Ursula: “The only way to get what you want is to become a human yourself.
Ariel: Can you do that?
Ursula:
My dear, sweet child. That’s what I do. It’s what I live for.
To help unfortunate merfolk like yourself.
Poor souls with no one else to turn to.”-“Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid
The iconic purple villainess Sea Witch Ursula seduces Ariel into becoming human by the end of her song
“Poor Unfortunate Souls.” “The only way to get what you want is to become human yourself”
To Ariel, humanity is an attractive yet elusive dream.
Ursula, therefore, takes advantage of her optimism and raises the price of becoming human. Ariel must give up her voice.
The ramifications of this lead to Ariel finding love and becoming human permanently.
This particular plot beat enforces that humanity comes from physical ability. Ariel views herself as apart from the other merfolk.
Similar to how I felt apart from the disabled community, even at a camp devoted to children with disabilities.
Photo by Alif Ngoylugg from Unsplash
The Little Mermaid follows the Disney film formula for “wholesome, family friendly” values.
The plots of these films always include a happy ending. Starting in the 1930s, the Disney company took this responsibility to teach children seriously.
“According to Sean Griffin, a former Disney employee who focused on queer studies, ‘Disney in the ’50s focused on representing itself as an upstanding moral organization;
that parents could trust to influence their children’s moral development’”
To create this bond of trust Disney stories have simply “mustache-twirling” villains like Ursula juxtaposed against an unwavering hero like Ariel. (Brown 3)
Societal Acceptance Changes
This formula has changed over the years. Frozen (2013) actively subverts many assumptions about Disney stories.
What is socially acceptable has changed as well. Classics like 1950’s Peter Pan included a racist depiction of Native Americans. The film simply depicted the social norms of its time.
Griffin states Disney “consistently posited and reinforced […] an image of American middle class heterosexual courtship” (Griffin 4).
Reinforcing these ideals involves not only creating a hero exemplifying these expectations but vilifying the other and creating harmful stereotypes.
In defense of these stereotypes, they were not always negative; they were also functioning as a cinematic shorthand of storytelling.
In 1934, before modern Hollywood, the Motion Pictures Production code, also known as the Hays code, overly censored offensive content.
This included banning depictions of a married couple in the same bed in the 1950s. Filmmakers had to build cinematic shortcuts to imply anything romantic.
The Hays code is part of history but has disproportionately affected minority representation in films.
Interracial marriages and gay relationships? Forget about them. Disney reinforces “an image of American middle-class heterosexual courtship “(Griffin 4).
Villains like Ursula are implied to be in the LGBTQIA+ community. She was designed after the Drag Queen Divine.
While Ariel is hyper-feminine, Ursula is hyper-masculine. Perhaps a better example of a classic gay villain is Captain Hook from Peter Pan.
“Griffin initially argues that Hook could serve as a positive representation for the gay community,
but a closer look at the film, as well as
Griffin’s own evidence, paints a darker picture “(73).
Griffin later states that Hook ” uses his cultured dandyism to hide his evil designs” (76).
This interpretation directly ties Hook’s femininity into his villainy.“ (Brown, 5)
Queer Coding
Captain Hook’s and Ursula’s implied sexual orientation is based on gender and sexuality stereotypes. The implied meanings are called Queer coding.
Queer primarily refers to the sexuality spectrum of the community and not gender identities.
From The History of Queer Coding: ”Queer coding is a strange thing; it’s given us representation where there would otherwise be none.
Offensive stereotypes that we still can’t shake and storylines that make us want to yell: he’s gay, for god’s sake!” (Jessica Kellgren-Fozard)
Disney still has queer codes today. Frozen subverted tropes of “true love’s kiss” by making Prince Hans the villain and family bonds more critical.
Elsa is queer coded to be gay. She has magical ice powers that she is told to “conceal don’t feel,” and she learns to “Let it Go” and be herself by the end.
Despite her being the main character, her sister Anna is the one who finds a man. Elsa has no love interest. This opportunity to subvert expectations and have Elsa be gay is lost.
From my opinion and experience, children need explicit representation to really identify with any group they are a part of.
Sources
Brown, Adelia (2021) “Hook, Ursula, and Elsa: Disney and Queer-coding from the 1950s to the 2010s,”The Macksey Journal: Vol. 2, Article 43.