How Queer is The Little Mermaid? | READUS 101
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 тра 2024
- How Queer is The Little Mermaid? || The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about a mermaid princess, is a story about queer yearning that heteronormativity allowed Walt Disney Studios to market to girls. But with The Little Mermaid 1989 bringing on board Howard Ashman for its music, the Little Mermaid gay audience forming as a result solidified the Disney queer millennial fanbase that would spawn from the Disney Renaissance. So here’s how the queer yearning of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid worked hand-in-hand with the heteronormativity of Walt Disney Studios
Start streaming The Little Mermaid and Howard online exclusively on Disney Plus!
Subscribe to READUS 101 for racial, social and queer film & tv analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media!
References & Resources:
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
amzn.to/42mdtq5
My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries by Rictor Norton
What Makes Disney Villains so Gay? by @MattBaume
• What Makes Disney Vill...
Reevaluating The Little Mermaid before Disney horks up another live action remake by @LindsayEllisVids
• Reevaluating The Littl...
Click here to see why heteronormativity his hindering queer representation in media!
• Heteronormativity: How...
Recording Equipment:
Canon Rebel T7i DSLR - amzn.to/313eINX
Padcaster Parrot Teleprompter Kit - amzn.to/3fKMD23
Tascam DR-60DMKII Portable Digital Recorder - amzn.to/3lLmgzc
VidPro XM-55 Condenser Shotgun Microphone Kit - amzn.to/3CsNAIu
ePhoto Photography Studio Lighting Kit - amzn.to/2NkSzm7
ESDDI Softbox Photography Lighting Kit - amzn.to/314KHgy
Subscribe to Readus 201!
/ @readus201
Subscribe to Readus 101: The Newsletter!
readus101.substack.com
Support My Patreon!
/ readus_101
Make One-Time Donations At:
www.paypal.me/readus101
www.ko-fi.com/readus
Buy Official Readus 101 Merch Here!
readus101.creator-spring.com/
_____________________
00:00 Introduction
03:47 The Little Mermaid Was Always Gay
11:20 Then Along Came Howard
20:21 Just As Relatable
31:17 Conclusion
Music
“Tritium” by B-RadGfromOV
www.newgrounds.com/audio/list...
“Wisdom Tooth” by B-RadGfromOV
www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste...
Readus 101 Theme:
“Phantom” by B-RadGfromOV
www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste...
Facebook: / readus101
Twitter: / readus_101
Tumblr: / www
Instagram: / readus101
TikTok: @Readus101
#thelittlemermaid #disney #ariel
• How Queer is The Littl... - Розваги
The video wasn't even 5 minutes old and I already had to get rid of a "This movie isn't gay" comment. Y'all need to take a media literacy class/get better material. LMAO
1:38 your bisexuality me too 💘💜💙
There’s something strange to me about the anti intellectualism at play when someone can’t see past a story about a boy and girl to other interpretations - whether or not you believe the author is dead, many in the audience interpret this work, and other works, as speaking to the queer, especially gay, experience - as another nod to Lindsay Ellis, she did the Whole Plate series interpreting Transformers from many different perspectives - I hear many people interpret their experiences, including the art they consume, thru a religious lens - while not the objectively factual intent of the author or explicitly written into the text, it’s still a valid interpretation - queer interpretations are important - I don’t know where I’m going with this anymore - good video 👍🏿
My fave version would HAVE TO BE the original. NOT that I have a problem with the adaptation (or adaptations in general) but I feel the original makes a point that gets lost in the Disney version... a point that was important to the author...
Thank howard i gues sebastian is jamaician :P
I miss linsey 😔
The scene where Triton destroys all of Ariel’s treasures spoke volumes to me as a closeted gay boy who collected dolls growing up; my dad ((who had been in jail all my life)) visited my mom and me and he told me to throw all of my dolls away. When I found the courage to stand up to him and tell him “No.” he snatched me up by my ankles and beat the absolute shit out of me over plastic toys.
He also took all my dolls and shoved them in a trash bag but thankfully my mom let me keep them.
Till this day whenever I watch that scene it’s way too close to home.
I was always scared at that scene as a kid.
@@lunaguy1195 so was I and still am as an adult, I still skip that part anytime I rewatch the movie
And to the og commenter, I hope ur doing better, sorry ur dad did that to u.
That’s genuinely awful. All over some dolls? You deserved a lot better.
I laughed out loud at your deadpan about Ariel not being allowed to be black. And then I _immediately_ sent a link to this video to my genderqueer pansexual sister whose favorite Disney movie is Little Mermaid with the expressed instructions of "YOU MUST WATCH THIS."
🧜🏿♀️.
The deadpan look.
For example.
👍🏾.
