Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representation of Male and Female Characters in the Animation Movie, FROZEN

Abstract

Films are means to express ideological stances. This study analyzes gender representation in the film Frozen an animation movie using a number of gender theories such as Coates (1986). This study is a qualitative study through a Discourse Analysis approach that makes it a descriptive study. Findings shows the occurrences of a few themes under the verbal, non-verbal and language used based on gender roles namely, hesitation, intonation, interruptions, politeness, talkativeness, self-disclosure, power control and independence and bravery. The equality of a women and man in the movie depends on the power. There are lots of speech styles that differentiate between men and women.

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Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representation
of Male and Female Characters in the Animation
Movie, FROZEN
Mohammad Yousef Alsaraireh1, Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh2, Hafizah Hajimia3
1Al-Balqa Applied University
Email: Moh.sarayreh@bau.edu.jo
2School of Languages, Civilisation and Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences,
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Email: manvender@uum.edu.my
3School of Languages, Civilisation and Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences,
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Email: hafizah_hajimia1@ahsgs.uum.edu.my
Issue Details
Issue Title: Issue 1
Received: 08 October, 2020
Accepted: 19 November, 2020
Published: 25 December, 2020
Pages: 104 - 121
Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and
Linguistica Antverpiensia
Abstract
Films are means to express ideological stances. This study analyzes gender
representation in the film Frozen an animation movie using a number of gender
theories such as Coates (1986). This study is a qualitative study through a
Discourse Analysis approach that makes it a descriptive study. Findings shows
the occurrences of a few themes under the verbal, non-verbal and language used
based on gender roles namely, hesitation, intonation, interruptions, politeness,
talkativeness, self-disclosure, power control and independence and bravery. The
equality of a women and man in the movie depends on the power. There are lots
of speech styles that differentiate between men and women.
Keywords
Representation, Gender differences, Femininity, Masculinity, Animation movie
1.1 Introduction
Discourse is a group of sentences that show a unity of thoughts,
facts or stories. Discourse is a discussion on a topic either in written or
face-to-face form and it also means communication in a speech or
writing. The term discourse was first introduced by Zellig Harris in 1952
to analyze the speech and writing relationships of a hair tonic
advertisement (Paltridge. B. 2012) aimed at studying language, i.e. the
extent to which language exceeds sentence levels and the relationship
between linguistic and non-linguistic behavior.

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According to Rickett, B (2017), discourse generally means the
way a person thinks and communicates about all things. Usually
discourse exists from social institutions. Examples are, media and
politics. Discourse also gives structure and arrangement to our language
and thoughts and it forms the thought of ideas, beliefs, identity values,
interactions with others and our behavior.
According to (Paltridge. B. 2012: 2), this discourse not only shares a
specific meaning, it also has the character of linguistic features
associated with it. What is meant and how it is realized in language is
the main purpose in discourse analysis.
The definition of gender is, where both sexes are male and
female, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural
rather than biological differences. The term is also more widely used to
indicate various identities that do not fit the ideas set by men and women.
Although the words gender and sex are often used interchangeably, they
both have slightly different connotations, namely that sex tends to refer
to an individual's biological differences, while gender more often refers
to cultural and social differences and sometimes encompasses a wider
range of identities of male and female binaries. In short, as discourse can
be analyzed in various fields and aspects, it can also be analyzed through
gender. Discourse and gender are closely related because both are indeed
an aspect that we can see in our daily lives as a group of people.
The picture of a gender differs between men and women, both in
terms of sexual organs as well as in terms of physical and masculine and
feminine traits. Stereotypically men are described as stronger, bolder,
tougher, less emotional and so on. According to Jan (2003), there are
several characteristics that describe the gender of men based on the
stereotypical characteristics of men that is, men are described as rational,
strong, always working, less use of polite language, like to lead, prefer
sports and make extreme activities, physical characteristics such as
strong, macho, brave, aggressive, authoritative and decision-making.
Ungku Maimunah Mohd Tahir (2013) said that women are considered
gentle, emotional, motherly, and so on, while men are considered strong,
rational and powerful.
While according to Wood (2003), men are described as „study
oak‟ leaders, „fighter‟ brave or competitive and „breadwinner‟ more
powerful and prominent in the eyes of society. Forisha (1978), on the
other hand, describes the gender of men according to traditional
stereotypical views as; “…being masculine means being assertive, being
interested in things rather than people, being analytical and
manipulative, and being able to get things done”.

