Frozen's Race Controversy

About

Some critics of Disney’s animated film Frozen are accusing the film of racism because all of the characters in the film are depicted as caucasian. These critics often address these claims by producing racebending fan art reimagining the characters as people of color.

Origin

The first charge against Frozen came in December 2012 from Tumblr user Thiscouldhavebeenfrozen, who put out a call for artists to create racebending fan art images of Frozen characters.^[1] The cause was picked up by other “social justice bloggers”, among them Tumblr blog Racebending.[ 13] The phenomenon has since sparked much discussion, particularly on Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit. The critics believe because there are no people of color in the film the indigenous people of Scandinavia (known as Sámi) featured in the movie have been whitewashed. Frozen’s race bending artwork show the characters portrayed as belonging to various non-white Arctic and Asian peoples (e.g. Inuit. Mongol).

Opponents of the anti-Frozen campaign have argued that since the movie is set in a fantasy world inspired by the Scandinavia of the 1800s, it would not be appropriate to include people of color, while proponents argue that the movie is set in a fantasy world and as such could choose to have people of any color as main characters, or that it would not be impossible to find people of color in 17th century Europe.^[3]

Allegations

Whitewashing

Frozen critics argue Disney has whitewashed the character Kristoff, who is confirmed by co-director Jennifer Lee ^[4] to be a member of the Scandinavian indigenous people Sámi.^[5] Anti-Frozen activists have argued that portraying Kristoff as blonde is racist, because according to them the Sámi are people of color. A proposed reimagining of Kristoff as “authentically Sámi” has spread on Tumblr.^[6]

The Sámi, though a people who have experienced and continue to face ethnic discrimination, would in fact pass as white in the United States, the country where this debate originated. Hence, the “Whitewashed Sámi” campaign has met some backlash and ridicule.^[7]

Some of the anti-Frozen activists insist that the Sámi appeared Asian at the time when the movie was set, but appear white today due to genetic mixing that has taken place since the 1800s. Some have even suggested that this genetic mixing was forced, a claim that has no basis in reality.^[8] Photographs from the 1800s do appear to show that today’s variation in appearance was present among the Sámi in the past as well.^[9]

Misrepresentation and Appropriation of Sámi Culture

Finally, the movie has been attacked for being disrespectful to the Sámi. This claim is supported by some Sámi bloggers ^[10] but also largely fronted by non-Sámi US-based bloggers.^[11] They argue that Frozen misrepresents Sámi culture.^[10] There have also been attacks on the movie’s musical score for cultural appropriation as it contains Sámi traditional yoik (chanting).

While Disney’s portrayal of Sámi culture is indeed seen as disrespectful by some Sámi, other Sámi are of a different opinion. The elected President of the Norwegian Sámi, Aili Keskitalo, opened her New Year’s speech of 2014 with the following words:

“In 2013 South Sámi Frode Fjellheim was invited to participate with music on Disney’s new, major animated movie Frozen. The yoik Eatnamen Vuelie and Fjellheim’s musical talent is now making a whole world listen to yoik. We are seeing the same in other cultural expressions: Sámi culture is expanding to ever new audiences.”^[12]

External References