The tale, "The Little Mermaid," as told by Hans Christian Andersen, is one of unfulfilled wishes, risky decisions and tragic death. A young mermaid wishes to spend her life on land because of a man who she has fallen in love with. A sea witch gives her this wish at a great cost, but tells her it will only last if she convinces this man to marry her; without accomplishing this task she will die. Things do not go according to the mermaid’s plan. He falls in love with someone else, and the mermaid commits suicide out of sadness and because she knows it is bound to happen anyway. It might come as a surprise to hear that this is the tale that the Disney cartoon movie, "The Little Mermaid," is based on. It may also shock some to learn that the Disney version, though produced more than one-hundred-fifty years later, is perhaps even less feminist than the tale written in 1837.

Feminism is the idea that women should be equal to men on all levels, and all women should respect one another. This concept has been around since about 1848, yet the Disney version produced in 1989 depicts Ariel as a girl who can do nothing for herself, men as the only capable saviors, love as the ultimate goal, sexual bodies as disgusting and “cougars” as competition against younger women.

Andersen’s mermaid, though making questionable decisions, seems to be in charge of her own life and able to make her own decisions. She is haunted by the desire to become part of the human world. Upon saving the handsome, young prince, she could no longer bear to stay under the sea. She made this decision entirely on her own; no one was around to give her this idea. She seeks out the sea witch all on her own accord. When things do not work out the way she planned them, she takes her life into her own hands and ends her life. She certainly does not need a man to take care of her dirty work; she is fully capable of taking care of her own problems. Though her venture onto land is perhaps motivated more so by her love of the prince, she is also in search of an eternal soul, which is not a privilege mermaid’s are given. She wants the marriage, but also wants to be more than just sea foam after her death. Andersen’s mermaid has no other competition for her prince besides a girl who appears to be very similar to herself. She is a young, beautiful girl who does not seem to talk much, much like the mermaid. There are no older women lurking around trying to seduce her man; he just happens to choose someone who he feels better fits him. Overall Andersen’s version of this tale showcases a young woman who is in charge of her own life, and though perhaps not fully thinking about the consequences of her actions, she knows what she wants and sets out to get it. She doesn’t need anyone to help her, even though things do not go her way.

Disney, however, seems to have taken a completely different approach with the characterization of their heroine. Ariel seems absolutely incapable of doing anything for herself or coming up with her own ideas. She has always been infatuated with the human world, yet she never seems to think of a way to do anything more than collect artifacts from shipwrecks. She saves her love, Prince Eric, from drowning, but does not realize that there is a possibility to see him again. The only way Ariel even gets into the human world is because Ursula the Sea Witch has been watching her and has had a big-picture plan in store for her. Ursula is out for Triton’s crown and is planning to put Ariel in danger in order to blackmail Triton. Her eels act as spies and come in just as Ariel is feeling vulnerable to persuade her to come visit the Sea Witch. Ursula plays God in this way; she has control over Ariel’s future at all times while Ariel just plays along.

Furthermore, even when Ariel gets onto land she needs others to take care of her. She is put in a very convenient position: inside of a boat with her prince. Her only task is to convince him to kiss her within three days’ time. It is true that her voice has been taken from her, but she does not even attempt to be flirty. She sits quiet and still. Instead, she waits for all of her musical animal friends to set the mood for her. Their song repeatedly urges Eric to “kiss the girl.” Ariel has no involvement with the prince’s feelings toward her; she seems to think it will happen naturally or by the power of her aquatic singing friends.

On the surface, this may just seem like an evil witch with an agenda and a lucky girl who has a lot of good friends who are willing to help her out. Yet deep down, it seems Disney does not think much of women. Andersen’s mermaid had full reign over her life, but Ariel seems to have no control over what happens to her. Furthermore, it does not seem like she even wants to have control. Things have been working out pretty well for her while other people have been in charge. Disney feels that without some sort of guide, Ariel will never figure things out for herself. She needs traps set for her in order for her to get where she needs to go. Disney does not see her as capable of independence, but as a poor, innocent, good girl in dire need of some assistance. According to this, Andersen demonstrates a much higher belief in the equality of women than Disney does, for he sees that they are able to make their own life choices.

Even more, Disney believes that women would never find their way out of peril if not for men. Ariel finds herself in trouble on multiple occasions, yet she can never find a way out on her own. She always needs a man’s assistance. When Ursula briefly succeeds at winning Triton’s crown she blows up to about 100 times her own size and attempts to murder Ariel. Realizing her life is at risk, Ariel makes the decision to sit and wait to be rescued. She does not even move when Ursula starts throwing fire at her. Of course, she knows that a man will soon come to save her. And she’s right! Eric swoops in and stabs Ursula with his ship and Ursula is defeated. Triton gets his crown back and all is right under the sea again.

Later, after Eric is safely brought back to land, Ariel watches him from the water. She clearly wants to be with him, yet just sits and looks. Triton, a knowing father, grants his daughter the wish to become human and Ariel is saved once again. Without her father, Ariel would have been content, though sad, to just swim back down to her home and grieve over her lost love. However, Triton stepped in and a man saved the day once more.

Disney seems to believe that all women are just damsels in distress. Girls could not possibly figure a way out of trouble if it were not for a man. Without Eric and Triton, Ariel would have been a goner for sure, or at least very morose. Yet in Andersen’s version, his mermaid never needed anyone (especially not a man) for help. She took care of all of her own business, even her own death. Ariel does not even seem to register the danger she is in, she just sits and watches. More likely than not, she is just waiting. There is a shot of her hoping to be saved and then another shot of the man who is about to save her. According to Disney, women often need to be rescued, and they are incapable of saving themselves. Only men are capable of this job.