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Coates (1986) in his study of gender differences said that the
gender of men and women are indeed different regardless of the
biological, physical or language used. Based on his research, he found
that language used by men and women are indeed different. Even the
words that represent women and men are different because men often
use certain words or phrases that are not used by women and vice versa
with women. These language differences are not differences brought
about by biological or gender factors alone, but the language differences
between men and women are shaped primarily by social factors i.e. the
influence of their environment. Yet these language differences
mentioned by Coates (1986) only cover differences in the linguistic
features of male and female speakers. This means that in verbal or
spoken language, these language differences between men and women
have clearly existed.
Film reflects what is happening in the socio-society in terms of
social problems and it also serves as a medium for the spread of culture.
Over the past six decades we have often been presented with characters
of human beings in films. The use of images displayed through
characters and personalities certainly has a role to attract the attention of
the audience. The characters created fit the genre or theme of the drama
and movie (Jodie Yap S. W, 2018).
According to Coates (2015), folklinguistics refers the belief
about different language style by man and woman which has become one
of the main interests of many sociolinguistics studies nowadays. Though
there are lots of distinct speech patterns to differentiate man and woman,
the gender roles on the other hand have become vague in todays’ world.
This is due to the fact that people have started to realize and promote the
equality between man and woman. Thus, it somehow has affected the
language used. Hence, this paper will examine two linguistic aspects of
language between man and woman in few scenes on speech differences
taken from Disney movie which are, Frozen: 1) verbal 2) non-verbal
communication 3) gender roles differences.
This movie is about gender roles and how men and women are
portrayed in the many adjustments of traditional fairytales. Most of the
former princess movies, have been highly inspected for depicting women
as weak damsels in distress who hang on to knights in shining armor to
save them. The main characters of this movie are Anna And Elsa. The
obvious difference of this movie with other fairy tales is that the women
are actually in control here. Both princesses are clearly independent,
strong-willed, capable, and smart especially Anna who is brave and
plucky and capable.

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2.1 Literatures
There are a few scholars who specialised in the subject of gender
in various dimensions. These studies are seen so that the researcher's
study does not overlap with the research that has been done in addition
to providing knowledge and also as a researcher's survey on aspects of
language and gender that has been made a scientific study. Among them,
Tannen (1990), made a study on the differences in conversation style
between men and women, namely the question of who controls or
controls the interaction and which party cooperates for the smooth
running of the conversation. According to Tannen (1990), the imbalance
in conversation these two genders are due to their respective „world‟
differences. Intervals, overlapping utterances and silence are evidences
of this imbalance i.e. orientation towards power or towards relationships
between individuals involved in something interaction. The findings of
his study found that men have more control over conversation than
women.
In fact, a study by Campbell, Klein and Olson (1992) also found
that male students interrupt more often than female students as a result
of their study on the conversations of university students. Meanwhile,
Manche and Peterson (1993) studied three groups of different ages,
namely children, adolescents and adults. The results of their study
showed no difference between men and women in terms of
conversational style. The difference in conversation style between men
and women is only due to gender factors. For example, interruption is
not always seen as something aggressive or unwanted behavior or
interference. In addition, a study conducted by Chambliss and Feeney
(1992) found that men have a more positive attitude towards the
interruptions compared to women. Even if their conversation is
interrupted, they will usually continue the conversation after being
interrupted or continue to talk simultaneously with the interrupting
person. Leaper et.al. (2002) and Deaux & Lewis (1978), argue the gender
of a speaker and the gender of a partner can influence the pattern of
conversation. Men were found to be more likely to avoid using
supportive strategies due to their competitive nature and their lack of
emotional expressions. Other studies have found that women are more
likely to provide feedback and support in conversations than men (Aries,
1987; West & Zimmerman, 1985; Tannen, 1990).
Bing (1997) in his thesis entitled, "Gender In Conversation:
Turn-Taking Analysis" used a dimension that is quite different from the
study conducted by the researcher but to some extent it can provide
knowledge in developing the study. In this study as a whole he looked at
intergender as well as intragender interactions. He found that male

