Audience Expectations
Who’s the target audience for The Little Mermaid? Little girls, of course. The arc of the film involves rebellious romance.
I cannot deny The Little Mermaid’s impact on my life. It was the first film that explored and validated my subconscious desire to be “normal.”
I was not aware of this at 4. I was just obsessed with the film.
As a toddler, your favorite things can change all the time. Adults expect children to grow out in and out of interests as they develop their personalities.
By 6 or 7, I began to have a different perspective on The Little Mermaid.
At some point, I realized it was for girls. I liked it for entirely different reasons than girls.
It is such a feminine film that I had grown out of by that age.
After that, I identified with superheroes like Spider-Man.
I still do, and that aligns with being a masculine nerdy guy.
There are papers devoted to the societal impact on a person’s gender.
Toxic masculinity is part of the reason for my opinion changing about The Little Mermaid.
Gender Roles
The film reinforces expectations of girls to be romantic and willing to change to get a man.
There is pressure to be hyper-feminine.
More overtly, though, it is about a curious, strong role model for girls. The Little Mermaid resonates with both cisgender and transgender girls.
In fact, a study by Sally Campbell Galman entitled “Enchanted Selves: Transgender Children’s Persistent use of Mermaid Imagery in Self-Portraiture” explores this connection.
In addition, this research focuses on trans girls’ perceptions of themselves; many other papers only focus on the medical side of being transgender.
Research disproves the common assumption that trans girls identify with mermaids because of the lack of genitalia.
This assumes trans children are dysphoric and fixated on their genitalia.
This assumption exemplifies the tendency to sexualize transgender people, as well as adults’ fixations.
Transgender children are more often seeking gender euphoria content that affirms their gender.
This study asks transgender children to draw themselves and explore their “lived experiences.”
The mermaid obsession was not shared by transgender boys in the study.
“Like adults, children are savvy curators of the media influences in their environment, incorporating it into their art, meaning systems, and play.
They do not simply reproduce media, but instead use it for specific purposes, including the aspirational and affirming.” (Galman, 172)
Transgender Youth
All children have a need to see representations of themselves in the media.
It helps them make sense of the world. In my opinion, gendered boxes can help and hurt a transgender person’s journey to finding affirmation and acceptance.
If they fit into the binary, gendered boxes can provide gender euphoria.
The example story given in the paper is one where
Elle, a 9-year old, states, “I have friends, and people know I am a girl but also more than a girl.”
When I asked what she meant by “more” than a girl, Ellie shrugged her shoulders. “You’re a girl, and you are like every girl.
But I am a girl who has something more. I’m a girl but also more than a girl.”
Transgender people, both binary and non-binary, are not transgender solely because of the way they express their gender. You just are who you are.
Having the words to say “I am transgender” is a huge hurdle, in part because of the lack of positive representations and discussions in media.
The LGBTQIA+ community is often limited to implied representation rather than explicit.
The gay characters in science fiction may be represented by aliens, for example.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Unsplash
Another interesting discovery in the study was
“Many transgender children in the study found the idea of keeping their identities secret very stressful, even though, at first, parents think this option —
hiding a child’s transness and attempting to pass them as cisgender — seems practical.” (Galman,174)
Being your authentic self looks different for everyone.
Some transgender people choose not to share their transgender status because the gender they have transitioned to is their authentic self.
Safety and societal pressures contribute to why a person might also make that choice.
Children in the study were not thinking about “practical” reasons to not tell friends.
Even if self-disclosure may result in some negative consequences, it is difficult for a child to understand that.
Transgender people deserve gender euphoria the feeling of being affirmed as the gender they are.
Children are less aware of and influenced by society’s “rules”. They just know what they feel.
Source:
Galman, Sally Campbell, “ENCHANTED SELVES Transgender Children’s Persistent use of Mermaid Imagery in Self-Portraiture” (2018). SHIMA-THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH INTO ISLAND CULTURES. 332. http://dx.doi.org/10.21463/shima.12.2.14