
It’s not so much about letting her powers run rampant. Her response to hurting people is horror. But it is about not letting people hurt HER any further. If that means isolation than it does. The line “The cold never bothered me anyway” is indicative of how she’s been living in a way determined by others and not herself. I can’t blame her for a bit of bitterness after 20 years of psychological abuse.
I just want to thank the OP for being so clear with both the thread title and the first post: it was totally obvious what this thread was discussing, and the excruciating detail contained in the OP only confirmed it. At no time did I ever wonder, at all, what in the fuck this thread was about; I certainly didn’t have to glean a clue from the 7th sentence to figure out what was being considered. And I really appreciate that forthrightness from someone seeking discussion about something, so thanks.
In the case of Elsa she was a danger to others as Anna was the first one harmed. It’s not like a disability which only harms the subject.
You are also wrong in that the whole point is that she fled so she wouldn’t hurt anyone else. She became shocked when she realized that her absence didn’t do that and she is still a danger.
I wouldn’t call her childhood abusive. Her powers has real consequences and Anna is proof of that. She never really forgave herself for what she did to her until the end of the movie. It’s not her parents but her too.
Let it go isn’t about empowerment, at least not the way people think. She is ashamed and fled because of her powers. The message there would be that if you are different then leave society so people won’t be troubled. Essentially she’s just running away from her problems and passing it off as empowerment simply because she can hurt anyone in the middle of nowhere. “The fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all”, sounds like running to me. But as Anna proves you can’t run from your problems.
The song and movie only appear to be empowering if you don’t look to closely. Much like the Bible, people will see and take what they want without actually knowing the truth.
The song is about casting aside the things people expect someone to do and living for yourself. Can that be a villains role? Certainly. Can it also be a song of self-fulfillment for girls? I can safely attest that all the tween and teen girls in my life have given that a strong yes.
I’ve never been a girl, and certainly not a teen one, but I try to learn from observation. From that, and a bit of empathy, I think I begin to understand the pressure to be perfect that young girls are placed under to fit into certain roles. It seems much more intrusive and constricted that anything I felt as a boy growing up in LA. The ability to throw that off must seem immensely freeing to them.
And, with all respect, your interpretation of the song is entirely subjective. What matters is how it resonates with the intended audience.
The realization, the empowerment - you see it happening* in real time* in the song. Her face goes from this to this in half a minute. Oh, and the absolute wonder on her face as she realises what she can do when not held back by, yes, abusive parents! Solitary confinement is straight-up real-world torture, FFS.
And yes, anyone who thinks it isn’t empowering probably doesn’t have any pre-teen daughters or other girls in their life.
And, as mentioned above, the disabled, and LGBT+ folks.
It is not, in context, a really hopeful song - she’s had to cast off literally everything she had, including her family, to get this freedom - but it is still a song about claiming freedom.
The rest of the movie is about the next step - having her whole person accepted by others (happily, specifically what’s left of her family).
And back to Machinaforce’s post…
Look at the end of the movie.
Elsa’s still got her powers, so, if this interpretation were correct, Arendel would be blanketed in perpetual winter.
But, no, Elsa’s happy, she’s in full control of her powers.
Why?
Because her adventures allowed her to unlearn her parents well-intentioned but utterly wrong and dangerous ‘your entire existence is wrong, and you need to suppress it’ thing, and she’s thus been able to develop a healthy emotional life.
Elsa’s problem wasn’t her powers. It wasn’t that she accidentally hurt Ana as a child. It was that her parents’ reaction was to isolate her, and teach her not caution, but ‘repress and suppress’.