Center for Children's Literature and Culture

This post first appeared on Once Upon a Blog on July 9, 2019.

Exactly what Disney’s live-action Little Mermaid needs to be – right?

“I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters,” (Benson) replied. “What you bring to the table in a character as far as their heart, and their spirit, is what really counts.” 

Benson talked about how channeling Ariel’s inner spirit is how she herself has been able to step into the role over the years, despite getting older:

“And the outside package — cause let’s face it, I’m really, really old — and so when I’m singing “Part of Your World,” if you were to judge me on the way that I look on the outside, it might change the way that you interpret the song. But if you close your eyes, you can still hear the spirit of Ariel. “We need to be storytellers,” she concluded. “And no matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the color of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever color, we really need to tell the story.” (Source: combookmovie.com)

Doing our best to get all sides of the story, our Fairy Tale News Hounds spent a long time reading through multiple responses to the news on various social media outlets and were very glad to find that there are many white voices being raised in support of sharing – and representing – the magic they felt as five-year-olds with children of every color, especially those with dark skin.

One response in particular melted our hearts.
This is it:

–Intermission–

These lovely little merkids are by illustrator Raissa Figueroa, aka @Rizzyfig on Instagram. She created a series on this little afro-haired mermaid for Mermay one year and so many people fell in love with this little character that she’s kept on drawing her and boosted her whole illustration career as a result.

You can purchase a print of these beautiful baby mers on Etsy HERE.

You can also follow her on Twitter and get in-process or glimpses of new sketches HERE.

The level of distress on social media about the live-action casting is downright odd for another reason. Having a new black Ariel, does NOT remove, erase, eclipse, or in any way ‘undo’ the fact that red-haired, white-skinned Ariel exists.She will always exist. For thirty years this very Western image has represented the Little Mermaid story (thanks to Disney’s worldwide influence). If you judged from the outrage evident in response to casting a live-action black actress and singer in the role, you would think these distressed Ariel fans think “their” Ariel would no longer exist, but that will never be. Both characters are Disney. Both are/will be lucrative properties for the Disney marketing department and they’re not about to let a proven cash cow of 30 solid years disappear. When assured that the classic Ariel won’t disappear, all that’s left is that those who are attached to “their” Ariel just want all the new shiny for themselves. Put that way, the negative responses begin to look… well… spoiled. Eep.

But let’s play devils’ advocate for a minute and talk about representing the original classic, that is, Ariel with white skin and red hair. What look-alikes do “Ariel purists” have? See below for an “off-the-top-of-our-heads” list (not conclusive by a long shot):

• Disneyland & Disney World/s live Ariel character performers (for 30 years)
• The Little Mermaid musical – the title role in the big Disney version/s and the school-approved versions
• Every Disney Little Mermaid Halloween/roleplay/cosplay costume ever
• All the Ariel dolls
• Not to mention her image on hundreds of products
• The Annie Leibovitz poster photo of Julianne More as Ariel for Disney Dream Portraits (and Queen Latifah as Ursula)
• Once Upon A Time’s live-action Ariel  – a repeat role in the series (played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher) – note that this version is on film and includes many iconic scenes from the classic movie as they fit the story being told
• Mera from DC’s Aquaman 2018

Wait! Mera isn’t even Disney and isn’t Ariel! Why is she included?? Here’s the reality: even though the character is not owned by Disney, the new live-action Mera looked exactly like (quote) “Ariel on crack”, all grown-up and ready to fight and rule by her own merits. In fact, if Disney had decided to use a “spitting image human” of the animated Ariel she would look an awful lot like Mera (although younger and more naive), with the disadvantage that Disney’s Ariel would look rather wimpy next to her. Mera is totally badass and a now a feminist icon in her own right. A live-action Ariel who looked similar would always be compared to her. We suspect Disney marketing folks are quite aware of this, just as they were very aware of needing to distance the new mermaid, aka Ariel, being created at Disney Feature Animation from Darryl Hannah’s blonde mermaid sensation in the 1984 hit-movie Splash. A Splashsequel )(Splash, Too) was also in the works when The Little Mermaid was pitched and the to-be-animated-classic was “temporarily nixed” as a result: “Too many mermaids!” said the then-CEO, though that decision was later reversed. Eventually, the reasons for giving Ariel red hair, rather than blonde, were a) not like Darryl Hannah and b) because red is a complementary color – that is, opposite – of green (the mermaid tail). Yes, folks – that is the main reason Ariel became a red-head instead of the expected blonde. Red was not chosen for ginger-representation. It was for marketing.

Why did we bother with this list? There are many already-awesome options to choose from, should folks need a human-looking version of the classic Ariel to still feel ‘represented’. Truly, there is such an abundance – why is it the ‘purists’ feel they are ‘owed’ (not our term!) the new live-action movie too?

This seems like a good time to remind folks that Disney already had a successful trial run with a black Ariel-like mermaid**. The very popular Disney-owned and based series Once Upon A Time, was known for looking into classic characters and exploring their backstories, always with a twist on the trope. Villains weren’t exempt from the treatment and often the black and white villains ended up eliciting sympathy from the viewers regarding their own difficult pasts and bad decisions (making it very possible for many of them to be redeemed). With Ariel having made an appearance in a couple of episodes, it wasn’t unexpected that Ursula would appear too and that fans would learn how she came to be the villain she was known to be. In an inspired twist, it turned out Ursula’s story was actually a Little Mermaid tale.

