The Little Stereotypes
Analyzing Disney animated films is not challenging. Their films feature beautiful yet highly sexualized young teenage princesses with thin waists and curvaceous breasts who habitually become damsels in distress, most often in pursuit of a man. In contrast, the male hero is always handsome, sharp jawed, built like a Grecian god. And at the very end of the film, the princess almost always calls upon her smart and handsome man to rescue her from her troubles. These gender roles portrayed in animated films targeted towards children are creating social norms to abide by. When they enter their teen age years, the stereotypes put unnecessary pressure on both boys and girls if they don’t think they fit the ideal, creating feelings of incompetence and even contributing to dieting disorders. Disney is one the largest animation company, especially when it comes to children’s stories. They have adapted a large quantity of The Grimm Brothers’ stories, turning fiction thrillers into real life social revulsion. The Little Mermaid may seem like an innocent story of a mermaid falling in love with a land boy, but over the years, it has been translated into an over-sexualized outsider that is made fun of for her lack of knowledge and complete submissiveness to her father. Followed by her weakness to follow under the feet of a handsome man in order to save her life.
Keywords: Disney, Gender Roles, Stereotypes, Children, The Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid and Her Secrets
The Little Mermaid (1989) is an animated feature film about a rebellious 16-year-old mermaid named Ariel who has always been fascinated by life on land. Her long hours at the surface of the ocean led her to fall in love with a handsome land man, but at her father’s words, he dismisses her to ever make contact with land people again. Thus, Ariel makes a deal with the villainess Ursula by trading her beautiful voice for legs. But the agreement between the two doesn’t go as planned. Thus her father King Triton and new Prince Eric, end up rescuing her from her mistakes.
The Disney made Little Mermaid is originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish Author. Most things between the Disney and the original story do align. The mermaid does rescue the prince from a sinking ship, she does fall in love with him without having spoken to him, and she does visit the villainess in order to exchange her beautiful voice for a pair of legs. However, Disney altered the story. In the original one, Ariel would die if she fails to kiss the prince. But even more horrifically, the Disney movie leaves out the contract made between Ursula and Ariel: every step Ariel takes on dry land will feel like walking on broken glass. And if she fails to kiss the prince, the only way for her to live is to kill him too. Thus, heroically Ariel throws herself into the sea and turns into foam, unlike the Disney ending where she finds rescue in her prince and father. Meaning, instead of keeping the heroic form of this princess, Disney decided to turn her into a damsel in distress.
At first sight of the animated film, we are introduced to Ariel’s family, her six sisters, and most importantly her father King Triton. The eye catching element in this film was the Patriarchy introduced in it. In the first act of the film, there is a song dedicated to King Triton, called “Daughters of Triton”, in which all six of his daughters line up in their underwear, and made up hairdos to sing for him and dance, or in other words, worshiping under his demand. During the song, his daughters thank him for silly things such as naming them well, and making them pretty. And towards the end, the sisters were presenting their little sister Ariel to him so she can put on a great singing show in front of her father. This is not only inappropriate, but also putting such horrible actions as acceptable in the minds of little innocent girls. Patriarchy is not a silly concept to implement in a children’s cartoon, it is something that is seen in many households today. Because of patriarchy, with the help of cartoons, women are still following the rules made by “the man of the house”, and this only giving men more power. This power structure, a relic from a bygone era, is deeply rooted in today’s households. Ultimately this created the culture that implicitly supports the patriarchal nature of society as a whole.
With all the prettiness Ariel had to offer she was still being portrayed as the clumsy airhead. We subtly laugh at her unintelligence. From childhood it is subconsciously engraved in children’s heads that women who are pretty have a lower IQ intelligence. The Little Mermaid allows its audience to poke fun of Ariel’s lack on information about the world in a song called “Part of Your World” where she is seen glorifying a fork thinking it’s a hairbrush (Appendix A).
Moreover, there is something very juvenile by the way Ariel looks. She has a very child-like face, with her small nose and big eyes with zero signs of lines on her skin. If it weren’t for her curvaceous hips and breasts, you would never guess she’s over the age of 10. Nonetheless, she is 16 years of age, still a teenager, yet she has an exaggerated and hyper sexualized body. Disney did not try to hide the fact that they made Ariel a sexualized cartoon character. In fact, in one of the song scores, Ursula, the villainess outwardly tells Ariel that every girl dreams of being thinner, and to not forget the strength of body language in order to win over prince Eric. Disney is rooted to have a strong coloration with girls today’s low body image. Seeing women be so thin in order to be considered pretty, and giving the role of the villainess a bigger sized body is a well-studied tactic that has stuck in today’s society. Maybe that is why millennials that grew up watching animation like these, score the highest number in eating disorders under the age of 14 (according to KidsHealth).
The entirety of this animated film is blurred with sexual norms. The entire cartoon is about this young girl going out of her way in order to make a prince she has never talked to, fall in love with her. Ariel is seen giving up her entire life under the sea, including her beautiful voice, in order to meet this handsome mysterious man. This indirectly implies to young girls to give up everything they have to offer in order to be with the man of their dreams… based on his looks. While the man does nothing of that sort. Eric is seen always standing up to his family and village in order to be with Ariel. Moreover, even if the film was written around Ariel, after losing her voice to Ursula, the only person who could help her get it back prince Eric and her father.