The silence is deafening
The Little Mermaid (the Disney version, at least) also works strongly with a transgender reading, in my opinion. Her longing to live as a human maps really well onto wanting to transition to another gender, such as her collecting that gender's things and pretending to be one, disapproval from parents, the obvious changing of her to become one, and seeking affirmation in passing to the one she loves. The original story doesn't work for this reading since her legs are constantly painful, but the Disney version shows Ariel expressing such delight at her new body and getting to experience human life that it reads like gender euphoria to me.
I definitely saw the transgender reading (especially with my recent rewatch), but avoided talking about it in depth because I feel it isn't my place to talk on it as a cisgendered man.
Yeah yeah yeah! As a transmasc the little mermaid has always meant so much to me especially with this reading. I totally understand what you mean, even with the original story
Idk I could see the mermaid’s physical pain as a human as a version of the unfortunate narrative of “to be trans you must experience dysphoria” that persists today. Maybe because it was a cis man writing a female character? I don’t know HCA but this idea of trans = dysphoria started somewhere and maybe he caught it
I hadn’t seen or heard Little Mermaid since before realizing I was trans and the new cover of Part of Your World hit me like a truck. She knows she belongs among different people *with a different body* and after her dad sees how much his failure to accept her has hurt her, he helps her transition!
@@chelmrtz what are you even trying to say
“Theatre-kid gay - MUSICAL theatre-kid gay” is the best possible description of my queerness I’ve ever heard 10/10 no notes thank you for this
This story has always been compelling to me as a trans guy. I've always viewed it with a queer lens after I learned more about Hans Christian Anderson, always happy to see a discussion about it.
What drives me crazy about the "changing yourself for a man" read, is that Ariel wanted to be part of the surface world long before she ever saw Eric.
As a trans woman Ive always deeply connected with the story of The Little Mermaid. In addition to the points brought up in the video, there is also something to be said about the physicality of the mermaid herself being caught between two different forms and prevented from living the life she dreams of by biological trappings. If it was so easy for King Triton and Ursula both to just magically give Ariel legs, I also think there is something to be said about how systems of power contribute to those trappings.
Putting into perspective Andersen’s original story being adjusted to appeal to “general” audiences, the uproar about Ariel being Black puts a bigger spotlight on marginalized people never being able to be apart of art they can fully relate to without detractors missing the entire point.
Apearently his ending was already edited to be less depressing, the end of the spirit the oh there is hope she could go to heaven, was edited on.
@@marocat4749 wait, it used to be *more* depressing?? 🤯
@@emilyrln Andersen basically rewrites it probably due to his own belief, sacrificing some part of what you love will grant you a place in heaven
Also? I'm an illustrator because of the Disney Renaissance films. I was 5 when Little Mermaid came out. Glen Keane and Andreas Deja have been my animation heroes for my entire fucking life. I knew about Howard being gay, of course.
_How in the flying tapdancing FUCK did I not know Andreas was gay??!_ My ace ass needed to know this information, THANK YOU.
I was always fond of the melancholic tragedy of the original. It was important to me when I was experiencing ALL the stories with happy endings, to discover a tale that said, “No, dedication, love, and sacrifice won’t always fulfill your dreams.” It surprised me to be presented with such a lesson sincerely, even knowing fully the “Disney” version was sugarcoated. I never expected the princess fantasy to be achievable, obviously, but I also never expected a story to have a sad ending when I first read it…
Last week I was crying in therapy because I'm turning 30 later this month, and I was so deeply saddened by all of the queer people we lost during the a1ds crisis. After I learned more about Howard Ashman and his involvement in the Disney movies, it made so much sense that I loved them as a kid, haha!
Especially Beauty and the Beast always spoke to me, being a little girl (AFAB) who loved reading books but was misunderstood (aka I'm trans and bi LMAO) and just wanted to be loved and accepted. Beast being seen as monstrous by the village folks, who actually sing that he will come for their wives and children, and that they fear what they don't understand screams queerness!
Recently Alan Menken received an EGOT, but Ashman died before he could even see the complete movie. His partner went to the ceremony to receive it, and also died due to complications with a1ds. It's kind of overwhelming to think about how many L.G.B.T. people don't know their history because so many of our ancestors were k1lled or d1ed because of a1ds (or were outrightly wiped out from records).
I'm gonna stop here, or else I might start crying all over again, lol. Great video!
I’m in my early 40s (lol old) and I distinctly remember Howard Ashman was the first man I ever heard on TV say the words “my husband”. It was literally the first time I was exposed to the idea that gay people have meaningful relationships-when I was growing up, the narrative around all queer people was that they lived miserable lives and died of a terrible disease. But he gave me hope, and he left behind hope in his songs.
