The Little Mermaid is an animated movie that was released in November of 1989. This movie portrays a fascinating tale of a young mermaid named Ariel who lives under the sea with her father, King Triton, exploring all that the waters have to offer. Unlike her six older sisters, Ariel is rebellious and searches the waters for interesting things from the human world to add to her collection such as a fork that she uses as a brush and calls a dinglehopper. She is captivated by these human things because she longs to be apart of their world. She wonders what it would be like to have feet to run, jump, and dance. To see all that they see, and spend a day on the sand. Her and her father don't really see fin to fin on her wants, and he has forbidden her to visit the surface anymore. However, being the stubborn and rebellious teenager that she is, she does anyway. 
Now can I just say that growing up I absolutely ADORED this film. I loved the thought of an underwater world with merpeople and talking fish! The songs were all very catchy, the characters were hilarious, and the thought of true love was all I thought about. All I could dream of was finding a prince, falling in love, and living happily ever after. What little girl wouldn't want that? I was unaware, as I'm sure all young children are, that this movie has a lot of poor underlying messages relative to age, appearance, and gender.
Take a look at the ages of Ariel and Ursula and how they are portrayed. Ursula, obviously older, plays the role of the wisest out of the two while Ariel, obviously younger, is seen as foolish and naïve. I mean, who would give up their voice for some nice legs? Ursula is also seen as a bitter and grumpy sea witch who lives all alone with her pet eels, while sweet young Ariel is having the time of her life exploring and going on different adventures with her friends. These stereotypes on age are quite common and couldn't be more wrong, but this movie just plays right into them.
Talking about appearance, I'm going to stick with the characters of Ariel and Ursula. Ariel is seen with a very pretty face and long wavy red hair. She swims around in a purple sea shell bandeau and her green tail which is pretty low cut. All of this accentuates her teeny tiny waist and what society sees as a "perfect" physique. The colors she wears are nice and inviting and she is barely covered up leaving the impression that she shouldn't be embarrassed of the body that she has. Ursula on the other hand is heavier set with an ugly face and an even uglier personality to match. Her body is the image of what one should not want to have as it is fully covered and in the dark color black. She is the evil character providing children with the stereotypes about weight and appearance saying overweight and ugly is bad and no one should be that way.
After doing some research online, I came across a couple of websites that brought to light something's that I oversaw. Sarah Bregel wrote a blog on why she regrets letting her daughter watch this movie. She talks about how marriage is overly emphasized and seen as a necessity in order to live. The whole point of the movie was for a prince and princess to fall in love and get married. I had never thought a message like that was being produced, although I should have because I was that child who dreamed of a fairytale marriage after watching this. K Ciaramella wrote a blog discussing how Ariel really has no women interaction aside from Ursula. Because Ursula is evil and wicked, that's how the women race is portrayed. There was also talk about how Ursula has some motherly moments with Ariel so younger children may treat their mother's differently because they link the negativity of Ursula to moms. Lastly, Rhiannon Thomas wrote a blog on feministic fiction that talks about how The Little Mermaid is more feministic than I thought. While Ariel is seen to give up everything to be with a man, she actually has a lot more going for her than I thought. She's an adventurer, she was more into discovering the human world than she was finding a man, SHE saved ERIC, and she's a determined young lady who knows what she wants, and will do what it takes to get it.
http://www.mommyish.com/2012/10/03/the-little-mermaid-ariel-375/
http://hookedonariel.weebly.com/ariels-dependency-on-males.html
http://feministfiction.com/2012/05/31/why-the-little-mermaid-is-a-kickass-feminist-movie/
Great summary and review of The Little Mermaid, as a child of the 80's, I loved The Little Mermaid too. Ariel was THE Disney princess of my generation for sure. There are definitely flaws, as you've pointed out very well, in stereotyping with ageism and sizeism. Frankly I think every Disney princess movie perpetuates many stereotypes; and yet, we as a society can't seem to help but come back to the classics and embrace the new ones. Unless you completely isolate your children from modern society they will become exposed to, and probably love these movies and characters as well. I LOVE the picture you included at the end and your point of view as Ariel saving Eric, rather than the other way around!
ReplyDeleteNice Job! I loved mermaids as a kid and would often play at my local pool and pretend I was a mermaid, looking for her prince on land. As a child, I overlooked Ariel as an adventurer and a heroine, and focus solely on her search for love. As children it is easy to pick up on the main points and miss the smaller, more important parts. As parents or caregivers, I think it would be great to have a child watch this, and then talk to them about her positive actions and less about her search for love.
ReplyDeleteI agree Aerial is really portrayed as weak and naïve , like a young girl whom does not know any better than o make ignorant decisions. Since Ursula is the villain in the story line I realize that she is not only portrayed as older, wise, and unattractive but she is also significantly darker than the others, even in human form. Like you mention these are things that as a child you don't notice but now as an adult they stand out. You did a wonderful job on your analysis. -Mary Pittman
ReplyDelete