Fat and Female: Portrayal of Evil in Disney’s The Little Mermaid
Hailed as a “must sea,” Disney’s 1989 film, The Little Mermaid, is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved fairy tale, “Den Lille Havfrue” (New York Daily News). The movie tells the tale (or tail) of young Ariel, a mermaid who wants nothing more than to “explore the shore up above” (Benson 2:30-2:35). She meets the handsome Eric, a human prince, and becomes determined to be with him, seeking the help of the sea witch Ursula and trading her voice for a pair of legs. Only Ursula has other plans and uses Ariel’s stolen voice to seduce the prince herself. But true to Disney fashion, Ariel and Eric defeat the evil Ursula and live happily ever after. Disney’s take on Andersen’s tale is nothing short of a musical and whimsical whirlwind—and not remotely close to Andersen’s original tale, most specifically in the character of the sea witch. This analysis will explore Disney’s emphasis on the sea witch character, Ursula, and how her depiction is a blatant depiction of gendering evil.
The drastic differences in the role of the sea witch in Andersen’s fairy tale versus Disney’s adaptation reveal severe discrepancies. In Andersen’s original story, the nameless sea witch is a minor character who merely assists the little mermaid on her quest, albeit through the brutal means of cutting out her tongue. However, in Disney’s adaptation, Ursula is a significant villain with two sidekicks, Flotsam and Jetsam, and harvests the souls of the unfortunate merfolk whose contracts with her go awry. Though the most notable difference between the two characters comes in the form of the story’s end: Andersen’s nameless sea witch supplies her help to the little mermaid’s sisters, while Disney’s Ursula gains an exuberant amount of power in an effort to overtake Triton as the ruler of the seas only for Prince Eric to impale her, killing her. Disney exaggerates the sea witch’s role to make her a worthy villain—but does so through her visual appearance.
Ursula, portrayed as being obese with lavender skin, white hair, six tentacles, and consistently wearing a heavy amount of make-up, is named a “campy creation” by the New York Times. However, it is precisely through her physical appearance that Disney villainises her. Tania Sharmin and Sanyat Sattar, authors of “Gender Politics in the Projection of ‘Disney’ Villains,” write that “most female villains are generally designed to look unattractive” and are intentionally “misshapen, or are made to look grossly terrible” (Sharmin and Sattar). In Ursula’s case, who is obsessed with youth and beauty, she is described as having an “upper body [...] of a Sumo wrestler and lower body of a frightening octopus” (Sharmin and Sattar). By disfiguring Ursula’s femininity, her villainy is more prominently displayed in direct comparison to the heroine’s “slenderness, fairness, and youth” (Sharmin and Sattar). This contrast can also be directly witnessed when Ursula “transforms herself into a beautiful princess, a replica of Ariel, in an attempt to trick the prince [into marrying] her” (Elnahla). By directly countering Ursula’s supposed ‘hideous’ underwater figure with that of the epitome of beauty, Disney perpetuates a problematic stigma of invalidating the fat body and villainising the female figure that doesn’t live up to society’s expectations. Thus, Disney conveys this message to their target audience, young children and families, who only preserve this ideal.
While Hans Christian Andersen’s “Den Lille Havfrue” portrays a powerful story of salvation and human love, Disney’s The Little Mermaid brings attention to the problematic issue of gendering evil through physical distortion. Over “55% of Disney film villains are either women or ‘feminised men,’” with “three out of the four of them [being] old, ugly and unattractive” (Sharmin and Sattar). This problematic, repetitive narrative ideal strips female villains of their femininity if only to more distinctly portray them as ‘evil’ compared to their beautiful counterparts. In doing so, Disney dehumanises the character, deeming them and their associated evil physical attributes unworthy.
Happy Reading!
Works Cited:
Andersen, Hans Christian. “Den Lille Havfrue.” Hans Christian Andersen's Complete Fairy
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Benson, Jodi. “Part of Your World.” Spotify.
https://open.spotify.com/track/7tUSJY4nsDBJTjd1UXKRsT
Carroll, Kathleen. “'The Little Mermaid' Is a MUST SEA: 1989 Review.” Nydailynews.com,
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movies/mermaid-sea-1989-review-article-1.2429392.
Elnahla, Nada Ramadan. Aging with Disney and the Gendering of Evil. David Publishing
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Maslin, Janet. “Review/Film; Andersen's 'Mermaid,' by Way of Disney.” The New York
Times, The New York Times, 15 Nov. 1989, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/15/
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Musker, John and Ron Clements, directors. The Little Mermaid. Disney, 1989.
Sharmin, Tania, and Sanyat Sattar. Gender Politics in the Projection of “Disney” Villains.
David Publishing Company, http://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/
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