‘The Little Mermaid’ and the Issue of Sexism

What a fabulous virtuosic display of color and animation “The Little Mermaid” is! What a terrific musical score! And how very sorely disappointing it is!

Using a Hans Christian Andersen story is a delicate matter because of the gruesome nature of many of his plots. But I was confident Disney could create a truly great children’s film out of his story. What I saw was a movie inappropriate for children and repulsive to conscientious adults.

As packaged for children the messages were dangerously subtle: Sadism is part of life ( “Somebody ought to nail that girl’s fins to the floor”); racism is OK (represented in the character of the crab as subservient black); and sexism is OK. (The two female characters were stereotypes of the heart-of-gold victimized saint and the evil, castrating witch. The overemphasis on the breasts of both I found particularly disgusting.)

Where has Disney been for the last 50 years? More importantly, what are our standards as adults? “The Little Mermaid” has been marketed to the hilt. We are now in the position of allowing it to influence our children’s perspective or actively opposing it. I oppose.

MARION F. HIMMEL

Los Angeles