The reason Ariel is not a POC is because the movie is a child-appropriate rendition of Hans Christian Andersen’s book The Little Mermaid. Andersen was from Holland and wrote the book in 1836. He literally had no concept of what a POC was. Move along.
No what they are saying is that in the 1800’s Holland ,which even in 2015 doesn’t have many black/poc, would not have many, if any, black/poc that he would see on a daily basis much less write a whole damn book about.
Okay Holland might get a pass but Disney doesn’t??? They knew about PoC
I feel compelled to point out that people are still constantly making this tired old “historically accuracy” argument about radically changed and adapted tales (anyone else know the end of Anderson’s Little Mermaid? Yes?) made for an audience living right now. Are they supposed to just be content with all those other fictional characters that look like them? Oh, wait.
Yeah, not so much. (Check out WeNeedDiverseBooks for their 2014 report if 2012 isn’t recent enough for you. Actually, just check it out anyways.)
No more excuses, no more fake “historical accuracy” claims involving a singing crab cartoon movie about mermaids, who don’t exist, meant to exclude representation for children of color, who DO.
We can do better.
Yeah, what exactly is the MERMAID population of 1800s Holland?
Um. I’m really sorry guys, but Hans Christian Andersen wasn’t Dutch, he was Danish. From Denmark. You’re all arguing about Holland… >__>
I’ll reblog this post again, because everyone in this thread is dead wrong, and frankly it’s embarrassing how quickly (presumably) Americans are jumping in on a discussion they know zilch about without even doing a simple Google search.
This, kiddos, is an example of what we call “American imperialism.”
First of all, the anonymous commenter is wrong. Black people have always been living in Europe; my ancestors, the Vikings, described encountering black people as far back as 859 AD. Hans Christian Andersen, whom the original poster claims “literally had no concept of what a POC was” actually travelled extensively, including to Morocco. IN AFRICA. Not only did Hans Christian Andersen know what a black person was, he actually mentioned slavery and made references to non-Christian religions in the original fairytale about the Little Mermaid.
Secondly, everyone replying to the anon message is wrong too. Apart from the obvious mistake of arguing about Holland (deep sigh) when Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, it is also wrong to claim that a black main character can be inserted willy-nilly into this one particular fairytale. Doing so means ignoring the actual canonical mentions of enslaved people in the fairytale, erasing the history of real-life black people in Denmark, and appropriating one of the most significant parts of Denmark’s cultural heritage.
See, mermaids are obviously not real, but the Little Mermaid is – and she’s so hugely important to the Danish people that it is almost impossible to overstate her significance to the Danish national discourse. Not only is the statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen Denmark’s most famous tourist attraction, she is also an important political figure. Through the Little Mermaid, the Danish people expresses political ideas, protests, outcries, national sentiment, pride, and shame. The Little Mermaid has had her head and limbs cut off on several occasions by protesters and artists;
when women in Denmark were afforded equal pay by law, she held a sign saying “Yes, now women have equal pay – that is a true fairytale.” She’s also supported the Danish soccer team (and the Norwegian, and Swedish), protested the construction of nuclear power plants;
climate change;
travelled to China, worn a Muslim chador;
and been sprayed pink by protesting youth anarchists during clashes with police, to mention just a few of the things she’s been up to during the last 100 years.
The Little Mermaid is a very important symbol to the Danish people. There are more black Americans living in the USA than there are Danes of any ethnicity living anywhere in the world; Americans using the Little Mermaid to further representation of an American ethnic group in the USA is cultural appropriation.
Seriously, we’re a tiny country; please don’t steal our stuff, make it about yourselves, and then sell it back to us.
So. What then?
I’m not opposed to a POC version of the Little Mermaid. I just don’t want her to be an American POC.
Solution?
Make Ariel an Inuit mermaid. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Danish royal family has close ties to Greenland; the Queen frequently visits and wears the traditional Inuit formal dress gifted to her by the people of Greenland, the Crown Prince has defended national sovereignty in Greenland as part of the Special Forces, and the Crown Prince and Princess have christened their twin children with Inuit names.
Truth be told, Denmark fucked up enormously in the 1960s when we forced young Inuit children to attend school, removing them from their communities and disrupting the Inuit people’s traditional lifestyle, and even though we’re trying to make up for that now (by, among other things, fighting in the EU parliament for the Inuit people’s right to sustainably hunt seals and whales – sorry, Sea Shepherd), I’m sure it’d be a big deal for the Inuit people to see themselves represented in media. Inuit Ariel could also focus on the damaging effects of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem, another important issue affecting the Greenlandic Inuit people.
So yeah, Inuit Ariel. ♥
Alternatively, the story of the Little Mermaid could be set in the Danish West Indies in the 18th century. Imagine a Caribbean Little Mermaid falling in love with a visiting Danish prince (maybe he was one of the commissioners sent by the Danish king to investigate the private slave trade on the islands which led to the king abolishing slavery?), becoming human to be with him, and then realising that being black is a larger obstacle to marrying the prince than being a mermaid. Imagine a Disney story shining a spotlight directly on slavery rather than “politely” pretending it didn’t happen. I mean, how awesome would that be? Fucking awesome, is what.
Caribbean Ariel. ♥
These are two examples of kick-ass POC Ariels I can support. They’re firmly anchored in the history and culture of the Danish people, speaking up for non-white Danes like the Little Mermaid has always been a voice for minority groups and interests in Denmark, and giving representation to ethnic minorities with ties to Denmark.
But saying that Disney should have made Ariel black to diversify American media for the sake of American black people, thereby taking the most culturally important piece of fictional writing from a tiny European country and making it about American issues, giving a voice to American minorities by robbing the Danish people of theirs…
PastelGrandpa 