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participants used words more when chatting with intragender couples.
As for the female participants, she found that the results were quite
different. The average turn size in intergender conversations is less than
the average turn size in intragender conversations which is 9.6 words in
intragender conversations compared to 17.3 words in intergender
conversations.
Coates (1986) has seen this gender difference through the
sociolinguistic variation of male and female speakers that stems from the
statement that men are said to use good language, which is dreamy and
impressive, while women are said to often use negative language and
should be despised. Through his research on the studies that have been
done by looking at the differences in language use between gender,
Coates (1986) has studied the sociolinguistic variations of male and
female speakers in England. Coates (1986) found that women's and
men's languages are divided into two groups, namely men's language is
said to be a more positive language and the language used by women is
a negative language. Through this language classification the gender of
men and women is found to use different languages when speaking. Men
are said to use language that is more dominant, critical, show power,
insensitive and authoritarian. Women, on the other hand, use language
that is more geared towards negative ones that have a low status such as
persuasion, tentative language and showing a weak nature.
However, the findings of Coates' (1986) study also found that
women have changed the traditional perception that women are gentle,
loving and sensitive individuals. The changes in time and age have
changed the way women think and use language. He found that women
had begun to change their speaking strategy when this traditional
strategy was said to be the cause of women being considered lower status
compared to men. Among them she has categorized some language
strategies that have been used by women in the efforts of women in
England to change society's perceptions such as;
1. Uses deep voice and emphasizes low tones
2. Use words in the form of promises or forbidden language (taboo
language)
3. Use more urgent means in conversation
4. Demonstrates firm facial expressions and high tone of voice such as
men
5. Discuss topics that are often discussed by men such as business,
politics and economics
6. Use non-standard accents or plates
From this language strategy used, women were found to deny
themselves to the point of encroaching the values of men in an effort to

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place themselves in a more dominant group. It is found that social change
has influenced the change in the pattern of women's language use. The
changes that women are trying to bring, however, are slowly being
accepted by men because men are incapable of avoiding this change, and
in order to maintain their great position, men are seen not to passively
accept this change. Therefore, based on the study that has been done by
Coates (1986), the researcher will also look at the language differences
between men and women in testing the truth of the theory put forward
by Coates (1986).
In the meantime, there are also studies that have been done by
West & Fenstermaker (1995). They have described the social influences
that are agents of gender development. This is because according to West
& Fenstermaker (1995), the concept of gender is shaped more by social
and cultural. A gender's category does not involve a set of characteristics
that must be adhered to inorder to identify a person's identity but is more
relevant to physical prominence such as behavior, clothing, walking
style, sitting style, and language and words used which are indicators of
the anatomical arrangement, type of hormones and chromosomes of the
individual involved. These characteristics are also formed by the society
that forms the normative concept of attitudes and activities that are
appropriate to the behavior of a particular gender. Meanwhile, West &
Fenstermaker (1995) also say that gender is more than the role or nature
of the individual which is the mechanism of social behaviors that
contribute to the repetition of social structures. Thus, the mass media is
one of the social agents that manipulates the repetitions of individual
social structures in their commercial agenda. By looking at the
socialization factors mentioned by West & Fenstermaker (1995), it gives
the researcher an understanding of the social factors that need to be
considered when looking at the gender differences highlighted in the
movie studied.
2.2 Representations in the movies
In looking at the representation of women in films, Smith, et al., (2013)
have listed gender inequalities in 500 Hollywood films. The women in
the film are manipulated in terms of sexy appearance and in terms of
appearance are less than men. This is a possibly due to stereotypes about
women according to Fakih Mansour (2010) in the study of Asaari & Aziz
(2013) women are indeed known for their gentle, beautiful, emotional
and motherly nature.
Wen (2018) analysed the gender differences in terms of the
characters featured in the police film with aspects of multi-racial and
multi gender because the movie not only features police characters

