the little mermaid: a retrospective
We recently rented The Little Mermaid, which came out an astonishing twenty years ago, when I was six. I feel pretty lucky to have been young during one of Disney’s golden ages, when the animation was hand-drawn and awesome and there were vulgar subliminal messages in every film. I was a huge fan of The Little Mermaid and owned such items as t-shirts and leggings with Ariel’s picture on them, and little rubber action figures of her and Prince Eric. Though I saw the movie many times throughout my youth, there were, of course, a few things I didn’t pick up on until seeing it as an adult:
-This is, essentially, a story about being born into the wrong body. “Oh, that’s just a random part of the plot,” you say, “and clearly not a metaphor for transgendered people.” Yeahbutt! A major character in the movie is modeled after Divine, a hero of the LGBT community. COINCIDENCE? Yes.
-This is also a story about how, if you want a man to fall in love with you, you should drastically change your physical appearance and lose your ability to speak.
-There’s a weird moment during the Under the Sea montage where the lyrics refer to a “blackfish”, and then a fish who is very obviously supposed to be a black soul singer appears on screen and sings a few notes. At least it wasn’t a catfish?
-The movie suggests that it’s totally fine for a sixteen year old to get married…to a dude she’s known for less than a week.
-I had always wondered about the mechanics of merpeople sex, but it never occurred to me that along with Ariel’s legs, she must have got a human vagina with a presumably intact hymen. Considering how little she knew about life above the sea (she used a fork to comb her hair, etc), I think someone was in for a big wedding night surprise!