Consuming pop culture while trans: Disney's The Little Mermaid

[Butterfly]

Consuming pop culture while trans: Disney's The Little Mermaid
Feministing
Posted by Jos
10 March, 2010


http://www.feministing.com/archives/020309.html


When I learned words and concepts for what I'd felt about myself for years I also gained a vocabulary to understand my version of The Little Mermaid. Ariel was a trans girl. Her toys were a secret collection of human artifacts, similar to me playing with my sister's Barbies, a way to access the identity I belonged in. She tried to explain herself, but her father couldn't understand - he had a picture of who his daughter should be, and she was saying she belonged in a whole other world! Ursula was only half a villain for me - she was also the twisted drag queen fairy godmother who could give Ariel the body she knew she belonged in (Ursula made that funny feeling shoot sparks).