When I was growing up in the 1990s, the Black girls in my neighborhood had VHS watch parties featuring “The Little Mermaid.” We persuaded our parents to buy us “Little Mermaid’ comforter sets and light-up sneakers, and we obsessed over Ariel. We wanted to be her, even though with her white skin and straight hair she didn’t resemble us at all.
Today’s Black girls are about to see something we could never have imagined even as we clung to our fairy tales: a Black Ariel, and she even has locs … like me.
Today’s Black girls are about to see something we could never have imagined even as we clung to our fairy tales: Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” is hitting theaters this weekend and, for the first time, we will see a Black Ariel, played by Halle Bailey — and she even has locs … like me.
That’s not the only reason for the overwhelming excitement. This “Little Mermaid” promises to send a better message to girls. “The Little Mermaid” that my friends and I obsessed over isn’t an empowering tale. Ariel, a mermaid, lives deep in the ocean with her overprotective father, King Triton, and an array of sea friends. After she encounters the human, Eric, she trades her beautiful singing voice and mermaid tail for a pair of legs so she can pursue a relationship with him. Her arrangement with the sea witch, Ursula, offers Ariel new beginnings, but she’s also forced to sacrifice all the things that make her who she is for the possible love of a man.
But in this update of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Ariel not only looks different, but she also behaves different. She’s seeking to better understand herself, not just pining for romantic love. “I’m really excited for my version of the film because we’ve definitely changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy,” Bailey told Edition. “It’s way bigger than that. It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she…
Read the full article here