Disney's original 1989 animated movie The Little Mermaid is not an anti-woke, anti-feminist backwards Princess movie!
Yes, Ariel has a crush on a guy in the movie.
That's normal.
Lots of guys get to have a crush on someone in the movies.
We wouldn't be treating women equally if they did not get a chance to have a crush on someone too!
But Ariel is not some ditzy girl who throws it all away for a guy!
She does not do it for a guy!
Sure, she would like to marry Prince Eric, but that is just icing on the cake!
She isn't doing it for Prince Eric!
The title of the song is Part of Your world!
She isn't doing it for Prince Eric! She's doing it to see his world!
Ariel is Neil Armstrong landing on the moon! Ariel is Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind!
Ariel is an Explorer!
And just as we were willing to risk the lives of our best and brightest in Kennedy's day to land a man on the Moon, Ariel is willing to take a risk to explore and expand the mind and mental scope of the merfolk's civilization!
And that is why she is willing to take up the sea witch's deal!
Because even if the worst happens, and she doesn't get Prince Eric, and she ends up the sea witch's prisoner, she has still got what she wants, if only for a few days!
And then she will be just like Marco Polo in a Genoese jail writing of all the things he has seen far on the other end of the world!
Ariel is an Explorer, and she is expanding the minds of her civilization!
And the Kiss the Girl scene is not about Prince Eric being encouraged to force himself upon Ariel!
Watch the scene! Ariel is leading him on!
Ariel is the instigator in that scene!
She just doesn't have a voice to say so, because she lost her voice!
But in the movie it is clear- it is Ariel that is leading Him on!
He is not being encouraged to force himself upon her!
And every child who knew the song from the movie knew that, because they had seen the movie!
This is my defense of one of the finest fairy tale movies ever made- Disney's original animated The Little Mermaid from 1989!
A Feminist classic!
Yes! A Feminist classic!
God loves you! Think for yourself because I won't be there with you!*
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
*The words (think for yourself...) are from George Harrison from Rubber Soul