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consisting of men but also female characters play an important role. For
example, Inspector Shafikah a female (Special Motion 1, 2002) and
Inspector Aliza a female (Special Motion 1, 2001) and also the
antagonistic character Suzana a female (Special Motion 1, 2001).
3.1 Methodology
This study analyses the gender differences in the movie entitled
‘Frozen’. The research was conducted using descriptive qualitative
research method with the structural narrative analysis of Nick Lacey
(2000) in analyzing the story. A content analysis is carried out
throughout the movie. An interaction analysis was carried out by looking
at the way the male and female characters converse in the movies.
Interaction analysis is viewed as a complex accomplishment that
requires much knowledge on the part of individual communicators and
the ability to coordinate behavior with others. According to Frey, L., et
al., (1999, p.3), “to describe interaction, researchers focus on a number
of characteristics” including “linguistic features namely studies range
from the analysis of particular words and sentence components (verbs),
to nonverbal features (eye contact & touch), to more interpretive aspects
of language (powerful vs. powerless speech), types of topics that people
talk about, and the purposes of specific actions and utterances in an
interaction.”
Each of the transcripts in the movie were analysed and identified
for the most common themes. Disney raised the fairy tale The Snow
Queen by Hans Christian Andersen into a 2013 film called Frozen. In
the movie Frozen, Disney kept some moral messages in the movie.
Besides showing the theme of siblings’ rivalry, Frozen has also garnered
critical acclaim for its gender representation and is often hailed as the
most progressive and feminist Disney movie yet. The main theme of the
movie was on the relationship between Anna and Kristoff. The next
section will discuss the findings from the analysis of the transcripts.
4.1 Findings and discussion
This section will show excerpts indicating the speech differences
between man and woman.
4.1.1 Verbal Communication
a) Hesitation
Hesitation is a natural part of spontaneous conversation.
Hesitation does not mean a complete silence, which may be
embarrassing, disturbing and sometimes offensive to others. Below is an
example of hesitation taken from the long excerpt:

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Kristoff: It's because she struck you, isn't it?
HANS : I’d like to formally apologize for hitting the Princess
of Arendelle with my horse...and for every moment after.
ANNA : No. No-no. It’s fine. I’m not THAT Princess. I mean,
if you’d hit my
sister Elsa, that would be—yeash! Cuz, you know…
(patting the horse)Hello. (to Hans)But, lucky you, it’s-it’s just
me.
Here, the term “you know” itself is one of the hesitation phrases.
At this moment, Anna feels very nervous in front of the charm and
handsome Hans. She is trying to explain to Hans that she is different
from her sister, Elsa. However, it is complicated for her to explain to
Hans. Hence, at the end she then she just changed her focus to the horse
to avoid from explaining it. Besides, Coates (2015) also mentioned that
women speech contains more hedges than men.
b) Intonation
The melody of language is called intonation. All vocal languages
use pitch pragmatically in intonation. Different intonations implicate
different meanings. Below are some examples taken from the excerpt to
show how intonation reflects meaning while focusing on different
intonation used by Anna and Hans:
Here, Anna is using different intonations to show her emotions, as a
woman, she easily becomes excited and nervous which all can be shown
through her tones. The word ‘THAT’ is stressed on because she wants
to emphasize that she is different from Elsa. Hans on the other hand is
very calm and he does not use high tone as Anna does.
c) Interruptions
Another difference in the form of speech production between man
and woman is in term of the amount of interruptions. Coates (2015) has
defined interruption as the “violations of the turn-taking rules of
HANS: I’d like to formally apologize for hitting the Princess of Arendelle with my
horse...and for every moment after.
ANNA: No. No-no. It’s fine. I’m not THAT Princess. I mean, if you’d hit my sister Elsa,
that would be-- yeash! But, lucky you, it’s-it’s just me
HANS: Just you?

