To get what she wants (travel, experience of another culture),
Ariel must trade in her voice
But, without my voice
how can I-
You have your looks!
Your pretty face!
Because a princess from the most powerful, if not only,
kingdom under the sea,
Has nothing to communicate with
Beyond BODY LANGUAGE
For as we all know, and has been well documented,
Disney exists to reinforce the patriarchy
And the notion that girls/women are there to be looked at
Not heard
And certainly not to use their skills to expand their
horizons
Or fulfill their deepest wishes
Ariel is educated
She is an explorer and hungry for knowledge
I’m ready to know what
the people know
She can grasp metaphorical concepts beyond her own
experience
What’s a fire, and why
does it, what’s the word?
BURN?!
She has a shining shimmering treasure trove,
A complete collection of human paraphernalia
Organized by type
But beyond things,
Ariel wants more
Our mermaid heroine has feminist notions of a utopian place/time
Where educated women have freedom
To do as they please, speak out, and move freely
Betcha on land, they
understand
Bet they don’t
reprimand their daughters!
Bright young women,
always swimmin’
Ready to stand
Clearly these notions don’t come from Daddy
Who would rather Ariel find a nice merman
Settle down
And make merbabies
Ariel signs the scroll in developed cursive handwriting
Suggesting an education beyond kindergarten level
Unlike her father Triton, who only engages with other
species through domination,
(His page is a seahorse, his music director is a crab)
Or banishment,
(Ursula. Can’t have educated powerful women floating around
the kingdom. Might give young girls ideas.),
Ariel can relate with other species without power struggle.
Her best friend is a fish
Her teacher is a seagull.
We know Ariel has overcome her childhood conditioning of
Other = evil
And if we go beyond the miracle of cross-species
communication
(In the magical world of Disney merpeople can communicate
with all forms of aquatic life, and with humans;
Everybody
conveniently speaks English)
Why does Ariel not use her many other skills, beyond her
body, to communicate?
In all her collection of bottles and human knick knacks
Does she not possess a message in a bottle?
Why doesn’t she write in the sand?
Use seashells to spell out a message?
Use her ability to talk to animals to ask the fireflies to
spell it out?
Hi Eric! Remember me?
I rescued you!
I’m totes in love with
you!
Wanna hang out?
Beyond the recent reduction of genuine kick-ass feminist
role models
To big-eyes, sparkly dresses, and insane privilege
Give me characters who use their wit
And education
To go out into the world
And use their voice
In whatever way they can
To progress and flourish
And inspire those around them to do the same
Now that is something worth singing about.
The end.
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