The children's classic, The Little Mermaid, as portrayed by Walt Disney Studios is wrought with feministic stereotyping and chauvinistic ideas. Even in animation, there are those that not only strive to push the limits of decency, but also sway the minds of the innocent viewer in the direction of their way of thinking. In watching the animated film in its entirety, the evidence is clear.

The opening sequence begins with the playful world of the sea creatures, and rapidly shifts to a contrasting first impression of humans as sea faring males that like to sing of fairy tales and display wooden women on their ships like a deer head hung on their wall. While singing their macho sailor songs of mermaids and such, they are completely oblivious to what it is like "under the sea."

Apparently, women are not seen much differently in the world of our heroine, Ariel. The first real glimpse of this under water world introduces the viewer to a world where females are put on display to entertain the king, like a cross between a harem and a Broadway musical. The star of the show, the beautiful, unrealistically proportioned Ariel and her angelic voice were not present. She wanted more

In Eric's kingdom, the human women are portrayed as unattractive servants, gossiping like cackling hens. When Ariel's male guidance steers her wrong, she turns heads (and almost stomachs) at the dinner table. At the close of the first day, Ariel falls asleep as Sebastian attempts to teach her the proper body language to use to get the all-important kiss of man. The next day, her friends are insistent that the man is supposed to make the first move, and attempt to set the mood with a little song and dance. Meanwhile, the body language preaching sea witch calls the defenseless Ariel a tramp. The second day ends and our heroine remains only temporarily human. As he plays his soft music on the beach, the sea witch ensnares Eric using Ariel's voice and a conjured body. On the third day, she awakens to the news of a wedding, but soon finds it is not her own. Upon frantically emerging from her room, she finds Eric with another woman, whom he believes to have saved him from the shipwreck. Upon hearing the news of Ursula's deeds from Scuttle, Ariel returns to the ocean in an attempt to reach the wedding ship, and is again left to the mercy of males to get there in order to stop the wedding. When the action shifts to the ceremony, even the priest has a lustful mind of Eric's newfound beauty, or so the animators would like us to believe. Ariel arrives, regains her voice, and Eric returns to her side. Maybe he was looking for the whole package after all. It's all fun and games until someone loses their legs.

Thanks to the wonderful ani

Some common words found in the essay are:
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