Blog #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi58pN8W3hY

The cultural artifact that I'm going to discuss today is the 1989 Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid, which was one of my favorite movies to watch growing up. As a child, I was absolutely obsessed with this film and showed my passion for it in several different ways including dressing up as Ariel for Halloween on several occasions and constantly carrying around my Ariel Barbie doll wherever I went. 

As I'm sure for many people in my age group, Disney animated movies were the backbone of our entire childhood throughout the 90's and early 2000's and everyone that I know, kind of had a favorite film from that era of animated movies that really resonated with them the most. The Little Mermaid was definitely that movie for me. While I may not have understood any subtext from the film at such a young age, I did love the colors of the film as well as the music. I just thought it would be so cool to be a mermaid like Ariel and have fins and fish friends. 

However, when rewatching the movie as an adult, it became clear to me that not all the messages in this film were positive or appropriate for young children, especially girls. This artifact conveyed to me messages that I do not agree with at all at this state in my life, but when thinking back on it, probably had a negative impact on my self-esteem as a child. In the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (hyperlink seen above), the villain of the film, Ursula, takes Ariel's voice in order to fulfill her dream of leaving the ocean and becoming a human. However, some of the wording used in the song is very disturbing as it describes how society views women and how they expect them to act. For example, the song lyrics are: 

"You'll have your looks, your pretty face

And don't underestimate the importance of body language, ha!
The men up there don't like a lot of blabber
They think a girl who gossips is a bore!
Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word
And after all dear, what is idle prattle for?
Come on, they're not all that impressed with conversation
True gentlemen avoid it when they can
But they dote and swoon and fawn
On a lady who's withdrawn
It's she who holds her tongue who get's a man."

Basically, this song is telling its main audience, young girls, that men don't care about what you have to say. That men just want women to be demure and submissive and while that may be true, the movie doesn't do anything to challenge that and show Ariel as independent. Instead, she completely follows everything that Ursula tells her and falls in love with a man that has never heard her say a word. While ultimately, Ariel does end up with Prince Eric; this is teaching young girls that in order to find love, you must please the man and be attractive enough because whatever intelligence you have doesn't matter. As a young girl, this only taught me that I needed to stay in my place as a woman and be skinny and pretty so that men would like me. This most likely damaged my self-esteem as a child, without even realizing it and caused lasting issues that would follow me throughout my teenage and young adult years.