The Little Mermaid has sparked all sorts of debates and discussions among fans and haters altogether. For five years, we’ve talked about the importance of representation, how Ariel’s skin complexion is irrelevant to the story, if Melissa McCarthy as Ursula was the right choice, and many more topics. But there’s something we hadn’t really considered, and that is actually a huge miss on this otherwise magical live-action.
Although it wasn’t really necessary, the writers of The Little Mermaid, ‘justified’ quite easily the matter of Ariel’s origins. She’s one of King Triton’s seven daughters, all representing a different ocean, and thus having different ethnicities. Ariel represents the Caribbean, and the whole story takes place on those waters and lands. With the architecture, the people of the village, and very few lines, the movie sets us in the 18th-century Caribbean. Easy, peasy.
However, there’s something the producers didn’t consider or chose to ignore deliberately, and that is that the Caribbean at that exact period wasn’t a tropical paradise where diversity flourished, as the movie hints. As Marcus Ryder, an expert campaigner for diversity, points out, Disney’s live-action chose to erase the matter of slavery.
The Little Mermaid Deliberately Erases the Horrors of Slavery
Ryder, who is Head of External Consultancies at the Sir Lenny Henry Center for Media Diversity, wrote a piece on his personal blog after seeing the movie with his son. As he explained, although he found the movie beautifully crafted and applauded the “portrayal of Black beauty” and the normalization of Black beauty standards for children, he believes that the film’s depiction of racial harmony isn’t only inaccurate but can be harmful.
“How do we make films for children of all races that acknowledge the horrors of historical events such as slavery, while making sure they are free to imagine a wonderful world unencumbered by racism and are not defined by it?” questions Ryder at the beginning of his post. And the thing is, why do we keep trying to conceal the horrors our own kind has inflicted throughout history instead of learning from our mistakes? Why do we keep teaching children that the world is magical and fantastical keeping all those despicable episodes from them when they have proven repeatedly that they can understand perfectly more complex situations?
Ryder has a very blunt opinion on the matter: “Children’s films should not ignore the more difficult parts of our history, just because adults feel uncomfortable addressing them.” And instead of pretending the human world is magical and diverse, as we see in the movie, they really “missed an opportunity to gently educate children.”
Does The Little Mermaid Have to Be Historically Accurate?
Now, many of us defended the production’s decision to change Ariel’s complexion in the movie claiming that this is a fairytale story and that, for that matter, her ethnicity wasn’t really relevant. So, why should it be historically accurate? It didn’t. But the fact that they chose to justify their decision by setting the story in a historical moment and place, does need to be grounded somewhere.
Naturally, no one, nor Ryder, is claiming that the story should’ve revolved around the slavery matter, nor even make it a thing of the story, but simply choosing that time and overlooking its horrendous past isn’t good for children. As he expands, “We owe it to our children to give them the most amazing fantastical stories possible to help their imaginations grow. We do not do this by ‘whitewashing’ out the difficult parts of our history. We do it by embracing our rich history and empowering them with the truth.”
Marcus Ryder even proposes some solutions the movie could’ve easily gone for without changing much of their story or erasing history. Haiti was one of the first nations to abolish slavery in the early 1800s, the movie could’ve been set specifically there and portray a society growing away from those horrific practices. I don’t know; I think Ryder poses an interesting question to the movie that can spark a conversation on how we represent history and diversity on products targeted to young audiences that can educate new generations without being condescending to them.
