THE LITTLE MERMAID: A FEMINISTIC PERSPECTIVE.
The children's classic, The Little Mermaid, as portrayed by Walt Disney Studios is wrought with feministic stereotyping and chauvinistic ideas. Even in animation, there are those that not only strive to push the limits of decency, but also sway the minds of the innocent viewer in the direction of their way of thinking. In watching the animated film in its entirety, the evidence is clear.
The opening sequence begins with the playful world of the sea creatures, and rapidly shifts to a contrasting first impression of humans as sea faring males that like to sing of fairy tales and display wooden women on their ships like a deer head hung on their wall. While singing their macho sailor songs of mermaids and such, they are completely oblivious to what it is like "under the sea.".
Apparently, women are not seen much differently in the world of our heroine, Ariel. The first real glimpse of this under water world introduces the viewer to a world where females are put on display to entertain the king, like a cross between a harem and a Broadway musical. The star of the show, the beautiful, unrealistically proportioned Ariel and her angelic voice were not present. She wanted more and went searching for it. Accompanied by the young male fish Flounder, she comes across many treasures. The treasures she would find, were named by Scuttle, and old male bird, pretending to be a know-it-all, but is really a know-nothing. Upon her return, the immature Flounder busts her out for going to the surface, enraging her father. Even Sebastian, the crab and court composer seems to feel that women should do as their told.
The next appearance of our seafarers shows a more attractive side to the human men. Ariel was instantly attracted to Prince Eric. As the crew celebrate, a hurricane hits, and the ship is destroyed. Many of the crew perish, and had Ariel not been there, Eric would have been among the lost.
