Female sexuality and Disney's The Little Mermaid

So because of a particular art assignment that was impossible to fulfill in my own apartment (lack of hallways) or at school (everything is closed on Sunday) I opted to take a trip over to my mother's humble abode for this adventure. The short of this is that I recommend sitting as centered as possible while drawing a hallway otherwise things will start looking as if they belong in the haunted mansion; warped and crooked does not a successful perspective assignment make.

The long of it is, I was able to go to Goodwill and get a work uniform fora fraction of the cost of what it normally would cost me (black slacks and long sleeved dress shirts plus a tie do not run cheap even in the cheapest of non-second hand stores, I'm sorry). I've reached the point where there's a small selection of clothing at goodwill that fits my body type and actually looks flattering, and not like a potato sack or a collection of badly placed too-tight pieces.

When we finally reached mom's house again, I popped The Secret Garden into the VHS player to have some background noise while doing my art assignment. Since I'd just read the book I wanted to rewatch the film adaptation to see how it compared. I think I prefer the ending of the movie to the book, but I prefer the rest of the book to the other (big surprise). I just don't think the characters were as well developed (time constraints are a bitch, you know), and I really didn't get the same sense of time passing as it did in the book (there are ways to cheat that in movies, and I think they tried to, but it didn't really translate for me).

THEN I made the bold decision to watch The Little Mermaid.

Let me just say that once you've taken a number of women's study courses and classes in analyzing stories/literature, your life is never the same. As soon as I started watching this lovely little Disney movie, my brain immediately started analyzing what it was saying about female sexuality. Let me explain:

When it comes down to it, Ariel is essentially a very sweet, pure (though slightly rebellious), and virginal young girl. She has an attraction for something she's not supposed to have (read that however you like), and in her first sighting of her prince, it's all downhill from there. (I think it's hilarious that there are fireworks that attract her to the boat; hey Ariel, when you first met Eric, were there any... sparks?) But of course her father, in trying to protect her, goes overboard and crushes all her hopes and dreams of "getting some" (I think it's important that her attraction for Eric is "inappropriate," because while in the film it's probably just that she wants to spend forever and ever with him, it's still taboo, which in OUR society, could be a symbol for sex. And keep in mind that Ariel is around the age where hormones are absolutely out of control.)

So then, enter Ursula. I have to say, she's one of my favorite villains in a Disney movie. Now, what does Ursula represent? Unrestrained, uninhibited female sexuality and its carnal desire for hedonistic sex. Let's just go over her appearance for starters: she is VERY voluptuous, and the fact that she's part octopus (I assume, I've never actually counted her tentacles) means the way she moves is very fluid and sexual (not to mention she's got a lot of suckers. Yeah, I went there). She has thick, red lips, a mole, and blonde hair (um, Marylin Monroe on acid, anyone?). Then there's how Ursula acts. She is completely uninhibited (when Ariel asks her how she will get the prince to fall in love with her without a voice, Ursula says to rely on her looks and body language. Watch that clip; if the way she "says" body language doesn't strike you as slightly stripperish, I don't know what rock you've been living under.)

There's even an element of Ursula hitting on Ariel. Don't get me started on the symbolism of Ms. Tentacles taking away Ariel's voice (I don't think popping cherries would have the same effect in this context). In addition, it's as if Ursula wants to live her sex life through Ariel, because of her beauty.

Anyway, so Ariel is transformed into a human. I was watching this part and I suddenly realized "Oh my god, she's spreading her legs." While mermaids have this seductive appeal to them (at least to the sailor part of the population), they're not really well built for sexual activity in terms of human anatomy. But of course, since Ariel wants to be human, bam. She gets legs and the parts that fit between them. Instant sex machine.

Let's go back to Ursula for a second. I think the fact that she wants power is important. Part of me is "you go girl!" and the other part of me wants to look at how she's going about her pursuits, and what that says about how some men feel about women's power of seduction. Ursula really is using her female wiles to try and rule over the ocean; she practically seduces Ariel, and then turns herself into a human to seduce Eric (hypnotize, whatever) when things don't go according to plan.

If she wasn't a villain in this movie, I want to stress that these actions would not be considered as sneaky and bad. She's looking out for herself and getting what she wants. But since she IS a villain, her seductive sexual schemes are associated with "bad." She's corrupted and perverted Ariel, and it isn't until after the girl goes back to being a mermaid that things turn out right, and her father can transform her into a human with less evil and sexual intentions and connotations.