The Little Mermaid: Deep Thoughts About Animation, Ariel as a Trans Allegory, and the Psychology of Controlling Parents

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to podcast!In 1989, 13-year-old Tracie and 10-year-old Emily got to witness the Disney renaissance in real time when they saw The Little Mermaid in the theater. The Guy girls were captivated by the unparalleled animation, the show-stopping musical numbers, and the unexpected sight of their stepdad tearing up at the end.Unfortunately, underneath the beautifully constructed film was the uncomfortable lesson that Ariel gave up her voice for a man. But as Tracie shares in this week’s episode, that’s not the only way to look at this adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale/allegory for unrequited gay love. The sisters talk about how Disney gave Ariel's romance with the happy ending that Andersen couldn’t imagine in his lifetime and that many trans GenXers and Millennials saw themselves in the mermaid who dreams of being human.The beloved animation still has problems with consent, fatphobia, and underage marriage–but contextualizing the movie makes it feel better to sing along.Don’t be a poor, unfortunate soul! Take a listen to this episode!TW: discussions of parental abuse, nonconsent, and fatphobia.Mentioned in this episode:The commentator who defended Ariel by saying she gave consent by proxyOur theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirlsDon't miss out on updates and event invitations from Tracie & Emily! Join the Guy Girls VIP List at guygirlsmedia.com/keepintouchWe are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find. We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!