We have lost an incalculable amount, but we survive and always will. 💖
Also TLM 89 was a seminal work for me knowing I was trans because I vibed way more with Sebastian than Ariel, when all my peers (little girls) were all about the pretty mermaid stuff
Although Ariel did kick off my obsession with having red hair. Thanks to her I’ve had rainbow hair for 7 years 🌈
A shark version of Cruella De Vil? I honestly would love to see that.
By the way, I recommend the webcomic The Glass Scientists. It's a queer retelling of Jekyll and Hyde. The later chapters even bring up issues like racism and colorism. The creator actually worked on Disney cartoons like Gravity Falls and the Owl House.
Also, there is a hilarious ytp called the Little MerMer Mia made by qwistoff.
A lot of the alt designs for Ursula are in the Howard Ashman documentary over on Disney Plus, and they're VERY Cruella-like!
I understood that queer yearning when I've read it as a teenager years ago. We literally talked about it in our literature class.
She didn't give up her voice for a guy. She gave it up to become human. She loved humankind way before she set eyes on Eric.
My sister watched this movie 4 times a day when she was little, she would fall alseep to it and would make me sing the songs when she was in the tub and couldn't watch it 😂
I'm super excited for the live action.
It’s interesting to rewatch it as an adult and realize that actually, the Prince is only a symbol of what Ariel really wants. She probably would have ended up at Ursula’s eventually anyway-I get the feeling that even if she hadn’t saved Eric, Triton would still have been raging mad about her collection of land stuff. She made the only trade she possibly could to be her truest self, even if it was only for three days.
As a kid, The Little Mermaid to me was the Sebastian movie! I still laugh hysterically at Sebastian vs Louis the chef! 😂
But looking back as an adult the queer allegories are just so absurdly blatant.
I mean you literally have to turn to Professor Ratagin to get gayer that the movie which literally ends with a rainbow over the happy ending 🌈
Sebastian squad 🦀
@@chelmrtz We Stan our crustacean King!
That blink after talking about people who think Ariel can't be black. I screamed.
Amazing analysis as always and thank you for all of your hard work!
Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is the only version I am familiar with or care about. For a while this made it difficult and frustrating whenever baited into arguments about the upcoming remake because I am unfamiliar with all of the specific details of the original fairytale, and ultimately do not have a burning desire to look into it further. However many people ready to argue about this remake claim to be, and in all of the arguments I've had about this topic, not once has queer undertones ever been brought up. Now that I am aware of these undertones, I can even more confidently say that Ariel is not required to be a white girl, because now I can reference the fact that the original story was a masked, self-insert yearning story specifically meant as a form of the author secretly expressing their feelings, and ANYBODY can identify with that. The character may have been a pale-skinned female, but considering said female was a Danish gay man in disguise, I see no reason why Ariel can't be ANY skin color the filmmakers choose. My heart goes out to queer people who had to mask their work in this manner, but for whatever it's worth, as black man, I understand the hoops and hurdles of tiptoeing around society, and the art that succeeding in navigating through it all was a benefit to everyone (who matters anyway; like you said, some people don't deserve to be fans). Great lesson, teach.
There is an old animated version of The Little Mermaid, pre-Disney, that was VERY true to Anderson's original tale, I actually remembering being pretty upset by it as a child. I think it came out of Japan? It was intense.
Yup, there is an anime version from the 1980s that sticks closer to Andersen’s original!
@@bigjedimullet I’m so glad someone else remembers it! Holy crap, I remember being so freaked out by the scene where she almost kills the prince.
Both the OG Hans Christian Anderson version and the 1989 Little Mermaid stories have their merits. As a trans guy, watching the Little Mermaid today makes me relate and empathize with Ariel's desire to live in a world that society says she can't be apart of..even the Hans Christian Anderson version can be an allegory for transitioning because it is often painful (dysphoria, lack of supporting friends/family, discrimination, etc) and she goes through literally hell to try to become a part of the the human world and I relate to this because I too went through a bit of hell myself transitioning..I'm lucky my dad eventually came around (like Triton did) and he eventually accepted me as his son. It was touch and go for a long while and I was afraid that he would disown me like seems to happy with a lot of young trans and queer kids (even adults too in some cases) and it is very painful when the people who love you the most don't accept you.
The Little Mermaid works as a a queer allegory too given Hand Christian Anderson couldn't be with a man he had feelings for and that is tragic. It explains why a lot of his stories like The Little Matchstick Girl and the Snow Queen had tragic elements to them as well. Because he went through some sad tragic crap that he probably couldn't express openly so he expressed them through the Little Mermaid and his other stories. Makes me really appreciate him and I'm always up for any videos talking about the Little Mermaid or Disney in general and its connections to the LGBTQ+ community and queernees as a whole.
