L is for Elsa or What Disney Princess Are You?

It's my 50th birthday today. Fifty of course is L in Roman numerals (I for one love Roman numerals) but I think perhaps it's not the right symbol to have tattooed anywhere prominent. A friend told me today that I should be looking forward to my 50s as a period in which "everything is just more in control and focus". Perhaps he's right. I feel like I've spent a long time trying to let go of controlling things, but if there is anything the universe has told me this last few months it's that if I want anything to be done, then despite whatever contracts or agreements are in place, no matter if it's the assistance of a best friend or just help from a paid consultant, if I really want it to happen, then the only way it will with any reliability is if I do it myself. I suppose that's the opposite of letting it go.

It got me thinking about whether I've been picking the wrong archetypes this last half century. And so, like a sick Facebook quiz that just wants to rape your email and spam your contacts, I began to wonder what Disney princess I was. 

Now I've been amongst the common people on more than one occasion, and more than once I've once had to ask myself if it was acceptable to be that turned-on by a young middle eastern man, barefoot, brown skinned, semi-topless and pantalooned... but I'm no Princess Jasmine. Certainly I've dated a few beasts in my time, and despite the love I felt for them they never seemed to take human form... but I'm no Belle. Cross-dressing and joining the military have never been on my bucket list, which crossed off Mulan. And while I've often felt like a fish out of water, I'm no Ariel.

Lately it's occurred to me that I'm Elsa, Princess of Arendelle, queen of Frozen. Not just because she's the newest, and by most accounts the most popular princess, but because at the end of the movie she's still single, and she's cold. Loosely based on the "The Snow Queen", a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, Frozen's Elsa character is actually a composite of two characters from the original story:  Kai, Anna's brother who is cursed with negativity after his heart is pierced with a shard of glass from an enchanted mirror, and the Snow Queen, fair and beautiful, but made of ice. 

More than that, though, as an overarching theme Frozen preaches the importance of embracing your true nature. But it's not without cost. At the end of the film Elsa doesn't get the guy... it's her sister Anna that does, and after a significant wrong turn. And he's no Prince, he's a cowpoke, well, reindeer-poke. It's a nice twist really, rustic and real. In fact, the whole story is a modern, subtle and subversive commentary on true love and relationships: Olaf is no Prince Charming. Prince Charming is no Prince Charming. True love isn't romantic love. The hero doesn't get the girl, or in this case the guy. And the world is full of trolls. Kids, it's a dark and brutal message about the price you might have to pay for being yourself and what you can expect along the way. 

Oh well. Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyway. What Disney princess are you?