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conversation” (p.113). It can be seen from the excerpt below that Kristoff
interrupts more than Anna does:
Coates (2015) mentioned that based on previous studies men
were found to interrupt more than woman. This is corresponding with
the example above since Kristoff is found to interrupt Anna’s sentences.
It might be related to the concept of dominance and power in society
where men are believed to have stronger power than man in society.
However, Coates (2015) also stated that the amount of interruptions by
woman becomes higher when the woman has high status than man
Hence, it indicates that power gives main influence towards the tendency
to interrupt.
d) Politeness
There are a lot of the elements of politeness that can be found in
the movie. This is because the setting of the movie itself is during the old
days and specifically it uses royal language which is polite. However,
there are some differences of politeness style shown by man and woman
that can be found in this movie. For instance, below is the conversation
between the two sisters, Anna and Elsa in the hall during Elsa’s
coronation day:
KRISTOFF: So, tell me what made the Queen go all ice-crazy?
ANNA : ...Oh well, it was all my fault. I got engaged but then she freaked out because
I’d only just met him, you know, that day. And she said she wouldn’t bless the marriage-
-
KRISTOFF: Wait. You got engaged to someone you just met?
ANNA : Yeah. Anyway, I got mad and so she got mad and then she tried to walk away,
and I grabbed her glove--
KRISTOFF: Hang on. You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met?!
ANNA: Yes. Pay attention. But the thing is she wore the gloves all the time, so I just
thought, maybe she has a thing about dirt.
ELSA:...Hi.
ANNA: Hi me...? Oh. Um. Hi.
ELSA: ...You look beautiful.
ANNA: Thank you. You look beautifuller. I mean, not fuller. You don’t look fuller,
but more beautiful.
ELSA: Thank you.

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The excerpt shows how woman tend to sound more polite when
they are complementing each other to the extent that Anna uses wrong
word “You look beautifuller..” At the same time, this shows that woman
tend to exaggerate when they are complimenting the other person
compared to man. Herbert (1990) has contrasted solidarity-building with
sincere compliments, suggesting that Americans generally and
American women in particular, favor the solidarity-building use of
compliments (as cited by Eckert & Ginet,2013). Thus, Anna and Elsa are
complimenting each other because they want to build good relationship.
Besides, Elsa seems to compliment Anna in order to break the awkward
moment and to begin conversation rather than being sincere. Thus, it is
related to the concept of positive politeness where its function is to
express solidarity and closeness between speakers.
e) Talkativeness
According to world’s renowned neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Louann
Brizendine (2006), she stated that women in general speak roughly about
20,000 words per day, in contrast with men, who normally uttered a total
number of 7,000 words a day. By this statement, an analysis of the movie
Frozen will show how this proclamation is indeed happened in a motion
picture. The whole excerpt can be used to show that Anna is being
talkative.
Anna starts to talk gibberish, especially towards the end of the
sentence. We can say that Anna is showing a sign of nervousness since
she encounters a charming, good looking man. According to Tannen
(1986), she categorized women’s talkativeness as a method to build
rapport with the person she is speaking to. Anna is indeed trying to put
up her new relationship with words, in order to eliminate the
uncomfortable feelings between her and Hans.
However, it is arguable that Anna talked a bit more compared to
Hans just because she was trying to establish rapport between them.
Lakoff (1975) argued that there are a certain number of linguistic
characters that are used by women that conveyed the signs of uncertainty
and lack of confidence, in this context; it referred to Anna’s uses of
ANNA: ((talking nervously)) This is awkward. Not "You're awkward”, but just because
we're... I'm awkward, you're gorgeous. Wait, what?
HANS: I'd like to formally apologize for hitting the princess of Arendelle with my horse..
and for every moment after.
ANNA: No! No, no. It's fine. I'm not that princess. I mean, if you had hit my sister Elsa,it
would be... Yeesh! Because, you know... ((patting the horse)) Hello. ((to Hans) But, lucky
you, it's just me.