I've always dreamt of a film about Andersen writing The Little Mermaid. I think more people should have the knowledge of the meaning behind the book
I am a big fan of the additional (unintentional) reading of it being a story of a trans woman:
Ariel (a historically boys name that has turned into a girl's name) was her father's patriarchal hope to have a son (hence why he cared more about Ariel than her sisters). While she would collect habits and items from the disallowed side, she did not have hope of being part of that world. That is, until she interacted with someone from that world and found that it could not be denied any longer, which was immediately crushed by her patriarch. She finds a long since out darker skinned queer icon, who helps her *split her tail* (if that isn't mtf bottom surgery, I don't know what is) and her transition cost her her voice (a step trans women face, as hrt does not provide femme voice, and it must be practiced, usually with a lot of self embarrassment and staying quiet). She finds that just as she knew, she fell in love with being out as and surrounded by women (even if there are some hiccups and initial non acceptance on some fronts, also just loads of drama~) And we get the not so great ending that queerness was defeated by the patriarchy, whilst allowing Ariel to stay, as she was pretty enough, passed well enough, that despite being trans, she could fit in and support the patriarchal order as a woman.
So being upset she gives up her voice for a man? Naw
Being upset that she uses the experience of black queer women to join cisnormativity and allow harm to befall who she should have been in community with? There's the proper anger~
One thing that stands out to me these days is, how much male gaze there is, even though she's, what, fifteen?
The Little Mermaid? More like *The Tiny Waistline*
To your homework assignment, looking back on both the original fairy tale and the 1989 adaptation, I like both for different reasons. The fairy tale is a deeply vulnerable and emotional expression of the author’s experiences, which I find myself gravitating towards a lot. I wouldn’t say The Little Mermaid is in my top ten favorite Disney movies, but I do find myself appreciating it more as I get older.
Andersen was a hot mess of a bi (possibly asexual) man and I am here for it. Once I learned about his queerness I went back and re-read his stories with that new lens, and everything sort of clicked.
There's one I can't find the name of, that I'm pretty sure is his story, about a girl who was born from a snowflake. It was yet another that fit the theme of feeling isolated due to being so different from her peers (she wasn't able to feel love the same way they did).
I think he was closer to being ace. There's a distinct way he writes romance and is not really rooted or tangled in sexual attraction. Which I really loved and enjoyed as a child. I really relate to now as an adult.
Any issues I have with the live-action remake are purely down to my disdain for the fact of it being yet another Disney remake; I have no problem with Ariel being black, and if anything I’d contend it would have been better if she was originally. The remakes have done some things I prefer over the original films and I don’t fault anyone who finds something meaningful in them, even if I dislike them myself.
The gatekeepers continue to be intolerant and pathetic, and I have no time for their nonsense.
All the Disney exec's patting themselves on their backs totally unaware of the secret gay sauce that made them seem like geniuses; the world is a strange place.
Great video! As an autistic girl, Ariel was always my favorite Disney princess. Finding out (too recently) that the original story was about queer yearning just makes it more interesting. Everyone can have their own interpretation and relate to characters for different reasons, that’s what makes stories beautiful.
I always get excited when Howard Ashman gets brought up, he's an absolute legend. Thank you so much for this wonderfully insightful essay.
As far as favorite versions, I watch the Disney one when I need an entertaining nostalgic moment with a happy ending, and the the Hans Christen Anderson version when I need a really good cry. The Disney prequel/sequels are reminders of how good the other versions are. Think that covers most of my bases XD
La’Ron, I love your videos SO DAMN MUCH. I learn so much about queer and POC history-it’s so cool. It’s so nice to be able to learn about these topics and have a better understanding of the propaganda most (if not all) of us are shown since childhood.
I always liked the Little Mermaid 1989 movie when I was a kid, I thought it was just because I had red hair like Ariel, turns out, I'm also gay! 😅🏳️🌈 I am so excited to watch the most recent adaptation, and to find the Hans Christian Anderson story because historicans are always trying to erase our queer history, but it is always there in media 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
I know I've read different versions of the story when I was younger but I haven't learned about Hans C. Anderson's queerness until recently. It really puts a whole different perspective when you put it under that context.
I like the typical grimmness of many fairytales and the more lighthaerted take that disney creates, although I hope that one day there'd be another interpretation, especially if it's animated, of the story that still put in another queer and diverse light.
I enjoy how certain supernatural, mythological, and folkloric, creatures are used metaphorically for queerness like vampires. In the case of the little mermaid, I kinda want an enterpretation one day where the prince is turned to a mermaid/merman, supposedly leaving the normative human world, so the prince and the mermaid get their happy ending.
That is not to say however that the movie Disney made in the Disney Renaissance isn't similar. This for me is more of a story of chosing whether to conform in society's standards (being a human) or chosing to be who you are (a mermaid). The story being played in both perspectives and not just one or the other. They both want to be together and in this interpretation the mermaid already sacrificed a lot for them to fit in society. But the prince loves her too and hates how much she's suffering, so him leaving this heteronormative world to join her and embrace the queerness of their relationship is a very beautiful and romantic move that also proves his own devotion to her. But that's only one of the many possible queer retellings of this story.
