a terrible role model for girls who abandons her home, her family, and her very voice to leave the sea on the off chance of bagging a man
I also don't understand how anyone can subscribe to this interpretation who actually listened to the lyrics of "Poor Unfortunate Souls." It's right there in the fact that it's voiced as advice in the villain song—a character with ulterior motives! a character we are not supposed to trust!—that the film does not believe Ariel should trade her voice and suppress her identity for the sake of a man:
You'll have your looks, your pretty face And don't underestimate the importance of body language The men up there don't like a lot of blabber They think a girl who gossips is a bore Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word And after all, dear, what is idle prattle for? Come on! They're not all that impressed with conversation True gentlemen avoid it when they can But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who's withdrawn It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man
and in fact this gambit does not work; specifically it allows her identity to be stolen from her, because her voice is the recognition token of Eric's hazy post-rescue memory; silence doesn't quite equal death in this version because seafoam has been removed from the equation, but it is a textually bad idea. Loving Eric is not the problem. Sacrificing an essential part of herself to attain him through a conventionally misogynistic route is. How severely do you have to misread the film not to notice that?
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Date: 2020-08-16 05:33 pm (UTC)I also don't understand how anyone can subscribe to this interpretation who actually listened to the lyrics of "Poor Unfortunate Souls." It's right there in the fact that it's voiced as advice in the villain song—a character with ulterior motives! a character we are not supposed to trust!—that the film does not believe Ariel should trade her voice and suppress her identity for the sake of a man:
You'll have your looks, your pretty face
And don't underestimate the importance of body language
The men up there don't like a lot of blabber
They think a girl who gossips is a bore
Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word
And after all, dear, what is idle prattle for?
Come on! They're not all that impressed with conversation
True gentlemen avoid it when they can
But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who's withdrawn
It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man
and in fact this gambit does not work; specifically it allows her identity to be stolen from her, because her voice is the recognition token of Eric's hazy post-rescue memory; silence doesn't quite equal death in this version because seafoam has been removed from the equation, but it is a textually bad idea. Loving Eric is not the problem. Sacrificing an essential part of herself to attain him through a conventionally misogynistic route is. How severely do you have to misread the film not to notice that?