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adjectives like awkward and charming. Anna repeatedly saying those
two adjectives and hence it portrayed her behaviour which looks like a
talkative person.
Nevertheless, Hans, as a man, does speak to Anna only to express
important purposes of the conversation. He speaks to Anna in order to
convey apology and also to introduce himself to Anna. This situation is
very much dissimilarly contrasted to Anna’s purposes in talking to Hans.
Other than the fact that she is using unimportant adjectives in the
conversation, she is also providing unnecessary information when she
said “I mean, if you had hit…”
f) Self-disclosure
Self-disclosure can be defined as the method of oneself to share
about thoughts, feelings, goals, failures, favourites, and many other
things. In this film, there are a number of self-disclosure moments that
have been inserted, especially involving the character Anna. As been
discussed in the previous topic, Anna seems to be as a person who loves
to provide unrelated details of herself in the conversation with Prince
Hans. This is because she opens up about herself to Hans. This is
referring to the line as shown in the box below, Anna starts to talk about
her sister, Elsa, whom Hans does not know personally.
Farber (2006) suggested that women self-disclose in order to
improve the relationships (Fram et al., 2006). This can be seen when
Anna is trying to build up the bond between her and Hans by disclosing
something that is really personal. Another example of self-disclosure that
occurs in this film is as showed in the box below:
ANNA: Okay wait, wait. So you have how many brothers?
HANS: Twelve older brothers. Three of them pretended I was
invisible...literally...for two
years
ANNA: That’s horrible.
HANS: It’s what brothers do.
ANNA: ...And sisters. Elsa and I were really close when we were little.
But then, one day she
just shut me out, and I never knew why.
Anna: No! No, no. It's fine. I'm not that princess. I mean, if you had hit my sister Elsa,it
would be... Yeesh! Because, you know... ((patting the horse)) Hello. ((to Hans) But, lucky
you, it's just me.

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In this conversation, Anna is prone to open up about her
relationship with her sister, as she is trying to share her emotional
feelings with Hans. As proposed by Hendrick (1988), women tend to
share their emotions when talking to other people. Therefore, this can
explain why Anna is expressing her emotion, even though Hans never
asked her about it.
4.2.2 Non-verbal communication
Two-thirds of the human communication actually consists of
non-verbal communication according to Hogan & Stubbs (2003).
Therefore, making it as important as verbal communication does. Hogan
and Stubbs further stated that incorrect message will be delivered if one
provided the wrong body language when communicating with another
person. During the same scene when Anna first encounters Hans, she
uses lots of hand gestures compared to Hans while they are talking to
each other. This might be because Anna is very nervous thus her emotion
is reflected through her gestures and facial expression. This is supported
by Abbot (1992) where he agreed that women tend to use more facial
expression and gesture to show their emotions.
In this film, taken from the same scene where Anna and Hans are
talking to each other, both of them are gazing into each other’s eyes, and
this can be signaled as a sign of interest and attraction. It is true that both
male and female do establish eye contact as the sign of fascination and
admiration. However, in this scene, Anna seems to stare at Hans much
longer because she is ‘too busy drinking in Hans’s handsomeness.
4.2.3 Language used based on gender roles
a) Power control
Firstly, the character of Elsa and her magic powers is a symbol
to how women are treated and restricted in our culture especially during
the old days. It shows how woman is expected to act or behave in a
specified manner. This can be proven by the command of the King of
Arandelle, Elsa’s father to separate her from the society and her own
sister with the worries of her power can cause danger to herself and to
others.
((Hans smiles, amused. She smiles back. The bells RING. She doesn’t notice at first; she’s
too busy drinking in Hans’s handsomeness.))
ANNA: ...The bells. The coronation. I-I-I better go. I have to...I better go.
((She hurries off, stops, turns back. Gives Hans a little wave.))