The little mermaid could be interpreted in so many ways, into many different queer experiences and I think that's beautiful even with the original manuscript being a tragedy. Us in the modern day could make our own happy endings. So in a way, how the little mermaid as a story evolves through time also speaks of queer history.
So glad I discovered you!! I am that blakck hetero little girl who saw myself in Ariel, and I am appreciating it in a whole new light. It is your story. Forever grateful to Howard Ashman the great!!
This is so good, thank you for making!
I love Both versions of the story but have a stronger attachment to the film (watched on repeat a lot as a kid). when I found out that the original story was theoryed to be a love letter HCA wrote for a man he could not be with made me appreciate it more. I love all the subtle queer parts like Ursula being modled after Devine but, I never caught on to the queer coding as a kid, I do as a queer adult. The channel Dreamsounds made 2 videos on the topic but from a trans lens.
My favorite author (Darren Shan) was originally gonna have two women in a queer relationship (Alice and Debbie) in his books series (Cirque Du Freak) but was convinced otherwise by his publishers 😞
Fun fact. Andreas Deja, animator for Vanessa and King Triton, as well as Scar, also animated Lilo from Lilo and Stitch and made a bunch of sketches with Lilo and Scar playing together
Thank you bi family 💕
PS the way you influenced your niece’s NAME?!!
😱
the LEGACY!!!
I love the 1989s Disney version best.
Placeholder comment.
I have known two versions of Hans Christian Anderson: The Danny Kaye musical and an episode of The Little Mermaid series where he's in a steampunk experimental submersible and Ariel and her friends have to save him.
For years, I had no idea about why and how the fairytale came to be or about Anderson, not until the Lindsay Ellis' video. It was like a lightbulb went on.
My favorite adaptation of The Little Mermaid is Ponyo.
It's not queer at all, I just love it.
I love ponyo🥺❤️
I read the *a* Hans Christian Andersen version of the story when I was very young. It had many of the plot points you described: Her tongue cut out, every step feeling like knives, turning into sea foam, etc. In the original ending, she doesn’t stab the prince with the magical knife and instead dives into the sea, turning into foam. In the version I read, (which apparently was altered), everything was the same till she dove into the sea and instead of dissolving to foam, she rose into the sky with angels, who complimented her selfless act of not to killing the man she loved just because he fell in love with someone else.
I was far too young and years away from my own bisexual awakening to interpret this story as anything more than a story of true love: True love means you let your unrequited love go, even if it hurts you. Luckily, if you let them go and also die tragically right afterwards, literal sky angels will reward you. Not sure if that’s a great takeaway for a story aimed at kids.
Queer yearning and unrequited same-sex crushes wouldn’t come into my life until much later, long after the memory of the Disney movie and original story faded. It wasn’t till college when I studied classical fiction that I started to realize queer-coded stories were everywhere and had been for a long time, but were altered in my youth to be more palpable to mainstream.
This is why, of all the Disney live action reboots I’ve been completely ambivalent about, I feel a connection to The Little Mermaid and find myself rooting for it. A mainstream queer yearning metaphorical story that’s well done and meaningful for both the new youth and Millennials who grew up with the 1989 version is very much needed in today’s society. It also inspires an additional eye roll on the current rhetoric that’s preoccupied with skin color vs. the actress’s obvious talent and the original queer coding of the story. Man, just imagine how incensed they’d be if they found out it’s about being gay, let alone a potential trans journey that can be read between the lines!
I think it would really interesting if there was an adaptation of the Little Mermaid that only feautured POC transwoman, but feature a dynamic between a cis man and trans woman. Also, a spice of that bodily autonomy for all women.
I think I would love to see studio behind Kubo and the Two Strings adapt such a story.
That's dream pitch.
sorry to comment so soon after videos release talking about not this video thing but id love to see you talk about Netflix's animated musical series Centaurworld!
@ 31:15 , you can just see the deadpan look of disappointment on his face
i love disneys tlm, and i cant waiiiitttt for the live action with halle - the original novel will always be the favourite in my heart. nothing can beat how raw and emotional it is, and i love the beautiful descriptions of the underwater world and how vivid everything is. i would love to see a large scale adaptation that stays completely faithful to the book with an appropriate age rating so it can keep its dark elements
This is great. Thx!❤
This was AWESOME!!!
/Tchaikovsky taking notes while reading TLM
Since you do such a care-full and nuanced reading of one of my absolute faves, I want to offer a smidgeon of critique (which I don't usually do on YT): When you talk about the feminist symbolic reading of Disney's TLM at about minute 27, there's a lot more to work with there than you are seeing. I haven't read this interpretation and I don't have a stance on it, but I heard enough here to be interested in hearing more and thinking some of its effects through for myself.
