[HN Gopher] 'The Little Mermaid' Was Way More Subversive Than Yo...
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'The Little Mermaid' Was Way More Subversive Than You Realized
(2019)
Author : thinkingemote
Score : 29 points
Date : 2021-03-14 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| kderbyma wrote:
| pretty sure that Ursula was the villain, not some secret feminism
| hero. Frankly everything she says is bad advice so what exactly
| is the message? I am getting lost with the new narrative these
| days. The advice was be yourself not sell some preconceived
| notion....yet Ursula was all that and more bad traits. she was
| the epitome of falsehood. she was not true in anyway and used
| deception to get her aims....what is the message exactly?
| TeeMassive wrote:
| Yeah the whole thing doesn't make sense unless if you already
| are looking for that kind of message in the first place, which
| I doubt little children has the ability nor the will to do so.
| [deleted]
| AndrewBissell wrote:
| What seems more likely, that the identity-focused themes in _The
| Little Mermaid_ are somehow genuinely subversive and were slipped
| past the suits at Disney, or that Disney has learned how to
| incorporate certain themes to apply a patina of subversiveness to
| its otherwise straightforwardly propagandistic movies?
|
| > _While teaching young Ariel how to "get your man," Ursula
| applies makeup, exaggerates her hips and shoulders, and
| accessorizes (her eel companions, Flotsam and Jetsam, are gender
| neutral)--all standard tropes of drag. "And don't underestimate
| the importance of body language!," sings Ursula with delicious
| sarcasm. The overall lesson: Being a woman in a man's world is
| all about putting on a show. You are in control; you control the
| show. Sells added, "Ariel learns gender, not as a natural
| category, but as a performed construct." It's a powerful message
| for young girls, one deeply threatening to the King Tritons (and
| Ronald Reagans) of the world._
|
| Ah yes, teaching young girls to wear makeup and accessorize,
| truly a crushing blow to the patriarchy.
| grawprog wrote:
| This seems like kind of a stretch to be honest. The original
| story, about a mermaid longing to be human was written in 1837.
| And that trope in general, not fitting in with the current
| society, goes back a lot further.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid
|
| I highly doubt current identity politics were on the mind of the
| original writer when conceiving the story originally.
|
| As for the Ursula stuff, if 'feminist' was the archetype they
| were going for, they certainly managed to portray feminists in a
| fairly negative and terrible way. Ursula was not a sympathetic
| character by any stretch of the imagination.
|
| Nothing wrong if people want to interpret the story that way,
| that's the thing about good fiction, it makes you think and can
| tell a different message based on perception, but I doubt it was
| intentionally subversive and written with those ideas in mind.
| jbrnh wrote:
| I think it is a commonly held view that HC Andersen conceived
| of TLM after his unreciprocated love interest in his (male)
| friend. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hans-christian-
| andersen_n_563...
| kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote:
| This article is like the english teacher who finds deep meaning
| in an author describing a bed of roses... what a bunch of BS.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > Roger Ebert, to his credit, described Ariel as a "a fully
| realized female character who thinks and acts independently."
|
| What about Scarlett O'Hara, the heroine who broke every last
| social rule of her time? She married for revenge, married for
| money, married for fun, refused to wear mourning clothes, ran her
| own lumber business, cheated on her husband, wore makeup, took
| advantage of her sex appeal, etc., all for selfish reasons.
| apozem wrote:
| > In classic Disney animated features of old, plot was advanced
| through dialogue, and songs were incidental. For instance, in
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the song "Whistle While you
| Work" does nothing to move the plot forward. Ashman and Menken
| approached the film's book as they would a Broadway musical,
| using songs to impart critical plot points and character
| development.
|
| A podcast I like [1] covered The Little Mermaid recently and
| pointed out the songs help maintain the "realism." If Ursula told
| Ariel in dialogue she had to lose her voice to become human, that
| would raise a lot of questions. But when she does it singing
| "Poor Unfortunate Souls," you're like, well, yes, of course.
|
| As someone who doesn't know much about musicals, I thought this
| was a neat magic trick.
|
| [1]: https://soundcloud.com/griffin-and-david-present/the-
| little-...
| lupire wrote:
| > If Ursula told Ariel in dialogue she had to lose her voice to
| become human, that would raise a lot of questions. But when she
| does it singing "Poor Unfortunate Souls," you're like, well,
| yes, of course.
|
| Why?
| rtrdea wrote:
| Dumb. OP is dumb for sharing this
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