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`The command itself is showing that man can control everything
and Elsa in the meantime has accepted the command because she
believes her father’s judgment which at the end brings misfortune to her.
The King should have allowed Elsa to practice with her magic powers
and help her to control it, and not totally suppress it all in herself. Hence,
it shows the male dominance and woman submissiveness which reflects
the culture during that time. Brown (1980) relates this finding to the
social position of women and men in Tenejapan society “women’s
relative powerlessness, for instance, their vulnerability in relation to men
and their need to protect their reputation” (as cited by Meshtrie et.all,
2009, p.231).
However, after the King and the Queen passed away, the two
sisters started to show different sides of them especially Anna who
shows her power as a princess to give command and do lots of masculine
activities. Hence, it shows that the characters here contradict the typical
gender stereotypes of men are always powerful than women. Besides,
Holmes (2013) mentioned that Lakoff (2004) has classified woman’s
language as “subordinate, lack of confidence and full of expression of
uncertainty” (p.301), which is entirely different from how this movie has
portrayed women and men. Hence, it shows that in today’s world, the
gender roles are becoming vague since many societies have allowed
women to speak out their minds and many women have become leaders.
b) Independence and bravery
As mentioned earlier, there is a change of power after the
previous King and Queen passed away. For instance, when Elsa runs
away to the mountains after arguing with her sister, Anna has decided to
go after her sister and saves her. She comes up with the solution and
takes charge of the situation. Aside from that, Anna ordered Prince Hans
to take care of the kingdom until she comes back which is showing her
power to handle the situation while Prince Hans is accepting the order.
KING : Until then, we’ll lock the gates. We’ll reduce the staff. We will limit her
contact with people and keep her powers hidden from
everyone... including Anna.

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Besides, during the trip up the hill in search of Elsa, Anna and Kristoff
are chased by a pack of wolves.
This shows how brave a woman is, as she is willing to help fight
the wolves while the cart is moving fast. She is not afraid as how women
are portrayed. As for Kristoff, he undermines a woman’s ability and has
a conservative thought about how a woman is or should be. But after
seeing Anna hitting the wolf Kristoff seemed impressed and surprised
by it. According to Lakoff (2004) people tend to “portray women as
helpless victims of a patriarchy that forces them to act in passive,
irrational, ineffective ways or evaluates their actions as passive,
irrational or ineffective” (p. 131). However, in this case, Anna has
proved that the old concepts of language used by women must always
soft and polite are not applicable in today’s world. Anna’s bravery is
shown when she talks back to Kristoff “Why not?” and “Excuse me?”.
Thus, here, Anna is violating the folklinguistics belief of woman must
talk like a lady.
Elsa, who is seen as a powerful and independent woman who
learns to love her power instead of concealing it. Yet, her storyline
undermines that message.
ANNA : (to the Royal Handler). Bring me my horse, please.
HANS: Anna, no. It’s too dangerous.
ANNA: Elsa’s not dangerous. I’ll bring her back, and I’ll make this right.
The Royal Handler brings Anna her horse and a cloak.
HANS: I’m coming with you.
ANNA: No, I need you here to take care of Arendelle.
ANNA: Wolves. What do we do?
KRISTOFF: I’ve got this. You just...don’t fall off and don’t get eaten.
ANNA: But I wanna help.
KRISTOFF: No.
ANNA: Why not?
KRISTOFF: Because I don’t trust your judgement.
ANNA: Excuse me?

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From the excerpt can be seen that once Elsa goes into exile, she
unleashes her power, which is symbolized by the fantastic ice palace she
builds for herself. However, shortly after that her power and
independence start to turn her evil. This is evident when she nearly
murders two men by almost impaling one, and trying to push another off
the mountain, and when she sends a snow monster after Anna. It is only
when she returns to her village and uses her powers for people’s
entertainment (by building an ice rink), that she is in fact accepted by
people. This is a version of femininity that is soft, safe and selfless; it is
about pleasing and nurturing people, and not about building monuments
that celebrate one’s power.
The next part is about Anna. Anna is adventurous and brave. The
movie portrays her as being adventurous and spontaneous with irrational
decisions because she is the younger child, not because she is a capable
Excerpt 1:
Anna: Oh, it's okay. You can just unfreeze it.
Elsa: No, I can't. I...I don't know how!
Anna: Sure you can. I know you can! Cause for the first time in forever...
Elsa: Oh, I'm such a fool! I can't be free!
Anna: You don't have to be afraid.
Elsa: No escape from the storm inside of me!
Anna: We can work this out together.
Elsa: I can't control the curse!
Anna: We'll reverse the storm with me.
Elsa: Oh, Anna, please. You'll only make it worse!
Excerpt 2:
Hans: She was killed by Queen Elsa.
Duke: No! Her own sister.
Hans: At least we got to say our marriage vows...before she died in my arms.
Duke: There can be no doubt now, Queen Elsa is a monster and we are all in grave
danger. Spanish Dignitary: Prince Hans, Arendelle looks to you.
Hans: With a heavy heart, I charge Queen Elsa of Arendelle with treason and sentence
her to death.
Guard #1: Hurry Up! She's dangerous.

