The Little Mermaid is a Queer Allegory

When Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel in the live action version of The Little Mermaid, was announced, a storm of controversy has been brewing. Forbes reports that it reached a crescendo last week when the first trailer for the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid dropped. Indeed, the flick has dominated the pop culture conversation and is likely to continue to do so for the time being.

In the tiny hamlet of Rochester, Michigan, many shy away from the conversation. When asked about their thoughts on Ms. Bailey as Ariel, many will demur that they haven't seen the trailer or have no opinion on the matter. Those who do speak out do so with a passion.

One lady was incensed that the producers cast a woman of color; she repeated the phrase, "Go woke, go broke."

When Alicia Rose confronted her with the fact that in the original text, the mermaid did not have a name and was, in fact, green, the lady left without leaving her name to be appropriately quoted

The college student currently working on their master's dissertation in the literary field. They says that the original story has a deeper meaning that got lost in translation when Disney turned it into a cartoon for children.

"When Disney made their original version, they lost a lot of the nuance and substance of the original piece," They revealed, "if the people like (that lady) understood that the cartoon was not the original version, we would be seeing a more nuanced discussion."

A look at the text and the subtext supports Ms. Rose's theory.

Different Time, Same Writers

Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Little Mermaid in 1837. Some believe that the success of Undine by Frederick de la Motte inspired Andersen to write his own underwater tale. However, no one is quite certain why he chose to write a tragedy with a happy ending.

It might be because Andersen was a tragic figure of his time. Rictor Norton revealed that the famous writer was a bisexual man; this was especially difficult in Denmark during this period. Any hint of queerness would send people into a frenzied rage.

Adding to the sadness of his story, Andersen was reportedly in love with his best friend, Edvard Collins. However, his friend did not share his feelings and went on to marry a woman.

This is where scholars begin piecing together the subtext of The Little Mermaid. Academia.edu reports that many believe Andersen worked through his feelings about Collins' rejection by writing the story. It notes that the prince in the original tale is not the charming, bland prince from the movie. Instead, he sends mixed messages, at turns professing his love with passionate kisses and forcing the mermaid to sleep on the floor away from him.

Pride.com points out that Collins went on to marry someone else, as did the prince in the story. The implication is that there were mixed signals between the men until Collins got married, which left Andersen in a state of depression. There is also a suggestion that the allegory goes further since the mermaid loses her tongue and is unable to return to her family in the fairy tale.

But the queer subtext isn't contained to the original story.

Queerly Disney

A little more than 30 years ago, the Walt Disney Company was in financial trouble. The studio was losing money, and bankruptcy seemed to be the only option for the company. However, they had been working on a new animated feature, an adaptation of Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Nerdist reports that the movie saved Disney Animation and the studio itself by helping create a blueprint for every movie to come after it.

Smithsonian Magazine writes that Howard Ashman, a proud gay man, was hired to help build the movie. His pitch seemed unconventional for Disney at the time; he wanted to make it a big, Broadway type of experience for the audience. He also wanted to subvert Reagan's antigay messaging with a tale of hope and love.

Ashman conceived the movie's central villain, Ursula, by studying the iconic drag queen, Divine. With this character, the movie's queer subtext came into sharp focus. Laura Sells, a scholar who wrote an essay for The Little Mermaid-inspired book, Poor Unfortunate Souls, says it wasn't just a queer love story here. Instead, she argued that it should also be read as talk of gender nonconformity.

Sells is quoted in the scholarly paper authored by Emily Grider Ray (via Brigham Young University):

"Part of Their World: Gender Identity Found in Disney Princesses, Consumerism, and Performative Play," as saying:

"Ariel learns that gender is performance; Ursula doesn't simply symbolize woman, she performs woman."

While the live action version did do well at the box office, it continued to be at the center of the culture wars. Many were furious that Bailey was cast and allegedly boycotted the film.

As for the queer subtext from the story and animated film, it was still there in the remake. Something that most assuredly burned the same people who were against the casting of a woman of color as Ariel.