Readers VERY OFTEN make this particular mistake when responding to an interpretation based on symbols and archetypes, which is to evaluate the validity of the interpretation based on how correctly or completely it describes the character motivations and evolutions in the source material. The more generative way to interact with this kind of interpretation is look at how the source material hews to or deviates from or (sets up strongly and then later contradicts or swirls wildly around) these archetypes and themes.
Ursula can be both the representative of feminist empowerment in this film AND cast as an evil schemer who deals in nefarious and duplicitous contracts (wow, way to queer- and femme-code capitalism, my dudes) *because the producers and creatives wrote her that way*. It's often more interesting to ask questions along these lines than it is to find clear-cut examples of archetypes with little to no deviation. The question then becomes not a y/n "do we look up to Ursula as a feminist icon" but "WHY did the creatives write her this way? In what ways is feminist empowerment threatening in TLM's mermaid kingdom? How does this reflect attitudes of the 90s, or the late 20th century, or cinema at that time?"
I can already see clear examples of how this kind of symbolically-laden character might operate in readings of TLM as a trans allegory. Adding on layers of camp and queer-coding will create even more dimension to the analysis.
If anyone skipped to the end because TLDR: I'm not saying you have to. I'm saying it's more fun.
Am new to your channel but I loved this video. I wrote a paper last year about this topic focusing on the way Disney uses anthropomorphism to tell transgender stories rather than spotlight actual queer narratives. I wish I’d done more research on who wrote the little mermaid bc I attributed much of the queerness to Ashman’s influence and the status of mermaids as a trans icon.
I am familiar with Has Christian Anderson as research material. I have never truly read his works. I found out some time ago Kevin Conroy (the best Batman) was a gay man, and the Batman TAS series had some queer influence.
Though I was more of an X-men fan, it is sad to say the behavior of the on line nerdosphere caused me to no longer engage with the community due to it's rampant....everything-ism. At least the Trek community still has some sanity.
I've heard so much bashing of "The little mermaid", especially in the name of feminism, and I'm happy to see people giving this story the thought it deserves. I think this is one of the most interesting fairytales there are since it can be viewed from so many perspectives.
It reflects beeing queer, trans, divergent or non-conforming in any way. I've also heard someone refer to it as the story of an immigrant.
The Disney version can, in addition to a coming of age story, read as a earning for women's enlightenment and freedom more broadly, especially in the lyrics of Part of your world. ("daughters on land support eachother" from the swedish translation of the song also suggests wanting female support.)
The original had a religious and spiritual aspect rarely brought up today. It's not the humans culture or legs that she wants but their connection to God and it uses an increadibly sad story to motivate children to behave well. For every good deed a person does the mermaid get's closer to her goal and vice versa.
It really is a timeless tale of crossing boundries, transformation and the strength of love. Both romantic, paternal and sisterly (the part w the sisters cutting their hair made my heart and stomach hurt as a child, I found it sadder than her becoming seafoam).
What is pretty unique to this story is that the mermaid is an outsider both in the world she comes from and her new world. Niether is she a "chosen one" with greater power than any other of her kind.
18:48 A gay man designed king Triton ? That explains a lot. THANK YOU, SIR!
The closing statement in this video was goddamn magnificent. Please purchase an old-style microphone, so that you can dramatically drop it after making a statement that brilliant.
I don’t have a source for this and literally only heard it from a friend over lunch - so maybe take it with a generous pinch of salt - but according to my friend, the new popular anime film Suzume No Tojimari (or just Suzume for its Western release) was supposed to have a lesbian couple as the two main characters but was forced to be changed by the studio. The film has the protagonist falling in love with a character who has been turned into a wooden chair, but a lesbian couple would just not “make sense”. Again, I don’t have a source for this, but I can see certain sapphic aspects in the protagonist, Suzume. Her friendship with another female character is very tender and sweet. I know Japan’s history of Queer representation in anime is… largely unfortunate, so I could fully believe that a major film studio would want to suppress anything to overtly queer.
This next part wasn’t part of the homework, but I’m a stickler for extra credit. One film that has huge queer energy for me but probably wasn’t intended to be is 2001’s A Knight’s Tale, starring Heath Ledger. (Rest in Peace). It just has such trans man energy that it gets me really emotional as a trans guy. The protagonist’s being a knight isn’t a lie; it’s who he is, because being knightly was never about his birth, it’s about his heart and his bravery.
Thanks for a great video!!