The exploration was short and kept within a single episode, which meant it didn’t get as much media coverage as a story with a multi-episode arc. As a result, it’s a great pity the episode “Poor Unfortunate Soul” didn’t get more attention. In the OUAT “twist” Ursula was originally a beautiful young, black mermaid. She’s seen with tail and fins, on land with two human legs and eventually transforms into having those classic and villainous tentacles. Fans loved it all. While it should be noted that OUAT included a red-headed, white-skinned Ariel (and her Prince Eric) in their character line-up throughout the series (and in the same episode!) to be on the safe side, Ursula’s own mermaid story of a girl finding her feet and her voice was beautifully written, poignant, unexpected and immensely satisfying in its exploration of multiple issues and their resolution. While OUAT was inconsistent on many fronts throughout the series and draws a lot of criticism, it did have many moments where it struck a chord, was truly revisionist and a perfect exploration of the fairy tale in its pop culture era. Ursula’s backstory as the “original” Little Mermaid was one of those.

“Mary Belle and the Mermaid” illustration by Leo & Diane Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

With Melissa McCarthy now confirmed for the role of Ursula, we’re already holding our breath for that moment when the white lady takes away the black girl’s voice… yikes!

But perhaps that’s what Disney and Director Rob Marshall are planning to acknowledge and explore. Although women as a whole have had it tough for the majority of written history, when it comes to inequality it must be acknowledged that white women are not completely blameless. It would seem it’s a hard conversation to have but that makes it worth having all the more. The negative reaction to the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel by a rather large (and vocal) demographic has been surprising, and uncovered a hidden white-privilege mindset among long-time (mostly female) fans – women who believe themselves to be progressive, inclusive and ‘woke’.

That the negative response to Disney’s casting of Halle Bailey was – and is – so very emotional and feels personal to those objecting is a clue to just how endemic white privilege is and that’s a scary thing, especially seeing it come from intelligent people you know and love, and, let’s be honest, in some cases ourselves. To be clear, there is no doubt many of these women are much more progressive than their predecessors but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still (a lot of) work to do. That this is happening at all should make it clear that this issue needs to be addressed, and attitudes – and assumptions – reassessed. Now. While we will admit we were hoping a wonderful drag queen (with all the singing and acting chops) would be cast in the villain’s role to nod to the character’s original inspiration (Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as Devine), putting a powerful white woman in the antagonist role opposite a lovely young black heroine is going to resonate…

Uncomfortable? Yes.
Worth the trouble and ruffled feathers (er scales)? Absolutely.

Congratulations Halle!
We are so here for this movie!

Disney’s live-action feature film, The Little Mermaid, is scheduled to go into production in 2020.

• Becoming Mermaids – American Museum of Natural History  (Note the Australian Yawk Yawk – looked like a typical mermaid -half-human, half-fish, well before any European influence)
• 9 Mermaid Legends From Around the World (Mentalfloss)
• Mermaid Tales Appear in Myths Around the World – Arnhem Land Included  (ABC.net.au)
• Mami Wata, the most celebrated mermaid-like deity from Africa who crossed over to the West (face2faceafrica.com)
• Goddess Yemaja (a personal blog)
• Mermaids Around the World That Are Far From Dream Girls (BuzzFeed)
• The Cultural Significance of Mermaids Around the World (Mermaids of Earth – website dedicated to mermaids around the globe – lore, art, tales, influence, enjoyment and ocean conservation)
  • Part 1
  • Part II

** Other Disney “Trial-Runs” On OUAT:

• black Rapunzel (huge hit! though they also had a white version as well)
• female Jack (of the famous beanstalk)
• lesbian Mulan (& Dorothy – a nice nod to the LGBTQ community and their famed love of the MGM movie)
• a maternal Maleficent (which the Disney live-action movie also used)
• a Latina Cinderella

The whole season 8 of OUAT had the Latina Cinderella (Jacinda) as the main character, with the premise of the eighth season being that there are multiple versions of the same fairy tale across universes – a valiant effort for inclusivity though a little late in the show’s popularity to make a huge difference. Still, it showed that some people were considering the same stories with a different look, and that’s a huge step toward inclusivity and diversity.

• this Twitter thread on Medieval mermaids(a fun examination of the logic behind the folks citing historical reasons to keep Ariel white)
• anamusing recap of ABC Once Upon A Time‘s episode “Poor Unfortunate Souls” (some familiarity with the main characters in the OUAT series will be helpful, but not essential to the Ursula backstory/plot as it’s essentially a stand-alone story)
• ‘The Little Mermaid’: A Milestone in Colorblind Casting, but Black Fairy Tales Need Representation Too – there are a LOT of black fairy tales that could use a little love from Hollywood
• article from the Washington Post explaining the social media tumult of the black casting of Halle as Ariel and explaining why a strong black mermaid is part of black people’s ancient traditions in Mami Wata – Africa celebrated black mermaids long before Disney and #NotMyAriel

Mermaids, of course, don’t belong to one region. The earliest fish-women emerged in southwestern Asia’s ancient Mesopotamia, said Sarah Peverley, a cultural historian at the University of Liverpool in England.
“But almost every culture has a version of a mermaid,” she said. “They come in all shapes, sizes and skin color.”
When the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published “The Little Mermaid” in 1837, people across Africa were already swapping tales about Mami Wata. (Washington Post)