The Little Mermaid: Finding Her Voice
The Little Mermaid is a moral tale, the meaning of which has changed over time. According to Gilmore, The Little Mermaid was originally a religious allegory written by Hans Christian Anderson. The Little Mermaid falls prey to an evil older woman and is tricked into giving up her voice for her chance to win the affection of the Handsome Prince.
In the original story, the Prince marries someone else and the Little Mermaid, now without a tail and the love of the Prince, throws herself into the sea and drowns. As she is dying, an angel appears and tells her that if she devotes herself to doing good deeds for 300 years, she will be allowed to go to heaven. The moral lesson here is to never dream of a better life. Women are to accept what they have and not wish for more.
In Disney’s less depressing version, The Little Mermaid gets the handsome prince in the end. Throughout her journey, she is accompanied by a little male fish called Flounder who acts as an ineffectual chaperone (like Olaf in Frozen) in lieu of a parent.
Like the other OG princesses, she does not have a mother, an aunt, or even a female friend who can offer useful advice. She is just another lonely Princess surrounded by males and evil older women.
Also, in the Disney version, we see the young protagonist Ariel at odds with the jealous older woman, Ursula. This narrative of a young protagonist in conflict with an older, controlling woman can also be seen in the Disney fairy tales: Snow White, Rapunzel and Cinderella.
This persistent theme of pitting women against women is still popular today, as evidenced in movies such as The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Black Swan (2010). These stories place women in conflict with each other, which feminist theorists interpret as a reflection of internalised patriarchy.
In all these stories, the older woman (queen, witch, stepmother, boss) has absorbed societal values that equate youth and beauty with worth, and she enforces these values on the younger woman.
The rivalry between these women emerges because they are forced to compete within a system where there is limited space for female success. In these narratives, beauty isn’t just aesthetic; it’s a valuable social currency that helps them to succeed.
In The Little Mermaid, although Ursula isn't explicitly jealous, she still embodies the older, undesirable female body, with a loud and excessive personality. This contrasted with Ariel’s youth, silence, and beauty.
The message is that to be desirable (and worthy), a woman must be young, controlled, and visually pleasing.
She Sells Sea Shells by Leah Mariani
In my version of The Little Mermaid (above), her voice is restored through the rhyme "She Sells Sea Shells," which is a little nod to Mary Anning, a brilliant but marginalised female fossil hunter in her time. Both figures lost their voice in a male-dominated world.
By contrasting the mythical siren with a real-life heroine, the print titled ‘She Sells Sea Shells’ critiques society’s focus on beauty and mystery over courage and intellect in women. This artwork is both a celebration and a commentary on what we value in female icons, blending folklore with historical legacy.