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young woman and most often comes from her being child-like, and not
physically capable.
When the wolves attacked, Anna was saved by Kristoff as he was
falling sleigh. Kristoff was shocked by the sudden action, afraid and
panicked and started complaining “Uh-oh. No, no, no. Ah! No, no, no,
no, no!”. The next part shows Kristoff reacting bravely whereby his
dominant nature emerged when Anna once again commanded Sven, the
reindeer, “get ready to jump Sven!” and “Grab on! Pull, Sven! Pull!”.
Kristoff reacted strongly: “You don’t tell him what to do. I do.” After
that, Anna was picked up by Kristoff and thrown onto the reindeer. The
reindeer listened to Kristoff’s bidding and immediately jumps across the
ravine. Finally, all the three characters are saved. With this scene the
beginning of a more savior and protective nature in Kristoff can be seen
emerging. Anna was wandering helplessly in circles as she was trying to
climb the mountain and needed Kristoff’s help. Kristoff said: “she’ll die
on her own” and “Hold up! We're coming” when he realised that it was
not a trip that Anna can do by herself and decided to help her.
5.1 Conclusion
In short, throughout this paper, there are lots of speech styles that
differentiate between men and women. For instance, women hesitate a
lot, use different intonations to show feelings, more polite between
women themselves, talk more than man and always perform self-
disclosure while man on the other hand like to interrupt more than
woman. However, we still need to consider that language used is always
depending on power. For instance, woman who has power can give
command to man and they also can use strong language to show her
Excerpt 1:
Anna: Duck!
Kristoff: You almost set me on fire!
Anna: But I didn't. Get ready to jump, Sven!
Kristoff: You don't tell him what to do!
Anna: Hey!
Kristoff: I do! Jump, Sven! Ooh. But I just paid it off. Uh-oh. No, no, no. Ah! No, no, no,
no, no!
Anna: Grab on! Pull, Sven! Pull! Woh. I'll replace your sled and everything in it.
Excerpt 2:
Kristoff: Of course I don't wanna help her anymore. In fact, this whole thing has ruined me
for helping anyone ever again. But she'll die on her own! I can live with that. Sometimes I
really don't like you. Hold up! We're coming.

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status. Thus, apart from gender, many other factors such as social status
and people upbringings can influence language use.
From the discourse analysis above, it can be seen clearly that
each time the female characters Anna and Elsa are portrayed as being an
independent, strong woman, Disney immediately shows that the female
character as being weak, incapable or evil. The sequence following their
scenes shows the stronger effort put by the male character Kristoff
highlighting that at the end of the day he is the savior that rescued them.
Kristoff’s white, powerful, independent, and physically strong rugged
and masculine look personifies a dominant common image in a
character. He is shown as physically intense, unpolished, shaggy with an
understanding, gentler, caring side.
Finally, Frozen tries at showing the power of women. Disney’s
version of womanhood as personified in Elsa and Anna, is one that does
not oppose to the dominant ideals of femininity. The two lead characters,
Anna and Elsa retain qualities that are believed to be needed for being
the right feminine figure as accepted by the society by being soft; self-
sacrifice and selfless. They need to do all this and still need to portray
and maintain beautiful appearance or look.
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