Over the last few months two soundtrack songs have taken the world by storm: "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen and "Happy" from Despicable Me 2. It is interesting to me that the two songs are such strong representations of Western ideals: freedom and happiness. One might argue that these messages are universal but Western society holds these two tenets as core to our political and social lives. I am writing about this because I was thinking about the way these ideas of freedom and happiness have progressed over history and how they are at the core of the contestation that has erupted in our collective political consciousness since 9/11 and more recently since the shooting of Malaha and the kidnapping of the young girls in Nigeria.
The story of Frozen (SPOILER ALERT) is the tale of a princess with a fierce power that she cannot control and that endangers those around her, especially her younger sister. This power, to freeze the land and the air and the water, gets out of hand when she is vulnerable and afraid. She chooses to run away to be free from worry that she will harm others. The song "Let it Go" is an anthem to her freedom and her choice to be her authentic self. It is ironic, of course, because she is alone and cut off from her kingdom and, more importantly, her sister Anna.
Anna's story is also a search for freedom. She is lonely and she falls for the first prince to ask for her hand...in fact, she falls for him on their first meeting. Throughout the film she is questioned for making this choice. Here is bit of dialogue that unfolds when Anna meets the man who will help her find her sister:
Kristoff: So, uh 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. She said she wouldn't bless the marriage and...
Kristoff: [Interrupts] Wait, you got engaged to someone you just met that day?
Anna: Yeah. Anyway I got mad and so she got mad and then she tried to walk away and I grabbed her glove...
Kristoff: [Interrupts] Hang on, you mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day?
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...
Kristoff: [Interrupts] Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?
Anna: Yes, they did."
Remember, this is a Disney movie and Disney movies have always had princesses falling in love with princes - who they have just met...
My point is that our idea of what Anna should do as a young woman is to find freedom through her own self-worth. You might wonder why I have this is a column on politics but my point is that Western society, for the most part, views progress as the idea of freedom gained through equality and self-expression.
Now I won't need a spoiler alert to tell you about "Happy"...it's simply a song about expressing happiness and it is infectious. There are probably hundreds, nay thousands, of videos on YouTube of people dancing to this song.
One such video was taken in Iran. Four women (who were not wearing head scarfs) and four men are seen dancing together. After it was posted the dancers and the "film maker" were arrested. They were put onto Iranian television and made to confess that they had been tricked into making the film. They were berated because they had "hurt public chastity."
The video showed nothing that would upset the sensibilities of Western viewers. Our values are open to the idea that happiness is the centre of the good life, even going so far as to say that we are entitled to happiness.
But these values are not shared everywhere. I remember once seeing a picture of an anti-Western rally in which a protester held a sign that said, "Freedom: Go to Hell." The West's version of liberty and happiness has evolved. Our politics and our society rest on the right to happiness and the right to express our authentic self. These values are neither universally shared nor accepted.
