Sisterhood Values (The Blood-Based Kind)

I recently had the pleasure of finally watching the worldwide phenomenon known as Frozen. It is indeed a film that deserves all the hype and awards it has received, but today, I want to talk about sisterhood. Not the female-friendship, sorority kind that I'm used to talking about, but the kind pertaining to "real" sisters related by blood. I never really think about this latter type of sisterhood, most likely because I do not have any sisters related by blood (while I have plenty of sorority sisters and other women in my life whose friendships mean so much to me). But some recent pop culture mega-hits I've liked have centered around the strong love between sisters. And I've really liked that this love seems to receive greater weight than romantic love, even where romantic love is present as a central plot theme.

Frozen is very clearly a story about sisters. When they were children, Elsa and Anna were very close, but Elsa is forced to be distant from her younger sister when she inadvertently hurts Anna with her powers. Despite Elsa's insistence on keeping her distance, it is Anna who pushes forward to help her. Even when Elsa, again, inadvertently hurts Anna, it is pretty much only Anna who prioritizes Elsa. Anna is dying from the injuries inflicted by Elsa, but instead of taking the action she believes would save herself (an act of true love, which everyone at this point has interpreted to mean getting a kiss from her true love, Kristoff), she goes towards her sister who is on the verge of being killed and stands in between Elsa and the villain with the sword. At that moment, Elsa's inadvertent curse on Anna is complete and Anna is frozen in place, but that act of self-sacrifice was the "act of true love" needed to break the curse. In going to her sister instead of her "true love," Anna saves both her sister and herself. She really is no Sleeping Beauty (I mean, she even punches the bad guy in the face after all this).

I Will Always Love You, Leslie Knope.

It must have been five or six years ago. My fiance, who was (and is still) a big fan of The Office, told me that there is a really funny show that I would like and should watch. Thus, I was introduced to Parks and Recreation, which he, like some, had described as a story about a "female Michael Scott." Well, that was then. Now, at the end of the show's seventh and final season, Leslie Knope is an iconic character who is one of the funniest, most relatable, most admirable, and most feminist women on TV.

I'm going to leave all the talk about the development of the show and Leslie's character to the regular writers of reviews and such. What I really want to write about just a couple of hours before the series finale is, however briefly, what Leslie Knope means to me.