Brilliant! 🧜🏻♂️
I am so happy that people are finally waking up to the queerness of The Little Mermaid
i haven’t read the original hans christian anderson story (but i should get right on that) but i do really love the disney version. i’m kinda worried about the remake messing with the story too much and rendering it less impactful in some way 😅
HW: "which version of Little Mermaid do you prefer?" My favorite version is The Mermaid's Daughter by Ann Claycomb. It follows the descendant daughter of the mermaid (who didnt die after being betrayed by her man) and leans hard into the curse aspects that are passed through generations. Our lead character is gay and thats not a source of trauma but instead a complication for how to overcome the curse. It focuses on intergenerational suffering and love within family (her father is really endearing). I cannot recommend it enough.
A piece of media doesn't need to have a Queer person working on it behind the scenes or come from a Queer creator to be read as Queer. I think that's important to recognize. A work can also be relatable to everyone just for having three dimensional characters and experience the same human problems that we do. It's that three dimensionality that opens up a story to being relatable to all and can take on various interpretations.
Unrequited love hurts so, sooooo damn much. I learned that in high school lol From that point onwards If I had interest in a guy and I found out he is straight, it would immediately go away, thank god. It trained me to shut that shit down. It’s like when I meet someone there is a limited window for if I’ll be attracted to them and once that time period is over, it’s over. I believe the coding factor of so many pieces of entertainment is why gay guys are drawn to strong women, because we didn’t really have any gay role models and these women became a sort of gay figure for us to project onto. This is something that has interested me for a long time, why we fixate so on these figures.
Fantastic as always
Always love your perspective and that you continually speak out on behalf of fellow queer creatives! I really wish they had cast a drag queen as Ursula for this remake, but I doubt Disney would ever have the guts
i did hear that some ppl thought that HCA was 💅
grate vid :)
?is Scar wearing a shower cap? (19:05-19:07) 😆
Yes. Yes, he is. ❤
Interesting insight of the lore of this tale.
It's not my *favorite* but speaking of recent movies that I'm very fond of, I will continue laughing about Suzume for a while and how the director originally wanted it to be a sapphic romance and the higher up said no and so the male lead spends most of the movie as a chair.
You can really tell how much the romance, if you can even call it that, is an after thought to the rest of the movie. And how the story clearly went other directions because of that.
Sayaka Miki is my favorite little mermaid if that counts?
there was an anime film adaptation of the Hans story that I liked as a kid. Idk how it holds up. It had a sad ending, though
i'm a trans guy and as a kid i hadn't seen the little mermaid in full. i had only the songs and a few clips, but part of your world (+ the general plot of the movie) resonated with me a lot before i could even put words to it.
Last year I took a cruise on The Wish the newest cruise ship launched by Disney. On the ship they do musicals based on either songs from the Disney catalog our based on films. The had a version of The little Mermaid on the ship which I really liked. It was updated in a lot of was they I hope the new film is too. Spoilers but I like that fact the Eric was a branch to the human world the Ariel thought she could rely on when getting there and not the reason for the journey. Kiss the Girl was presented being song in Ariel’s head because she knew she need to be kissed to stay in the human world not necessarily with Eric but in general and at the finale Ariel defeat Ursula. Also side note Ariel spoke after losing her voice in ASL which was a nice touch because it showed her still having a voice when she couldn’t physically speak.
My favorite version of the Little Mermaid has got to be the 1989 Disney classic, being not only a movie I grew up with but also having immaculate animation (animation being one of my main interests and the field I'll be working in if everything goes well) but also incredible music and as a queer man the queer history behind it makes me love it even more.
Perfect use of “chucklefuck”. Most excellent.
I always loved the 90's (late 80's 😅) cartoon.
Did you purposefully choose a profile pic that made you look like Blade?
This whole time I thought you were wearing the blade runner glasses for a cosplay but now I realize it’s just shadows 😂
"Ashman was also gay."
Damn.
"Theater kid gay."
_Damn._
" _Musical_ theater kid gay."
*_DAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNN!!!!!_*
“Dreamsounds” Little Mermaid videos are the bomb if anyone wants more queer takes on the movie 🤝
I grew up loving this movie I still love it and I want to see the remake. But I never saw through this lens it was very refreshing. And that whole point about gatekeeping because of it being a queer experience I agree with you on that! You're not allowed to enjoy this movie if you can't accept the facts!
I love both...❤
Hell yeah
The Homework: The original creator isn't queer, but I was SO UPSET as a kid watching the original English dub of 'Sailor Moon' because they turned Uranus and Neptune into cousins, when ANY self-respecting budding weeb knew they were lovers. Fast forward 25ish years and I'm now a nearly-40-year-old bisexual cis woman, and I'm disappointed in the OG anime (which I rewatched while quarantined!) for making Usagi's crush on Haruka more like a "senpai noticed me" thing than the legit sexual tension that was happening in the manga. My dude, the fanfic around that....
The movie always scratched a "trans allegory" itch I had as a kid, not even knowing I was trans or what that even was. But I knew the need to become something I was not seen to be. Not the intentional read, I know, but in retrospect I somehow managed to get that read from a LOT of unrelated media...