On top of that, Ariel’s only conquest is love. She may have always loved the human world, but the thing that pushed her over the edge is Eric. He is the only reason she wants to become human. Saving him from that ship and his handsomeness made her fall deeply in love and she cannot stand the thought of staying in the ocean while he is on land. She feels that they are meant to be together, and seeks only to make him fall in love with her as well. She forgets her family, friends and her entire life under the sea; she only thinks of him. Without this push, she would have never agreed to go visit Ursula. Before Eric, she just wondered what the human world was like; after she rescued Eric, he was all she cared for.

This seems to suggest that Disney believes that a woman’s top priority should be the love of a man. Forget goals and ambitions, true love and marriage are all a woman needs. Ariel clearly was a well-loved citizen of the sea world and her voice was better than anyone else’s, yet she forgot all of this for Prince Eric. She had a large family who loved her, but she pushed that aside for the love of her prince. Once she met him, her only concern was him. Andersen’s mermaid was also in search of love, but she was on the hunt for an eternal soul as well. She understood that there were multiple things that she should worry about, though her main concern was love as well. Disney’s idea of a woman’s checklist for happiness is a little dissatisfying being that the only thing on the list is love. It seems as if Disney should be pushing their viewers to aspire to more.

The bodies of Ursula and Ariel seem to display Disney’s misogyny as well. Ariel is portrayed as the perfect good little girl. She is skinny to the point of looking as if she has an eating disorder, which is even more disturbing when it is discovered that she never actually eats in the film. She appears to have zero body hair, her hair is always perfect, and she is basically flat-chested. There is nothing for her clam-bra to hold up. She seems to be roughly the shape of a pre-pubescent girl. Furthermore, she is incapable of opening her legs, which pretty obviously suggests that she is incapable of sexual intercourse. Ariel almost has to be a sexless being. Overall, she is a pretty girl, but there is absolutely nothing sexual about her whatsoever.

Ursula is portrayed as the polar opposite to Ariel. Her body is huge, rotund and disgusting. She’s constantly shaking her hips, shimmying, or putting things in her mouth. Where Ariel has no legs, Ursula has eight and is very capable of spreading them. It seems that each movement she makes is achieved by spreading one or more legs away from the others. Her lips are always painted a bright red, the color of passion and lust, her cleavage is almost always bounding out of her sweet-heart neckline dress and when taking Ariel’s voice, she implies that the use of “body language” will get her far. She is the epitome of sex

The juxtaposition of Ariel and Ursula is plain. Ariel, the clear virgin, is seen as “good.” Ursula, the witch who displays herself as a sex symbol, is evil. Disney apparently views women who are in charge of their sexuality and wear it proudly as generally “bad.” They do not like the idea of a woman flaunting what she has and therefore keep their heroine modest and unsexual in the strongest way. Even the fact that all Ariel is after is a kiss, whereas Ursula immediately goes for marriage shows Disney’s disapproval. Everyone knows what happens on a honeymoon. Disney sees desire for sexual pleasures as wrong and keeps their characters from showing any interest in it.

Finally, Disney uses “cougars” as intimidation against younger women. “Cougars” are older women who are interested in younger men. There is a stigma that has come around insinuating that cougars are more dangerous to young women than other women, being that they are older, wiser and abler to seduce men. Playing off of this can be the only possible reason for why Disney decided Ursula had to be the other woman to attempt to steal Eric away. She swooped in and put Eric under a spell as only cougars can, and he was caught in a trance of seduction. Ariel appeared to have no chance against this supremely wise woman (though of course it was not Ariel who got through Ursula’s spell, but her animal-friends once again). Disney could not just let Ursula only be the sea witch who granted Ariel’s wish to become human. They needed her to have a higher purpose: creating fear in the heart of young Ariel.

It is odd that Disney felt they had to alter this detail of the story. In Andersen’s tale, the young woman who ended up with the prince could have been interchangeable with Andersen’s mermaid in every way except status, and yet the mermaid still felt every bit as threatened as Ariel does by Ursula. It does not seem to follow that an older woman was needed in this day and age to create the same feeling of jealousy. Disney appears to be pitting young women against older women in a war over who can better attract a man. It seems that the same affect could have been made with a girl of the same age as Ariel. Clearly, Disney encourages the competition between young women and older women.

Based on all of this, it would seem that Disney is completely anti-feminist. Many would believe that they had a very low opinion of women. Yet what if this is just the new version of feminism that has come into society today? Perhaps girls these days want to do whatever they want, but also want someone else to do all the work for them to get there. Maybe they enjoy the idea of doing dangerous things and then having dad or their boyfriend there to come save them. It definitely seems as if love is most girls ultimate goal; girls will put their career and academic goals on the backburner if it means they can have the dream guy. Possibly the new version of feminism is just the idea that girls have the choice to do anything they set their mind to, but also that they can always count on men to help them do it. A woman can run for president, but she can have a man running her campaign and writing her speeches. She can decide to put in hard-wood floors in her house all by herself, but she always knows that her husband is there to take over once she wants to be done. Though not a satisfying or self-respecting image to put out into the world, it perhaps this is what feminism has come to. The question is: did this sort of feminism spark the misogyny of Disney’s movies? Or did Disney’s misogynistic movies show young girls that this is what feminism should be?