My darling five-year-old wants to be Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" for Halloween. I don't really have a problem with this. She's been Elsa from "Frozen" and Rapunzel from "Tangled" in past years, and had a blast. However, there's a paranoid, media-conscious part of me that's worried about where the Ariel love is coming from.
My best guess is that one of her friends likes Ariel, or there's been some "Little Mermaid" content floating around school, because it sure didn't start at home. Kiddo has seen "The Little Mermaid" movie exactly once and hasn't asked for it since. We've also listened to some of the songs via Spotify's Disney channels. However, we have almost no "Little Mermaid" merchandise at home - plenty of "Moana" and "Frozen," but Ariel is only a fleeting presence on a few pieces of Disney Princess branded items. Moreover, "The Little Mermaid" is thirty years old. Unlike "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin," the live action remake is still a long ways off. A Broadway theatrical adaptation came and went a decade ago. As far as I can tell, it's not in the current hype cycle anywhere. Ariel made a brief appearance in the last "Wreck-it-Ralph" movie (which my kid hasn't seen), but that's about it.
There haven't been any obvious precursors either - "My Little Pony" has been her go-to franchise for nearly a year. Before that it was "Frozen" everything, though "Moana" is the movie she's seen the most often. With "Frozen 2" on its way, I had been bracing for round two of Elsa fever, but suddenly it's all about the mermaid. Kiddo is singing the songs. She's pointing out the merchandise at the store. She consistently chooses the mermaid coloring sheets when she has the option. Honestly, I think the only reason I haven't been inundated with Ariel 24/7 is because Disney isn't pushing "The Little Mermaid" right now. My kid is currently fixated on the Halloween costume, which probably points to this Ariel phase being limited to wanting to playact her.
In that case, I'm not too worried about Ariel being a negative influence - because that's always the nagging worry I always have whenever my kids start getting attached to certain pieces of media. Looking at "The Little Mermaid" after all this time, Ariel is pretty problematic as a role model. She's a rebellious teenager who falls in love with a prince she doesn't actually know, and then goes and blows up her home life and changes herself drastically to be with him. It's the kind of narrative the recent Disney princess films like "Frozen" and "Moana" have been distancing themselves from. However, I remember going through an Ariel phase myself after I saw "The Little Mermaid" as a kid, which was mostly tied to her being a good singer. The infatuation lasted until I saw "Beauty and the Beast," and decided Belle was way cooler.
I remember some of the discussion of the major '90s Disney heroines, Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine, from back in the day. Articles cropped up around that time wondering what kind of messages they were projecting, or trying to figure out why so many little girls were obsessed with the princesses. That was the era where parents started getting more aware and more critical about the media their kids were taking in. Remember Tipper Gore and Peggy Charren? However, with Disney movies It was never anything too alarmist. There was the occasional prude bemoaning skimpy costume choices, and lots of frustration about the overwhelming marketing campaigns, but the films were big mainstream successes and reflected the tastes and mores of the times.
Critical examinations were happening though, and became part of the larger cultural conversation about Barbie dolls, gender roles, and body image. Over the years I've heard those earlier Disney movies blamed for all kinds of millennial neuroses, from unrealistic expectations about love, to irresponsible buying habits. "Disney Princess" has become a massive, ubiquitous brand that is practically impossible to escape if you have little girls of a certain age. Disney has done some work to minimize problematic aspects of the characters, but there's still a lot of touchy issues with them to this day. So it feels like there's a lot more wrapped up in buying a piece of "The Little Mermaid" merchandise these days than just your kid liking Ariel.
But is there, really? I mean, I don't think letting my kid dress up like a mermaid and sing off key in the bathtub is doing any harm, especially when she's got a lot of other, more varied characters in her media diet. It's not 1989 anymore, and Ariel's not the only princess in town by a long shot. We all love crummy kids' films when we're young, and as long it's not all we watch, we outgrow it. I don't think my kiddo even remembers anything about "The Little Mermaid" except for Ariel being a mermaid. I find it kinda flabbergasting that Ariel is still such a draw, but when you're five, mermaids are cool.
And so, I'll banish my inner worry-wart until next time, and see about finding a Flounder plushie.
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