Most Barbie movies has queer elements that are not even that hidden.
Of course the most apparent, is Barbie and the diamond castle, where we have both female leads that live together, who aren't related to one another, are way too close to be just friends, save each other and have a pair of male twins forced in the story because- “they can't be gay, they need a male companion, the story is too gay”, but in the end, they go back to their little house in the forest and live happily together.
Another one of my favorites is one of the most recent one, Big City Big Dreams, where 2 girls find out they share the same name, has a whole freaking montage of them doing stuff together that looks more like they are a couple than friends, they have a fight, and one moves back to Malibu and the other goes after her begging her to come back to the school (but also to her).
And don't get me started on the Queer coded characters on Monster High, that now in its third version is slowly being more openly queer.
But my favorite version of the little Mermaid is the 89 movie, the original story is way too depressing.
Would you be willing to give a look studio ghibli's ponyo since it's inspired by the little mermaid
Part of your world makes me cry every time. When I saw that as a kid, I couldn't fully articulate why it was so impactful to me. Now as a neurodivergent LGBTQ adult, I get it. I wanted to be where the people are.
The Little Mermaid is my ultimate favorite Disney movie, and Ariel is kinda like me. I'm not gay or bisexual, but I like girly stuff. I used to play with one of my sister and aunt's dolls when I was a kid. However, I used to be afraid of the LGBTQ community because my family is Christian, and they told me horrible things about them. Hell, I was bullied in middle and high school because of my phobia. Thankfully, I was cured when I entered college. Maybe because of the movie: A Clockwork Orange.
You're much nicer about Dr. Landis' take than I am, and I'd kinda like to know what Dr. Landis is smoking, and where I can get some, cause that is some grade A shit right there. Ursula's the one who pushes the narrative to Ariel that she needs to be Silent and Sexy to get what she wants -- both the life as a human she craves even before meeting and becoming infatuated with Eric, and Eric himself. Is THAT what he thinks feminists are? Predators who use sex and deliberately sabotage other women for power?
That is definitely what some dudes think of feminism. I feel like if I smoked whatever shit Dr. Landis is on, I would wake up the next day to having been disowned by all my friends and family.
The new version help me to understand why I have to Transition so I can be me so I might find a way to have a life and not just be
My favorite version is the original one. Just better in every aspect.
I'm working on a fantasy story. I call it Little Mermaid in Middle Earth for simplicity
Still waiting on that Doom Patrol video. Between Crazy Jane and Negative Man you’ve got plenty of queer things to talk about.
I've always kinda related to Ariel as a transman u know I mean she literally gives up her like voice in order to become a human and like I've always related that to how I am a really operatic soprano singer I have a really good high range voice and I'm scared of losing that higher range but like I would gladly give that up to like transition to go on t so I can live life like myself maybe I might be able to train to keep that but I'm willing to take that risk of potentially not being able to sing whistle notes anymore becuz I just want to feel right u know and I always related to Ariel like that u know that's how I read it u know
Can we finally get to mermen too, like seriouly you did it once disney.
Also aquaman shouldnt be the only known representation as good as he is
The Disney film has a strong tie of nostalgia for me, plus my strong attraction to Ursula's body type helped solidify some of my long suppressed sexual aesthetic choices. At the time it came out, being a Gen-Xer and Latino and Catholic, I had not yet figured out the issues of my sexuality or my gender. It wasn't until my late 20s that I rewatched it and went "wait a minute..." So, despite the sugar-coating the Disney film will always trigger a stream of pleasant memories. Andersen's original always came off as unnecessarily harsh. Between it and the Red Shoes (this story got mixed with some of weird stuff in Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol and freaked me out) I thought them too close in spirit to the original Grimm tales.
Hand Christian Anderson has a habit of being so depressing that not even Gen Z (my generation) would like reading it
we might, but sometimes we just want a break from our depressing selves
the disney version offers this
and yes
many of us viewed it as queer
as a trans woman, i felt a strange connection to The Little Mermaid herself (and Ursula) because a part of me yearned to be them
however prince Eric was pretty bland and i honestly thought to myself that Ariel desrved better
now to try and tell myself that, because this movie was a very early awakening
Honestly what sucks about the live action Disney's Little Mermaid is that they've erased all the queer coding and undertones from the original songs, and edited the story so much that it's even more cis-hetero normative. In addition casting Ariel black does give it big yikes racial undertones that a black woman needs a white man's approval to achive her dreams, hell everything in this remake is just a big yikes given they've taken away her ability to consent by making her forget what kissing is
💟🧜♀
comment to fight the algorithm
Why is it a man/woman in ye olde Victorian era could publicly kiss someone of the same sex and yet historians would say oh they were really good friends like bench that is not friends that’s lovers