Annie wrote:
"In the Hans Christian Anderson tale the titular character has no name, and is only called “the ‘Little Mermaid.’” In an earlier, 1970s Anime version she is called “Marina.”
In the HCA version she is said to be pale, pale white, as was the European standard of beauty of the time—getting a tan didn’t become big until the 1930s, when it went from a sign working “in the fields” to a sign you had money lay around on the beach all day.
I assume this question is being asked because of the “live action” version Disney is coming out.
Well, for those among us so concerned with what happened in the “Danish Tale”
(1) The Mermaid was in love with the prince and wanted to have a soul so she could go to heaven
(2) The Sea Witch is not evil, but rather a neutral enabler. She tries to talk the mermaid out of it, but tells
her she can make her human—with pretty legs and the ability to dance but she will feel as though she is being stabbed during her transformation, and when she walks she will feel as though she is walking on knives.
(3) The Mermaid gives up her voice (by having her tongue taken out) as payment for services rendered.
(4) The Sea Witch tells the Mermaid that if the Prince marries her, part of his soul will flow into her, and she will then have a soul. If he marries another, the day after her heart will break and she will dissolve into sea foam—the fate of mermaids when they die.
(5) She drinks the potion and the Prince finds her, and basically treats her like a pet
(6) The Prince is arranged to be married to another, and at first he refuses but then finds out she was the young lady who nursed him back to health, and he credits with saving his life (and not the Mermaid who actually did) and he had been in love with her during his recovery—and jumps at the chance.
(7) The mermaid sadly awaits to die when her sisters arrive having sold their long hair to the Sea Witch in exchange for a dagger. They tell her to plunge it into the princes heart and when his blood touches her legs she will turn back into a Mermaid and live out her 300-year-old life.
( 8 ) The Mermaid can’t do it and throws herself into the sea, where she dissolves into foam. Only she finds she has become a “daughter of the air” and will spend 300 years doing “good deeds” to earn a soul and enter heaven. The book ends saying that the tears of naught children add to her tenure and this it becomes a “better not pout, better not cry” message for kids.
So the 1989 Disney version gets far, far away from the Hans Christian Anderson story. The live action story will be based on the Disney tale and they can cast and tweak it as they see fit. If one feels upset that they abandon the source material—and the race of the actress playing the Mermaid is the thing that is most upsetting—you should probably ask yourself why (hint, it’s racism) and this can be a good time for some self-reflection and growing into a better person.
People like having representation. And white people don’t want for it."
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